Ritalin for Toddlers! No More “Terrible Twos!”

Read Time:5 Minute, 16 Second

Is your kid annoying you night and day? Is your baby more restless than others and not sleeping well?  Dose ’em up with Ritalin!  After all, Americans are reaching for the crazy-meds more often than ever. And hyper kids aren’t the only ones who could use some medicating.

Some of you may remember the tragic death in 2006 ofRebecca Riley, a four-year-old Boston girl who died from an overdose of psychotropic drugs prescribed for ADHD and “Pediatric Bipolar Disorder”  Diagnosed at 28 months old, Rebecca was taking ten pills a day.

Surely this is an anomaly- an exception not the rule.  Not according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry!

Researchers examined insurance data of  over a million children, finding that between 1999 and 2007  the use of antipsychotics in children doubled for the preschool aged kids (2-5 years). Some states had Medicaid records showing infants less than a year old on drugs for mental disorders!

The diagnostic guidelines have changed for illnesses like Bipolar Disorder.  Aggressive drug marketing campaigns have been assaulting parents. If you are thinking that this is due to better detection of problems already present, and not a sudden increase in parents asking doctors to over prescribe chemical restraints for kids they can’t handle, the data present a more likely story:

Fewer than half of drug treated children received a mental health assessment (40.8%), a psychotherapy visit (41.4%), or a visit with a psychiatrist (42.6%) during the year of antipsychotic use. So more than half of these kids are being prescribed these drugs by professionals who aren’t necessarily qualified to diagnose them.

While it can be argued that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that a gradeschooler has symptoms of ADHD, retardation, or “disruptive behavior disorder,” (these disorders made up about 65% of the diagnoses) making that determination for very young children should only be done by an expert. If there is not a consensus among even the experts as to when signs of Bipolar Disorder can even begin in children, shouldn’t doctors be erring on the side of caution by not prescribing psychotropic drugs to infants and toddlers?

For one thing, the brains of children from infancy to around age 5 are very malleable. A basic framework is being formed as the neurons react to inside chemicals and outside stimulus. Certainly the chemical bath of antipsychotic meds must have an effect on this process.

Granted, the brain of a kid with ADHD  or these other disorders may already be imbalanced, and perhaps this psychotropic cocktail could have a positive effect. If your kid is having insane mood swings and anger outbursts due to bipolar disorder (cases of which have doubled over the past decade) a weary parent might be all too happy to look for the answer in a pill.

And the pharmaceutical companies are more than happy to provide it- to the tune of 14.6 billion dollars in 2009- more than cholesterol and heartburn drugs combined. When the motive for medicating is profit, there is no hurry or need to find a cure. Treating the symptoms is the only way, with drugs having to be taken every day for the rest of a patient’s life.

More disturbing facts:

A recent report in the St Petersburg Times that found 23 infants less than one-year-old had been prescribed antipsychotics in Florida in 2007.

Seroquel, an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia (which is about as bad as it gets crazy-wise) is soon to be marketed as an alternative therapy for anxiety and depression!

Poor kids are more likely to get the meds. A Government funded study in 2009 found that more than 4% of children in Medicaid programs received antipsychotics, compared to less than 1% of kids with private insurance. Most of these prescriptions were for ADHD.

Since 1987, the number of kids on SSI/ disability rolls due to severe mental illness has increased more than 35 fold. (your tax dollars are paying the tab)

Could  the epidemic rise in disability due to mental illness have been fueled by a drug-based paradigm of care? Or, more likely, by hyper insistent drug marketing with Big Pharma’s bottom line as the biggest contributing factor? Or is it just that we are getting better at diagnosing these problems?

Surely as the standards of psychiatry advances, other countries should also be seeing similar diagnostic rates.  But this is not the case.  Dr Peter Parry, a consultant child & adolescent psychiatrist, surveyed psychiatrists  in Australia and New Zealand,  finding 90.5% (of 199) of them thought bipolar disorder was overdiagnosed in American children.

