Click here to find out information on just one of the 50+ food additives and colourings mentioned by sleep expert Sue Dengate in her presentation “Fed Up with Sleep Disturbance”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6huSqO84Gc

Sue Dengate also reported that MSG had been implicated (along with a number of other artificial substances) in a case of a child who suffered from sleep apnea and snoring.

So there are a number of reasons not to eat MSG.

When making this decision, be very mindful of the variety of words and descriptions that are used by manufacturers and fast food outlets.

e.g. apart from the descriptions and names mentioned in the video above they can also include

• flavour enhancer 621,
• hydrolysed/formulated,
• vegetable/plant/soy protein
• HVP, HPP
• yeast extract/s
• broth

And THEN there are the additives that are used to enhance the flavour enhancer MSG…  hmmm  now there is a new slant on it!

So watch out for 627 and 631 – E627 and E631.

When 627 or 631 are included in addition to MSG (under whatever name they have chosen to declare it as) then they boost the effective MSG up to fifteen times. (Source:  Sleep With The Experts, Sue Dengate, Week 2 webinar, 2009)

In your case will you find out how to sleep better and fall asleep fast just by cutting out all MSG from your diet?

That might be a very simple sleep solution. 

Organic food might be the only way for some people to safely know that they are avoiding all chemicals. 

We won’t go into the discussions as to whether all ‘organic’ labelling is fine…  but rather consider the broad idea that at least we know that with truly organic food, we might find the cure for insomnia, or at least one of them.

One secret to natural sleep remedies and natural sleep aids can be to educate yourself about the foods you eat, the perfumes you use, and how to read labels – which involves some competance with labeling laws and loopholes.   

This may sound daunting, and without Sue Dengate’s quality information I think it would be.

Chemicals, preservatives, additives, synthetic antioxidants, colourings etc are part of modern manufacturing because we are ‘moving away from the farm’ – but there are costs involved in our reliance on other people and companies to produce the foods and environments we live in.

You don’t have to go ‘back in time’ and refuse all processed foods, but you do have to be very careful about what you eat, and the chemicals in your life in order to fall asleep fast and sleep better and sleep deeper. 

Especially if certain food intolerances are your specific (and possibly ONLY?! problem).

The complex life just got more complicated.  No wonder we are wondering how to fall asleep!

It has been proven many times over that ‘other people’ and some companies do not have our best interests at heart. 

It is naive to think differently.

Week 2 of Sleep With The Experts featured Sue Dengate. 

Fed Up With Sleep Disturbances?

Diet can help with sleeping issues, like difficulty falling asleep, frequent night waking, restless legs, ‘weird’ dreams, nightmares, night terrors, and sleep walking in children and adults.

The food chemicals that have been associated with insomnia include artificial colours, natural colour annatto, preservatives, synthetic antioxidants, flavour enhancers and naturally occurring chemicals called salicylates and amines.  Dairy foods and less commonly wheat or gluten can be a problem for some people but are less likely to be a problem than additives and salicylates.  Sleep disturbance can also be the unintended side effect of a medication.

Sue will help people find which foods affect them and their sleeping.

Sue Dengate founder of the Food Intolerance Network

Sue Dengate

Sue Dengate is a psychology graduate and former high school teacher who became interested in the effects of food additives after the birth of her first child 20 years ago.

She is author of the bestselling Fed Up series, published by Random House Australia.  Her groundbreaking study about the behavioural effects of a common bread preservative was published in a medical journal in 2002.  

Sue, helped by her husband Dr Howard Dengate, a food scientist, runs the Food Intolerance Network through the website www.fedup.com.au.  The Food Intolerance Network provides independent information about the effects of food on behaviour, health and learning ability in both children and adults, and support for families using a low-chemical elimination diet free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers (FAILSAFE).

Sue Dengate was nominated as Australian of the Year in 2005 and 2006.

