Dr Rachel Gow: The omega seemed to be kicking in and literally one day my son turned round to me and he said, you know, mum, I feel happy. And I was like, wow, you know, and he was noticeably happy and noticeably calmer and a lot of family and friends had also made comments to that effect. I'm not saying there was any dramatic radical changes, of course his attention was still impaired, etc, etc, you know, that wasn't going to go away. But the fact was that changing his diet had resulted in changes in his behaviour and mood. And that's where it all began.
Dr Rupy: Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast. The show about food, lifestyle, medicine and how to improve your health today. I'm Dr Rupy, your host. I'm a medical doctor, I study nutrition and I'm a firm believer in the power of food and lifestyle as medicine. Join me and my expert guests where we discuss the multiple determinants of what allows you to lead your best life. Research highlights a crucial link between nutrition, ADHD and brain health. And there is some evidence, although not fantastic quality evidence, but some nonetheless, that indicates smart food choices for ADHD and brain health disorders and data on supplementation which can influence cognitive function. On the show, we have Dr Rachel Gow, PhD, who is both a nutritional professional and experienced researcher, plus a parent of a child with ADHD who has the experience of being in the position of not knowing what to do to help their child. ADHD affects one in 20 children, 500,000 in the UK and roughly one in every classroom. And there are some incredible well-known figures in business, the arts and dance who are diagnosed with ADHD, but there is also a darker side to the condition that doesn't get as much airtime, and this is something that we should be mindful of and something that we discuss on the show today. Dr Rachel is a London-based psychologist, specialising in child and adult mental health and has specific expertise in ADHD, autism, depression, anxiety and related learning and behaviour conditions. In addition, Dr Gow is a registered nutritionist and has a Master's of Science in psychological research methods. She has published approximately 22 peer-reviewed book chapters and scientific papers and her first book, Smart Foods for ADHD and Mental Health, is being published in February 2021. Her non-profit is nutritiousminds.org and private clinic is nutritiousmindsconsulting.com. Dr Gow frequently lectures at London Met University, the University of Surrey, which is where I met her on my Master's in nutritional medicine, and also has an honorary role at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. She is very well established in the field of both not only research methodology, but also the research itself on looking at nutritional psychiatry, and she's a firm believer in the pragmatic, wider application of food in these kinds of conditions that don't get enough attention at the moment. So, on the show today, we talk about Rachel's personal story with her child's development, omega-3 fatty acids, we spend a bit of time talking about that and why they are critical for the brain and its function. We also talk about clinical trials looking at supplementation, the impact of the gut on serotonin, dopamine, neurogenesis and brain inflammation, as well as the utility potentially for omega-3 and depression and ADHD. I think you're really going to enjoy this podcast episode. We talk a lot about some studies. I put some links on the doctorskitchen.com/podcast, so if you are interested in those studies, then do check those out and do check out the non-profit that Rachel has as well. On to the podcast. How's your lunch?
Dr Rachel Gow: My lunch was delicious. Thank you ever so much. Yeah, it was really awesome.
Dr Rupy: I can't take credit for it because it was Mob Kitchen's recipe. I did it was the tahini with courgettes and speedy recipe less than 20 minutes. Very good recipe, I must say, but I can't take credit for it, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Dr Rachel Gow: You can take it, you can. It was lovely. Yeah, very flavoursome.
Dr Rupy: Appreciate it. And nourishing.
Dr Rachel Gow: And nourishing, yeah.
Dr Rupy: I had a few lentils to it, so I beefed up the fibre content.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, it was really great.
Dr Rupy: I'm sure we're going to talk about it in a bit. So, Rachel, I thought the way to start would be maybe talk about how you got started in nutrition itself. We met very briefly at the end of your lecture during my nutritional medicine master at the University of Surrey. I was enamoured by your talk, it was brilliant. So yeah, I'm so grateful for you coming here. But yeah, why don't you introduce us to how you got started?
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, absolutely. It's a long story, so do you want the long or the short version?
