Food is Tastier Than Ritalin - The Impact of Eating on ADHD

ADHD is on a spectrum. Some people need medicine to help them live with the symptoms, and that is ok. Some people don't and that is ok too.

But both of those types of people can find massive value in not eating like crap anymore.

Many children today who are neurotypical (don't have ADHD) commonly experience symptoms of ADHD and may even be misdiagnosed and prescribed medicine, all because their parents feed them Fruit Loops and Mountain Dew for breakfast.

I'm not saying anything about who should and shouldn't be on medicine, or is medicine good or bad. I'm not even lobbing grenades at teachers, doctors, and pharmaceutical salesmen (ok, maybe at that last one) for not taking a more wholistic approach. For some, it can provide relief from major symptoms, for others (like myself) it is not required to lead a (supposedly) normal life.

My hope is that this article helps build your knowledge about the impact of our dietary habits on our ADHD, and motivates you to start making changes. Following these proven principles will help you be more focused, attentive, productive, and patient with others. Stop procrastinating, get interested, and get #Hyperfocused: it's your superpower after all.

Disclaimers

The following dietary recommendations come empirically from a large body of scientific study directly focused on softening the downsides of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I have tried these changes in my own family, on my acutely ADHD child and my acutely ADHD self, and have seen remarkable success.

So much so, that we are more than willing to make the tradeoff of spending more on what we eat than on where we live. It is worth that much to us, because of the value it provides for our lifestyle and health.

I’ve even tried to enforce some of these dietary changes on my acutely ADHD father, though as any “crunchy” Millennial can attest, “Boomer” parents don’t give up their sugary, chemical-laden foods voluntarily...

That being said, there is a large amount of subjectivity from person to person. While the ample amount of research is clear, we all respond a little differently to foods. The general principles here will be true for all people, more true for ADHD people, and really true for some ADHD people.

?

Performance Cars are Like Performance People

If you back up for a minute, and forget we are discussing food, the concept that input equals output makes sense. If three machines are pretty comparable, for example, three matching Ferrari Portofino’s, putting in the same type of fuel should yield similar results. Using premium fuel in each of the three models is likely to yield a pretty similar, and spectacular result. However, if one car gets the premium fuel, one gets a low octane blend of corn-derived ethanol, and the third gets diesel fuel in a gas engine, you can easily guess that the three cars will get dramatically different results.

One car will perform as it was made to, one will underperform, and one will probably break down before too long.

Therefore, even if human bodies and brains were fairly similar at the start, it stands to reason that the superiority and inferiority of the fuel source has a material effect. When all other factors are equal, the fuel source, or input, has a massive effect on the output. But with humans, all other factors are definitely not the same.

We are born with different genetic traits that profoundly influence our physical makeup and our brain chemistry, as previously reviewed. If you put a blend of ethanol, a cheap and low-quality filler derived from corn, not unlike corn syrup in food products, in a Ferrari Portofino, it will significantly underperform its unique capabilities.

Conversely, if you put premium, high octane fuel in a Honda Civic, it will likely outperform its unique capabilities. I still would favor the Ferrari in a drag race, but that Honda will likely reach two to three times the odometer reading of the Ferrari in its lifetime. For those of us with ADHD brains that zoom like a Ferrari but with the brakes of a bicycle, our fuel source requirement is more persnickety. You don't maintain a high performing car or person with junk.

You Already Know Sugar is Bad

A normal person may be able to tolerate sugar consumption without any noticeable change in behavior, but any parent of an ADHD child knows what happens when little Billy gorges himself on cake, soda, and ice cream at the birthday party…

Remember, you have a one in three chance of having an ADHD child if you have ADHD, so there is a fair chance you have one, and the mention of the sugared up kid just evoked a strong memory for you from recent days, and possibly a cringe. You know exactly this effect sugar has.

While ample research shows how sugar leads to excess fat accumulation by fooling your body into a pre-hibernation state that seeks to stockpile calories for an impending winter, there is similarly ample research showing the effect of sugar on an ADHD brain.

The Neuroscience of Sugar and ADHD

Sugar, in all its forms (fructose, glucose, sucrose, Splenda, corn syrup, sugar alcohols known as erythritol, organic cane sugar, etc) creates a dopamine rush in the brain. Since ADHD individuals cannot properly absorb dopamine as neurotypicals do, the rush of dopamine to a semi-deprived brain creates a powerful emotional and physiological reaction. The sugar-rush increases hyperactive behavior, increases emotional volatility, decreases inhibitions to emotional responses, causes difficulty focusing, and eventually ends in a depressive sugar crash.

