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من طرف karim amien الأحد 16 أغسطس 2009, 3:21 pmبسم اللة الرحمن الرحيم
ADHD and Diet - Part I
by Glenn Hefley
Ask
ten nutrition experts what you should eat and you will get ten,
often-conflicting diet plans. Add ADHD into the mix and you could need
some quiet time afterwards.
First off, ADHD is
not caused by diet. This has been proven and studied enough for me to
put that statement in here. Does diet affect ADHD children? Of course.
Diet, as in "what we put into our bodies," affects all of us whether we
have ADHD or not. Just eat a turkey sandwich and drink a beer and
you'll understand that point. Unfortunately, in most regards
nutritional information is often like history; even the most respected
historians have agendas - it's just the nature of things.
Nevertheless,
there are some areas of bedrock we can build on. There have been enough
studies and research done, from Dr. Feingold's dietary study on
hyperactivity in 1975, all the "catch up" research after that, and then
the calmer studies that followed, that we can be sure of a few things.
First
off, let us look at a few guidelines that just about everyone can agree
on. Changing diet is a process, not a pill. It is going to take a few
days (more than a week in some cases) to see results. ADHD children are
susceptible to any change, not just diet, so when judging whether or
not the changes being made are good or not, keep in mind other
environmental changes as well.
Many
parents make changes to diet at the start of summer vacation, and then
tell me they didn't see any results. In fact, they tell me, their child
appeared more agitated and less focused. With the two "changes" so
close in time, it seems obvious what really happened. However, when we
are doing these adjustments ourselves, we sometimes fail to see the
whole picture.
Major changes in diet
can adversely affect anyone, not just ADHD children. For example, if
you cut out all meat from your child's diet, it may not be the lack of
meat which is causing irritability and discontent. It might be that you
took away all of his favorite meals in one shot and he's a little upset
about it. Again, looking at the whole picture is a good idea, and as
with anything, moderation is always a good idea.
My
son is adversely affected by dairy products. We've seen this over and
over, even ice cream. When taking in a few large glasses of milk and a
bowl of ice cream in a day, he becomes less focused, easily distracted,
and mentally lethargic. His physical activity does slow down, but not
in a good way.
Yanking all the
dairy products from his diet proved to provoke discontent and
resentment, which resulted in just about the same symptoms as the milk
and ice cream did. If I wasn't paying attention, I might have concluded
that the change in diet had no affect on him at all.
One
difference was that he was more physically active. Again, if I wasn't
paying attention I might have concluded at that point that removing the
dairy from his diet was in fact a bad idea. Nutritionists will tell us
just to make the change, but they don't have to live with our child, or
live inside our child's minds either.
This
doesn't mean they aren't right a good deal of the time. Dairy products
were not helping my son's mental disposition, and the affect they were
having was obvious. What we did was start with soy milk in his cereal.
I used the vanilla flavored type, and added dried cranberries. Another
thing I did was make sure I was eating the same thing. It might be a
good idea not to let them see you pour it at first until they try it,
as soy milk tends to be slightly tan in color and not the bleached
white that milk normally is. Once in the cereal, it isn't noticeable
for the most part and the dried cranberries are quick to add their own
color to the mix.
This worked well,
and he liked the flavor. He also became curious about the soy milk. It
comes in chocolate flavor as well, and after a few days of cereal he
tried some as a drink and found he liked it. After a time I was able to
remove milk from my shopping list. Ice cream, however, is a whole
different story. I have yet to find a soy substitute (or any other
substitute) for ice cream that he can't spot a mile away. First taste
and he knows it's not ice cream (so do I for that matter). What we have
done with this is to limit the amount of ice cream, to the point that
it is down to one night a week. Some weeks he forgets and I don't
remind him.
I personally don't see
any reason for raw sugars and hard candies. Halloween might be the
exception to this rule, but other than this one night of sugar
overload, we don't have it in the house. Any child, ADHD or not, eating
sugar shows signs of irritability, high activity, and lack of focus
(except on how to get more sugar candies). Taking them out of the daily
diet is a good thing. Being militant about it is probably not a good
thing. Some parents of ADHD children I know are very strict about not
having any sugar in their house, and you would be hard pressed to find
a nutritionist that thought daily sugar intake was a good idea. The
nutritionists might vary in their opinion on what degree sugar affects
our children, but I've never read a study that said it was good for
them as a food group. Normally the papers read like a study on how much
lead in the water is lethal or just toxic.
The
fact of the matter is what we put in our bodies affects our mental
state. Our bodies and minds are bio-chemical machines running on the
fuel given to them. Diet is not a cause of ADHD, but diet can and does
affect our child's mental state, and they have enough going on up there
that they don't need to try thinking through dairy and sugar clouds.