Dr Rupy: We've got time.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, so there are multiple versions of that story. I'll try and keep it as short and succinct as I can. But for me, really, it all started out when I was a young, first-time mum, a working mum. I worked in property in St John's Wood on the very famous Abbey Road. I absolutely loved my job and my son went to a small private school on Abercorn Place around the corner from my work, which was very convenient. And as the kind of weeks and months went by, I started to get complaints from the teachers complaining about low-level disruptive behaviour, just things like he wasn't sitting still, he was getting up out of his chair, he was blurting out the answers, not raising his hand, and all of this was causing disruption for the teachers and for the class as a whole. And it went on and on and that basically forced me to seek out help and start my own investigations as to what was going on with my son developmentally, because a lot of his behaviour was age inappropriate. You know, so the other little boys weren't acting quite as boisterous as him or, you know, they were able to conform and when they were reprimanded in the class, they would comply. Whereas my son would be told not to do something and he'd be very remorseful, but 10 minutes later he'd be repeating the same behaviour and it would drive everyone wild. And he was constantly getting told off and this was affecting his self-esteem and obviously it was disrupting my work as well because often time they would say, you know, come and get him, come and pick him up and that would be the end of my working day. So it was really, really tough and I really felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. It was like everywhere I turned, there wasn't really much help out there. And this is going back, you know, over two decades ago, so it's quite a quite a while ago. But eventually I sought out help from various professionals, from education psychologists to clinical psychologists to child and adolescent psychiatrist. He had four years psychotherapy which did absolutely nothing, because what we didn't know is that what in fact he did have was a biological condition that affected his brain. Subtle differences in the wiring of his brain which gave rise to these behaviour differences. He was diagnosed by an amazing psychiatrist, Dr Richard Stopit, who confirmed he had ADHD. And that really was the catalyst for me to then, you know, move forward with that diagnostic label. Like, what do I do with this diagnostic label? I didn't know anything about it. Oh my goodness, you know, and how can I seek help? And we again tried everything from methylphenidate, which in the short term helped but had quite serious side effects for my son personally that we which made us stop because he wasn't sleeping and he wasn't eating and his emotions were all over the place.
Dr Rupy: Just for the listener, what is methylphenidate?
Dr Rachel Gow: Oh, sorry. So it's like a psychostimulant medication. It's normally the first line of treatment for ADHD and it can be very effective. It can really make all the difference for a lot of parents. But in our case, although he was better able to concentrate and focus and pay attention, his emotions were all over the place. So he'd be like, like literally crying hysterically to uncontrollable laughter and he wasn't eating and he wasn't sleeping. And that was an issue because back then he was at boarding school and, you know, staff couldn't go off duty at nighttime until everyone was asleep and of course he couldn't sleep. He was like wired till like 2:00 a.m. and and then that caused problems because we were faced with another dilemma which was to remove him from school unless he could successfully take the medication.
Dr Rupy: And how long after were, you know, you discovered there was an issue at school till you had a firm diagnosis?
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, so basically when he was diagnosed, the reason we were forced to actually get the diagnosis made official was because the school he was at had literally said to us, unless he's medicated, he can't come back. So we were faced with a huge dilemma. It was medicate or not be educated at that particular establishment and it was a well-known school who specialised in ADHD and dyslexia, because this was somewhere down the line, you know, he's a bit older now. So yeah, so that's what we did, but medication didn't work and he actually, we did have to remove him from that school. And following that, I decided to give up my career in property altogether, or in fact a little before or around the time he was diagnosed, I just knew it would never work. And we took some time out to reflect. We actually went off to the South of France. I took him out of school a little bit early. It wasn't working out anyway, apologies. And we went off and spent a marvellous three months in the South of France and that I put my thinking cap on. I was like, look, you know, our lives are so disrupted, like what are we going to do? I need to start again, I need to reassess, realign. And that's when I decided to go to uni. So I was fortunate that they allowed or permitted me entry under the remit of being a mature student because I hadn't gone down the conventional academic route. When I left school, I'd gone straight into the property world because I wanted to, you know, basically, you know, buy my own property and provide for my son.
Dr Rupy: Would have been a really good career, like lucrative career.
Dr Rachel Gow: It was an amazing career. Yeah, I mean, I bought my first place at 25 and yeah, I had it was it was great. I met wonderful people from all over the world. I mean, you know, I wasn't just stuck in an office. I was out and about all day. I loved that and I'm a very sociable person, so it was great for me, but I gave it all up and I got into uni and I did an undergraduate degree in a Bachelor of Science in psychology. And then that led me to a Master of Science in psychological research methods, so mainly kind of statistics, critique of clinical trial, that you know, trials, that kind of thing. And then that led to a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, in fact, the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at King's College, London. I was there for four years. One day, just before I was about to finish my PhD, I got a call from a scientist in America inviting me to come and do a postdoctoral research fellow role in the section of nutritional neuroscience at the Institutes of Health in National Institutes of Health, sorry, NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr Rupy: What year was that? Because that seems really before its time. Like now, nutritional psychiatry is this new sexy term, but that's that's really ahead, ahead of the game.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, so I went there in 2012.
Dr Rupy: Oh, wow. Okay.
