Lunch Box Contents Affect IQ Levels?

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As parents everywhere prepare to send their children back to school, the importance of what you feed these young ones should not be overlooked. You may think you’re giving your children every advantage and you hope to see their IQ scores improve, but unless you consider their nutrition and the level of toxins they’re absorbing, you may be unintentionally missing a key factor in their cognitive development.

There has been a 14% decrease in overall IQ levels in the past century, particularly in the western hemisphere, and statistics continue to trend downward.  It’s not because spending on education has decreased. Spending on education in America has increased about 250% since 1970 yet IQ scores continue to drop.

Dr. David L. Hartz, founder and director of the North Florida Spine and Wellness Institute in Tallahassee, Florida, offers some reasons which may surprise you as being contributing causes of the drop in IQ levels.

A study done in May 2011 by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, tied decreased IQ levels in children to pesticides. “It is well documented that these compounds and neurotoxins are affecting cognitive function in our children,” says Dr. Hartz. “There is a consistent correlation between increased pesticide use and decreased IQ in children.”

This study demonstrated that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides (widely used on food crops) is related to lower intelligence scores at age 7. Organophosphates are a class of pesticides that are well-known neurotoxicants.

A second factor in the gradual decline of our collective IQ levels is the long debated use of fluoride in our drinking water. There are no less than 27 different studies that prove fluoride is a significant factor in lowering IQ levels.  And when you consider approximately 70% of the drinking water in the U.S. is fluoridated, it’s easy to see why it’s a widespread problem.

“What I find clinically in my practice… I do believe there seems to be some connection,” asserts Dr. Hartz. “Fluoride attracts aluminum into the brain and causes loss of certain brain cells.”  (Listen to Dr. Hartz’ radio interview here)

There are some simple things you can do to protect yourself and your family:

1. Wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly.  Brush and scrub the outer service of those with thick skins. Rinse in a solution of water and white vinegar.

2. Buy organic foods whenever possible, particularly those foods with thin skin. The thinner the skin, the greater the chance of pesticides in the meat of the food.

3. Filter your drinking water.

4. Filter your household water. Without water filters in your shower head, your vulnerability to chlorine exposure is the equal to ingesting an entire gallon of faucet water.

5. Limit your use of household pesticides and use natural means of pest control whenever possible. Use bait stations instead of sprays.

If you suspect pesticides are impacting your health or the health of your children, you should know that these levels can be tested and, even more importantly, reversed with careful control of the detox process. It is highly recommended you do this under a doctor’s care.

 

Read More:

Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Children’s IQ 
Prenatal Pesticide Exposure Tied to Lower IQ in Children, Study Finds
Researchers say Western IQs dropped 14 points over last century 

Rhonda Burns
Rhonda Burns writes for PleaseHelpMeRhonda.com and blogs for the North Florida Spine and Wellness Institute in Tallahassee, Florida. She is also author of 30 Ways to Effectively Market Your Business, available on Amazon Kindle.