Whole
grains are a great idea. There have been many studies on the affects of
whole grains on mental health. Just about every study on diet and ADHD
suggests that whole grains are a good idea, the more the better. Wheat
crackers, corn flake cereals, oat cereals, granola bars, trail mixes,
good breads, and the like are perfect snacks and foods.
Vegetables
are important - again, the more the better. I read a book not to long
ago that made the statement "vegetables can be exciting". Perhaps
exciting to that nutritionist, but they aren't high on the excitement
scale around my house. The more they can eat, however, the better.
Never hold back on the salad or raw vegetable trays at dinner. My son
doesn't have to be excited about them, just has to eat them. I have
personally found that if it is just a fact that there are vegetables at
dinner and snack time, he just eats them. If I try to "spruce them up"
or make them exciting, he rebels, because he knows better. They are
vegetables.
If your child likes or
will eat mushrooms, there have been some very interesting studies on
those and the direct link they have to health and mental stability.
Fruits
have high sugar (fructose) content, but they are much better than raw
sugars or candies. Frozen grapes are a great snack. Most children see
bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes in the fruit selection of their
lives, but there are a many other fruits that are favorites around my
house. Papaya is fantastic. A store near us sells dried Papaya spears,
which don't sit around in the cupboard very long. Pineapple is a sugar
rush to say the least. You might want to limit those, but they are
still better than dried sugar on a lick-stick.
A run down on some of the studies and research land marks for diet and food additives:
In
1975, Feingold published his hypothesis that the elimination of certain
food additives from the diets of hyperactive children can result in
improvement of behavioral symptoms.
1981:
Two studies were published which did not support Feingold's hypothesis.
One study challenged children who had already been on Feingold's diet
with high doses of color additives and found no effect, when compared
to a placebo. Another found no effect of violations of the Feingold
diet among children who had been on the Feingold diet for 3 months.
1986 review of studies which evaluated the Feingold diet concluded that
there is no evidence for a causal association between food additives
and behavioral disturbance in children.
1986 review of studies which controverted Feingold's hypothesis
maintained that data from these studies were interpreted incorrectly,
or that they were flawed in other ways.
recent study of the food color additive tartrazine suggested a dose
response relationship between that additive and behavioral disturbances
(not necessarily ADHD) in children.
ADHD and Diet - Part I
by Glenn Hefley
Ask
ten nutrition experts what you should eat and you will get ten,
often-conflicting diet plans. Add ADHD into the mix and you could need
some quiet time afterwards.
First off, ADHD is
not caused by diet. This has been proven and studied enough for me to
put that statement in here. Does diet affect ADHD children? Of course.
Diet, as in "what we put into our bodies," affects all of us whether we
have ADHD or not. Just eat a turkey sandwich and drink a beer and
you'll understand that point. Unfortunately, in most regards
nutritional information is often like history; even the most respected
historians have agendas - it's just the nature of things.
Nevertheless,
there are some areas of bedrock we can build on. There have been enough
studies and research done, from Dr. Feingold's dietary study on
hyperactivity in 1975, all the "catch up" research after that, and then
the calmer studies that followed, that we can be sure of a few things.
First
off, let us look at a few guidelines that just about everyone can agree
on. Changing diet is a process, not a pill. It is going to take a few
days (more than a week in some cases) to see results. ADHD children are
susceptible to any change, not just diet, so when judging whether or
not the changes being made are good or not, keep in mind other
environmental changes as well.
Many
parents make changes to diet at the start of summer vacation, and then
tell me they didn't see any results. In fact, they tell me, their child
appeared more agitated and less focused. With the two "changes" so
close in time, it seems obvious what really happened. However, when we
are doing these adjustments ourselves, we sometimes fail to see the
whole picture.
Major changes in diet
can adversely affect anyone, not just ADHD children. For example, if
you cut out all meat from your child's diet, it may not be the lack of
meat which is causing irritability and discontent. It might be that you
took away all of his favorite meals in one shot and he's a little upset
about it. Again, looking at the whole picture is a good idea, and as
with anything, moderation is always a good idea.
My
son is adversely affected by dairy products. We've seen this over and
over, even ice cream. When taking in a few large glasses of milk and a
bowl of ice cream in a day, he becomes less focused, easily distracted,
and mentally lethargic. His physical activity does slow down, but not
in a good way.
Yanking all the
dairy products from his diet proved to provoke discontent and
resentment, which resulted in just about the same symptoms as the milk
and ice cream did. If I wasn't paying attention, I might have concluded
that the change in diet had no affect on him at all.