Dr Rachel Gow: For four years till came home in 2016. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: Epic. That's so cool.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, so really my my experience as a mum with my son, so the personal experience led me to the professional experience. And certainly my son was the driving force behind my changing career and deciding to kind of research, you know, this neurodevelopmental difference because I knew nothing about it and I was struggling. I had nowhere really to turn and I knew that other parents out there must be going through the same thing and there must be more than just methylphenidate, surely, you know, what else is out there? What else can help? And by understanding the brain and understanding, you know, which I'm sure we'll come to, the nutritional composition of the brain, you know, and the importance of what we refer to as brain selective nutrients to optimise both the structure and the function of our brain and its cells and its, you know, neuronal membranes. That really enabled me to also help my son. One of the first things I tried with my son when Ritalin didn't work, or methylphenidate, if I'm not allowed to use the trade name, was omega-3 fatty acids. And it was quite by chance a family friend who'd gone to uni with my brother was working for a nutraceutical company at the time and she just phoned me up. She heard that I'd really been struggling with my son. She was like, hey, have you heard of omega-3? And I was like, no, what's that? And she said, I'll send you some supplements, why don't you try them out? And I was a little bit sceptical. I was like, you know, what on earth a little fish oil pill is going to do, you know, whatever. But hey ho, I was desperate, I'll try anything. And so we took them, we followed the instructions on the box and after six weeks, she called me up and she was like, hey, how's it going? And I was like, well, to be honest, nothing. I can't see any difference at all. You know, there's no noticeable difference. And she was like, look, there's some research that's just come out of the states showing that children and young adults with ADHD have very low levels of omega-3 in their blood. And perhaps if you increase the dose, because you may in fact be trying to correct a nutritional insufficiency. And one that takes longer, because we know it takes around six weeks to physiologically alter the red blood cell composition of omega-3. So she's like, try increasing the dose, like to like one gram plus a day. And I was like, are there any side effects, you know, what's going to happen? She's like, not really, maybe like sometimes they can repeat on you, sometimes you can get like loose stools or something like that, but it should be fine, just monitor, you know, any changes. And so I was like, okay. So we up the dose and we carried on. And I also changed his diet around the same time. So I cut out sugar, I cut out processed foods, I started making meals from scratch, which was alien to me because I'd been a very, very busy working mum, you know, and so I went back to basics, got back in the kitchen, you know, I'd give him salmon and he took his supplements, he also took multivitamins.
Dr Rupy: What were his eating habits prior to the change in diet?
Dr Rachel Gow: Well, hands up, you know, I'm guilty. You know, it was literally always, you know, food on the go, you know, and even sometimes on the way home from work, we would eat out because I'd be exhausted, you know, and I'd be like, I don't even want to go home and cook, you know.
Dr Rupy: Totally. I mean, my mum, like, she's an amazing cook. I grew up with her cooking home-cooked meals all the time. But, you know, she was a working mum. She was working in the city, you know, and we had grab-and-go meals all the time. And especially back in the day, you know, it was the fashionable thing to do. And it wasn't seen as unhealthy or whatever. It was just like, why wouldn't you do that? Because it is time-saving and, you know, you're feeding your kids and they're happy and they love it. So why not? So, yeah, don't feel guilty.
Dr Rachel Gow: It was the era of the microwave meal. Yuck. Oh my god. Um, yeah, that's not to say we did that all the time, but yeah, that certainly took place. And I, you know, lunch boxes were, you know, a packet of crisps, a chocolate mini roll, you know, a ham or cheese sandwich or something like that. Absolutely gross, you know, I couldn't think of anything worse now, but yeah, so, so we went back to basics, got back in the kitchen. I educated myself on, you know, different types of foods. And the omega seemed to be kicking in and literally one day my son turned round to me and he said, you know, mum, I feel happy. And I was like, wow, you know, and he was noticeably happy and noticeably calmer. And a lot of family and friends had also made comments to that effect. I'm not saying there was any dramatic radical changes, of course his attention was still impaired, etc, etc, you know, that wasn't going to go away. But the fact was that changing his diet had resulted in changes in his behaviour and mood. And that's where it all began.
Dr Rupy: It's such a powerful story and I think like so many people will resonate with that as well. Not only with, you know, parents who have gone through a similar journey, but also parents who don't know where to start as well. And it sounds like, you know, what you were doing at the start mirrors a lot, you know, with my own personal story and with a lot of other people's stories of you were just trying little experiments here and there because there wasn't that much information, there wasn't that much general knowledge. The internet wasn't rife with both misinformation, but also good quality information as well. So I think, you know, that is it, I mean, it really does resonate a lot and I think it's it's really honest as well.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, I mean, you know, when I would go to my GP and talk about my child's behaviour, the question, you know, what does he eat or what do you feed him was, you know, never arose and and why would it? Because as we know, you know, the BBC very bravely published an article a couple of years ago saying that medical students are only getting around two hours training on nutrition. And I think the UK as a whole are a little bit of we're getting much better, there's been huge, you know, shifts in the in the ways that people approach food now. But food to me really is medicine and food doesn't just have an effect on our physical health. Because when we speak about food, it's often dressed from the neck down in terms of its preventative role in disease, you know, diseases such as the premature development of cancer or type two diabetes or obesity or stroke or cardiovascular disease. You know, that's what's more commonly known. But when we talk about the role of food to the brain, then that's just such a murky, you know, we're treading in murky waters because people are like, hey, what really what you eat affects your brain? Who would have thought? Yeah. But it does at molecular and cellular levels. And for example, when my son said to me, I feel happy, mum, now I know sort of 14 years down the line why he was able to communicate that to me because of the mechanistic action of omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids in the regulation of dopamine and both the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems in our brain rely on omega-3 fats. And, you know, now I understand the nutritional composition of the brain, you know, that it's the fattest organ in our body, that it comprises, well, at least 65% of the dry weight of the adult brain and retina is made up of these specialised, complex, unique fats called lipids. I didn't know that. And that around 20 to 25% of our brain is made up of docosahexaenoic acid or DHA. So, yeah, I mean, it's estimated we have, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but in the region of about 100 billion neurons in our brain, and each of those neurons is coated in a myelin sheath, which is made up of DHA. And what that does is it speeds up cell signalling across the brain's networks to make faster and more efficient communication. And people like Professor John Stein, who's a neuroscientist, brother of celebrity seafood chef Rick Stein, he specialises in dyslexia and in particular, I won't go into any details, but magno and parvocellular cells in the role of dyslexia. And he, some of his work has shown that insufficient amounts of omega-3 alters these cells. And an omega-3 insufficiency can slow down cell signalling by up to around 30%. So if you think about that in a translational sense and you think about children in a class and a teacher's asking a question, and then you have one child who has hypothetically adequate omega-3 who's able to, you know, fully compute the answer, understand the question, you know, hand up ready to deliver the answer versus someone who's still trying to figure out what the question was. I mean, that's potentially the difference. That's 30% difference, up to 30% difference. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: It's incredible when you think about it like that. And I like the, you know, the approach of, you know, the translation of that into what actually plays out in a classroom with someone who's light years ahead. And I think, you know, who knows what the omega-3 levels are like across the board when it comes to children.
