• home
• public relations
• media training
• website design
• news
• contact

24/1/2007 - NUTRITION EXPERT SLAMS UK PRIORITIES IN HEALTH AND EDUCATION

One of the UK’s leading nutrition experts has spoken out against current priorities in health and education research and training – saying that the country’s vets are taught more about the effects of nutrition on health than doctors.

Dr Alex Richardson - author of “They are what you feed them” and founder of charitable organisation Food and Behaviour Research - will speak out against current attitudes towards nutrition at a conference to be held in Glasgow at the Radisson Hotel on Tuesday 23rd January 2007. She intends to flag up official figures from the latest National Diet and Nutritional Survey which show that ten per cent of children in the UK are suffering from essential nutrient deficiencies – or malnutrition - usually associated with Third World Countries.

The conference – entitled Diet, Behaviour and the Junk Food Generation – has attracted six of the UK’s top experts on food and behaviour, who will address an assembled audience of education and health professionals, parents, social workers and MSPs among others.

Need for omega-3 backed up by scientific evidence

Looking at the effects of nutrition on child and adult behaviour - and backing this up with rigorous scientific as well as clinical evidence - the conference will offer easy-to-follow advice on which foods should be avoided or included in a child’s diet to improve behaviour, mood and learning. Experts will also address subjects such as the potential value of omega-3 in treating conditions like ADHD, dyslexia, depression, and autism. 

In Britain, surveys suggest that many people are reluctant to resort to pharmaceutical drugs to treat their ailments and instead around one in three people in the UK has tried at least one form of complementary therapy, and dietary approaches are particularly popular with parents of children with behaviour or learning problems such as ADHD. In addition, one in ten GPs is actively involved in offering these services and yet many doctors remain completely unaware of the benefits of nutritional medicine.

Organiser and lead speaker Dr Richardson said:

Horrifying number of British teenagers malnourished

“In the UK, a horrifying number of children suffer from malnutrition. One in ten children lack Vitamin A, essential for immune system health. Fifty percent of teenage girls are deficient in iron, which can cause anaemia and stunt growth. Forty percent of children don’t get enough zinc, which affects more than 200 different enzymes important for the brain and body.  Is it any wonder then that children cannot concentrate in school, and that they are tired, irritable and ill?

When a vet examines an animal, the first thing they will do is ask what the animal has eaten, and consider whether anything is wrong with their diet. I am calling on people to consider dietary imbalances before turning to pharmaceutical drugs.”

Dr Richardson’s research into the effects of omega-3 fatty acids hit the headlines in 2002, as she performed the UK’s largest and most extensive double-blind, randomised study to look at fatty acids and learning conditions. Fellow speaker David Rex, lead health dietician with NHS Highland, is one of the few practitioners within the NHS who effectively straddles the gap between health and education, and speaker Bernard Gesch led research into the effect of diet in prisons. Dr Tom Gilhooly, who will address the effects of fish oils on depression, is launching Scotland’s first nutritional health clinic in February 2007.

The conference is particularly pertinent with reference to recent recommendations made by the Communities Committee which called for healthy eating regulations to be introduced into all schools throughout Scotland. Places are still available via www.mackayhannah.com

Ends

Notes to the editor

This release sent on behalf of Food and Behaviour Research charity, www.fabresearch.org by Jane Nower of Axis Media Group 0141 8896868 / 07894607584 / jane@axismediagroup.co.uk  

Dr Alex Richardson can be contacted directly on 07957 870 085, and will be in Glasgow from 3pm on Monday 22nd January 2007

For more information or to book a place at the conference Diet, Behaviour and the Junk Food Generation, please go to www.mackayhannah.com call 0131 556 1500 or email mail@mackayhannah.com 

Other lecturers will include:

Professor John Stein, Professor of Neurophysiology, University of Oxford, and Chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust: “The post-war diet and its implications for cognitive development and mental health in babies and young children.”

David Rex, Lead Health Dietician, NHS Highland: “Nutritional approaches to learning disorders.”

Dr Mary Bellizzi - National Development Officer (Food & Nutrition), Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit (SHPSU): “Promoting Healthy Eating in Schools – an update.”

Bernard Gesch, Senior Research Scientist, University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford and Director of the research charity, Natural Justice: “Diet and anti-social behaviour.”

Dr Tom Gilhooly, Glasgow-based GP practising at the Essential Health Clinic, Managing Director of The Centre for Nutritional Studies Ltd and Clinical Director of Glasgow Health Solutions Ltd. “Diet and mental health – notes from a Glasgow practice.”

telephone 0800 032 1127 |
email info@axismediagroup.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales | 4375076
website designed by stream media | sitemap