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The Surprising Food That May Cause Anger & Aggression

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The Surprising Food That May Cause Anger & Aggression, a defiant young boy with a angry face.

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Are you seeking to restore health to your child ? Do you have a child with an anger issue? Do you have a child that appropriate correction and discipline aren’t helping? Please let this important post by Jaclyn Harwell inspire you!

“If you had told me a few years ago that even the worst of my son’s behavior could be linked to food, I would have said I agreed. I knew sugar and food dye were linked to behavioral problems in children, and as soon as I learned this, I removed them from his diet. We saw some improvement. But even as we continued to eat well and focus on whole, organic foods, some new behaviors were emerging: disturbing, disheartening behaviors that I was at a loss to handle.

Anger & Aggression

“After a friend observed Camden’s angry behavior at the park one day, she suggested I remove wheat from his diet. Being the go-getter that I am, I removed all grains from our family’s diet. We all felt better (read more about how our radically changed diet improved all of our health here) and Camden’s behavior improved.

“Then we moved about a year later, and though we stuck with a mostly-paleo diet, we slacked off during the transition, then never really got back on track completely. We ate some gluten-free grains here and there, and even ate gluten on occasion. Without even realizing how much we had regressed on our diet, we noticed that old anger and some new behaviors emerging in Camden.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

“Since we homeschool, I am with my kids 24/7. After our move, I began to notice a strange shadow come over Camden from time to time. He would become unreasonably angry, sometimes for no real reason. He would lose his temper and lash out at his younger brothers in anger, exhibiting a total lack of self control, that, at the age of 6 or 7, was developmentally abnormal. I knew it all went back to the food he was eating and a leaky gut, but I wasn’t sure of the exact culprit/s yet.

“The worst was trying to get schoolwork done. He flat wouldn’t do it, and instead, sat for hours, painstakingly writing one letter at a time, a whole sentence taking an hour or more to write. I was mystified. Camden is an incredibly smart kid. How could he not just get this done? Even though I knew I had some work to do to continue healing him, I took to the internet to research what might be going on. I came across Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and was able to check off every symptom and behavior for my son.

Symptoms of ODD:

  • anger and irritable mood
  • aggressive
  • argumentative
  • vindictive
  • manipulative
  • lack of respect for authority

“While many people would assume anger and the other above symptoms are the evidence of a lack of discipline and appropriate parenting strategies, for a parent who knows their child, and knows this behavior is not the norm, and who has strived (and strived and strived) to remedy the behavior with discipline and redirection, these are symptoms of something greater, something that is not easily dealt with.

Connecting the dots myself was disheartening enough; I didn’t need a diagnosis to confirm that Camden had this disorder.

Pinpointing a Cause

“At some point, I began to determine foods that were causing these behaviors in Camden. Obviously, if he somehow got ahold of food coloring (which was rare, so it was easy to track), gluten, or too much sugar, the behaviors would crop up. But, I was able to link another food to the aggressive, defiant behavior: corn. We would still have organic corn chips in the house every once in a while, and I became certain that the corn chips were a major cause of ODD. I would observe him eat a few chips, then hours later turn into a different kid.

“After eating corn, Camden would become incredibly angry over seemingly small stuff. And there was no reasoning with him or helping him to see things from another perspective. We tried discipline during these times, and even spanked him, but this just made him more angry, and at times, he became physically aggressive in return. No brand or amount of discipline got through to him. This was one wave that we just had to ride out.

“Not too long after I began figuring all of this out, we moved again, back to our previous town. At this time, we had been avoiding corn with Camden, but moving once again took a toll and some convenience foods were eaten here and there. He basically just kept enough junk in his system to keep the ODD behaviors cropping up. Once we got settled, though, we were ready to get strict and steady with the diet, and we began to see a huge improvement.

Healing Camden

“Today, a year after our most recent move, we avoid corn (and the other foods mentioned) like the plague for Camden. I read every label and we do not cheat. We know that if we do, there will be fall out, and it makes us all miserable. It’s just not worth it. And you know what? ODD is mostly a thing of that past! These days, even if that shadow comes over Camden for some unknown reason, it only lasts a few minutes instead of days at a time! We are seeing such huge improvement, and we will not go back.