Dr Rachel Gow: Well, we know. Yeah. The research has been done. So an amazing lady and a good friend of mine, Dr Alex Richardson at the University of Oxford has been doing these clinical trials in children who are underachieving in mainstream schools. And she did a study called the Dolab study where she measured the omega-3 index of UK school children. And she found a mean, which means average, you know, just the average score of around 2.4. So I'm going to just take you through the index. So the suboptimal levels are between 0 and 4%. Then you have the intermediate range, which is between 4 to 8%, and then you have the optimal range between 8 to 12%. Now, this omega-3 index was developed by someone called Clemens von Schacky, and it's a reliable and robust predictor of the risk of the development of cardiovascular disease, but increasingly over the last decade, researchers in the field of nutritional psychiatry have been looking at this index in relation to the risk of psychiatric disease, because we know that if you eat a diet lacking in omega-3 and rich in omega-6, for example, it can switch on inflammatory markers in your brain. And there is this kind of general consensus that underlying a lot of psychiatric illness is inflammation in the brain, in the body and brain. So inflammation can be a trigger and is implicated in psychiatric illness. So looking at the omega-3 index is, um, in terms of psychiatric health, it's not conclusive by any means. It's been looked at as a marker. So let's have a look and see how this correlates. And of course, correlation does not imply causation ever, but increasingly, a lot of clinical trial research is showing in ADHD, um, omega-3 indexes of four or below. And in my clinical trial at the NIH, our adults with ADHD, if I remember correctly, was just over four, so it's like 4.1. So still really within that suboptimal range. But the great news is we can correct that. You know, we can incorporate fish into our diet and we can eat, as the government recommends, at least, you know, two portions of oily fish per week. You know, salmon, wild Alaskan salmon, trout, you know, lots of seafood, and we can correct that and we can test for our omega-3 index. And if children have ADHD like my son did and they don't eat fish, because initially he he really didn't like fish, um, then supplements are a good way to start, you know, by making sure they get their omegas.
Dr Rupy: The index that was used in the Dolab study, um, demonstrating that mean, which is super shocking. Yeah, that's really disconcerting actually.
Dr Rachel Gow: It's worrying, but children don't like to eat fish. No, no. How can we convince them? Yeah.
Dr Rupy: I'm working on it. But uh, has a similar study been done across psychiatric units perhaps, maybe in patient units or anything like that?
