There is clearly no better option than a perfectly balanced diet. But frankly, who has that?
The reality is that a modern diet will often have deficiencies for a whole host of possible reasons, such as farming techniques, soil deficiencies, food processing techniques, dietary preferences, bowel flora condition and natural disposition.
For instance, my son was badly poisoned by a lobster meal and won’t eat fish any more (leading to a fatty acid deficiency), my wife is coeliac and cannot eat bread (leading to a vitamin B deficiency) and I find I get cramps at night if I don’t drink some salt before going to bed. So, despite a fantastic diet, we all take some form of supplement.
I am heavily against all drugs and supplements if they can be avoided, but in reality they are sometimes necessary.
From our experience, fatty acid supplements (such as omega oils) can be one of the most important. 60% of the dry weight of your brain is made up of fats and oils. They are essential for the healthy operation of your neurons and children’s diets can be very low in fats and oils. People think that eating fat makes you fat, when it is mainly excess sugar and carbohydrate that are converted to fat deposits in your body, as the quickest way to get them out of the blood stream.
If your child is potentially low in omega oils, it is essential to find a good supplement and you will be surprised and delighted by the effect it has.
David Morgan is Managing Director of the Easyread System, an online synthetic phonics course designed to teach struggling dyslexic children how to read.