“Between a strict diet and healing we’ve experienced with some biomedical interventions, I am confident that these little episodes will be fewer and farther in between, until they cease completely. For Camden, that means a normal life without unreasonable anger, being able to deal with disappointments and frustrations in a healthy way without exploding or feeling down about himself.

What to Watch Out For

“If you think corn may be a problem for your child (and if you have the same problems we do, I strongly suggest you remove it, among other things!), you will have to become a label detective, because corn hides under many names, including:

  • dextrin
  • dextrose
  • maltodextrin
  • maltodextrose
  • high fructose corn syrup
  • corn starch
  • modified starch
  • xanthan gum
  • guar gum
  • sorbitol
  • xylitol
  • msg
  • GDL
  • and more!

“Is your head spinning yet? Corn is a sneaky ingredient and can be found in most packaged foods. Aim for foods that contain only ingredients you can read and understand the origin of! (And by the way, popcorn is included!)”

For the complete list of offenders, go to Corn Allergy? List Of Corn-Based Ingredients In Food

You might find supplementing with NAC helps if you do occasionally come into contact with this allergen or ‘natural’ or artificial flavors. NAC encourages natural breakdown and rapid transport of toxins out of the system.

Have you noticed your child reacting to a surprising food?

The Surprising Food That May Cause Anger & Aggression, Jaclyn Harwell

You can follow Jaclyn on Pinterest, Facebook, or join her Facebook group Heal Together Community.

Click on Jaclyn’s profile photo to go to her insightful blog The Family That Heals Together!

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The Surprising Food That May Cause Anger & Aggression. Pinterest image of a very angry, defiant little boy

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Thanks for reading!

Jacqueline
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Comments

  1. I have some of these same issues with my teenage son, which I have found mostly linked to red dye. However, I would like to try avoiding corn and corn products to see if we get even better results. The list of ingredients in which corn is hidden is lengthy, so I would like to ask if you’ve found a general list of products you have found to be on the corn free list. With red dye, I learn to keep a list in my mind of companies/products that are automatic oks in my mind once I’ve learned those items. I have learned that Aldis discount grocery stores are getting more conscious of the need for products to be free of chemical dyes…kudos aldis 🙂 we need more products to change, so keep it up!

    • T Ward, I am sorry I don’t. If you ever take the time to develop that list, it would be a good thing to share back here.
      Sounds like you are on to the causative factors. I will pray that the Lord will lead you in wisdom and insight to help your son! ((Hugs))

      • We have a horrible time with MSG! I thought originally it was the food coloring but he occasionally had candy and totally had the sugar high going on. Then he had movie theatre popcorn and was a complete maniac. I then figured out that it was MSG. The Cheetos, Doritos have super high msg. We never had them at home but at other peoples houses he would eat it and be crazy for 2 days after. We avoid it now and have found supplementing with NAC has helped when he occasionally comes in contact with it. Corn chips are not a problem but I only buy organic chips with corn, safflower oil and sea salt so many chips have so much crap including large amounts of MSG (they also use different descriptions now to hide it so you have to be really careful). Which overexcited the brain. If we have even organic soy it affects him too.

      • The vast amount of corn on the US is genetically modified to resist the chemicals like Roundup used to kill weeds that compete with the corn for nutrients. It would be interesting to see if ungenetically modified (organic) corn caused the symptoms mentioned.

    • Yes, Red Dye was a huge problem for my son…..this was in the late 70’s….early 80’s…..we started the Feingold Program….no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives……the difference was amazing…

  2. Very interesting article. You might want to add Vitamin C (or Ascorbic Acid) to the list as about 95% of it on the market is derived from corn. The connection could be the mold/fungus that is inherent in the corn seed. Look at the years of work done by Doug Kauffman (knowthecause.com) on the fungus link to just about every major illness.

    • Good point, Patti!! I am so glad you’ve touched on that here! And I would have to agree. I have not read Doug Kauffman’s work but am pretty sure he’s right! Mycotoxins (in the fungi family) are deadly and aflatoxin is the worst. We feel it is contaminating the food in the grain bins and then is passed onto the end user. Farmers have high rates of cancer from so many exposures (pesticides, herbicides, molds, and heavy metals in the soil).
      Thank you so much!

