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Child Nutrition and ADHDChild nutrition and ADHD are directly related. When someone has ADHD, the first thing I do is see what kind of diet they have. I was talking with a parent about her child and his diet. She thought that his diet was "healthy" and fine. I asked her to send me what he eats and I would make comments. This is that list. You may find that you are feeding your child or yourself some of these same items. Many of the things in the grocery store are not healthy or good for you. Take a look at what I wrote below.
My Response:Here are things to avoid. Gluten (in breads, pastas, and such), casein (ingredient in dairy products), artificial flavors and ingredients, sugar, caffeine, Dyes.I know it is almost impossible to avoid sugar, so it should be a goal. The only way to really do this is to eat fresh foods only. ADHD people are mineral deficient. The parent I told you about before gave his son the Kids vitamin + trace minerals. The kids vitamin also has the important Vitamin B's. People with ADHD are sensitivities and allergies (food and other). This is where the controlled diet will be beneficial. Lets talk about the stuff your son is consuming. Drinks:Bottled Water - bottled water can be a health problem. Bottled water is in recycled # 1 or 2 which means it is a weak plastic. The water leaches the chemicals out of the plastic and you child is drinking them. I buy water from the reverse osmosis machine at Whole Foods and I use poly carbonate bottles and dispensers. They are #7 (glass like). www.wholefoods.com**Comment: This water may not directly cause ADHD symptoms unless it is causing breathing problems which will make your child tired and have ADHD type symptoms. This bottled water was a healthy note** Milk - Has casein which is bad for ADHD. Believe it or not, Milk is not that beneficial for you. It is boiled to kill the puss (from cow utters from over producing) and bacteria so you dont get sick. Any nutrient that was there, its dead now. Many dairy farms pump their animals with antibiotics and hormones to make them pump out a lot of milk in a short period of time. You get them both in your milk at no extra charge! Capri Sun - terrible product. Bad ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. They say natural flavor but remember, it is whatever natural means to them, not you. Stay away from fructose and high fructose corn syrup. Sunny Delight - Same as Capri sun except it also has artificial colors, Yellow #5 & #6. Learn about how the dyes cause hyperactivity. If you want to give your son good juice, juice your own fruit if possible. If not, buy 100% juice with no added sugar or those other types of ingredients. Whole foods and these types of stores sells good organic juices. You wont have to worry about the chemicals that the trees and plants are treated with. Just because something says it has vitamins or minerals in it, does not mean it is a good source of it and that your body can use it. If your body can't use it, no use in putting it in it. BreakfastApplesauce - Can't see any benefit to this. I looked up motts as an example but I can't find their ingredients list.Vital B vitamin - never heard of. Once again, is this product in a form that is useable by the body? Granola Bar - Looked up Quaker oats bars. Has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, sucralose (artificial sweetener, not good), artificial flavors. Not a really good thing. Milk - already talked about, People with ADHD shouldn't have Water - already talked about Eggs - The same problem with cows applies to chickens. You want your chicken to be free range. They are able to run around and not live their life in cages. I only buy eggs from whole foods or from places that sell organic free range chickens. French Toast - Love this stuff. You may want to use gluten free bread. Bread has gluten in it and could also have artificial ingredients. Enriched flour is also not good. That means they put stuff in the flower that doesn't belong. Stay away from white bread, you will see it says bleached. Yes, they bleach it. Think about the syrup too. Probably bad ingredients. Pancakes - Similar to bread. For breakfast, we as humans need protein. If you load up on sugar, which most of this is, then you will crash. Your son will be really hyper with all this sugar, gluten, and high fructose corn syrup, ugh and the artificial stuff! I just do a protein shake in the morning (or 2 raw organic eggs), then have a snack befor lunch. Have some nuts for protein or a bar like one of Jay robb's bars (www.jayrobb.com) or a Lara bar. I also buy my protein powder from Jay Robb. He has a high quality product without the badly treated product from cows. Most protein powders come from the poorly treated cows and have artificial sweeteners and ingredients. Bad Bad Bad. For breakfast, I take a little less than 2 cups of water. Put it in a blender with fiber, protein powder, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, 1 1/2 cups of frozen fruit like blueberries or strawberries, and blend it. Man it is such a yummy breakfast. I also take my liquid vitamin and mineral supplement at this time with the omega 3 capsule. LunchSchool Lunch - From what I remember, school lunch is always bad which will cause a nightmare for him as a student and his teacher.DinnerGrilled Chicken - chicken is good for protein and grilled is good. Try to get chicken that is treated right as I talked above.Pork - no real nutritional value and not really a healthy food but it is up to you if you want to eat it. Pork is loaded with toxins and parasites. Rice - white rice isn't good. They remove the good things from brown rice like bran and sell you white rice. Vegetables - frozen, over cooked, over steamed are not good. If you cook them too long, the nutrition is killed. Frozen is worthless. Get fresh vegetables and eat them at least 2 x's a day with lunch and dinner. The grocery store most likely sells produce that has been treated with bad chemicals (but use if it is the only thing around). There is a new one (chemical) being used that is known to cause cancer. If possible, eat them raw. Pasta - has gluten in it. Not sure what else. You can buy gluten free pasta. Salad - good choice. Get it fresh, not bagged and sealed. I have been eating a mixed salada called spring mix. It has dandilions and some others that are really good. You can get organic spring mix from Whole Foods or Costco Wholesale. Iceberg lettuce isn't any good. Bread - loaded as talked about earlier. Bad things, enriched flour, gluten, bleach, sugar and the others that go along with it. Get gluten free, non enrinched flour. Fast Food 1x a week - Better than 5 x's a week, but fast food is very bad for you. Treats/snackPeanut butter crackers - bad oils, artificial food dyes, sugar, artificial ingredientscheese crackers - similar things as above gummies - food dyes, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients banana w/ peanut butter? fruit is the same as vegetables. Peanut butter has bad oils and artificial ingredients. Almond butter is much better if you can get it fresh. Whole foods has a grinder and you can get fresh almond butter and peanut butter. This way you don't get the bad oils and artificial ingredients. apple w/ peanut butter - same as above yogurt - if it has casein, it is bad for ADHD. I am sure the companies product you are using is loaded with bad stuff. dannan kids smoothie - same as above. goldfish crackers - couldnt find the ingredients on their site. I am sure it is loaded with artificial dyes and ingredients. candy/lolipop - artificial dyes, suguar, artificial sweeteners marshmallows - possibly same as above Junk 1 x a weekChocolate - some kids have an allergic reaction to chocolate that shows as ADHD symptomsIcecream - same as milk and possible artificial ingredients cookie - same cake - same Here is the main problem. The problem is that the grocery store sells junk. Just about everything you buy there will have bad stuff in it. Even the good stuff like produce and fresh meats. Of course, you do the best that you can. It cost a lot more, but thats why I go to whole foods market. There are others like wild oats (just bought by whole foods) and some others that I can't think of. With the artificial ingredients, casein, gluten and so on, your son will have these problems. Then there is the mineral dificiency and possible magnesium deficiency. I haven't written about the magnesium yet on my site. It is coming soon. There you have it all. About the vitamins. The Kid's vitamin is around $40 for 1 bottle and the trace minerals are also around $40-$45. You may be better off using the adult version, depending on the age of your child. Your goal should be to get your son eating all fresh foods. Fresh veggies, fruits, meats and taking a good supplement like the kid's vitamin and then trace minerals if needed.
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