Oxford University study shows Omega 3 helps ADD

It's news that gives a great deal of hope to parents like Toronto's Anne Mullen.

"She was very upset when she initially found out," Mullen said of her daughter, Emma. "She didn't want to be a special child ... she wanted to be like everybody else."

But Emma is special, suffering from a unique form of ADHD called Dyspraxia.

"It's just uneasiness," Mullen says. "Inability to focus and you constantly have to bring her back, you know, bring her attention back."

But the aforementioned British study out of Oxford University suggests learning disorders just like Emma's can be helped by a diet rich in Omega-3, or fish oil. The study looked at a group of children with ADHD, each of whom was given 750 milligrams of Omega-3 daily. The results were dramatic.

"These Omega-3 from fish oils really can significantly improve their behaviour," insists Dr. Alexandra Richardson, an Oxford University scientist in charge of the study. "So better concentration, less impulsivity, and also significant improvements in reading and spelling."

Richardson also authored a book on the eating habits of children, in which she hypothesizes that kids, in a manner of speaking, are what they eat. And on Halloween, with the holiday season right around the corner, she says that's something for all families to consider, and not just when it comes to sugar.

"It's rather more likely to be the artificial food colourings that some of these things contain," Dr. Richardson insists. "They have definitively been shown to be not good for the behaviour of, not just hyperactive children, but all children."

Not that Dr. Richardson is saying kids shouldn't eat candy, but rather says it's like that old saying: everything in moderation. Especially Omega-3.