Dr Rachel Gow: No, and that's a shame. Um, at one stage I was, in fact, I did design a clinical trial, but here in the UK, it's so hard to get funding. And especially for nutritional studies because unfortunately, as we discussed earlier, you know, it's the disease model of medical kind of management in terms of symptoms and it's like often time pharmaceuticals get the funding whereas, you know, nutritional research doesn't and that's a big shame. And also it is problematic because often time nutrients work in synergy, they don't work in isolation. So for example, if you did decide to do a clinical trial supplementing children with like a one gram fish oil capsule, for example, it's not necessarily going to work and there are many, many reasons for that. One, because most don't test prior to supplementation, so they don't look at the omega-3 index. You know, like what happened with my son, you know, it didn't work in the in the first six weeks and that's probably because he was insufficient. So if one, you might have to correct an insufficiency with a larger dose or a longer duration of dose. Secondly, the type of formula is really important because there are so many different types of omega-3 fatty acids and people often get these confused. They're like three, six and nine or seven or what do they all mean? You know, just grab, you know, anything in Holland and Barrett, you know, it says omega-3, that'll do. And it's not like that at all. And our neuroscientific research has shown that really the two key highly unsaturated fatty acids that the brain needs are eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA, and as I mentioned earlier, DHA. And these are really critical for the growth and formation of our neurons, a process referred to as neurogenesis, and also for so many other significant biological functions throughout the central nervous system, you know, not only in governing our mood. But there's a wealth of experimental laboratory literature showing that depleting, for example, lab rats of omega-3 results in a 40 to 60% depletion in dopamine in the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. And I think, and, you know, that's been replicated time and time and time and time again, you know, the research is there showing. And in particular, a lot of this work has been done by He-Yong Kim at the NIH. And she's shown that if you take hippocampal neurons and you put them in a cell culture and you deprive them of omega-3, that results in something called neurite outgrowth. So, um, significantly inhibited neurite outgrowth, which just means the dendrites on the neurons are just not in that nice, healthy, tree-like pattern that they should be in order to make the connections in the brain to help with communication. And when you put the omega-3 back into these cell-cultured hippocampal neurons, it restores that neurite outgrowth. So we know that we can modulate our brains, which is a really exciting concept. We're not necessarily stuck with the brains that we have and we can change them to optimise in terms of function at molecular and cellular levels.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I mean, that for me, I think, and hopefully for the listeners as well, will be really comforting to know that there are lots of things that we can do at a later age to improve the function of our brains. One thing and to to essentially re-emphasize your point of not conflating the association with causation. But with the the Dolab study that demonstrated that association, apart from the the few studies that you've mentioned about, you know, the impact on lower omega-3 levels and processing speed or the lab rat studies, has there been any empirical evidence about how we can replace and improve that index of omega-3 with improved outcomes?
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, so absolutely. So just to go back to the Dolab study, first of all, they found that that actually was the omega-3 index score collectively. Um, then they correlated it to different kind of literacy outcomes. But the same lady, Dr Richardson, has also done clinical trials. There was the Oxford-Durham trial some years ago, which was kind of a bit of a landmark study here in the UK where she supplemented underachieving school children who also had symptoms of developmental coordination disorder, also known as DCD, or dyspraxia. And it was a six-month crossover study, randomized, you know, so half the children had a placebo for the first three months, and then half had omega-3 supplements, and then the placebo group was crossed over to the active omega-3 supplementation group for the duration of the study. And then at three months, she found significant improvements in the children taking the omega-3 supplements in literacy, particularly in reading and spelling. The gains were quite significant between three and six months, and then this continued towards the end of the trial. And then in addition to that, there was also improvement on all the Conners scales, um, in terms of their ADHD symptoms as well. So in terms of their behavioural profile were improved as well. And there have been many, many studies, um, replicating this as well that has resulted in several meta-analyses, um, and systematic reviews of the literature. And in relation to omega-3, the strongest effects have been found for ADHD and clinical depression in terms of reducing symptoms. Um, it's a small to modest effect size, and I personally have looked at those meta-analyses as well. And in some instances, they've included trials that supplemented with kind of, in my mind, quite dubious formulas. So I think we've still got room for improvement, but if the clinical literature, I think there's like maybe even five meta-analyses now showing this effect size for omega-3. So we can't dismiss the science. It might be small, but there are other, you know, SSRI antidepressant medication with similar effect size, yet they're being prescribed to people with depression. But, you know, I'd like us to be at a place, um, where when someone presents themselves with some type of mental health struggle, whether it's depression or anxiety or whatever, ADHD, that they are simultaneously referred to a dietitian or nutritionist for a full blood screening of their nutrient levels, because we know, you know, deficits in vitamin D and B vitamins, in omega-3 fats, in all sorts of, um, trace elements can, uh, have, uh, or play a role in, um, these conditions. So correcting any insufficiencies, looking at the gut, the gut health, what's going on there, it's our second brain. Serotonin is made in the gut. And serotonin and dopamine, I should just clarify, like serotonin is the hormone, uh, neurotransmitter that we, um, need for feelings of well-being and happiness, whereas dopamine is, um, associated with reward and pleasure and, um, hence why it can become addictive because, you know, humans are kind of hardwired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. And often time they'll do anything to get that hit of dopamine, whether, and that's why they can, you know, become addicted to harmful substances like alcohol or nicotine or marijuana, cocaine, even social media, you know, sex, whatever, you know, food, food's number one, junk food, because it releases dopamine and they're like, hey, this feels good, I want some more, you know?
Dr Rupy: One of the things I want to come back to is the fact that so you had this personal experience with your son, you saw some impact with diet and supplementation. Um, but then you went and did, uh, quite an important part of your journey, which is learning how to interpret studies and actually look at the statistics, which is something that you've clearly demonstrated in this short time we've been speaking and during your lecture as well. That gave you the tools to come at these studies with a rigorous scientific approach as well. Were there any, um, elements of your training during that time which kind of made you a bit disheartened about nutrition as a science in general? This is more of a general question because I think to to the points about your, um, that you were just making about meta-analyses and how the number of them is quite low, the heterogeneity is likely to be high, we don't use the same omega-3 doses in the studies, it's really frustrating when they use really low doses. Um, and it's something we see time and time again in nutrition. Um, how has that changed if anything at all over the of your career and and what do you see the way forward?