Dr Parry reports that since “the mid-1990s in the USA, some researchers have claimed that Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (PBD) frequently starts prior to puberty.”

One of PBD’s main proponents, Harvard University’s Professor Joseph Biederman, stating onset “is squarely in the preschooler age group,” he notes.

Parry explains that “PBD has been created by moving the diagnostic goalposts away from traditional concepts of bipolar disorder.”

“In children,” he says, “episodes were redefined to last hours instead of days or weeks and, instead of manic elation, severe anger in children sufficed as mania.”

“Unlike diagnoses like ADHD or depression, or simply accepting a child has serious emotional and behavioural problems in reaction to various stressors, PBD implies a lifelong severe mental illness requiring of strong psychiatric medication,” Parry warns.

“In the USA,” he says, “the public is furthermore exposed to direct pharmaceutical advertising that can feed the natural desire parents of distressed and aggressive children have for a quick solution by suggesting a simple medication fix.”

So drug the kid early, drug them for life. Long-term use of antipsychotics has been shown to lower life expectancy, cause fundamental structural changes in the brain itself, and in 40-50% of patients,  metabolic syndrome.

Just what is metabolic syndrome?  Basically a person becomes a walking diabetic heart attack waiting to happen. Abdominal fat increases, bad cholesterol goes up, cardiovascular issues and the body stops being able to process glucose properly (insulin issues). Of course a “lifestyle change” isn’t going to help these people who have been on antipsychotics since childhood, and must stay on them. For all of their shortened lives!

About Post Author

Morgan Williams

Gardener, designer, mother, and activist, Morgan has taught many subjects from art to history; from religion to yoga. Life would be better for everyone if people had a better sense of humor and would just learn to share.
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13 years ago

Mother Hen: You did an excellent job on this article and I commend you as well as thank you for the information present within.

I’m a mom of a 17 yr old and a 12 yr [soon to be 13]. My youngest was a handful. I was asked by quite a few people why I didn’t have him on Ritalin! My response was, “Because he DOESN’T need it!” He WAS more active than most but with my ATTENTION and more direction, he did just fine.

I think a lot of parents put their kids on meds because they are too damn lazy to take the time to care for their kids. I could’ve done that, but CHOSE to PARENT instead, putting myself AND my sleep on hold! [lol] but not really funny, because I spent the first 5 years of his life a zombie! I made the right choice because he’s a thriving soon-to-be teenage—still a bit of a handful but he’s so intelligent and creative and I didn’t want to hinder any of that with meds and I didn’t.

Reply to  Pamela D. Hart
13 years ago

I have some friends who have made the decision not to medicate also. If you have a good support network (grandparents who will relieve you, a spouse who is on the same page, a babysitter) it can make all the difference in the world. For those without those things, like one of my friends who went the “drug free” route, she truly became a martyr to her cause. Sleep, friends, personal time, career advancement, social life- she gave it all up rather than medicate.

There is a problem with society in general choosing not to parent- not just the folks with overactive kids. Making the decision to have children in the first place should imply a commitment. Too many parents feel free to give up on the kids once they’re out of diapers, instead letting their peer groups and television be the main influences.

Just out of curiosity, imagine that your youngest was not your last child. Do you think you could have made the same decision if you also had a baby and a toddler who had to compete for your time with your “handful?” (My own “handful” was also my youngest. I personally can’t fathom what I would have done if I had to care for a baby too. No doubt I’d be in a rubber room somewhere)

13 years ago

Right on Octo- there is a lot of acting out, and these kids at school are given their own class, labelled as “emotionally disturbed”. When behavior controls fail, (parents neglectful or absent altogether) there are few options besides chemical ones. Just one ED kid (or ADHD) in class with 20 others can make it virtually unteachable. If you have to spend 1/3 of your class time dealing with one student, the rest are shortchanged.

