We all know there has been a massive increase in the number of hyperactive children over the past 20 years. What has changed most in that time is the food our children are given. Highly-processed foods contain less than one-fifth of the nutrients of the food consumed a generation ago.
Some food seems to contain almost no food at all. Look, for example, at Raspberry Flavour Trifle. The packaging tells us some of the things it does contain - sugar, carrageenan, dipotassium phosphate, potassium chloride, adiptic acid, trisodium citrate, carboxy methyl cellulose, betanin, annatto, hydrogenated vegetable oil, propane-based emulsifiers, milk protein, beta-carotene and fat-reduced cocoa.
It's not just the nutrients that have been taken out that are the problem, but what is now added as well. Recently in Cornwall, Gordon Walker, headteacher of Tywardreath Primary School, asked parents to give their children a diet free of 23 specific additives for just one week. He found children were calmer, less argumentative and more able to concentrate. As he said, 'You would not feed your child chemicals, so why give them disguised as sweets?'
The evidence, I believe, is clear. Part of the cause of hyperactivity is the presence of additives and colourings in food, specifically targeted at children. It's not the only cause. It's not necessarily even the main cause. But it is a contributory factor whose importance has been overlooked and ignored for far too long.
That is why this Bill is important. It would require food containing specified additives and colourings to be labelled with the words - 'This product contains colourings or additives that may affect the behaviour of some children'. It doesn't say they will do so in all cases or even that they will affect all children.
It would set up a panel reporting to the chief medical officer, to advise on which additives and colourings should carry such a label. I believe that decision should not be one taken by politicians.
, amongst other ingredients. Indeed, apart from a small amount of powdered egg, it appears to contain no food whatsoever As a result, parents, doing their absolute best to look after their children, unwittingly buy products that turn them into little time bombs - just because they do not have the information to tell them whether the additives and colourings in a food product could change their child's behaviour. Even children's vitamins sometimes contain colourings, so, unknowingly, little Jimmy goes off to school ready to explode.
