Nutrition & ADHD

[NotAChevy]

Here’s some foods they say to avoid with ADHD- do you agree? Are there others we should add to the list?

1. **Sugary Foods**: High sugar content can lead to spikes in energy followed by crashes, affecting attention and behavior.

2. **Artificial Additives**: Foods with artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives may increase hyperactivity in some children.

3. **Caffeine**: Found in coffee, tea, and chocolate, caffeine can heighten anxiety and disrupt sleep.

4. **Processed Foods**: Highly processed foods often contain unhealthy fats, sugars, and additives which can negatively impact focus.

5. **Refined Carbohydrates**: White bread, pastries, and other refined carbs can lead to blood sugar spikes and crashes, affecting mood and concentration.

6. **Dairy Products**: Some individuals with ADHD may have sensitivities to dairy, which can worsen symptoms.

7. **Gluten**: Some people report improvements in their ADHD symptoms when they eliminate gluten, though this varies by individual.

8. **Foods High in Saturated Fats**: These can affect brain health and function negatively.

9. **Certain Fish**: Fish high in mercury, like shark and swordfish, should be avoided as mercury can impact brain function.

10. **Fast Food**: Often high in unhealthy fats, sugars, and additives, fast food can have detrimental effects on focus and behavior.

It's important to remember that each person is unique, and dietary changes should be discussed with a healthcare professional. Keeping a food diary can help identify specific triggers.

[STEM_Dad]

Those are good suggestions.

I would add:

• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. It is recommended to eat produce of different colors. Green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli and cauliflower) can be especially beneficial.

• Eating prebiotic and probiotic containing foods can be very beneficial for gut heath.

To the Carbohydrates recommendation, I would add:

• Whole grains and minimally processed grains are recommended, over refined carbohydrates.

To add to the Fish recommendation:

• Fish containing omega-3 fatty acids are the most highly recommended types, as they can be particularly beneficial for neurological and cardiovascular health.

I want to point out the following:

• Sugar does not cause ADHD symptoms. (Source: Dr. Russell Barkley, who has mentioned this multiple times over the years) - Neurotypical and neurodivergent people alike can experience the same spike-then-crash effects of sugar.

• Caffeine can actually help some people's ADHD symptoms. It's important to know your own caffeine sensitivity, and when to stop consuming it by, to help prevent sleep onset issues.

• Dairy products are rich in certain nutrients, especially dairy proteins. They only need to be avoided by people who are sensitive or allergic to dairy.

• Similarly, while some people are sensitive or allergic to gluten, gluten containing foods might be an important part of a balanced diet for people who do not have a gluten intolerance.*

* A note on "fad diets": Medical and nutritional experts often have to give a precaution about any fad diets that the people who are on those diets might not be getting adequate nutrition. For people who are not gluten-intolerant, eating a gluten-free diet might be such a fad diet.

Consult your doctor for dietary and nutritional recommendations to meet your particular needs.

[WeAreAllOK in reply to STEM_Dad]

STEM_Dad You say. Sugar does not cause ADHD symptoms.

Could ADHD make us more sensitive to the spikes? Ie we all get the spikes, but affects ADHD more?

[NotAChevy in reply to WeAreAllOK]

I believe the sugar spikes are what it's talking about.. Coffee, and the caffeine, does work for some, but others of us, it makes the symptoms worse.

[STEM_Dad in reply to NotAChevy]

True, caffeine can make symptoms worse for some people.