Education systems are cutting back, class sizes are going up again, and teachers in their desperation can be very coercive, just as parents at their wits end and needing social services can only get a prescription to help. At the same time Big Pharma is raking in the money. Something is not right.

13 years ago

How many of you saw this film? Apparently based on a true story, the movie underscores the danger of using the mental health system as an instrument of oppression and abuse.

Yes, there are probable environment influences that effect developmental outcomes in children. Yes, there may be dietary factors and genetic markers that play a role (twin studies show that genetic markers may increase the propensity to develop a certain disorder but these are by no means 100% deterministic). Perhaps multiple factors conspire in combination, but we lack an understanding of the interplay between factors.

In this comment, my purpose is to just focus on one issue: Ethics, specifically unwarranted diagnostic and treatment abuses. To quote from my comment above:

A generation of neo-Freudian psychoanalysts attributed childhood autism to ‘cold mothering’ … a construct that abused generations of mothers who were made to believe that the pervasive developmental disabilities of their children were somehow their fault.

Here are historical abuses of the mental health system that would be unthinkable today: Faulty theoretical constructs, the indiscriminate use of ECT, and lobotomies. In the 1950s and 60s, state governments set low standards for mandatory institutionalization; only two signatories were required … and not necessarily court sanctioned.

Certainly the pharmaceutical industry plays a role in indiscriminate drug use for profit; however the role of persons in authority should not be overlooked. I surmise there are school officials, i.e. nurses, psychologists, principals, and superintendents, who coerce parents into medicating their kids to solve behavioral maintenance issues in the classroom. How do we know if a kid is truly ADD/HAD or merely acting out in response to poor parenting or a domestic problem at home? It is more convenient and expeditious to drug kids than to identify underlying causes.

When you look at examples of how totalitarian regimes labeled dissidents as mentally disordered, I can make the argument that the indiscriminate medication of children is a human rights issue; that any officially sanctioned abuse of the mental health system constitutes oppression.

When you lack incontrovertible proof, the credo of the mental health profession should start with: First, do no harm.

13 years ago

Thank you, Mother Hen. I’ve been thinking of posting about BP on my blog. There are, I’m sad to say, so many misconceptions which the media helps perpetuate through ignorance.

There are layers upon layers to each of these imbalances and a lot of the symptoms overlap, so it’s very hard to diagnose. There is a lot to be said for western science and the advances that have been made. Example: Had educators and professionals recognized dyslexia when I was a kid, my school career would have been a lot less challenging.

What the media doesn’t recognize, much less write about, is the fact that thousands of lives are saved each year due to medications. Thousands of young people do not cut themselves. Thousands of people lead normal (whatever that is) and productive lives.

Just let me set a couple of things strait. Nothing external causes bipolar or any other mood disorder. It is a chemical imbalance in the brain and there is strong evidence that it is genetic. There was a huge study using the Amish about 15 years ago.They do in fact have a high percentage of bipolar (inbreeding), but no particular gene was found that could connect family members. Doctors and scientists were close though.

Kit, you’re right about the ADHD – over 25% are later diagnosed with bipolar.

The media picks up this theme about every two years. I read this report several weeks ago. If I remember correctly, not a single psychiatrist was involved in the study. Anyone who relies on an MD for treatment of mental health or learning disabilities is making a serious mistake.

Sorry this is so long and I do, I do appreciate your post. I will write something about this shortly. I just have to finish up another big project and then catch my breath. Since I had already read it, I have to say that the comments have been extraordinary – and we wouldn’t have had those without Mother Hen’s post. Thank you.

Bee
13 years ago

There is absolutely no fucking way that “bi-polar” or ADHD or anything else of the like could possibly be diagnosed in infants, or I would argue even children under 5. I smell a big, fat fucked up scam here.

