In Appleton, Wisconsin, a revolution has occurred. It’s taken place in the Central Alternative High School. The kids now behave. The hallways aren’t frantic. Even the teachers are happy.
The school used to be out of control. Kids packed weapons. Discipline problems swamped the principal’s office. But not since 1997. What happened? Did they line every inch of space with cops? Did they spray valium gas in the classrooms? Did they install metal detectors in the bathrooms? Did they build holding cells in the gym?
Afraid not. In 1997, a private group called Natural Ovens began installing a healthy lunch program. Huh? Fast-food burgers, fries and burritos gave way to fresh salads, meats “prepared with old-fashioned recipes,” and whole grain bread. Fresh fruits were added to the menu. Good drinking water arrived and vending machines were removed.
As reported in a newsletter called Pure Facts, “Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.”
Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin, has turned in some staggering figures since 1997. Drop-outs? Students expelled? Students discovered to be using drugs? Carrying weapons? Committing suicide? Every category has come up ZERO. Every year!
Mary Bruyette, a teacher, states, “I don’t have to deal with daily discipline issues ~ I don’t have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program. One student asserted, “Now that I can concentrate I think it’s easier to get along with people.” What a concept, eating healthier food increases concentration!
Principal Coenen sums it up: “I can’t buy the argument that it’s too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I have found that one cost will reduce another. I don’t have the vandalism. I don’t have the litter. I don’t have the need for high security.”
At a nearby middle school the new food program is catching on. A teacher there, Dennis Abram, reports, “I’ve taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year and basically I’ve decided to teach another year, I’m having too much fun!”
Pure Facts, the newsletter that ran this story, is published by a non-profit organization called The Feingold Association, which has existed since 1976. Part of its mission is to “generate public awareness of the potential role of foods and synthetic additives in behavior, learning and health problems. The Feingold program is based on a diet eliminating synthetic colors, synthetic flavors, and the preservatives BHA, BHT, and TBHQ.”
Thirty years ago there was a Dr. Feingold. His breakthrough work proved the connection between these negative factors in food and the lives of children. Hailed as a revolutionary advance, Feingold’s findings were soon trashed by the medical cartel, since those findings threatened the drugs-for-everything, disease-model concept of modern healthcare. But Feindgold’s followers have kept his work alive.
If what happened in Appleton, Wisconsin, takes hold in many other communities across America, perhaps the ravenous corporations who invade school space with their vending machines and junk food will be tossed out on their behinds. It could happen. And perhaps ADHD will become a dinosaur. A non-disease that was once attributed to errant brain chemistry. And perhaps Ritalin will be seen as just another toxic chemical that was added to the bodies of kids in a crazed attempt to put a lid on behavior that, in part, was the result of a subversion of the food supply.
For those readers who ask me about solutions to the problems we face \x{2013} here is a real solution. Help these groups. Get involved. Step into the fray. Stand up and be counted. The drug companies aren’t going to do it. They’re busy estimating the size of their potential markets. They’re building their chemical pipelines into the minds and bodies of the young.
Every great revolution starts with a foothold. Sounds like Natural Ovens and The Feingold Association have made strong cuts into the big rock of ignorance and greed. GO FOR IT!
The following was sent from a doctor who read the story and thought it was a hoax. Here’s what he wrote about it!
“As curiosity almost killed this cat, I decided to call the Appletone School this morning and was put through to the Dean of Students\x{0160}seems he has received several hundred calls and was extremely willing to answer any and all questions I had\x{0160}in fact he is sending much more by mail about what it is their doing including a video tape. The following is the printed material he sent to me.
Wellness and Nutrition Program for Appleton Central Alternative School and Natural Ovens and Bakery of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
School districts across the nation are looking for ways to improve their schools, but they often overlook an important influence on learning good nutrition. The connection between nutrition and learning is well established among scientists. They are clearly aware that inadequate food intake limits children’s ability to learn about their world. Researchers know that chronically undernourished children must use their energy for tasks in order of importance: first for maintenance of critical organ functions, second for growth, and last for social interaction and overall cognitive functioning.
Appleton Central Alternative High School and Natural Ovens of Manitowoc are committed to provide good nutrition for our students through the development and implementation of a healthy and natural breakfast, lunch, and snack program. The program, now in its fifth year of operation, has been funded through the generous support of Natural Ovens of Manitowoc owners, Paul and Barbara Stitt. Natural Ovens has contributed over $100,000 for the construction of an ACAS kitchen, food service equipment, employment of two cooks and a student assistant, training, and payment of any excess food bills. Access to soda, candy, chips, and chemically processed food items is prohibited for our students.
The Wellness and Nutrition Program incorporates new knowledge into our existing physical education courses, thus improving the nutritional status and cognitive development of our most at risk clientele at ACAS. Lifelong eating habits and physical fitness are reinforced across the content areas. Objectives of the program include having the students gain thorough knowledge of the integral role a healthy diet plays in maintaining the body and mind. Students are also exposed to the understanding of the possibility of an improved quality of life that each person can achieve with increased energy and stamina, and understanding the important role that good nutrition and physical fitness play in preventing life-threatening diseases.
Expected outcomes of the program include:
* Increased ability to concentrate in the school setting (more on-task behavior).
* Increased cognitive development.
* Ability to think more clearly, objectively, and rationally.
* Achieve fewer health complaints, ie headaches, stomach aches, generale malaise.
* Increase attendance in school and work.
* Fewer disciplinary referrals.
* Reduce the feeling of hunger in mid-morning and or mid-afternoon.
* Less moodiness and more calmness in school and in personal lives.
* Increased practice of good nutrition outside of school.
Natural Ovens of Manitowoc has recently agreed to continue funding of Central’s Nutrition Program for a fifth year. In addition, Natural Ovens is collaborating with Yale University to conduct research to determine the effects of healthy eating in relationship to levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. Both are neuro-transmitters affecting the functioning of the brain. This study includes testing cortisol, a hormone produced by the blood sugar controlling adrenal gland. Cortisol also stimulates the release of amino acids from muscle tissue and fatty acids from adipose tissue. The amino acids are then converted to glucose in the liver for use by the brain. The fatty acids then can be used by skeletal muscles for energy, thus allowing the glucose to be utilized more efficiently by the brain.
Written by Greg Bretthaurer, Dean Appleton Central Alternative School
[The following article was taken from Nutritional Miracles and Education, Public Awareness Announcement 72. It was written October 14, 2002.[