  3. This is amazing!! We just never know. Thanks for sharing. I will be forwarding this to several people.

    Hope you are doing well. BLESSINGS!!

    • The more we dig and research, the more we find that man’s (big businesses) manipulation is causing problems with our health, especially that of our children. Best eat as much a possible that is whole food, organically grown, and from clean, un-compromised sources. It is maddening!
      blessings to you, dear Charlotte!

  4. My second eldest son (now 28) was diagnosed with ADHD at age 8. Needless to say it was very confusing as i’d never encountered this before. He was put on Ritalin, then Ritafin( less side effects)but hated the fact that he had to be medicated…. I started doing some research and came across a book called ‘The Allergy Handbook” by Dr Keith Mumby and it helped tremendously… One of the things i learnt is that if you eat the same foods daily (e.g same brand of cereal) your body can develop an allergy towards it and it can affect your behaviour. My son is a well adjusted (married) young man… Extremely popular and spiritual and has a great outlook on life… We have a much stronger bond than i have with his siblings as, i recognised that i may have had the same problem as a child. But who knew about these things 50 odd years ago?

    • Julia, what a fascinating story. I have read (and believe) that when you get too much of a specific food, it does cause an allergic-type response (but not necessarily a rash or breathing problems -it could be behavioral, stomach ache, or eczema, etc.). It is b/c we hit our tolerance for a specific food and then react. That is the premise for a food rotation diet….give the body time to deal with a low-level allergen and space the assault out. It definitely worked for us.
      Thank you for sharing that. Did you ever get your son off the Ritalin?

  5. When I read this I thought of Doug Kaufmann’ work with mycotoxins. Also, most corn is GMO, and that probably plays a role, as well. For instsnce, many are now saying that gluten intolerance/sensitivity is really caused by GMO.

    • Thank you, Amanda! Fascinating stuff. I’ll read up on Kauffman’s work. Mycotoxins are found in most grain bins, sadly, and could be a factor… plus, I wouldn’t be surprised about the GMO link to gluten! My son grew non-GMO organic corn for the first time this summer and it tested non-GMO, too!! Yay!

  6. Well one surprising (at least to us and her doctors) food we have found to cause aggressiveness and overall ‘meanness’ in our daughter is potatoes! When we first suspected it and mentioned it to the Dr, she said it was more likely the dairy products used in the preparation of the potatoes and not the potatoes themselves. However we did some extensive experimenting and found it is simply the potatoes themselves as the behavioral reactions were the same regardless of the way they were prepared.
    Unfortunately we still have times that we “cheat” and we always kick ourselves for it afterwards, but sometimes it can be hard to avoid especially since she absolutely loves potatoes in any form…

    • I read something recently about a pesticide in mcdonald’s potatos for the french fries causing problems. .. maybe look into this

  7. This is just a thought, is he ok with actual organic corn on the cob ? .. or even off the cob ?

    I ask because one thing that almost all processed products have in common is sulfuric acid used to process them (same thing with potato starch and possibly some other starches) the sulfuric acid then breaks down into sulfites … I am allergic to sulfites and they cause me many symptoms, a lot that are neurological … before realizing my allergy, I was having what I thought were anxiety and panic attacks for about 12 hours or the day. Could it be possible that his issue might just be with processed corn products ? Just a thought

    • Yes, Alicia, you are probably right on the sulfuric acid link to neurological rxns and allergies that manifest in different ways. I would do a test on your son. Clean out his system for a month (or so) as best you can and then introduce a bit of organic corn from the cob. Keep a record during this time and see if you can discover if there is a rxn or not. Also increase from a 1/4 cup one day, then wait 2-3 and then give him 1/2 cup again…see what happens. Keep going up…sometimes a child who is cleaned out (rested from an allergen) will tolerate a small amount and you’ll think he is OK with that food, but his tolerance hasn’t been reached yet. When he does reach it, he will react. Records help you see correlations, but you already know that. God bless you, dear Mom! You are awesome to hang in there with your child 😀

  8. Thank you for sharing, I totally forgot about diet yesterday when I was talking to my friend about her son and anger issues. I will share it to her right now. Maybe it can help.