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah, that's a really good point and thanks for raising it because it's an important one. Um, it is disheartening, um, that nutrition isn't taken as seriously as it should be in my mind and especially in mental health, which is my personal area of expertise. Um, hence why I was very keen to take up this postdoc at the NIH because for those that don't know, the National Institutes of Health is one of the largest and arguably leading biomedical research agencies in the world. Um, they engage in what's called high-risk novel cutting-edge research and ultimately they save lives. And the wonderful thing about conducting any research at the NIH is that you get to design your own trial. And that's super exciting for someone like me. Um, and also because at King's College, I'd worked with children and adolescents with ADHD and compared them to healthy controls in terms of their brain activity using electrophysiological recordings of brain activity, in other words, EEG, where they wear this like swimming cap with all these electrodes and we look at, um, some of their cognitive and emotional responses. Um, and I looked at that in relation to omega-3. So going to the NIH, suddenly meant that I could now transition from children and teenagers into adults and that was something I really wanted to do. And this time I went a step further in terms of neuroimaging and I looked at what's known as functional and structural MRI. So we wanted to conduct this, um, neuroimaging trial, um, a supplementation trial giving adults with ADHD omega-3 and literally upping the dose to FDA within FDA safe levels, which is three grams, and seeing what effect it had in brain activity pre and post supplementation. Um, it was extremely difficult to recruit adults with ADHD in Washington DC because many of them were all on a cocktail of prescription medication and for in order to use MRI, it wouldn't be ethical or safe necessarily to ask them to withdraw. And that was really tough because often time adults with ADHD, you know, the core symptoms are kind of just disorganization and procrastination, they're highly distractible, they can suffer with interpersonal relationships, um, they often are very creative, have all these projects going on but trouble with follow through and they tend to self-medicate. And as a result, they have all these overlapping features of depression, anxiety, maybe OCD, whatever. So what happens then is when they're treated medically, they're given, you know, for example, an antidepressant, um, plus something for their anxiety. So they might be on Zoloft, fluoxetine, Lexapro, like you name it. And it's very hard to do neuroimaging research when you're on so many different medications. So we really struggled to get the numbers. So the trial did lack statistical power. Um, but it did provide really interesting insights and resulted in significant, some small but significant differences in brain activation in those taking the omega-3 where there were no changes in the placebo. And in particular, we found, um, some effects in in the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula and areas of the brain associated mainly with attention and emotion networks. So that was really interesting and we're about to publish this. And I think I'm hoping and praying that it can be a stepping stone for other neuroscientists to think, let me explore this further. You know, we were very fortunate to have the funding in order to conduct the clinical trial. And I do recommend other postdocs consider, you know, leaving, you know, their comfort zone and and maybe going abroad, you know, and and seeing what else is out there, seeing what opportunities are out there because that opportunity would never have been granted to me had I stayed in the UK, sadly to say that. But to answer your original question, nutritional research and nutritional psychiatry is not getting the funding it deserves. I mean, it's very hard to do a randomized placebo control, controlled trial with food. I mean, how, what is a placebo for a salmon? I don't know. But then it's like, you know, we have to be a little bit rational sometimes because the same way you wouldn't do a randomized placebo control trial of a parachute, would you? Because I wouldn't want the placebo parachute. You know, when it comes to nutrition, they don't work in isolation anyway. They all act in synergy with each other. So when you eat a piece of fish, for example, you don't just get the omega-3s you need for your brain to function, but you also get all the trace elements. So you get, you know, iron, iodine, magnesium, selenium, you know, the B vitamins, and these all work together to make our brain work as it should. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: This is what I talk about so much on the pod, you know, it's the orchestra of different ingredients that you find within a whole food that have the demonstrable effect. It's not just the isolated, you know, um, element, whether it be a phytonutrient, a fat, or, you know, a micronutrient like vitamin or mineral. So, yeah, and this is the unfortunate issue with doing research on these items because they're just so complicated themselves. Um, and I think, you know, it's interesting because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to that. Like, um, he's changed my life and now I'm helping to do, you know, play a small role in in helping other parents know they're not alone and give them some knowledge which helped me, um, in the hope that together we can create change.
Dr Rupy: One of the things that I tell parents is, um, well, first of all, uh, try and connect them with a community of other parents, um, that can reason with them, to understand them, because it's very hard for me as someone who doesn't have a kid, um, to try and just say, well, just do this and then, you know, or this is what you need to do because they're got is ravaged, etc. So my strategy is obviously just to try one thing at a time and to continue to come back to different foods because, as you know, uh, and as a lot of parents will know, your taste buds will evolve during that infancy period. And so just because they don't like something now, doesn't mean they won't like it at some point in the future. But it's that perseverance, it's so hard to conjure, isn't it?