Reply to  Bee
13 years ago

I grew up on boats and by seven, after some time watching the charter mates on the docks, I could clean a fish nicely with very sharp knife. Now, my kid sister has studied forensic psychology… and commented to me when this came up for some reason… that I might be profiled antisocially and maybe even criminally dangerous because of my ease with guts, blood and blades. Well, you know, I cry at the Folgers commercials at xmas but I was a conf champ with my epee’. So Bee, I’m agreeing with you here. I am so confounded that people don’t consider that salve, the balm required is to address the isolation and loneliness … of these children. For whatever reason, I think they feel it intimately and the consequences are treated as medical symptoms with drugs. How barbaric we have become… tossing our children away to pharma. I don’t argue that some cases of chemical imbalance is present… but symptom treating with drugs is not healing… what these children require. Just saying…

Bee
Reply to  Gwendolyn H. Barry
13 years ago

Gwen, I never cleaned fish (ma did that, along with beheading the chickens and plucking them) when I was a kid, but I have zero trouble with blood, guts, gore or the rest either. I can watch surgeries, etc., and it doesn’t bother me. I guess I’m a secret serial killer right along with you! 🙂

Reply to  Bee
13 years ago

Bee… I don’t think either one of us is saying there is no need for balance with biological chemistry when it’s indicated. I understand insulin, proloid, all kinds of pharmachology … still, children are being drugged into compliance in too many of these cases… and that’s my point. I think it’s probably yours too. And the drug companies have bloated since the ’50’s over a 1000X with growth on bullshit meds. When I began to go a bit crazy with perimenopausal symptoms and was covered with insurance I asked my doc (a woman) to help me understand the chemistry so I might help myself with herbal teas and essential oils… she wouldn’t have it. She wrote a script for mood enhancing pills that I began with and after a week…. fuck man… why not just give me a script for ludes? Pretty much the same body language but the ones she gave me actually made me feel just awful emotionally and physically. I could done ludes and slept through it…eh? I do think we are meant, as human beings, to face certain emotional issues and ride the roller coaster of depression and contentment and high high’s for the greater growth of our character. My doc thought that alone meant I was chemically imbalanced and in need of more pills. Like consciously meeting a crisis in life doesn’t challenge your growth of character and expand your talents? shit…

SJ
13 years ago

@MH
This makes me want to read ‘A clockwork Orange’ again. We should not ‘adjust’ the moods and brains of children with unproven inventions from the pharmaceutical industry: They are not to be blindly trusted. Ever.
Such a sad, sad sorry story.
It’s interesting that no one applies Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say ‘NO'” zero tolerance reasoning to this side of drug abuse.
It’s not just drug abuse in cases where it’s self-administered, –it’s also drug abuse if it’s prescribed to someone who can’t say ‘no’… -like a child.
-SJ

osori
Reply to  SJ
13 years ago

SJ,
Very good parallel man.

Reply to  SJ
13 years ago

Excellent comparison!

Reply to  SJ
13 years ago

SJ, you wrote “Clockwork Orange” and it was one of those “nailed it” moments. Hadn’t thought about that movie in a long, long time and it instantly clicked to this post.

Reply to  SJ
13 years ago

Comparatively outstanding… 🙂

13 years ago

I just finished reading a NYTimes article on service men/women being medicated and abused behavior-ly ‘to manage’ them instead of addressing their specific psychological traumas. How we use up our greatest asset’s … young Americans.

