ADHD: It’s the food, stupid

slimvictor

slimvictor

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BY KRISTIN WARTMAN
28 MAR 2011 2:27 PM

Over 5 million children ages four to 17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States, and close to 3 million of those children take medication for their symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But a new study reported in The Lancet last month found that with a restricted diet alone, many children experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. The study's lead author, Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Center in the Netherlands, said in an interview with NPR, "The teachers thought it was so strange that the diet would change the behavior of the child as thoroughly as they saw it. It was a miracle, the teachers said."

Dr. Pessler's study is the first to conclusively say that diet is implicated in ADHD. In the NPR interview, Dr. Pessler did not mince words, "Food is the main cause of ADHD," she said adding, "After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behavior. They were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums." The study found that in 64 percent of children with ADHD, the symptoms were caused by food. "It's a hypersensitivity reaction to food," Pessler said.

This is good news for parents and children who would like to avoid many of the adverse side effects associated with common stimulant drugs, like Ritalin, used to treat ADHD -- and bad news for the pharmaceutical industry. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that common side effects from the drugs are sleeplessness (for which a doctor might also prescribe sleeping pills), headaches, stomachaches, decreased appetite, and a long list of much more frightening (yet rarer) side effects, including feeling helpless, hopeless, or worthless, and new or worsening depression. But Pessler's study indicates that up to two-thirds -- or 2 of the 3 million children currently medicated for ADHD -- may not need medication at all. "With all children, we should start with diet research," Pessler said.

There are also questions about the long-term effects of stimulant drugs and growth in children. After three years on Ritalin, children were about an inch shorter and 4.4 pounds lighter than their peers, according to a major study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2007. A 2010 study in the Journal of Pediatrics disputed these findings, but all the study's authors had relationships with drug companies, some of which make stimulants. According to Reuters, "The lead author, Harvard University's Dr. Joseph Biederman, was once called out by Iowa Senator Charles E. Grassley for the consulting fees he has received from such drug makers."

cont at
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-28-adhd-its-the-food-stupid
 
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The Los Angeles Times article ends on this note: "'To be sure, the prospect of treating ADHD with diet instead of drugs would appeal to many parents,' Dr. Jaswinder Ghuman, a child psychiatrist who treats ADHD says. But parents who want to give it a try should be sure to consult their child's physician first, she warned: 'It's not that simple to do appropriately.'"

Call me old-fashioned, but changing your child's diet seems a lot "simpler" than altering his or her brain chemistry with a daily dose of pharmaceuticals.
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awesome

hopefully much more diet research on other diseases comes through soon

I know how important diet is for me and my many symptoms that eating crap produces

I'd go as far as to say that if 2/3 of kids have such extreme problems due to food, then food could be the culprit of many of our generation's problems.

I think diet is what will helps us, if we let companies just juice us from our money with the cheapest shitties foods then we will never become the best we can. I have lots of faith in foods ability to help in things like war even. Make us more peaceful and stuff like that.
 
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slimvictor said:
more:
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And if the doc is not too keen on the diet change then look for one that is willing until you find one.

Just watched a movie how at John Hopkins Uni they treat epilepsy with diet and how docs were more willing to do surgery than try the diet. It might be extreme but it often is like that. I mean what does epilepsy have with diet? I would never guess that diet alone can treat most cases.

Doing things the right way is almost always more difficult, often much much more.

It's easier to give the child a pill than change their whole diet pattern for some folks.

Maybe the other 1/3 just wasn't researched in the right way, not given the right food. Maybe it's even that like 99% of kids can be helped with diet alone.

I am a different person when I eat stuff that is good for me...minimal grains, no fake oils, no bread of course unless from nuts....lots of nuts, yolks, veggies, fatty meats, seeds. I keep proportions between the carbs fats and proteins and choose the meats, oils and carbs which are best for me, according to latest research and a Polish doctor whose books I have been reading.

When I go back to eating crap I feel like it definitely. My energy levels go down to 20% of what they were when eating right and life is just so much better and sunnier and more interesting. I can read easier, write easier when I eat well.

