Raw Food for Learning Disabilities – Speech & Language Issues
– Q&A Interview with Karen Ranzi
Karen Ranzi is a regular Raw Mom contributor and author of “Creating Healthy Children”. In addition to her work in nutrition, Karen holds a Masters degree in speech pathology from New York University, and is a speech therapist working with children of all ages for over 30 years, specializing with autistic children for the past 10 years. By means of her education, life-changing personal experiences, and sincere desire to share her message, Karen has been able to guide thousands toward developing excellent health.
This is the first of a 3-part Raw Mom Q&A series on Raw Food for Speech and Language Issues in Children. Read on to learn how raw foods can help children with speech and language related learning disabilities!
Q: How does raw food help children with speech and language issues?
A: This answer is dependent on the specific nature of the issue. If the speech disorder is a structural issue, such as mis-articulations as a result of a cleft palate deformity, then raw food alone won’t alleviate the problem. Another example is a lisp. If a lisp is present, speech therapy would be the choice remediation.
Speech and language disorders as a result of toxic load factors can include ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), learning disability, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Large subgroups of children are ill even prior to exhibiting these disorders. Chronic ear infections, constipation and diarrhea, skin problems, numerous allergies, sleep difficulties and other symptoms may already demonstrate a predisposition for neurological disorders. The toxic chemicals of a vaccination then may add to the toxic load to the point that the well-being of the brain is seriously affected. Gastrointestinal problems are often part of the picture, and are exacerbated by medical treatments. Research shows a strong link between the gut and brain chemistry.
The cause of autism, ADD, or learning disability is very different for each child due to biological uniqueness. A switch to a gluten-free, dairy-free diet (GF-DF), while eliminating processed and refined foods and incorporating increased amounts of fresh raw plant foods, can often have a huge impact in reducing the toxic load. However, food is usually one large part of the puzzle. Eliminating toxic metals, such as lead and mercury, as well as other possible chemical and electromagnetic fields may also play a major role.
Language often emerges following change to a diet high in living plant foods. All detoxification requires supervision. Some foods, such as cilantro, can help start the detoxification process. It’s important to include a variety of fruits, vegetables, especially abundant in leafy green vegetables, sprouts, and soaked nuts and seeds if they can be digested.
If grains are included, they must be gluten-free such as quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat.
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Click here for part-2 of this Q&A series with Karen in which we’ll learn why raw food can improve a child’s speech and language issues, as well as how soon changes will be seen after a parent has changed their child’s diet over to raw foods.