I’ve just posted the photos of my newphews’ class prom on my FB. I’ve watched these kids for the last couple of years, grow into this last month, graduation and college bound. I’m so proud of them … well, the boys. I know them. I’ve watched them grow through some very focused moments choices in the last year, most of them with great parents there to guide and attend them. That’s the thing… and many of them have only one parent… though, that parent makes all the difference. You can tell, when you are watching the kids at the school, as class in progress, some of the kids who are divorced from nature, who spend time only amusing themselves… who don’t look to others or groups to have fun. I’m thinking that these are some of the children who are medicated…
I really have no idea. I do know my next door neighbor, a local RN, who has a 12 yr old girl, tells me that too many young children are run through the ER (no insurance) and too many of them are on school meds; in other words, the school is prescribing the medications that these little ones are on. It makes it easier for the teachers to ‘handle’ the large classes or difficult cases. ADHD / many of the disorders ascribed to little children… I know I might have been labeled with. As is was, the teachers in the second grade emphatically told my mom that all I was capable of was day dreaming. (I heard that guys!)
Over diagnosed, under attended and lonely. Desperately lonely… it does seem that in many cases, these children are being ‘herded’ phramaceutically. Doesn’t it? Good post MH.

Admin
13 years ago

Mother Hen writes:

“A recent report in the St Petersburg Times that found 23 infants less than one-year-old had been prescribed antipsychotics in Florida in 2007.”

This was shocking. Then again this whole Ritalin-ADHD scam has always shocked me. Another brilliant analysis MH.

13 years ago

Big Pharma would be quite happy to have large chunks of the population on medication from cradle to grave. 100s of millions of people popping pills daily, big bucks. “Product Creep” is a good way of describing the merging of uses. Viagra was being tested for treating angina when they found that lucrative side effect. Aspirin originally was a pain killer, fever reducer or to help reduce swelling, until they found it also was a blood thinner. Positive examples of produce creep, haven’t heard of any positives about Ritalin.

13 years ago

If the parents are dumb enough the kids have no chance!

I once inadvertantly left half a glss of vodka in Jacqui’s room after reading her a bedtime story when she was 3.

It was empty in the morning……spooky

Apart from the odd Aspirin here and there Jacqui has never taken any prescription drugs other than morphine after a serious back operation, and she was 17 then so old enough to understand why.

Unlike me she is intelligent. I wonder what The Dragon gave me as a kid?

We are raising a generation of zombies!

Jess
13 years ago

Wow, this is really disturbing. How in the name of whatever can a baby, a BABY be diagnosed with a mental illness under 1 yr old? This is all in the name of that big pharma profit IMO. I’ll tell you what, if this was me and my pediatric doctor was saying this about my yet to be born little crumb snatchers, I would want more than just one opinion on it. How can they drug up these kids and expect them to have normal, everyday experiences? No need to answer me, it is my inside voice coming out.

13 years ago

I say we just give ’em Jim Beam and ativan. It always worked for me when I was a kid.

Reply to  Will "take no prisoners" Hart
13 years ago

LOL Will. That explains a lot 🙂

osori
13 years ago

Great post,thank you!

I knew a little of this, but I had no idea of the scope of the problem and I never read up on it till now. There is so much blame to go around here. The medical profession (including big pharma) making money. Maybe a quick fix, I would think the disparity involving poor kids might indicate that.

Again just blaming the doctors first, it may be like having a kid’s tonsils removed-that’s just what you do.

Parents, I know there is a certain belief in doctors that causes us not to question them-we all do that when we’re in the emergency, especially when it involves our kids-so sometimes people don’t question either out of lack of knowledge or not wanting to question the medical profession. “Ok lady, where did you get YOUR medical degree? Oh you don’t have one?”. It can be intimidating.

I can’t help thinking, there are some parents who thru stress or maybe taking the easy way out, and I fully acknowledge I’m being judgmental here-but we all know people who say “when they’re 18 they’re outta here” and who ridicule the type of parent who reads to their kid or takes them on nature hikes, or who won’t cuss in front of them-drugging up a kid rather than spending time with them and maybe helping the kid to not act out, taking the easy way out might be their reaction.

But I think in most cases the parent as well as the children are the victims here.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

No kidding on the parent thing. I often wish for a tranquilizer dart for my own kids. Most of the kids I’ve seen with these issues at school stand out pretty easily- obviously they need something- and I’m not sure drugging them into the mainstream is it.

