Acting like you eat. How diet can impact kids' behavior, especially with ADHD.

Following recent articles on Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), one of our readers asked us to look into whether diet had any impact. Research he had read said not, which both he and I found hard to believe. Anecdotal tales from teachers, parents and tidbits from my dietician sibling all say yes. Not just for ADHD kids, but any child or adult in general.  

A Mixed Bag

Digging deeper revealed varying opinions. The formal research is mixed. While no hard evidence exists that food additives actually cause ADHD, there are increasing number of studies that do show certain colorings and preservatives may trigger or worsen hyperactive behavior in kids. And scientists are now looking at food stuffs which, if lacking in diet, can have the same effect.

Not that this is news. Back in the 1970s, Dr Benjamin Feingold found that many hyperactive children were allergic to artificial flavors, colorings, preservatives and salicylic compounds found in aspirin and berry fruits. This lead him to develop the now famous Feingold diet, which cuts out artificial additives from a child's diet. Reportedly, over 90% of the kids that have gone on it, improve. That's hard to argue with.

More recently, a 2003 study showed that a group of ADHD children placed on Ritalin showed equal improvement as those placed on a diet supplementing the eight known risk factors for ADHD, namely:

• Food and additive allergies 
• Heavy metal and other environmental toxins
• Low-protein/high carb diet
• Mineral imbalances
• Thyroid issues, and
• Insufficient essential fatty acids and phospholipids, amino acids and B-vitamin

Just to be clear, Ritalin doesn't cure ADHD, it merely acts as a stimulant that improves concentration.  But studies are now showing that paying attention to diet can, in some children, have the same effect.
This is quite important as many children react adversely to the medication and many parents are looking for alternatives. Anyone interested in a more detailed explanation how each of these factors affect children can read about it here and here.
Interestingly, sugar is not the main criminal as widely believed. Sugar actually makes kids more sleepy (sugar high crashes) than hyperactive.

A Universal Impact

So does this affect ADHD kids alone? No. It's simply more noticable in ADHD children because, well, they are more active.
We are all impacted by what we eat, especially if we are already predisposed to food sensivities.  I, for one, am very sensitive to caffeine and other stimulants.  One to two cups of strong coffee gets my heart racing and hair nerves jangling.  I become noticeably more jumpy.

Alla Ostrovsky, an experienced elementary school teacher, noticed a long time ago that fizzy drinks, sugary and processed snacks have a distinct impact on small children, with or without ADHD. "Kids that drink carbonated drinks, chips, sweets and processed foods are far more fidgety and restless after lunch. Getting them to take a nap can be a nightmare," says Ostrovsky. She advocates simple foods - fruits, cheese and crackers, with a plain juice or water - as being preferable snacks. 

Watching what you put in your child's mouth is important, particularly when their brain is growing at such a rate and needs all the nutrients it can get.  It's really not that different from growing a plant. You can't expect it to flourish, if you don't feed it well.

Um, Simplicity Please?

All of this can get pretty scientific for those of us, including me, who want to clean up our diet, but don't have the impetus of managing something like ADHD. Carefully scrutinizing every label while trying to remember all the 'no-no's' can, well, seem a bit too much. Which is why I was quite delighted to come across a practical article in The Daily Mail on simple steps to avoid most of the contentious food additives and triggers. 

Reporting integrity of the website aside (The Daily Mail is more famed for gossipy coverage of the latest celebrity misstep), this article has easy-to-remember 'food rules' summarized below. Definitely worth a peek.

• The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead.
• Don't eat cereals that change the color of the milk.
• Avoid food Grandma wouldn't recognize.
• If it came from a plant, eat it.  If it was made in a plant, don't.
• It's not food if it has the same name in all languages (yes, that includes McDonalds)
• Eat your colors.
• Throw in some oily fish...
• ...And pre-digested food (think yoghurt, not ,'mother bird'!)
• Avoid long lists of ingredients and those you don't recognize.
• Avoid foods labelled 'low-fat'.
• Eat only food that will eventually rot.
• And remember, always drink the spinach water!

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