Once the ADHD salesman has finished his four donuts at breakfast, he is liable to be hyper and euphoric, for a time. He starts calling up all of his prospects with incredible energy. But once he comes back down to earth, he feels drained, tired, spacey, and irritable. He probably just calls it a day or spends the afternoon scrolling aimlessly on his phone.

Surveys of many adults with ADHD indicate a strong correlation with sugar consumption and feelings of irritability, bordering on anger, and tiredness with inability to focus. If you want to jeopardize your performance at work later in the afternoon and risk being extra grumpy with your family when you get home for the day, go ahead, order dessert with your lunch.

?

Beyond sugar, other foods are shown to cause similar issues for people with ADHD: processed foods, “natural flavorings,” food dyes, and a few random foods you probably wouldn't think of, like potatoes and almonds. So-called "natural flavorings" are mysteriously exempt from reporting their contents to the FDA and have all kinds of ingredients. The chemicals we find in everything from scented hand soap and laundry detergent to the condiments we put on our food can be triggering to the adrenal system. Preservatives in food, and scents in soaps have been clinically shown to exacerbate the "flight or fight system's" receptivity to stimulus. Meaning, the already highly reactive ADHD brain gets even jumpier, causing anxiety and overwhelm.

?

The State of the Union

But practically speaking, in today’s world, how can you possibly avoid even just sugar, let alone the other chemicals mentioned? Those of us in the united states live in a country where sugar is absolutely and fundamentally ubiquitous in everything imaginable.

• That ketchup packet you get from Chick-Fil-A has eight grams of high fructose corn syrup in it.
• The small, squeezable bottle from Heinz has over two thirds of a cup of sugar in it.
• Frozen chicken nuggets have a couple grams of sugar per nugget.
• Fruit cups are literally just chunks of fruit floating in a bath of high fructose corn syrup.
• White flour, which largely turns to sugar in our bodies, is used in almost everything pre-made and every baked good.
• Rotisserie chickens from Costco, though delicious, are injected with a solution of water, salt, and sugar to make them moist and addictive.
• Even liquid Tylenol has sugar and red food coloring, another major trigger. There is a dye free version with less sugar, but it is almost always sold out in stores at 10:47 PM, when parents of small children typically need it. ??

Trips to the emergency room with young ADHD children quickly teach you just how much sugar there is in medicine and hospital food alike, which seems antithetical to the goal of promoting healing. Alas, such is our culture: we are addicted to sugar, and the manufacturers prey on that fact. Easy to do, since sugar is more addictive than cocaine.

How Then, Shall We Live?

But there are ways to adjust your eating habits in this day and age that will improve your energy, focus, cognitive ability, mood regulation, patience, and overall happiness.

Paying attention to your inputs will help you love your family better, be more present with your business, and level out your emotional state throughout the day.

There are more types of diets and programs than ever before, so the options can seem overwhelming at first, especially because there is some small drawback with each method. Before you decide which ones to focus on, you have to decide that this is a way of life you want to commit to, not just a passing fad.

This needs to be such a radical change that you pass by the cookies in the office thinking, “whoa, I can’t afford to eat those today, why does everyone bring them in all the time anyway?”

You need to educate yourself on the topic, and ideally come to have such a dim view of the artificial processing methods and ingredients in all of our food, that it grates against your appetite for health-giving food like the idea of putting diesel fuel into a gasoline Ferrari.

Formerly Fat and Unfocused Caleb's Testimonial

I’m here to tell you, personally, that it is possible, though I never thought it would. Friends at the office are pretty sure that I will turn into the Hulk if I eat sugar, by my own admonition of getting more easily irritated when I have it. It doesn't justify my bad behavior, but my struggle illustrates the whole reason to stay away from it. People laugh about it and watch closely what I eat at team lunches. Having such an identity helps me live and act more in accordance with this choice.

It wasn’t always this way for me though. I grew up drinking a glass of Mountain Dew every morning with my bowl of Fruit Loops, and battled excessive body fat for years. I'm more than 50 pounds lighter than I was in early high school and far stronger. Thanks to the dietary changes my wife has brought into my life, especially after making changes to accommodate our ADHD child, I have never felt better.

Paying attention to your inputs will help you love your family better, be more present with your business, and level out your emotional state throughout the day.

My cognition, energy levels, resistance to sickness, and body fat percentage have all changed dramatically for the better, all without doing much else as I’m terribly inconsistent at exercising. Consistency is hard for me, you can probably relate if you've read this far. Again, this is just my anecdotal, personal experience, but the science explains why. Remember, the key is to want to do this, because doing something you don't want can literally cause inhibitive pain to someone with ADHD.

