It is strange indeed that the more people seem to learn about how to build good health, the less healthy they become. For the United States, it is equally strange that a nation having a tremendous respect for research should seem to have so little interest in applying research findings. The vast majority of the Americans can afford to eat almost any diet they choose, yet they choose to consume about 60 percent of their calories in highly refined and questionably preserved and unnecessarily fortified foods. Too many American children, it seems to me, are being sold short; and too many American parents are settling for poorly nourished children when they could have the joy and satisfaction of well-nourished, fit, and happy children. For example, we hear a great deal about hyperactive children: wiggly, squirmy, fidgety, noisy, sobbing, yelling, fighting, throwing temper tantrums; distractible and distracting human tornadoes, unable to concentrate, and their attention span nil.

As many as two million school children in the U.S., from all socioeconomic backgrounds, are estimated to be taking prescription drugs to make learning possible and classrooms manageable. How can these drugs be “harmless”? Since when have amphetamines stopped being addictive? Many drugs carry with them the risk of liver damage and the possible destruction of some vital nutrients. Teaching the young to grab a drug when things go wrong may be making them candidates for later drug abuses. When drugs become harmless, they will no longer be sold on prescription.

A New York teacher in one of the densely populated areas, and the head of a private school in southern California both give me identical reports. Many children come to school without breakfast, and their blood sugar (necessary for brain function) may be abnormally low. They get far too many sweet bakery rolls, candy bars, potato chips, and soft drinks. Often they have too little sleep, suffer far too many respiratory infections and allergies. Their mothers are often living on tranquilizers due to nervous disorders and/or suffering from any one of many other ailments. Since nutritional research first began, hyperactivity has been produced in animals on diets lacking any one of many nutrients necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system. If these hyperactive children were recognized as possible victims of malnutrition and given, instead of drugs, an adequate diet excluding the foods to which they are allergic yet providing essential nutrients, the majority might soon be as relaxed as sacks of cotton, their minds far more alert, their energies restored to normal. I have seen it happen many, many times. To maintain normal blood sugar, some children have more frequent meals rich in protein and free from all refined foods. Hyperactivity and congenital abnormalities were once rare; now your children have them. Scientists have learned much about nutrients necessary for brain development; school authorities say IQ's are decreasing. A shocking number of children suffer from anemia; 60 percent of those who have been bottle-fed are said to have allergies; and miracle drugs perform financial miracles for the pharmaceutical firms producing them, because of many infections in the young. Arthritis, strokes, and even heart attacks now afflict children. Most of these illnesses probably can be prevented when the nutrition is consistently adequate.

So far, medical schools have not considered nutrition sufficiently important to add to their already overcrowded curricula. Dr. Paul Gyorgy, a professor emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has pointed out and I can also affirm this fact that medical students receive very little training in nutrition courses and in biochemistry, and clinical medicine. It is actually so sketchy and uncoordinated that we have a weak grasp of the subject and its scientific basis. Dr Paul Gyorgy also states that nutrition should be taught to all physicians regardless of their specialty and that present-day knowledge of nutrition “has not permeated the population nor its medical guild.” Many physicians agree that medical schools should teach courses in nutrition, and they mercilessly criticize the nutrition already taught as being inadequate, disorganized, haphazard, outdated, scattered, and woefully weak. The Council on Food and Nutrition of the American Medical Association reported “as urgent and immediate need for improvement,” but such improvement has not yet been made. The hereditary potentials of children rarely achieve their full expression. The controlling factor is often the nutrition of their parents, which may ultimately affect the genes and chromosomes of their offspring. Damaging deficiencies may exist in either parent before conception. Such damage may be irreversible and last the lifetime of child, yet not be obvious at birth.

For this reason, I wish that prospective parents explore basics of good nutrition long before conception.Malnutrition prior to conception can bring lifelong tragedy. The scientific evidence on effects of good nutrition reinforces the need to apply the knowledge gained from earlier ones. Perhaps it is too much to hope for, but I also wish that may persons of both sexes would become sufficiently interested in nutrition or concerned about children to read this book or at least scan its pages, even though it is written primarily for the expectant mother, and father too. Any person aware of the need for improvement can help bring about that improvement; and anyone convinced that optimally healthy children can be produced can help bring about that superiority.

When mothers are fed as expertly as present knowledge permits, the troubles associated with some human pregnancies largely disappear. Even your grandchildren are likely to benefit from your knowledge and practice of good nutritional habits. This know-how is available to raise superb children of great strength and beauty. Children not yet born and not yet conceived will be the citizens and leaders of tomorrow. Our nation must stand or fall on the quality of these citizens and of these leaders.

Many physicians agree that medical schools should teach courses in nutrition, and they mercilessly criticize the nutrition already taught as being inadequate, disorganized, haphazard, outdated, scattered, and woefully weak.

Damaging deficiencies may exist in either parent before conception. Such damage may be irreversible and last the lifetime of child, yet not be obvious at birth.

It is indeed strange that the more Americans seem to learn about how to build good health, the less healthy they become. It is equally strange that a nation having a tremendous respect for research should seem to have so little interest in applying research findings.