    JEM

    PS I found you via pit stop linky party.

  9. What a wonderfully interesting lot of conversations here. My husband and I are label detectives, maybe we need to be a bit stricter, from all that I am reading here.
    Kathleen
    Blogger’s Pit Stop

  10. Wow, amazing article and discussion. Stated with such conviction based on…anecdotal evidence lol. Maybe you’re on to something but it seems like your entire rationale is based on Internet bloggers. About as equivalent as basing novel discoveries on the result of Myth Busters. As a PhD in biochemistry I look for imperial evidence yet you provide Not a single reference to an actual study conducted by scientists. And your usage of the term “leaky gut” is a medically unrecognized terminology straying you even further from credibility.

    • Denise, It’s great you are informed and feeling you know the answer to this challenge. As a parent of a son with severely ‘leaky gut’ and dysbiosis from mold exposure (the very term used by our collaborative MDs in a major medical university hospital), and which it took us over 10 years to heal (severe eczema, serious behavioral issues, constant stomach pain, NO growth for almost 8 yrs.) I feel I know a bit, too. The mother who wrote this post is giving her suspicions based on her experiences and to dis her freedom to share and experience seems a bit prideful to me. I’m so glad we live in a free country to be able to discourse on things that parents deal with. Do you look for empirical evidence or ‘imperial’ evidence? According to Wikipedia, “Empirical evidence is information acquired by observation or experimentation.” This author mother is an observer I would say, thus her experimentation is empirical!!!
      Merry Christmas 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

      • Your response has intrigued my inquiring mind- I have an almost 3 year old who has severe eczema, ADHD type behaviors, and very, very slow growth. He’s only ever been on the 3 percentile growth chart since birth. When did you start suspecting food allergies? He was grain free, and sugar free his whole first year of life, given probiotics, andsupplemental whole food vitamins. We continue a gluten free, dye free, mostly organic lifestyle, but I’m mystified at what could be causing this.

        • Michelle, has he been slow to grow since birth? Were you exposed to mold (like stachybotris?) before he was born or since? You are doing so many things so well. Have you looked at the label of the supplemental vitamins since he gets them every day? We knew there was a problem for our son when he was 4. It was just 2 months after hsi exposure that he failed to thrive. He lost 2 lbs rapidly. He had been in a old barn with his brother and sister and they were all exposed to Klebsiella gram-neg bacteria from what we think was coyote or raccoon feces and the old hay bales were full of black mold…I was just sick (they were with a friend who thought they were safe). Stool samples showed NO lactobacillus, etc. All there was was Klebsiella after 3 weeks (Klebsiella pneumoniae is a ‘superbug’ that causes a range of diseases, depending on which part of the body it infects = for him it was his gut and then he was full of candida albicans and has had a sinus infection ever since). He tested allergic to 53 foods, so It took rotating food every 8 days for 3 years to get him back to a better place.
          I’m praying for you, Michelle. May the Lord grant you wisdom, insight, discernment, grace and peace as you allow Him to lead you on this journey. I hope this helps in some way…

        • Michelle,

          Around 3 months old, my son developed really bad eczema. Then we had an issue with an unknown rash and he was hospitalized and put on antibiotics for 5 days. As a follow-up, we went to an allergist and dermatologist. While I am not keen on the steroids and such, they were able to heal him. And then with the allergist, we found he was allergic (via blood work, his skin was not clear enough for skin testing) to eggs (he biggest one), peanuts (which I had already eliminated from my diet because I suspected them), almonds, & soy. He was okay with dairy, wheat was a 1 (on a scale of 0-6). At one year, when we gave him milk to drink, he got a rash. Brought him back for allergy testing and he was now allergic to milk, coconut, and cashews. (Each allergy testing was not a complete test of all common foods – just a few most likely).

          Since his allergy testing, he has been quite healthy. Pulling milk at one year (he was breastfed) eliminated that final night waking.

          I still wonder if wheat is an issue…

          Eliminating the allergens also bumped him up in the growth percentile.