Dr Rachel Gow: Juicing is one of my main recommendations. If you can juice because then that's also an opportune moment to slip to slip and hide supplements, you know, that are beneficial. Um, and, you know, find out what foods and vegetables your child does like and make a blended juice. You know, it should be a 60 to 40% ratio in terms of vegetables and fruit. But even if they just like berries, wonderful, you know, they're full of antioxidants and polyphenols and, you know, get, you know, get all those blueberries and raspberries and strawberries blended and then, you know, sneak some spinach in, they're not going to notice or some beetroot or carrot, you know. Um, so there are clever ways and I do discuss, um, all of this in my book, but you touched on something earlier and it's really important, having a community, you know, so you don't feel alone and and not supported. And that is critical. I do a lot of outreach community events for anyone who has any experience of any neurodevelopmental difference or mental health condition. We did have one booked for October called Mend, which is men's exercise and nutrition development, but unfortunately due to the current climate, we're going to have to postpone it until next year. But yeah, nutritious minds, you know, does a range of kind of outreach work in advocating for nutrition and exercise because they both work together. Um, you know, really they work in synergy to optimize brain function. So you should always try and at least exercise as well as having the nutrition and it helped my son a lot, you know, he did athletics, boxing, like gymnastics, trampolining, you name it. Like I we were always active. That was the only way to kind of, you know, get him to sleep at night. Wear him out. Yeah.
Dr Rupy: With the, with some of the things that we've discussed, um, with food and sugar, addictive behaviours, um, leaky gut syndrome or, um, intestinal hyperplasia as it's described in the academic literature. These sorts of topics attract a lot of controversy within the dietetic and nutrition world. What kind of, um, sort of kickbacks if you if you've had if any, uh, against perhaps some of your colleagues along the way and and and why isn't there sort of uniform thinking on this and where does that controversy lie?
Dr Rachel Gow: I think it's the seriousness of it, if you like. Um, are we taking this seriously and if not, why not? And I think it stems from a lack of understanding and knowledge, literally. Because when I go into, you know, um, various sort of academic institutions or even schools or even coffee mornings, you know, to speak to parents, like, once I finish my talk, you know, everyone's like, wow, this is so interesting. Like, I wish I'd known this and I had no idea the brain was made of fat and, you know, so people are hungry for this knowledge and I think it's literally just if we can share, make knowledge more accessible and share it and not just within our little pockets of academia or, you know, we need to get out onto social media or have our websites and literally just spread the message because a lot of this research, you know, it gets published and then it's on PubMed and, you know, the clinical database of all the published research all over the world, but a parent's not going to know about PubMed. How do you find PubMed? You know, um, there are kickbacks from all sorts of people. I mean, like I told you earlier, when my son turned 18 and he'd had chronic ADHD all his life, and I took him to, um, an NHS psychiatrist and I was like, look, can you can you assess him for adult ADHD? Because in 65% of all cases, you know, child ADHD persists into adulthood. And he literally closed the door and was like, there's no such thing. Adult ADHD doesn't exist. You know, go away effectively. So it's it's really, really important and even to this day, um, ADHD has negative connotations. You know, people think it's some funny made-up label for naughty schoolboys. But I've actually done the history, like I've dedicated like half a chapter of, um, in my book because I wanted to show that there have been various versions of what we now know is ADHD that date back right back to Sir Alexander Crichton in 1854 and his book on attention and its diseases. And then again in 1902, you know, England's first professor of childhood medicine, uh, Dr George Still, you know, again cites it. And then sometime later, and we, you know, it's called all sorts of different things, but there were, you know, this can be traced back in the Lancet, you know, it's not some invention of the pharmaceutical industry. It's genetic predominantly, but there are many environmental components and it's really critical that we, you know, I understand that being sceptical is important, but when you're trying to educate someone about the importance of, you know, a healthy diet and how it may improve mental health, um, to have sort of doors shut on that message is really disheartening.
Dr Rachel Gow: We know that people following a Mediterranean diet, it increases longevity. These people live longer, they're less likely to have a heart attack and they're less likely to be depressed. But hey, what do I know? You know? So it's tough. It really is tough. I mean, you know, you're pushing fruit and vegetables and and you can get you into trouble. It's like seriously.
Dr Rupy: It's really interesting actually because, uh, I remember I was listening to a lecture during my master's program and they were talking about how, I think it's the Cheeto has is like the perfect food when it comes to just maintaining.
Dr Rachel Gow: The combination of salt, sugar and savoury, that's what it is. You can coat it in dog poo. Like seriously, and people would eat it and go, this is so nice.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, it's so interesting because it kind of melts away and it gives you the thought process of you haven't eaten anything. And it's it's really, it's like brain trickery almost. It's yeah, it's fascinating.
Dr Rachel Gow: But all of those foods, you know, literally the habitual consumption of junk, processed, refined foods, um, you know, do increase risk for metabolic syndrome. I mean, you know all about that as a medical doctor and all sorts of complications. And, you know, the World Health Organization say by and large, most of the premature development of these non-communicable diseases such as stroke, obesity, type two diabetes can be prevented via the diet. It's that simple.
