Real Food, Better Focus: Nutrition Strategies for ADHD
In my previous blog post, Good Nutrition for ADHD, I encouraged readers to make a list of healthy proteins, fruits and vegetables that their child has eaten in the past without resistance. This list should become your new grocery list, of which you can add to if you find your child takes a liking to other foods. We also discussed a powerful parenting state of mind: let go of hopes and expectations that your child eats food you’ve prepared for them. Being a courageous parent means recognizing what is truly in your control, and what is not. Serving food that your child has eaten without resistance in the past, is in your control. Your child decides how much they will eat at each meal. Prepare for leftovers, because you will have them.
Don’t negotiate with your child, nor cajole them to eat what you have served. You can trust your child’s biology - if they require calories in that moment, they will in fact eat. If they decide not to eat, they probably don’t need the calories then, and nothing bad will happen to them. You are building good habits that will last for decades.
Glycemic Index and Processed vs. Unprocessed Foods
Much of the American diet is filled with unhealthy, processed foods. These foods are also called ‘high glycemic index’ foods and they are damaging to the ADHD brain. That is, they provoke an unnatural imbalanced of glucose and insulin in the bloodstream resulting in significantly poorer brain function.
Common processed foods that make brain function worse include:
breakfast cereals
white flour (Eggs) waffles
white bread
white pasta
goldfish snacks and most crackers
foods with processed bleach flour
Any and all foods with added sugars (candy, cake, ice cream…)
Read the fine-print ingredients of any packaged food and you will find many of them have added sugars.
Processed foods offer zero support for a growing body. While proteins, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains give the body fuel and building blocks for healthy physical growth and development, processed foods offer none of that. In addition, while unprocessed whole foods lead to better brain function, processed foods result in poorer brain function.
Imagine your child has a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast; let’s go through what happens once that bowl of Cheerios is digested.
Breakfast cereals are mostly made up of processed flour and added sugar. Once digested, almost the entire bowl of Cheerios is turned into simple glucose. This results in an unnatural spike in blood glucose concentration. It is unnatural because human physiology is not designed to handle processed foods, and not designed to manage such an abrupt spike in glucose concentration. Once this abnormal spike of glucose enters the bloodstream, the pancreas gland, whose job is to fine-tune glucose concentration with insulin secretion, is over activated. A simple biological fact is that when there is an abnormal spike in blood glucose, the pancreas gland will always overreact, and secrete more insulin than is necessary. This results in hypoglycemia, an abnormally low concentration of blood glucose.
When your child goes off to camp or school that morning after eating Cheerios, there is an inadequate amount of glucose in the blood to support optimal brain function. The brain cells need more glucose delivered to them than is available in the bloodstream. That morning your child will have measurably poorer focus and concentration, worse emotional regulation, more irritability and poorer learning and cognitive processing.
Conversely, if your child eats, for example, a bowl of unsweetened oatmeal and berries for breakfast, or a peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread, or eggs with black beans, these are all low glycemic index foods, or unprocessed foods. Digesting these unprocessed foods results in a normal blood glucose level and thus a normal insulin response. An adequate quantity of blood glucose will result for optimal brain function. In addition, the omega-3’s and amino acids resulting from digesting healthy, unprocessed foods, have a direct effect on neurological activity in the brain, resulting in better concentration and focus, better emotional regulation, less impulsivity, and overall better learning and academic success. This concept holds true for all meals and snacks.
Healthy unprocessed foods include:
Nuts, seeds and nut butters
Fruits and Vegetables
Beans and lentils
Chicken, fish, turkey
Milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs
Edamame, tofu, soy milk
Whole wheat and whole grain carbohydrates
Try to remove processed foods from your home and replace them with healthier options.
Your entire family will benefit!
Share with me any questions or challenges that arise. I am always happy to hear from you!
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