          P.S. on a separate note, since this blog post was about corn, my oldest reacts behaviourly to corn, too…

          • Marie, this sound so much like our son who was exposed to stachybotrys mold at 4 years old. We ultimately had to rotate all his food every 8 days. We did that for 3 1/2 years. He didn’t grow a 1/4 inch in 7-8 years, so he was very puny and in a failure to thrive. Try rotating those things in a few years and keep his tolerance to them high with spacing. I am praying the Lord will give you wisdom for all you need as a mother and wife! God bless you! 😀

    • Leaky Gut is medically referred to as Intestinal Permeability. I have been diagnosed with leaky gut by 2 doctors. Check out Dr Josh Axe. It is an autoimmune disorder.

    • I HATE people with this attitude. You have NO idea what it’s like to have a child with rage issues caused by food. My son goes from being a wonderful, loving, gentle soul to a rage monster, hitting and pushing in a mean and vindictive manner in a matter of minutes after eating dairy. So get off your biochemistry PhD high horse and open your mind a little because with THAT attitude all it does is belittle and shame parents who know their own children better than any Dr or pseudo Dr. And if you’d care to, you’re welcome to babysit my son ANY TIME…but I’ll first make sure to load him up on some ice cream and cheese. Have fun.

  11. The Feingold diet may also be of interest to those following this post. My son has been on it for over two years. He was prone to extreme angry outbursts and ADHD, but also had a host of physical symptoms – stomach pains, leg cramps, enuresis. Once on Feingold, they have all gone away. Feingold eliminates artificial dyes, flavors and preservatives TBHQ, BHT and BHA, and certain high salicylate fruits/spices.

  12. I needed to read this today! Your son’s symptoms sound identical to my daughter’s and it is such a lonely place to be. I didn’t even consider corn as a possible factor, but I’m going to observe closely from now on! Like you, we are whole foodies and eat a primarily grain-free diet, but, we live in a society in which that is far from normal. As a result, grains etc., slip into her diet much too often.

    Thank you so much for sharing your story and observations. It’s such a relief to know that we are not the only parents in the world struggling with this.

  13. Corn has been a huge trigger for my daughter, as well. We have also figured out that strawberries turn her almost instantly into a roaring mess. 🙁

    • Wow, MS. Strawberries…who would think?! But we did find out strawberries are a big allergen for some when we tested out son. I’m glad you are the right track!

  14. We have corn allergies here too. My kids both react wth behavioral reactions (one of them to wheat, color’s and processed sugar also), but I also have a corn allergy and know exactly the feeling of not being able to shake a reaction. It’s just an angry funk that has to wear off. It’s very frustrating! But it helps me be more patient with my kids during a reaction and diligent to keep them really eating only safe foods for them.
    It makes me very very sad to think of how many kids are medicated for behaviors caused by foods they’re eating.

    • Melissa, I just want to empower Moms with knowledge. It makes life more manageable when we know why or are on the trail to understanding! Thanks for the encouragement. Praying right now for you to have strength and wisdom in the battle! xoxo

  15. I suggest reading the book Is This Your Child? by Doris Rapp. It was written in the 90s and is still the best book on children’s behavior and allergies. The person has to be a detective because it’s not just grains, it could be a banana or a plastic. I had a friend that had a child with incredible anger issues due to allergies to all grains. Removing all grains and taking care of yeast issues and now the fellow has grown up. No issues with allergies and is an attorney, and a darn good one at that! Keep doing your hard work, it is with it.

    • Cas, I LOVE Doris Rapp’s work! she has helped many of my friends years ago with young children and unexplained allergies.
      Thanks for reminding me!!

  16. She may want to be careful of Internet blogs and diagnosing her child because Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a real mental ilness and many people try to self diagnose based on Internet findings from wickipedia and other not so credible sources plus she is not a licensed professional in this area of study. It is wonderful that she found solutions with keeping him from eating certain foods but she should not say those things are causing that condition.

  17. Hi Jacqueline, Thank you so much for sharing your story. I too am beginning to suspect that corn is the culprit for recent outbursts with our 12 year old who has some sensory integration challenges.

    We’re going to try a month of corn-free and see how it affects her. I’m aware that there are a myriad of other factors at play here, so i will watch the others and see if there’s a detectable pattern.