Where to get Started

Some helpful places to start are the Ketogenic Diet, Paleo Diet, and Whole 30 Diet. These are all increasingly popular in our society today, for good reason. While there are likely conflicts between and drawbacks to these approaches, getting pretty close to one of them is likely to have a huge impact. The goal isn’t absolute perfection and never splurging on ice cream, it is simply progress and gradual behavioral change.

You may have to change where you shop for groceries currently. Regional chains may have an organic aisle or two, which will help refine your search more effectively, but stores like this often charge more for these products than places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s simply because it is not their specialty and they lack the economy of scale the larger health stores have.

Aldi is surprisingly good for such health food, and their prices are notoriously cheap. Some of these stores, Whole Foods in particular, allows you to search their options filtered by diet, including the three types of diets above. For those of you with greater freedom of money than freedom of time, to paraphrase Dan Sullivan, curbside pickup and delivery options are your best bet to stay faithful to how you want to eat without being tempted by the sugary sirens on the endcaps of the supermarket. Bonus points for using Chat GPT to generate a grocery list and export it to Instacart, buying you even more Freedom of Time.

I'm Not a Chef, But Try these Recipes

Of course, going without any kind of sweetener can be very difficult, especially at first. The Ketogenic diet in particular seems plagued by people constantly getting on and getting off. It is difficult to stick with and really causes issues for your lifestyle. People quit because they are tired of packing their own food whenever they have dinner at a friend’s house. After a great deal of research, we decided to try some of the so called “ADHD-friendly” sweetener options available: honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and fruit.

Honey is probably the most healthy of the the dedicated sweeteners, and does not seem to cause flare-ups of the hyperactivity and emotional volatility that standard sugars create. This will likely vary from person to person, according to academic studies. Its taste is strong though, and might overpower your recipe, especially stronger grades of honey. My favorite use is boiled with water and lemon juice, then refrigerated to make lemonade.

Maple syrup is more subtle in flavor, but also a little runnier when used in baking. Coconut Sugar is a perfect analog for brown sugar, you can substitute it one for one in all of your recipes. It does not trigger the same negative behaviors as regular sugar does as it is an unrefined product. Lastly, fruit may sound odd, but you would be surprised what you can sneak it into, and how sweet it tastes when your tongue is not perpetually coated with erythritol or high-fructose corn syrup. Using apple sauce to sweeten whole wheat muffins is great, and putting frozen banana chunks into a blender with heavy cream and a little cocoa powder yields a delicious milkshake.

Scorched Earth Style Extremism

For particularly acute cases of ADHD, and especially more for other neurodivergent brain types under the umbrella, such as Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism, the Feingold Diet is worth a try. Dr. Benjamin Feingold designed the diet in the 1970’s specifically to combat ADHD symptoms in children, and though he became somewhat fanatical as time wore on, and some of his later ideas were discredited, many people still find success through the basic method. By using it, they provide themselves and their children with relief from unnecessary struggles.

Essentially, you pare back what a person eats dramatically, and then you gradually introduce different variables back into the diet over a couple of months. This helps you to control the variable like a scientist, and figure out exactly which number red or yellow dye is the worst for you or your child. By doing a minimal form of this, we inadvertently discovered one of our children who always seemed to have intestinal issues was allergic to potatoes. Potatoes? Yes, apparently that’s a thing… Not an ADHD thing necessarily, but now we have to shred our own cheese, since the store-bought kind is covered with potato starch to prevent clumping.

My point is that we don’t know what we don’t know in terms of our body’s response to various food inputs, and we have to approach the matter intentionally and with a plan, to see the greatest impact.

Vitamins and Snake Oil

A note on supplements. The internet is full of more snake oil salesman than the Wild West once was, yet doctors can universally agree on just a select few to help ADHD. These are as follows: a daily multivitamin, vitamin D, vitamin B complex, and Omega 3. An honorable mention would be MCT (mono-chain triglyceride) Oil, which is simply purified coconut oil, easy to add to coffee as Bulletproof Coffee popularized in the Ketogenic method. CBD oil is being explored by scientists currently in regards to how it might help people with ADHD, but there is no clear consensus among medical experts who specialize in ADHD. It is simply too new a product, with too great of a fan base running trials to confirm their existing beliefs about the product. It may help ease anxiety and irritability, but it may carry risks that outweigh the help, not enough is known yet. ?