What Week 2′s Webinar Covered:

• The 50 + food additives, colourings and chemicals that effect sleep
• ADHD and the incorrect diagnosis of ADHD without checking food intolerances first
• The difference between allergy and food intolerance
• How to recognise allergy and food intolerance
• Food additives that effect anxiety, depression and panic attacks
• The fresh fruit and vegetables and dried fruits that are not conducive to a good night’s sleep, and why
• Sleep Walking, sleep talking,
• Night terrors and weird dreams
• The food additives associated with sleep apnea
• How to reduce or stop snoring
• How to recognise the multi-vitamins that are ruining your good night’s sleep
• How to read labels – things are not what they seem
• The 5% ruling on food labels.  How what’s contained in ”that 5%” can be the barrier between you and your sleep
• The food chemicals that are directly associated with restless legs syndrome
• The good foods for sleep
• VOCs that effect sleep (Volatile Organic Chemicals), smells, hairsprays, perfumes etc
• The medications that people are using to help sleep, which actually contain additives and colourings that actually keep you awake!
• The Low Chemical Elimination Diet, FAILSAFE (Free from Additives, Low in Salicylates, Amines and Flavour Enhancers)
• Dairy foods, and how to select the best ones for sleep.  Milk – soymilk, A2 milk, rice milk – all discussed.
• Symptoms of food intolerance
• Behavioral problems in children, including oppositional defiance
• Additives to avoid, and their number equivalent.  Includes tricky wording the manufacturers use, so you don’t know what a particular chemical/additive might be
• Wakefulness and MSG (monosodium glutamate)
• The natural colour that causes problems, not just the synthetic ones
• Where to get bread that isn’t associated with depression and bad sleep patterns.  Specifically which brands.
• Tips for breastfeeding, baby sleep, even bed-wetting
• Synthetic antioxidants, sleepwalking etc
• The myths of fruit
• Potatoes, oranges, apples, mangoes, carrots, vinegar, sultanas, tomato juice, mint flavoured sweets, strawberries, where are each of these on the salicylates table?
• What about meat and how it is vacuum packed, and distributed in supermarkets?
• Salicylates can be inhaled as well, find out more
• What are the good and bad alcohols for sleep?
• Yes, female hormone tablets are strongly associated with food intolerance
• Yes, sleep disorders can be seasonal.  Find out why.
• And yes, water is fine!

Sue Dengate did a 15 country ’supermarket tour’ in 2001 to investigate additives around the world, and has had her research published in a UK medical journal so the conversation is not parochial.

We had registrations from health care professionals and insomnics from Dallas, New York, Minesota, Christchurch, Auckland, Mumbai, Canada, Tokyo, UK and well as our Aussi contingent.

If food additives or food intolerances are your sleeping problem, or your children’s problem, this week alone could provide sleep solutions to ensure better and lasting sleep.

Elizabeth

The ground-breaking Sleep With The Experts webinar series was broadcast from Sydney Australia commencing July 2009.
The 9 week training program featured 7 guest experts, and delivered world-class information on natural sleep strategies including:

* The 50+ food additives and chemicals that are associated with sleep problems, including disturbed sleep, anxiety, depression, bed-wetting, snoring, sleep apnea, ADHD, nightmares, sleep walking, sleep talking, etc. The information was provided by nominee for Australian of the Year, Sue Dengate.
* Anxiety and how to overcome it – presented by Nic Lucas, medical researcher and editor of an international medical publication, who cured his own anxiety without medication.
* Emotions that keep you awake. Presented by Domenica Papalia, 17 years experience as a pharmacist, combined with 12 qualifications in natural and energy healing.
* Melatonin, serotonin, the vagus nerve; the autonomic and the enteric nervous systems. Stress reduction strategies. Geraldine Gallagher, international lecturer and 5 times President of the NSW Kinesiology Association.
*Better Sleep by Overcoming your Sensitive Reaction Syndrome. The Neuro-Training perspective, presented by the founder Andrew Verity. Verity is an international teacher and consultant to the alternative health and kinesiology industry. His 36 years in alternative health included iridology, kinesiology, homeopathy, Cheirology, Psycho-somatic analysis and applied personology.
* Sleep Music, presented by Angela Sciberras, Bachelor of Arts Music with honours in Ethnomusicology, Kinesiologist/Neuro-Trainer and Therapeutic Musician (International Healing Musicians Program USA).
* Anxiety and stress relief using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Rod Sherwin, twitter’s TheTappingMan, teaches EFT from the basics to practitioner training. He combines his 8 years experience with a wealth of other health modalities.
* What’s your Insomnia Type? It’s the subject of Elizabeth Shannon’s upcoming book, where she distils industry information and matches natural solutions to each of the insomnia types.

Hope you enjoy it, it’s coming very soon.

Kindest regards

Elizabeth