    I noticed something in your posts that is also similar in my life. You mention moving a number of times. For all kids, and even for adults and I don’t think we notice it as much in our busy lives, moving is a traumatic experience–it disturbs the senses, the routine, the rhythm of life. From the simple–where is the toilet paper kept now, to the more complex, I’m not used to sleeping in this bedroom where everything feels different; the windows, the doors, the hallway, etc…

    For kids with sensory challenges, this disruption feels much bigger and that much more traumatic.

    I’m wondering if you can identify in looking back at your corn test, if the settling down, so-to-speak, of the aggression was also related to the settling in a new home.

    I’d love to hear back from you. My husband and I are separating and I’m taking all of this into consideration as we decide where who is going to live where….

    Warmly,
    Miriam

    • Miriam, I am so glad for your comment and question. I think Jaclyn (who wrote this piece) will be better to answer your question, though, than I. You can find her on her blog here: http://www.thefamilythathealstogether.com/ I am sure she will be able to give an answer that cah help and encourgae you as you prepare to move. I am praying for you now.
      Grace and peace,
      Jacqueline

  18. I found this blog after searching “does high fructose corn syrup cause anger” because I am an adult and had to use self- control and willpower to get home from work without incident today, battling a rage that felt self- destructive, anti- authority, and careless. I wanted to start an argument with the police just for being parked at my strain stop, when it usually makes me feel safer. Tonight I felt like “what are you looking at?” inside. And the people on the train, good thing no one tried to talk to me, or follow me. I was ready to say “I will fk you up!!” “leave me alone!!” and wanted to hit people with my textbook. I wanted to binge on alcohol, break windows, run down the street screaming. I made do with loud music on Pandora.When I made it home, I laid down like a little kid in a slump. Something about the whole incident felt strangely chemical, and I feel like it crept on slowly over the night as I ingested greater quantities of high fructose corn syrup by drinking Coca Cola and raspberry sweet tea on tap.

    • Oh, my goodness, Brianne, I am glad you are finding out why now… God bless you in your quest to learn more about what your triggers are! I am praying for you right now!!

  19. I could have written the exact same article replacing the name with my daughter’s. I haven’t looked at corn, but definitely gluten and dairy trigger the same awful reactions from her and we’ve recently eradicated them again from our diet(she used to be intolerant but after a long time of not eating them seemed to have grown out of it) and within 24 hours we noticed big changes and the house has become a much calmer less angry place.

    • Praise God, Sarah! I am so thankful Jaclyn’s guest post is helping many families and children!!

  20. I found this article so enlightening! I have a six year old son who has several of the symptoms you have described: a quick, harsh temper, inability to accept accountability for his choices, blaming others for every problem he has, even an unwillingness to sit and write a sentence. I am excited to try and change his diet. I’m a little overwhelmed at where to start, though. He is a picky eater; his favorite food of choice for any meal is tortilla chips and melted cheese (most likely contributing to his behavior). Do you have some favorite resources you could recommend to make these changes? Was your child cooperative in the dietary changes you made?

    • Mandy! So glad you saw this guest post. It is written by Jaclyn Harwell over at http://www.thefamilythathealstogether.com/ Leave her a comment and I’m sure she’ll get back with you 🙂 She would be your resource! We’ve had some of this but nowhere nears as much as she has! God bless you with wisdom, dear Mama!

  21. This article is spot on. I have leaky gut myself and although my food intolerances do not effect my temperament, it effects my everyday life. I have rid my diet of gluten, sugar (aspartame is poison), corn and soy. One bite of any of these foods, destroys my stomach. An above ready mentioned that leaky gut was not a medical term, yet I have been diagnosed by 2 doctors with candida leaky gut. For all your followers, check out Dr Josh Axe.

    • Thank you for your comments, Karen. We’ve had several traditional doctors (MDs) who have used the term ‘leaky gut’ with us.
      I’m praying you are well on the road to better health!

  22. Please consider if stress is the root cause of your son’s behavior. Your son sounds like me. As an adult I have learned about setting myself up for failure/success through stress management. Please don’t take this comment as a criticism; it is not. Diet helps …. A LOT! But I note that the incidents you describe coincide not only with diet disruptions but also with bigger life changes that can be stressful.

