Recent Developments in Diet Therapy

Abstract

Proposals that food affects children’s behaviors have surfaced sporadically in the clinical and research literature for over 50 years (Randolph, 1947; Rowe, 1931). In spite of this long-standing hypothetical association between food and behavior, it is only since 1970 that there has been widespread public and professional interest in altering diet as a therapeutic approach in dealing with disturbing behaviors and learning problems of children. Each food-behavior hypothesis developed a fervent public following in advance of appropriate controlled research testing. Indeed, much of the eventual experimental study of such hypotheses was in response to the widespread public acceptance of anecdotal reports of the effects of food on behavior. Also, in most cases, the food-related hypothesis was proposed as a general cause of behavior problems. Thus, the idea was not just that specific food substances could cause problem behaviors in children but that, in fact, they caused problem behaviors in large numbers of children.