Never mind the physical stuff. I've been eating crap. Can't sleep at night, can barely walk on my one leg, have chronic pain faring up, stomach pain.

It all stops when food good for me is introduced.

How odd.

I definitely had ADHD when I was a kid, still do but now can make choices and get treatment for it, the right food. It takes hard work but its well worth it to get the most outta your life. Anyone I think can benefit from a diet change unless they are on top of things. So if you are sick, start with what you eat first. Experiment with different food. If you put crap into a car it won't run but if you keep putting good stuff in it it will work well for a long time. Try to help your food and slowly wean off the meds.
 
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which compounds in foods, which foods, are responsible?

sugar?
sugar crash?
proteins?
carbs?

if i'm feeling a deficit in my attention, how should i manipulate my diet?
 
This article intrested me. There was a similar article claiming to cure Autism through diet changes, Jim Carey and his girlfriend Jenny McCarthy's son suffers from it and they claim diet changes helped to relieve his symptoms.
 
I'm more than dubious of the conclusions drawn in this article, esp. as it provides neither what the sample size or the methods of maintaining a random sample were, or the specific controls used between one group and the other. Show us the math!
 
303Thizz said:
I'm more than dubious of the conclusions drawn in this article, esp. as it provides neither what the sample size or the methods of maintaining a random sample were, or the specific controls used between one group and the other. Show us the math!
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yes, but annecdotally i know this to be very true with regards to me and my bipolar symptoms.

america eats the shitiest diet going and has the most kids medicated for adhd. the problem foods are highly processed products with lots of sugar, hydrogenated fat, and an absence of omega 3 oils and b vitamins.

eat complex carbohydrates people- it makes so much more sense

data would be helpfull though.

also try and avoid caffeine in children as its crap (chocolate and coca cola count as caffeine)
 
Just noticed a flood of ads for a new ADHD drug on TV since this study came out. Coincidence?
 
Honestly, sounds like rubbish to me, and even if it weren't, I'd still take stimulants that actually WORK over a disgusting diet that probably has a subtle effect at best. Maybe changing diet would be better in children as a first-line treatment to weed out cases of fake ADHD/crap parenting, and the people who really do have it and continue suffering as adults can get the real treatments (stimulants).

As somebody who actually has ADHD, I would rather take stimulants than eat a disgusting diet that blocks me from eating any food that isn't formulated for rodents.
 
A healthy diet is bull

Seriously?

A healthy diet is such a sham. It is so subjective, the people who make there so called "healthy" diets are continuing to contradict themselves again and again after some new random study about nutrition comes out. The bottom line is our DNA Helix is made up of genetics. and sometimes we don't get so lucky, other times we hit the DNA jackpot!

I eat only natural food. I eat raw veggies and raw fruit, and raw meat as our ancestors did. My eyes and skin and nails look great but I still pop pills like candy. A healthy diet can't fix broken and dislocated ribs from sports trauma. I remember being so obsessed with eating healthy that I literally became paranoid about everything I ate. This actually sent my health into a downward spiral as I became so confused since every diet guru said something different. I dropped 15 pounds in a few weeks. "not good for me cause I am only 150 when fully fit."

I pretty much said screw it, I don't eat junk but I follow the 90%, 10% rule. I eat healthy 90% of the time and put whatever else I want in the other 10%.

I work in a stressful occupation "on wall st." and it is quite interesting how all the overweight people out last all the fit ones. I guess the expression "fat and happy" is true. I have seen to many fit guys and girls in great shape, who are diet conscious that have either died from a sudden heart attack or stroke, or developed some type of chronic condition. All the while, sure the overweight ppl may take statins by the hand full, but they are starting to out live the in shape/lean among us.

ADHD is a genetic condition. One that our early, early ancestors prized. When a lion was chasing you, ADHD was a really good thing. People like myself who have ADHD, have not evolved to the modern environment quite yet. Our brains fire off thoughts faster than a M-16, while most of the people that have evolved just sit on the couch, eat junk food, and pack on the pounds in constant bliss. Diet can help your body fight diseases no doubt, but sometimes and mostly all the times diet can't really do much at all for trauma and one's Genes.