  24. Also citric acid made in the US. Have you considered that he might be reacting to free glutamic acid? Your list has several sources/probable sources. The glutamatergic system is implicated in many psychiatric conditions.

  25. I would LOVE to try to eliminate some of these foods to see if it helps my 9 year old (Autism, Seizure Disorder, C.P., non-verbal and major behavioral issues), but he only eats baby Food and drinks Pediasure. I have him on all organic babyfood, and can eliminate corn and wheat there, but what can I do about the Pediasure? He is supposed to drink 4 to 6 cans a day.

  26. As I sit here on the verge of tears, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for sharing your story with me. Our journey with DJ started about 15 months ago. Believing that his negative behaviour was dietary, I had all of the children tested for allergies (family history of bee allergy also, we wanted to be as prepared as possible). DJ came back with a large number of “sensitivities”. Now we were already pretty strict on our children’s diet, looking for what preservities were included in foods, not too much sugar. When the results came back he has sensitivities to gluten, dairy, peanuts, egg and soy, we researched what we would do now. This is how we came across the paleo life-style. For eight week we threw ourselves head long into the menu planner included in the books we purchased. For the first time in my life I was excited to eat, it was not just something that I have to do to survive. We couldn’t keep it up though, our grocery bill went from around $150pw to around $400. The essence of paleo has remaind; we aim for mainly whole foods, preservative free (as best as possible), nothing processed, no processed sugars. DJ is strictly gluten and soy free, though on occasion he may have a little dairy. We are still having issues with his behaviour. Six weeks ago he was suspended from school for attacking a substitute teacher when she tried to grab him by the arm when he was having one of his “moments”. Now DJ’s elbows dislocate easily, we have drummed it into him that he has to be careful with his arms and he is not allowed to let anyone pull on his arms. As his emotions were already out of control, fight or flight would have kicked in and he fought.
    Anyway, I’ve gotten side tracked here. The point of my story here is that from reading your story, you could have been talking about DJ. We do have a couple of appointments lined up to have him assessed. I know there is something there, when he is calm he is the most loving little man. He is protective, supportive, generous, mature beyond his years. When his mood changes he is a different child, he is mean, violent, deliberately defiant, talks about killing. After reading your story I am now eliminate corn completely from his diet and see if the is any change in him. Again thank you. I just want to help my little man to be happy, I’ll do anything I can to help him.

    • Aww.. Natalia, my heart goes out to you and also to DJ. You are a great Mama and your diligence will be rewarded.
      If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and know Him in the true sense of the word, call upon Him and cry out to Him to show you the way. He has for me and he will for you! I’m thinking of “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to Him and are safe.” and even more important to your relationship to Jesus Christ: “That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Romans 10:9
      I will be praying the Lord will give you (and the rest of your family and teachers) wisdom, stamina, insight and peace as you fight this battle. Our son was just like that and he is 23 now and a joy to be around the vast majority of the time. I am praying now, friend.

    • Hello, Emily!
      Common question and a good one!
      I just asked Jaclyn, the author of this guest post, and she said all corn! By the point they had figured out corn was causing problems, they were only eating organic corn. I hope that helps!

  28. It’s great that you discovered your son’s sensitivities. My son acts similarly. I know he does better without wheat and sugar…but he can buy things he shouldn’t have from a vending machine at school so I can only do so much. I have discovered that he is homozygous for the COMT SNP’s. Have you had your son tested? The symptoms are the same and a proper diet is helpful for that plus specific supplements.

  29. Hi,
    Fructose is a natural sugar found in fruit. Don’t get fructose confused with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Not all fructose comes from corn. .

      • You should edit your list or people will continue to falsely assume fructose comes from corn. Same thing with glucose. Glucose is an energy source required for living organisms to function. Without glucose the brain cannot function. Dextrose is the type of glucose found in corn, but not all glucose comes from corn. I kindly suggest that you do more research on this topic and edit your article accordingly.

        • Greg, I did it 😀 I am sorry; I’ve had out of town company and I’m a bit slow here to respond here on the blog! I just changed it and am sure Jaclyn (the actual author) will agree as you are correct. I am working on posting a fairly complete list of corn derivatives in the next post up. Maybe you could look it over and help me makes sure it is accurate even though it will not be complete! Thank you!