13 years ago

Mother Hen, your excellent and erudite article is very disturbing news. There are complex phenomena at work here, and it is difficult to know where to start.

Within the past decade, for instance, the prevalence rate for autistic spectrum disorders has risen from 1:160 to 1:150 on average. When you look at geographic distributions, the prevalence rate ranges from 1:350 in rural areas to 1:120 for densely populated suburban and urban areas. When you look at a timeline distribution, the prevalence rate increases dramatically suggesting higher positive diagnostic frequencies in recent versus past data. What to make of this?

Are there unknown environmental factors that account for these higher prevalence rates? Are diagnosticians more adept at identifying new cases? Are there too many false positives?

And what about so-called pediatric bipolar disorders? Fifteen years ago, there was no such category in the DSM-IV. Five years ago, it was a talking point in the psychiatric community. Today, it is talked about as if it were a virtual certainty. I am skeptical about the proliferation of positive diagnostic categories to treat what may be little more than outlying behavioral maintenance issues.

Furthermore, the profession is rife with bad constructs. A generation of neo-Freudian psychoanalysts attributed childhood autism to ‘cold mothering’ … a construct that abused generations of mothers who were made to believe that the pervasive developmental disabilities of their children were somehow their fault. I sometimes wonder whether the sedentary lifestyle of modern times affords children enough opportunity to simply burn off energy. Or if teachers and school districts seek convenient solutions to classroom behavioral problems by referring ‘problem’ children to psychiatric pharmacologists.

I believe there are large numbers of children being victimized by a fast-paced culture that deems some children less ‘convenient’ than others.

Reply to  (O)CT(O)PUS
13 years ago

I liken the changes in the DSM-IV to a fisherman casting a bigger net. If you widen the definition, more people will fit under it. While this could account for some of it, I am inclined to think that “product creep” (remarketing drugs for alternative uses) and pharmaceutical advertising play a huge role.
In this world of sound bites, video games, reduced recess, and less “face time” with nature, there is no outlet for energy. Many problems with ADHD kids could be solved with diligence and behavior modification (where is BF Skinner when you need him?) Why America is having this issue, and not other countries, is that some of these issues are peculiar to our society, and all combine to create this effect.

One more factor I want to mention, although it is really for another post, is that the levels of pesticides, external estrogens and other pollutants is growing. The burden of external toxins, most of which are unregulated by the FDA, must have some effect on the growing brain.

Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

I think Octopus is on the right trail mentioning the huge increase in autism, and both of you for considering environmental toxins.

When they find out what causes bipolar illness, it won’t be a surprise if ADHD is a milder version of this in the kids with intense anger and moodiness. It may be that the same toxin (or even a virus) “hits” different parts of the brain during it’s development, resulting in a variety of disorders with the same genesis.

I also wonder what the role of high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and processed foods play. These affect the brain in negative ways and may be the root of problems with brain development in young children.

It’s also revealing that the Amish have few of these problems, and some have even wondered if it’s because they are less likely to give their children vaccines. I’ll bet it’s because they eat healthier, wholesome foods more than the general population does too.

Reply to  Kit (Keep It Trill)
13 years ago

There is also a likely link between the father’s age and the Autism Spectrum Disorders http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090400513.html

Prolonged exposure to environmental toxins among older fathers leading to sperm mutations might also be the cause according to an even more recent study: http://www.child-psych.org/2010/03/autism-environmental-vs-genetic-clues-from-parental-age.html

Certainly the Amish have limited exposure to toxins, as they try to avoid pesticides. (It is a myth that they don’t ever use them at all, but they do try to limit their use.)

The Amish do vaccinate. http://autism.about.com/b/2008/04/23/do-the-amish-vaccinate-indeed-they-do-and-their-autism-rates-may-be-lower.htm

I think it is far more likely that rising rates in ASD is due to environmental pollution and genetic mutations that arise from it than from vaccinating.

osori
Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Generally I read of things blamed on the mothers age, it’s good to see research done on fathers as well.I would like to believe gender bias didn’t enter into research into contributing factors.

Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

I’m leary of the those about.com links, and have seen real articles that state otherwise about the Amish having fewer vaccinations.

Many of foods we eat has become toxic, and I’m not referring only to the chemicals and hormones. I hope you explore this as a possible villain in the problem, and as you read below, think of the harm to the fetus and/or young child.

Excerpt:

The first thing to understand about fats is that the essential fatty acids they contain are truly essential. They are the “active ingredient” in every bodily process you can name:

* brain cell function and nervous system activity
* hormones and intra-cellular messengers
* glandular function and immune system operation
* hemoglobin oxygen-transport system
* cell wall function:
o passing oxygen into the cell
o passing nutrients into the cell
o keeping foreign bodies out of the cell
* digestive-tract operation
o assimilating nutrients
o blocking out allergens

In short, the essential fatty acids (contained mostly in polyunsaturated oils) are the most important nutrients there are — more important than vitamins, minerals, or even proteins. Because, without them, there is no life. They are the substance and foundation of life energy.

What’s Wrong with Hydrogenation?

Unlike butter or virgin coconut oil, hydrogenated oils contain high levels of trans fats. A trans fat is an otherwise normal fatty acid that has been “transmogrified”, by high-heat processing of a free oil. The fatty acids can be double-linked, cross-linked, bond-shifted, twisted, or messed up in a variety of other ways.

The problem with trans fats is that while the “business end” (the chemically active part) is messed up, the “anchor end” (the part that is attached to the cell wall) is unchanged. So they take up their position in the cell wall, like a guard on the fortress wall. But like a bad guard, they don’t do their job. They let foreign invaders pass unchallenged, and they stop supplies at the gates instead of letting them in.

In short, trans fats are poisons, just like arsenic or cyanide. They interfere with the metabolic processes of life by taking the place of a natural substance that performs a critical function. And that is the definition of a poison. Your body has no defense against them, because they never even existed in our two billion years of evolution — so we’ve never had the need or the opportunity to evolve a defense against them.

But the worst part is that in the last stages of oil processing (or “refining”), the oil is literally steam distilled to remove its odor. So it doesn’t smell. But a hydrogenated oil is much worse than rancid butter. So if it did smell, it would smell worse than the most rancid butter you’ve ever seen. (And that goes for all refined oils, not just the hydrogenated ones. It’s just that hydrogenated oils are everywhere in the American diet.) So the next time you see “partially hydrogenated oil” on a label, think “rancid butter”.”

Note from Kit: This doesn’t even get into the problems with high fructose corn syrup. The two combined are found in the majority of processed foods.

Lastly, Food, Inc is a great documentary.

It’s a small leap I’ve made myself in applying all this information to another factor – perhaps the biggest – in why so many more children are mentally impaired.

Reply to  Kit (Keep It Trill)
13 years ago

“About” had the shortest url (I still dont know how to do tinyurl) which is why I chose it over the numerous other references.

You should do a post about transfats and hydrogenation!

Psychiatrists (after a lot of psychometric testing) are the only ones who should have anything to do with prescribing crazy meds for kids under 12.

I know plenty of kids who did and do need meds, and some who don’t get it because their parents are against medicating. (These kids have big troubles keeping friends and doing anything in school). Kids’ systems are very different than adults, and most studies are done on adults- so dosing for kids is often based on a “treatment model” (increase until it works).

Tempting as it was to put in a list of the most common side effects for the antipsychotics, the post would then have been several pages long! (They would curl your hair)

osori
Reply to  Kit (Keep It Trill)
13 years ago

I saw Food Inc with the kid-horrified by the massive prevalence of corn syrup, and how the poor family had to literally choose junk food instead of vegetables.

13 years ago

I’m not ignoring this. I’m just dead tired – will come back and read/comment tomorrow. It looks very interesting.

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