One
difference was that he was more physically active. Again, if I wasn't
paying attention I might have concluded at that point that removing the
dairy from his diet was in fact a bad idea. Nutritionists will tell us
just to make the change, but they don't have to live with our child, or
live inside our child's minds either.
This
doesn't mean they aren't right a good deal of the time. Dairy products
were not helping my son's mental disposition, and the affect they were
having was obvious. What we did was start with soy milk in his cereal.
I used the vanilla flavored type, and added dried cranberries. Another
thing I did was make sure I was eating the same thing. It might be a
good idea not to let them see you pour it at first until they try it,
as soy milk tends to be slightly tan in color and not the bleached
white that milk normally is. Once in the cereal, it isn't noticeable
for the most part and the dried cranberries are quick to add their own
color to the mix.
This worked well,
and he liked the flavor. He also became curious about the soy milk. It
comes in chocolate flavor as well, and after a few days of cereal he
tried some as a drink and found he liked it. After a time I was able to
remove milk from my shopping list. Ice cream, however, is a whole
different story. I have yet to find a soy substitute (or any other
substitute) for ice cream that he can't spot a mile away. First taste
and he knows it's not ice cream (so do I for that matter). What we have
done with this is to limit the amount of ice cream, to the point that
it is down to one night a week. Some weeks he forgets and I don't
remind him.
I personally don't see
any reason for raw sugars and hard candies. Halloween might be the
exception to this rule, but other than this one night of sugar
overload, we don't have it in the house. Any child, ADHD or not, eating
sugar shows signs of irritability, high activity, and lack of focus
(except on how to get more sugar candies). Taking them out of the daily
diet is a good thing. Being militant about it is probably not a good
thing. Some parents of ADHD children I know are very strict about not
having any sugar in their house, and you would be hard pressed to find
a nutritionist that thought daily sugar intake was a good idea. The
nutritionists might vary in their opinion on what degree sugar affects
our children, but I've never read a study that said it was good for
them as a food group. Normally the papers read like a study on how much
lead in the water is lethal or just toxic.
The
fact of the matter is what we put in our bodies affects our mental
state. Our bodies and minds are bio-chemical machines running on the
fuel given to them. Diet is not a cause of ADHD, but diet can and does
affect our child's mental state, and they have enough going on up there
that they don't need to try thinking through dairy and sugar clouds.
Whole
grains are a great idea. There have been many studies on the affects of
whole grains on mental health. Just about every study on diet and ADHD
suggests that whole grains are a good idea, the more the better. Wheat
crackers, corn flake cereals, oat cereals, granola bars, trail mixes,
good breads, and the like are perfect snacks and foods.
Vegetables
are important - again, the more the better. I read a book not to long
ago that made the statement "vegetables can be exciting". Perhaps
exciting to that nutritionist, but they aren't high on the excitement
scale around my house. The more they can eat, however, the better.
Never hold back on the salad or raw vegetable trays at dinner. My son
doesn't have to be excited about them, just has to eat them. I have
personally found that if it is just a fact that there are vegetables at
dinner and snack time, he just eats them. If I try to "spruce them up"
or make them exciting, he rebels, because he knows better. They are
vegetables.
If your child likes or
will eat mushrooms, there have been some very interesting studies on
those and the direct link they have to health and mental stability.
Fruits
have high sugar (fructose) content, but they are much better than raw
sugars or candies. Frozen grapes are a great snack. Most children see
bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes in the fruit selection of their
lives, but there are a many other fruits that are favorites around my
house. Papaya is fantastic. A store near us sells dried Papaya spears,
which don't sit around in the cupboard very long. Pineapple is a sugar
rush to say the least. You might want to limit those, but they are
still better than dried sugar on a lick-stick.
A run down on some of the studies and research land marks for diet and food additives:
In
1975, Feingold published his hypothesis that the elimination of certain
food additives from the diets of hyperactive children can result in
improvement of behavioral symptoms.
1981:
Two studies were published which did not support Feingold's hypothesis.
One study challenged children who had already been on Feingold's diet
with high doses of color additives and found no effect, when compared
to a placebo. Another found no effect of violations of the Feingold
diet among children who had been on the Feingold diet for 3 months.
1986 review of studies which evaluated the Feingold diet concluded that
there is no evidence for a causal association between food additives
and behavioral disturbance in children.
1986 review of studies which controverted Feingold's hypothesis
maintained that data from these studies were interpreted incorrectly,
or that they were flawed in other ways.
recent study of the food color additive tartrazine suggested a dose
response relationship between that additive and behavioral disturbances
(not necessarily ADHD) in children.