Dr Rupy: But the the question I think I get all the time from parents is, all right, that's fine. I know that. I'm educated. I've read all the books. How on earth, where do I start? This kid is going up the walls and, you know, it's breaking up my my relationship, it's breaking up my relationship with my other children, it's disrupting other kids, you know, I feel like a bad parent. How do you even get started?
Dr Rachel Gow: And then the parent becomes depressed and anxious and then starts self-medicating with alcohol, you know, like at 4 o'clock as soon as they've done the school run, oh my god, where's the wine? You know, yeah, I mean, that is so, so common. Absolutely.
Dr Rupy: What's the strategy? What do we do about that? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: So, um, because I've lived that experience, um, I've I've I've decided to write a book all about it. So I have this wonderful book coming out in February the 18th next year. I hope you won't mind me giving it a bit of a plug, but it's uh, smart foods for ADHD and brain health and it's being published by Jessica Kingsley publishers. And it literally is a guide for parents. It kind of takes them by the hand because I wish someone had taken me by the hand all those years ago. And some people did, you know, there were a lot of people that did help and I am forever grateful, but if I had had a manual, like or a book that I could just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, within the book are recipes, how to change your diet, nutrition plans, like, you know, teaches you all about the brain, the neuroanatomy of the brain, all the clinical research out there. And it literally is kind of my give back, you know, because it's like, what's the point of me accumulating 14 years worth of knowledge if I can't give it back? That would be an utter disservice and waste of my time. And for me, advocacy is so, so important. It's not about what you know, it's about spreading that message and helping other parents in the process and and letting them feel that they're not alone. You know, special children are given to special parents. Like literally, I subscribe to that because having my son transformed my life, um, and, you know, I wouldn't be doing what I do now without him. So literally, yeah, and as I said to you earlier, his name means gift from God and I truly, you know, subscribe to a lot of this.
Dr Rupy: I think it's a really important area to look at risk factors. What can we do in terms of preventative research? Because prevention is key. And I think something like less than 2% of all research funds are allocated to preventative research here in the UK and that's shocking because there's so much we can do in terms of because no one wants their kid who's already got a neurodevelopmental difference to end up in jail when they could be the next Sir Richard Branson. Exactly. I mean, it's literally that, you know.
Dr Rachel Gow: It's it's literally that. It it reminds me of that talk that Sir Ken Robinson gave at TED. I mean, I must have watched it like 20 times.
Dr Rupy: Squashing creativity in mainstream schools. Yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: Honestly. And it's just like, you know, this child because she had a chance interaction with a psychiatrist who recognized her innate talent. Yes. You know, was prevented from a life of being scolded, medicated and not allowed to reach her full potential. So, you know, it's it's um, it's an incredible uh, crossroads that so many children are experiencing to this day. And the knowledge that nutrition and targeted supplementation can potentially help along with the suite of other uh, interventions like, you know, mentorship, I think it's brilliant. Psychotherapy, again, community, these are all things that I think are super important and um, yeah, no, it's fascinating. Are there any other supplements other than omega-3 that you think are worth an honorable mention with regards to ADHD and nutrition strategies?
Dr Rupy: Yeah, so I recommend that parents um, seek the help of a nutritionist or a dietitian, go and get a blood test and look at particular nutrients which we know play a role in um, our brains and our brain's function. Um, and if those nutrients are lacking, then you would want to supplement. But there are a range of uh, nutrients, especially the the B vitamins, you know, as I said, zinc, magnesium, there's been some research on these that have shown to be um, potentially beneficial to children with ADHD. Um, so yeah, but if we don't look, we're sort of like, you know, we're supplementing when there's no need to supplement necessarily or, you know, so you do need to look at the blood, look at the data.
Dr Rachel Gow: Yeah. We need to be informed, I think about all these things because I think a lot of people are just swimming in the dark with regards to particularly supplementation. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's uh, something that I've had experience of and a lot of people ask me, you know, can you actually achieve adequate levels with diet alone? Um, I'd like to think we can, but I think in certain instances, I mean, I take a vitamin D3, omega-3 and uh, a B complex myself.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, that's great. I mean, now there's increasing research saying vitamin D is protective of um, respiratory conditions or protective or beneficial or both. I'm not quite sure of the latest research, but there's suggestions of that and especially with COVID around, like we want to build up our immune system and keep our keep, you know, ourselves as healthy as possible. I'm not opposed to supplements. I always say change the diet first. That's always like the nutrients are in the food and they work synergistically. So, you know, if you're if you're juicing, for example, like using a NutriBullet or something like that, all the fibres retained, you know, whereas if you're just getting a carton of juice, you know, and it's made from concentrate, you're not getting all those vitamins and antioxidants that boost your brain. Um, so yeah.
Dr Rachel Gow: Brilliant. Thank you so much.
Dr Rupy: Pleasure. I really enjoyed it.
Dr Rachel Gow: Brilliant.
