A recent finding by pediatricians in Europe is causing doctors here to re-visit the notion that food additives can contribute to ADHD, an idea that the medical establishment has long been reluctant to embrace.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, involved young children given controlled diets for six weeks. The children consumed beverages with or without additives, and their behavior was subsequently monitored. What they found was that the children who drank beverages with additives “exhibited more hyperactivity and shorter attention spans.”

While the results of the small study were hardly overwhelming, they were compelling enough for the medical establishment to take more notice of the potential role that food additives may play in the onset of ADHD.

Interestingly, the relationship between food additives and ADHD has been largely discredited by conventional medicine, even though some evidence from past clinical studies supports it. In fact, the recent findings have even inspired the editors of the American Association of Pediatrics Grand Rounds to acknowledge that in denying any connection, they may have in fact been wrong.

According to the CDC, in the United States 4.7 million children (9.5% of boys and 5.9% of girls) have been diagnosed with ADHD. The most common method of treatment is the use of medication such as Ritalin or Adderal, and to a lesser degree, behavioral therapy. Manufacturers of medication defend the safety of their product, but drugs are drugs, and do you really want your kids taking them at such a young age if there is at least the possibility of a less extreme option?

Personally, for me it’s a no-brainer. To not even consider removing additives from your kids diets as an alternative to drugs, and to go so far as to dismiss it as an alternative therapy not even worth considering strikes me as narrow minded and dogmatic. But doctors are never guilty of that, are they?

And while the makers of processed foods will argue that there is absolutely no proof (perhaps until now) that artificial colors and preservatives have any adverse effects on our health, it doesn’t take a genius to look around you and see that there is something going on with our children.

With rising rates of autism, obesity, diabetes and ADHD, why shouldn’t we look at our diets as a possible source to the problem? Besides, eating artificial chemicals on a regular basis seems contrary to good common-sense healthy eating, especially in today’s climate of hyper-awareness.

In the end, perhaps the take home message is to simply limit processed foods (eliminating them completely is not practical), and at the very least, make smart, sensible decisions when choosing them. There are good processed choices out there, it just takes a little time and, unfortunately cost.

Then again, can you really put a price on the health and well-being of your family? Sure, eating right takes a bit more thought and effort, but maybe we’ve reached a point where we need to get over our need for convenience and return to a healthier approach to eating foods that are more wholesome, not unlike the kind our parents ate, and for that matter, every generation before them.

Which just goes to show you, maybe we should have been listening to our mothers all along.