      • I too have discovered how gluten and corn affect my son with extreme behavior. We have to stay away from it as well. We have eliminated it for 5 years now…it has made a big difference.

  30. After completing the AIP diet with our daughter, this doesn’t surprise me. Our anger grain? Rice. Equally difficult ti stay away from. But oh, so worth it when I see the anger outbursts.

  31. I’m not sure if you are posting from America or somewhere else. I’m wondering if it might be genetically modified corn that is causing the problem?

    • Hi, Kate!
      Yes, I write from the U.S. I am pretty sure it is the genetic modification process that is responsible for the havoc it is wreaking to many. There is so much evidence that GMOs are incompatible with human health as well as the health of God’s naturally created microorganisms, soil, and higher kingdoms of living organisms. Sad state we find ourselves!

  32. I am so glad to see that corn is being found as the culprit ! We discovered it too by omitting HFCS from my sons diet, he would fall into a puddle of teArs after. Bad depression

  34. Thank you for this article. I myself have been suspecting more things have an impact on my mood. I recently over the course of the past year have found that my mood is drastically changed with coffee. I didn’t realize this for a long time, but after I got married I started drinking coffee (something I didn’t do much before) and I had severe behavioral changes almost directly after drinking coffee (about 20-30 minutes). I was always calm and balanced before, but suddenly experiencing fits of rage and in a way that feels like I’m angry for no reason. I couldn’t make sense of it. My husband was the one who pointed out the correlation between my coffee intake and anger. I denied it for a long time, but it’s gotten so bad that he’s forbid me to drink coffee. I seem to do ok with some tea and decaf coffee, so I imagine it’s the caffeine content.
    Through much research, we believe that it may be related to the liver. The liver is meant to take care of toxins in the body, and problems with the liver have been associated with anger and rage (a topic worth researching).
    I’ll be going to the doctor soon for some testing, so hopefully something will be brought to light (this isn’t my only symptom).
    Time will tell…

  36. My son started to have horrible skin rashes and extreme irritability when he was 4 months old. We came to the conclusion that he was allergic to something and after a few months of elimination diets we found it was corn. I never thought it would have been that but it made him break out so bad and he wouldn’t sleep (hurt stomach is my guess). As he has gotten older he can have things like popcorn or corn on the cob but anything like corn syrup or corn starches he still reacts to.
    It is good for parents to realize that corn is a big deal. Wheat, dairy and soy gets the main focus as major allergens but corn can be so processed and cause lots of issues.
    Thank you for posting this.

    • Thank you, Shiree, for sharing your story here! So many aren’t aware of this, so it’s good to hear other’s experiences with corn allergy!
      Blessings!

  37. Hi, It feels good to know Im not a freak. I get really angry and fly off the handle with eggs and MSG and sodium benzoate. I get really bad! I will bite off people heads ( so to speak) and get super emotional and just super angry at nothing. It took me a few months to figure it out and now I avoid them at all costs. I know there must be more people out there suffering but they dont figure out it is food. Ive tried so many times to just offer advice to a few people who are suffering to just try for a week to change their diet a little bit and they just shut down and refuse to even consider it. Even though I have been studying nutrition for 20 years. That is the reason I became a nutritionist after my life changed from the eggs. I dont know what is wrong with people who refuse to be open to anything new. If I was a man would they consider it? Or is it just people dont like to make an effort? Its not just with eggs but I notice food changes are almost impossible to get people to change.

    Thank you for this blog post!

    • I sure do understand how you feel, Audrey! With a blog post, it is less threatening…it becomes “food” for thought! I am so glad you figured it out! Praying you feel WAY better and that others will listen to your wisdom!
      Hugs!

      • I’m starting to wonder more and more if this issue has more to do with the liver than the food itself. A lot of people have issues with different things/foods and maybe sensitivities to certain things, but if those particular things are too much of a load on the liver and the liver is mildly damaged, perhaps this is just a symptom of a larger issue? Liver issues are linked to anger (seriously Google this! You’ll be amazed.)

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