By Nate Jones
Staff Writer
    Vegetarian, vegan, freegan, south beach, chili pepper and grapefruit diets; over the past few years Americans have been paying more attention to what they eat than ever before. The George family of Scarborough is no different, although they are more interested in what they’re not eating. The George family is one example of a trend connecting diet and health that has medical professionals watching closely.
    Beth George said her son, Spencer, was born “with problems.” After surviving several visits to intensive care as an infant, Spencer still had behavioral and physical problems until he was three, Beth said.
    “My ears were bright red, and when you touched them they were really hot,” Spencer said.
    Spencer’s school suggested occupational therapy, and suspected autism was the cause for Spencer’s condition. Beth, who was a practicing lawyer for children Spencer’s age, said the school’s suggestions didn’t make sense to her, based on her experiences with autistic children through her job.
    “He was on and off,” she said, and decided to take Spencer out of public school.
    While Spencer attended a small private school, Beth continued to look into possible remedies for his condition but found nothing worked, she said. Although some parents suggested a different diet, Beth was hesitant to take the time to make the change.
    “I was really busy,” she said. “And I thought, ‘hey, we eat pretty well.’”
    When Spencer was six, a neurophysiologist diagnosed Spencer with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and suggested the use of psychotropic drugs.
“I felt like no one was paying attention to the cause of the problem,” Beth said.
     It wasn’t until Beth met another mother who had helped her own son through diet that the George’s considered looking into Spencer’s nutrition.
    “I thought ‘okay, I really need to pay attention to this.’ I realized it wasn’t about me, but about [Spencer],” Beth said.
 Determined to keep Spencer drug-free, Beth took him to Minnesota, where her sister conducted a series of metabolic tests, which found Spencer was malnourished and missing several vitamins essential to his health.
    Once they returned to Maine, Beth began consulting with True North Health Center in Falmouth, a non-profit health organization that focuses on holistic health practices.
    Following True North’s recommendations, Spencer removed wheat and milk from his diet, Beth said.
    “It just cleaned him up,” she said. “The mystery was unraveled.”
    Sylvie Demers, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, (LCSW) with Counseling Services Inc., said a change in diet is a common suggestion for children diagnosed with ADHD and other behavioral problems.
    “Treating ADHD is not an exact science,” Demers said.
    In addition to the chemical changes a child goes through when they drastically change their diet, just sitting down to dinner can create a sense of structure for children, Demers said.
    “It sounds really simple, but it creates consistency and builds rapport,” she said.
    Beth said that the George family has become a “food family” since their change in diet.
    “Everybody in our house had to change how they ate,” Beth said it often takes all of the George family to prepare a large meal.
    Spencer, who has returned to public school, now watches what he eats very closely, Beth said. A large portion of Spencer’s diet contains Spelt, a wheat substitute grown in only two locations in Maine.
    Lois Porta, owner of Lois’ Natural Marketplace on Route 1, carries a variety of Spelt products and says that Spencer’s story is more common than people might think.
    “There are hundreds of stories like Spencer’s. Food is medicine; the better you put in, the more you get out,” she said.
    Porta said she wasn’t surprised to hear about Spencer’s improvement or studies that are linking nutrition with ADHD,
    “Things in nature are balanced, by eating natural foods you’re using the wisdom of nature to heal your body,” she said.
    Devra Krassner, a practicing naturopathic doctor in Portland, said that despite the recent attention to the holistic health practice, treating the human body with nutrition is nothing new.
    “People are getting frustrated with the current healthcare system, and are turning towards holistic health as an alternative,” she said.
    Krassner said unlike specific medical doctors, nutrition and the effects of diet on the human body are a large part of a holistic doctor’s training, no matter what they may specialize their practice in later on.
Krassner and Demers both agreed that treatments for behavioral disorders such as ADHD cannot be a “one size fits all.”
    “Don’t treat ADHD, treat the person with ADHD,” Krassner said. “However, certainly all ADHD patients would surely benefit from a diet that avoids sugars and carbohydrates.”
    Different children can have different sensitivities to different foods and enzymes, such as Spencer and his sensitivity to wheat, Krassner said. Beth said although they removed both wheat and milk from Spencer’s diet, they have on occasion re-introduced milk to Spencer’s system.
    “There was no change,” Beth said. “But when he has wheat, he gets all jumpy. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a nutritionist, I’m a mom.”
    Krassner said the key to discovering these sensitivities is to take this same type of scientific approach, enforcing what Krassner called an “elimination challenge” to specifically identify a child’s food sensitivity.
Beth uses Spelt in baked goods produced by her new company, “Spelt Right” in Portland. She said she realized the possibilities for Spelt Rite when Spencer first shifted over to wheat-free products, which he said “tasted like cardboard.”
    “I like Mom’s homemade spelt pizza,” Spencer said. “The other stuff tastes real good, but I just can’t have it.”