Some people are just sensitive to it. I've known plenty of non-ADHD people who also couldn't have caffeine because it caused issues for them, from headaches, to insomnia, to other issues. I had a colleague (who might have had ADHD) who could not have caffeine or chocolate, because either would give her a migraine within a few minutes.

~~~~~

It's often advised to avoid caffeine when starting or increasing dosage of stimulant medications.

That's because caffeine is also a stimulant. It could interfere with the effect of the ADHD medication, or together they might have a compound effect.

In my case, I didn't have to cut caffeine out of my diet when I was on Adderall, but I did reduce it a lot. I cut both out for a while, when trying to figure out what was causing me to have tachycardia. (My doctor and I figured out that it was the Adderall...so I was eventually switched to a non-stimulant for my ADHD.)

• Both stimulant and non-stimulant ADHD meds have enabled me to reduce my caffeine consumption. I was drinking a pot of coffee every day before ADHD meds. Now, I don't drink more that half a pot each day...and sometimes on weekends I can go without altogether.

[STEM_Dad in reply to WeAreAllOK]

The sugar spikes and crashes might affect some people with ADHD more. I don't know if it affects all of us like that.

But living with ADHD, sometimes we are using all the attention or self-control that we can muster in order just to get by. Even a slight nudge from a sugar high or a sugar crash might be enough to throw us completely off track. When life is a constant balancing act, a push one way or the other might knock you flat.

However, Dr. Russell Barkley has been known to say that sugar (specifically glucose) is actually something which can help people with ADHD to function better sometimes. An example he has given was to "sip at lemonade throughout the day" to keep your brain fueled to function at its best. He emphasized sip (not gulp down a lot at one time).

• By spreading out the sugar throughout the day like this, I'm sure that it helps minimize the sugar spike-then-crash effects.

• Glucose is the simple sugar which the body makes to fuel our cells. Other types of sugar get converted into glucose.

So, sugar does not cause ADHD, but it can have an effect (good or bad) on ADHD.

[WeAreAllOK]

Hmm.

Coffee?

Not sure about this one.

I need to Google. I thought it had antioxidants.

[STEM_Dad in reply to WeAreAllOK]

You are correct. Coffee does contain antioxidants. According to some accounts, it contains a lot of antioxidants.

It also contains flavonoids, which are also beneficial.

[KentuckTD]

I’m not sure where this list came from, but most of these are general recommendations that are not specific to ADHD. Coffee? I dunno about that one since it helps many with ADHD and it’s been shown to actually be good for you in moderation. Fish? Of course you need to avoid too much mercury-laden fish, but fish is very healthy and the Omega-3s should be good for ADHD brain. Dairy has also been shown in studies to be healthy in moderation.

So this list is a bit sus IMO!

[Babyjane1980]

Definitely agree with some of these (processed foods, etc) but only because they are generally inflammatory, which is bad for everyone. And they will pry my coffee from my cold dead hands, lol.

[Zilmita]

It's true. That's why my parents and I cook our meals from scratch as much as possible. I bake a couple of days a week. I make whole wheat breads (including pita bread, nan bread, etc). I also make sweets (which is better because you're the one in control of how much sugar and other sweet ingredient goes into the desserts). I love to bake cookies. I do once every two weeks (chocolate chip cookies are the easiest to make). I usually bake sweets when I go to Meet Ups. Meet Up is an app that you can download onto your phone. It's basically different types of social groups. I joined 2 that are about board games. It's fun and they ask you to bring some snacks. We do eat a lot of fruits and veggies. I love Mango and Pineapple. We cook a lot. I'm usually asked to make hummus (which is easy and you can make different savoury versions). I've not been to a McDonalds in about a year. We have a lot of salads. My dad is constantly trying to make tasty salads not just boring lettuce salads. We also eat sea food. I love mussels, clams, oysters, squid, and we eat plenty of fish. I LOVE Salmon!!!! I agree that sugar doesn't cause adhd symptoms but, it can make them worse. I've noticed that when I do have sugar (depending on what it is) I can get a bit nervous and end up accidentally spilling liquid all over the place. When it comes to coffee, I only have one cup f coffee with almond milk. I don't use cow milk anymore. When it comes to dieting...... They don't work. They don't work for anyone really. I haven't met someone that's completely dedicated to their diet anyway. I've seen people go on diets for about 4 months. They lose the weight (which is great) but, then they stop the diet and start eating whatever they want and gain the weight back and then some. If you want to lose weight it has to be a life style change that's permanent. One in a while you can have a treat. But, not everyday. If you look at out pantry you won't find that much processed foods or sweets. I do make desserts every once in a while. Which is better since I'll have the control over how much sugar, candies, chocolate, etc, that I put into the sweet. When it comes to dairy we don't have any cows milk or any animal milk at out house. We use Almond milk and Wheat milk. That's it. I also agree that you should talk to your doctor about any lifestyle changes.

[STEM_Dad]

NotAChevy , I do want to say thank you for opening up this discussion. You did mention a lot of good points. I was only trying to add to the conversation, but it looks like it's taking on a life of it's own.

About the dairy, gluten, and fish, you did make some qualifying statements.

• You are correct that it's best to limit the kinds of fish that can contain mercury. (I've had shark once and swordfish once or twice. Very tasty, but I am eager to avoid mercury poisoning.)

• Your point about food sensitivities, such as to dairy or gluten, are well founded. Those are two of the more common sensitivities, but still only affect a relatively small portion of the population. However, people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder tend to have more food sensitivities on average...and about half of all people with ASD also have ADHD. So, it's definitely worth mentioning here.

So often, we focus only on medication and accomodations, but we really do need to be aware of the holistic needs of the body and brain, to manage our ADHD plus our overall health & wellness.

I would be curious to find out if anyone has found a particular type of diet which has helped improve their ADHD. I've wanted to try the Mediterranean diet for a while, but as chaotic as my life is right now, I am holding off doing so. (The Mediterranean diet has some similarities with the Ketogenic diet, but Keto is more restrictive.)

[Blue_186281_red]

Sounds like general diet for everyone. Except coffee. you can go to hell and die for defaming the magical brown bean juice.

But seriously, my struggle both personally & professionally (RN) is translating this general advice to a plate on the table. I am skinny. Like, parent's took me to an endocrinologist as a child skinny. I am 5'11" & 121 lbs +/- 4 lbs. At 19 I had no car in Northern CA (thank you ADHD) so lots of biking, and 8 hours of intense martial arts weekly. Even then I only got up to 136.

My psychiatrist talks to me exclusively about sleep & under eating, which is confusing because my wt did not change when I started amphetamines. I could maybe be describe as anorexic but only in the sense that I miss meals - it's not a body dysphoria psycho-somatic thing. My issue is 1. Eating is not a pleasure. It's like putting gas in the car - expensive & time consuming. 2. Hyperfocus - I'm busy and swear I'll eat later honey! 3. meal planning, especially with kids, challenges my ADHD like I'm trying to write a 2nd grade book report. I rapidly get overwhelmed.

Food anhedonia and hyperfocus make it easy for me to avoid unhealthy sat. fat, fast food etc, but I'd probably be better eating that stuff then not often times - our culture doesn't talk about mal-nutrition much but it is much more harmful than obesity.

Re: sugar. IDK if there is documented link w/ ADHD but my irregular eating, grounded in ADHD (maybe?) puts me in situations where I am hypoglycemic, or shoving doughnuts & liquid yogurt in my mouth so I can sustain aerobic activity. So definately an indirect issue w/ sugar.

So, as a nurse who used to educate people on what they should eat, I find myself paralyzed at meal time by indecision, avoidance of labor, and poor planning. If I lived by myself I'd make a list of 7 meals and buy ingredients by the crate at costco so I didn't have to think about food ever again.