M.J.
 
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Seriously?

A healthy diet is such a sham.
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sure, it can be taken too far. but it's true that there's a set of vitamins/minerals and an amount of water that a particular person needs to be functional; it's true that one's lifestyle and eating patterns can diverge from what is healthy for him (over a long period of time, without even being noticed until it's hard to change or hard to diagnose the problem); and it's true that this diet imbalance (note: i'm not saying everyone needs a similar diet 8)) has increased in society, so we do have reasonable grounds to address it in the media.
 
PwnX said:
Honestly, sounds like rubbish to me, and even if it weren't, I'd still take stimulants that actually WORK over a disgusting diet that probably has a subtle effect at best. Maybe changing diet would be better in children as a first-line treatment to weed out cases of fake ADHD/crap parenting, and the people who really do have it and continue suffering as adults can get the real treatments (stimulants).

As somebody who actually has ADHD, I would rather take stimulants than eat a disgusting diet that blocks me from eating any food that isn't formulated for rodents.
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I have friends who do have ADD/ADHD and they eat VERY healthy diets mainly fresh fruit, vegetables, and avoiding sugars/refined foods.

If just altering their diet worked better than Ritilian, Stratterra, Dexedrine, or other medications did that'd be great but they'd tried that a lot before with exercising more, taking vitamins/supplements, talk therapy, and eating healthier before going on medications since none of that stuff worked for their ADD/ADHD.
 
I agree with the above^. I ate pretty much fresh fruit all night between working out and playing soccer, yet im still adhd as hell. I have also tried all the aforementioned, talk therapy, more exercising, vitamins and supplements, haha I even started to eat raw liver, I went all out for awhile then I woke up one day and decided it was all b.s. and it was just genetics. I researched my family tree and yep makes sense why everyone was rather looney but productive lol
 
303Thizz said:
I'm more than dubious of the conclusions drawn in this article, esp. as it provides neither what the sample size or the methods of maintaining a random sample were, or the specific controls used between one group and the other. Show us the math!
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Not wanting to defend the article, but that is not the article's job, really.
If you want specifics, and to understand the methodology and results of the study in detail, you need to go to the study itself, not an article by a science reporter who may not even have an undergraduate degree in science, appearing in the popular press.

That said, some articles do give more numbers and more methodology, which would be useful here to understand the claims they make.
 
matchpoint88 said:
Seriously?

A healthy diet is such a sham.
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Diet has been shown to be a significant contributing factor to essentially every major disease known to humans, in hundreds of carefully-controled studies.
Are you really surprised to see it show up as a factor in yet another?

I do agree that many people disagree on what a "healthy diet" is.
Could that be because what is healthy to you might not be healthy for me?
Biochemical individuality is a real phenomenon.

It sounds like you have found a healthy diet for you.
Do you not believe that it might help you with your health and energy in various ways?
I found it hard to understand exactly what you were saying.
Do you think that diet is never a factor with disease, or that this research in particular is mistaken or misleading?

I work in a stressful occupation "on wall st." and it is quite interesting how all the overweight people out last all the fit ones.
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Your stories of co-workers are all just that: stories. They are not quantifiable, and therefore they do not make good data if we want to use the scientific method.
People tend to notice patterns and categories that they are attuned to, or expecting. We are biased in our memories, so it is entirely possible that, even though you honestly feel you have noticed the patterns you described, they were actually tricks of your subconscious biases, and did not exist in reality.
Additionally, your sample size is most likely far too small to be revealing of general human tendencies.


sure, it can be taken too far. but it's true that there's a set of vitamins/minerals and an amount of water that a particular person needs to be functional
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There is a set of vitamins etc. a person needs to function, and a distinct set /different amounts s/he needs to thrive. A person can avoid scurvy with 60mg of vitamin C supplementation, but supplementing with higher levels has results on cell function that are clearly beneficial. Getting more vitamins, anti-oxidants, etc. may be the difference between functioning and thriving.
 
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