Nutrition psychology. A higher dose of vitamin D in early childhood may reduce psychiatric symptoms in school-age children, study finds. A comment.

The Helsinki Times reports on a Finnish study from Tammerfors that claims increasing vitamin D in 2-year-olds will reduce psychiatric symptoms when they reach school age. Method. The researchers used mothers self-reporting. Fundamental knowledge is that humans need (1) a matrix of food, >30 micronutrients (13 vitamins and >15 minerals), tryptophan, Choline, as well as DHA and EPA fats, in the womb, and during upbringing, (2) a proper home environment during the first four to five years of living is crucial for children mental development (there's a father-effect), to develop and sustain mental health. Supplementing has never been a solution for children's nutrient deficiencies. A Food-matrix is. Psychiatric disorders are rare as opposed to psychological disorders. Self-reporting is based on episodic memory, which is constructive in a social fashion. 6 pages.

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The Helsinki Times reports on a Finnish study fron Tammersfors that claims increasing vitamin D in 2-year-olds will reduce psychiatric symptoms when they reach school age.

Link to source.

He most likely source is from The university of Tammerfors, which posted an article about the study on their home page.

Photo by Nicolas Solerieu on Unsplash

“Objective. To determine the impact of high-dose (1200 IU) vs standard-dose (400 IU) vitamin D3 supplementation during the first 2 years on psychiatric symptoms at ages 6 to 8 years and whether the impact is different in children with lower vs higher maternal vitamin D3 levels; lower vs higher levels were defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) less than 30 ng/mL vs 30 ng/mL or greater” (Sandboge et al. 2023).

The authors claim that they used a double-blind randomized control trial (RCT), which allow for conclusions about cause-effect.

Is the information correct?

Members of our species are prone to mental fallacies. For example:

• Confirmation bias, the tendency to apply the same theory on all situations, or search for information which fits the conviction (Nickerson, 1998; Wason, 1960, 1966; 1968; Wason och Shapiro, 1971).
  
  
• Natural stupidity – our species propensity to rely on information which are either prototypical (Kahneman och Tversky, 1972), available (Tversky och Kahneman, 1973), or just easy to access (Kahneman and Tversky, 1977).
  
  
• Dysrationlia – the inability to think and behave [epistemic and instrumental] rationally despite adequate intelligence (Stanovich, 1993, 2011, 2016).
  
  
• Myside bias – a psychological disinclination to abandon a favored hypothesis (Stanovich, West och Toplak, 2013).
  
  
• Continued Influence Effect – Misinformation continues to influence memory and reasoning about an event, despite the misinformation having been corrected (Cacciatore, 2021).

These biases interact in a reinforcing loop.

In order to escape the bias-loop, I propose Rational Entrepreneurial thinking (Österberg, 2021, chapter 3). The model suggests that we use three established theories in concert:

• epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010).
  
  
• numeracy (Brooks och Pui, 2010). Note. Numeracy is the foundation for instrumental and epistemic rational thinking (Stanovich, 2011, 2016).
  
  
• disjunctive reasoning (Stanovich, 2009) in concert.

I spent three years exploring the future of Finnish agriculture – food production (Österberg, 2021, in Swedish). That included nutrition. On Januari 23, 2020, I was invited by the head of department of food and nutrition at The university of Helsingfors to open their seminar series for expert in Food and nutrition. The label of my talk: What’s the Prospect of Sustainable Food: The Case for Mental health:

“The human mind has unique mental abilities. Why? Some 3.6 million years ago, our ancestors change their diet to include bone marrow which contains a number of important micronutrients, e.g. heme-iron, zinc, vitamin A, and some B vitamins, and docosahexaenoic fatty acids, to mention a few. 800 000 later, when the climate changed [again], from Pliocene to Pleistocene, meat was added to ‘the plate’. The consequence of this dietary change was an expansion of the brain, from 405 cc to today's 1300 cc, which opened the door for the ability to experience the future rationally by applying functions such as explorative and disjunctive reasoning as well as metacognitive sensitivity. This includes the ability to combine/blend non-related abstractions into new concepts, like the lion-man (40 000 years ago), the first bread (14400 years ago), beer (13000 years ago), Göpekli Tepe, agriculture, and religion (11 700 years ago). The Swedish Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) suggested meat to be a sin, calling for an all plant-based Garden-of-Eden, or vegan, diet. The idea was picked up by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The 1950s saw the birth of the diet-heart hypothesis, connecting cardiovascular disease with the consumption of saturated fats, cholesterol, and red meat. Diet-heart hypothesis was never validated in experimental trials, but are still the ‘holy grail’ for some believers who continue to promote a Garden-of-Eden diet. The decision to abort animal-sourced food attracts some 1-2 % of a normal population and is explained by a combination of temperament: openness to change and neuroticism - worrying for the future. The consequence of a plant-based diet is lower self-esteem and psychological adjustment, less meaning in life and more negative moods and social experiences compared to people on an omnivore diet. In order to sustain mental health, it seems we need need to consume a plethora of micronutrients. Next time you go shopping for food, put the following on your shopping list: 13 vitamins (e.g. A, several B:s, C, some D, E, K2-Mk4 and Mk7), 15-16 minerals (Heme-Iron, Magnesium, Zinc and so forth). Choline, as well as Docosahexaenoic, Arachidonic fatty acids”.

Fundamental knowledge is that humans need the Food matrix, >30 micronutrients (13 vitamins and >15 minerals), tryptophan, Choline, as well as DHA and EPA fats to develop and sustain mental health.

Humans are one species – Homo Sapiens Sapiens – and compared to other animals, we have an abnormally big brain. Children's physical and mental development makes a great leap during the first four to five years of living, and there's father-effect. But there's also a mother-effect during pregnancy. Mother's who score high on neuroticism typically have high levels of cortisol in the blood stream. And if that is the case close to, during, and after child birth, the neuroticism is likely to be transferred to the baby (Österberg, 2012).

And children who grow up with both parents or the father, have better emotional and social adjustment, as well as cognitive development compared to children who grow up with i single-mother (Barkley, 2001; Baumrind, 1966; Gopnik, 2016; LaFlamme et al. 2012; Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna et al. 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004).

Adding to that, nutritions are crucial for the child when its in the womb, and during upbringing.

• Over millions of years, your species adapted to an animal source diet (Aiello och Dunbar, 1993; Aiello och Wheeler, 1995; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Hublin et al. 2015; McPherron et al. 2010; Pobiner, 2013, 2016; Pontzer et al 2016; Thompson et al. 2019).
  
  
• Kids need to consume animal source food, like meat, eggs, and whole dairy, to development physical and mental health (Adesogan et al. 2020; Balehegn et al. 2019).
  
  
• adults need to consume animal source food, like meat, eggs, and whole dairy, to development physical and mental health (2019; Itkonen et al. 2020; Tong et al. 2020; Ylilauri et al. 2019).

And when you collect data, you must understand method, including the challenges with self-reporting and how the mind works. For example, episodic memory, which was used in the study, is constructive in a social fashion (Schacter and Addis, 2007).

The authors claim was disputed by the University of Tammerfors reads:

(Link to source).

Ergo. Sandboge et al. asked mothers to consult their episodic memory, which is constructive in a social manner.

But, if one pays attention to what Finnish government arms have reported:

• Finnish women's relational aggression is the big issue (Helsingfors Police department, April, 2022),

it's likely to conclude that if there are issues in the home environment during the child's upbringing, the independent variable is the mother.

Conclusion. Drs Sandboge, Räikkönen, Lahti-Pulkkinen study is interesting from a technical point of view, but:

• supplementing has never been a solution for children's' nutrient deficiencies. The Food matrix is.
  
  
• Psychiatric disorders (nature) are rare as opposed to psychological disorders (nurture).
  
  
• Finnish womens relational aggressiveness is the big issues.
  
  
• Because episodic memory is constructive in a social manner, allowing mother's to self-report about their off-spreings wellbeing is challenging.

Adding to that, Sandboge et al. didn't test for factors that are commonly known to influence children's mental adjustment and development.

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