This information has been reproduced with the kind permission of Dr. William Crook.  Most of the excerpts and comments are condensed from a 204 page compendium, The Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Other Kinds of Cerebral Dysfunction compiled by the International Health Foundation in January 1998.  If you require further information please contact the International Health Foundation.

Early Descriptions of Systemic and Nervous Reactions Caused By Foods

Over 2000 years ago Lucretius said "One man's meat is another man's poison."  And Hippocrates noted, "There are certain persons who cannot really change their diet with impunity; and if they make any alternation in it for one day, even for a part of a day, are greatly injured thereby.  Such persons provided they take dinner when it is not their wont immediately become heavy and inactive both in body and mind..." [emphasis added]

The first chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament included a description of the successful use of an elimination diet.  After eating a diet consisting of vegetables and water for ten days, four young men in Nebuchadnezzar's court looked healthier and stronger than their associates who were eating rich foods.  At the end of three years .... "no matter what questions the king asked or what problem he raised, these four knew ten times more than any other fortune teller or magician in his whole kingdom."

Scattered references to food-related nervous symptoms appeared in the medical and lay literature in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries.  A number of these reports were reviewed by Frederic Speer in his 1970 book, Allergy and the Nervous System.

Reports on the Systemic and Nervous Reactions Caused by Foods (1900-1950)

Reports on the Systemic and Nervous Reactions Caused by Foods (1950-1984)

Reports on the Systemic and Nervous Reactions Caused by Foods (1984-1994)