After the use of saccharin was marginally addressed in 1976, many people began to look at the use of chemical food additives more closely. After a school nutritionist met with student resistance on food guidelines, a study was conducted 1982 at the Canyon Verde School in California. The study was performed by students, who used three groups of rats to demonstrate the effect of additives. The control group of rats was fed natural food and clean water. The second group was fed natural food, clean water and hotdogs. The third group was fed sugar-coated cereal and fruit punch. The fourth group wits fed doughnuts and cola.

It was immediately apparent that the different diets had different effects on behavior in the three groups. The rats receiving natural food and clean water remained attentive and alert. The rats receiving natural food and hotdogs became violent and fought aggressively. The third group of rats subsisting on products containing sugar-coated cereal and fruit punch were nervous, hyperactive and behaved aimlessly. The fourth group subsisting on doughnuts and cola were unable to function as a social unit. They were fearful and had trouble sleeping.

The Effect of Paternal Consumption of Additives on Newborn Behavior

During the 1982 study with four groups of rats and food consumption, many of the rats became pregnant in each group. The students had the opportunity to see the extended result of diet on newborn organisms. The newborn rats displayed the same traits as the mothers in each separate group, which meant that (I) chemical additives may have passed to the newborns in the mothers milk, or (2) chemical additives may he capable of passing though placental membranes, or 13) chemical additives may be capable of passing through the blood-brain barrier, as the fetal organisms shared the same blood with the mother.

Change of Diet and Reversal of Physiological Symptoms

When students in the Canyon Verde Study reverted to natural food for the groups who had received food with additives, it took several weeks for the rats to return to a natural state of behavior. It is unknown whether this same time period applies to humans, especially after sustained consumption of these chemicals by the time a child becomes an adult, but there are encouraging indications that symptoms can be reversed by altering human diet. When the children at Canyon Verde school began eating foods without chemical additives (BHT,BHA,TBHQ and artificial flavors and colors), profound changes began to take place. Students formerly disruptive and hyperactive became civilized, calm and attentive. (It is these same students who would be candidates for psychological therapy and intervention with psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin, Cylert or Dexidrine. when all the time the problem was in the diet of the children.)