My Life with ADHD: Eating & ADHD
As a child I was always on the go. My inability to sit still made for an innovative and creative approach to life. I was always making up games, playing with friends, and finding new ways to be the best athlete I could be. I was energetic, hard working, and extremely disciplined when it came to tasks I enjoyed. All these features combined made for the perfect child athlete. As a teenager, my friends always wanted to be around me and I was always the go to for a good time. I had endless amounts of friends and always found a way to explore the world and unravel new adventures along the way. Although there are many positive aspects of having ADHD, when not addressed, the disorder comes with consequences. Random bouts of tiredness, mood swings, bloating, and brain fog. These four small inconveniences had a huge impact on my life. In different extremes and times throughout my life, I struggled to function properly because these minor inconveniences wouldn’t subside. That was until I started to get healthy. It started as a diet in order to look good in a bikini. And then it became an obsession with learning about and tracking the food that’s going into my body. I was counting calories, restricting the types of foods I was eating, and obsessively jumping on the scale. My eating habits turned into an eating disorder, and then eventually into a lifelong and necessary lesson. The foods I eat impact my entire life….
With all the negative behaviours, came one crucial and extremely positive life change. My restricting and bingeing, my fad diets, and my bizzare eating choices and patterns all taught me something. I was able to use the different ways I was eating to analyse how different foods and eating habits affect my physical and mental being. I connected my ADHD symptoms to certain foods and patterns of eating. I spent years playing trial and error with my diet and eventually hit the jackpot. Here are the foods and diet choices that help me live life to the fullest off of ADHD medication.
1. Gluten: those with ADHD are over represented among people with Celiac disease. Research shows that a gluten-free diet decreases ADHD symptoms (Niederhofer, 2011). When I cut gluten out of my diet, I found that I was less bloated and less lethargic. I found that cutting gluten out of my diet leads to me eating less carbohydrates in general… which brings me to my next point.
2. Carbohydrates (love/hate): protein equals alertness and carbohydrates equals the opposite of alertness. It took me many years to realise the full extent to which carbs were affecting my body and my mind. As a child athlete we are taught that carbs are our best friend, we should eat carbs before every practice and game, and that carby food gives us the energy we need to perform. I would carb load before every game/practice (which would be almost everyday) and I would feel so sluggish afterwards. I still eat carbs, I just stick to complex and healthy carbs. I also limit my daily carbs and spread them out throughout the day.
3. Fruits & Vegetables (crucial): fruits and vegetables are packed with important nutrients that help our brains function properly. Having the right amount of nutrients is crucial for people with ADHD because we need our brain at top ability to navigate what the day throws at us. 4
4. Eating throughout the day (good): Eating small meals throughout the day is a good way to keep a high level of brain functioning and motivation throughout the entire day. People with ADHD are at risk of forgetting to eat or having a lack of appetite due to the fact that we are less attuned to our bodies at times. Daily distractions and external factors keep people with ADHD thinking of hunger until it’s too late. Eating frequent small meals throughout the day can ensure your motivation level and focus isn’t affected by your hunger.
5. Cognitions around food (identify them): identifying your thoughts about food and food habits will help to determine what is healthiest for you when it comes to food choices and eating patterns. ADHD is associated with binge eating, low motivation to cook, ignoring hunger cues, stimming eating, and inability to make decisions about food choices. All of these factors contribute to the struggles that people with the disorder have with food. Identifying which cognitive distortions or negative behaviours you have will make it easier to determine the most productive and healthy diet for you.
Finding the diet that works best for you is crucial to navigating life with ADHD without medication. Using the food you eat to help ADHD symptoms is one great way to live a healthier life.
References Niederhofer, H. (2011). Association of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and celiac disease: a brief report. Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.4088/PCC.10br01104
[This blog is personal experience and should not be mistaken for medical advice.]