When we look at changes in the American diet over the past 30 years alongside the rise common health and behavioral problems in American children, a compelling picture starts to emerge. As Americans have eaten much larger amounts of highly processed and convenience foods, so too have they become more depressed, anxious, overweight, diabetic, and moody. Our kids are no exception.

Since 1970, our consumption of high fructose corn syrup has increased by 4,000 percent per person and our consumption of refined carbohydrates has risen by 50 percent. One in four American adults eat fast food every single day. So do one in three American children—not including processed or convenience foods prepared at home or served in school hot lunch programs. To top it all off, soft drink consumption has risen by 135 percent in the last 20 or 30 years.

Meanwhile, more children are being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, depression and anxiety, and childhood obesity is on the rise. Between five and ten percent of American children exhibit attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Eighty percent of amphetamine prescriptions are written for children—and administration of amphetamines to children has risen 3,000 percent in the last ten years. Just under ten percent of American teens are struggling with depression. Almost one third of American children are overweight, and childhood obesity has been positively linked to depression in children.

We look at all these kids who are overweight and hyperactive and diabetic and we say, “Take the pop machines out of school, get them off the couch, cut their calories, give them more vegetables, and take away their video games. All they have to do is reduce the amount of calories and get more active.” But we also know that most Americans who lose weight on a diet gain it back. So the notion of taking individual responsibility for maintaining weight loss, particularly with children, is not effective.

What’s going on? Our work at the Sugar Project is based on a growing body of evidence suggesting that attention disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety and certain addictions share neurochemical roots that are triggered by a diet high in refined carbohydrates like high fructose corn syrup.

One hormonal root of these problems is blood sugar regulation. If you eat erratic meals or a diet that’s very high in refined carbohydrates, your blood sugar will volley constantly. This is particularly a problem for people with sensitive blood sugar systems who experience sugar highs and crashes and often end up with Type II diabetes.

To understand the symptoms of low blood sugar, think about how you feel at 3:00 in the afternoon if you skipped breakfast or had a breakfast that was high in carbohydrates. In the Sugar Project, we’re finding that many of the kids who are having a tantrum are not having a behavioral problem; they’re experiencing a blood sugar crash that they have no control over. It’s related to what they’re eating, or not eating.

A lot of kids, especially high school kids, skip breakfast. They may have a Coke at 10:00 in the morning because they’re about ready to pass out from hunger and feeling so sleepy they can’t stay awake. They may eat fast food after school, and this is a typical teenage diet.

What do children need? They need to eat enough and they need to eat on time. They need to eat every couple of hours. They need adequate protein, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, Omega-3 fats and water. Kids don’t get enough protein, primarily, in U.S. culture. Their snacks need to not be made of carbohydrates. They need to have a cheese stick, nuts, and peanut butter, fresh fruits, whole grain breads. They need to have something that is a protein source along with complex carbohydrates and they need protein at breakfast.

My younger son would eat a lot of good food, but he was often moody and sulky and got tired really easily. He didn’t have a lot of behavioral problems, but I could tell he had the same body chemistry as I did, and so I started to talk to him about these links between how he feels and his blood sugar levels. When he was really angry or not doing the best job of behaving I’d say, “Okay, you’re going to have a snack and then ten minutes later we’ll deal with it.” Most of the time it was just that his blood sugar was crashing and he just needed something to eat.

He started when he was seven or eight, and we just made small steps like adding in protein at breakfast and letting him make the choices. If he wanted to have a piece of chicken for breakfast, I said, “Fine, as long as you have protein you get to choose what it is.” And then I began to talk to him about the impact of sugar on how he felt compared with the days when he had a more balanced diet with enough protein and complex carbohydrates. Then he began to notice the difference himself. Once kids start to make the connections, they’re pretty motivated because they have a taste of what it’s like to feel good.

From my own experience with this, and as a mother, it’s made a tremendous difference. My son’s teachers tell me again and again in his conferences he’s the only kid that can pay attention at 2:00 in the afternoon. He’s so calm. He makes really good decisions.

As a mother, I look at the harmful effects of the American fast food diet and say, “This is where I want to stop this cycle.” As parents of all the Earth’s children, we really have to look at what we’re doing to our kids, and it’s not just that they’re paying for this environmentally, they’re paying for this at the cellular level, and it’s time to transform the whole relationship.

Excerpted from a workshop presentation by Margaret Adamek, PhD, at the 2005 Bioneers Conference. Adamek is the founder and Director of the Sugar Project, a collaborative venture that seeks to heal the impact of a fast food, highly refined diet on American brains, bodies and behavior and currently serves as a Senior Fellow in Local Foods, Sustainability, and Wellness at the University of Minnesota. She works with schools, substance-abuse treatment centers, communities and families. To listen to the Bioneers Radio Series Episode featureing her work, visit the Bioneers Store.