Treating ADHD With Diet and Proper Nutrition - Learning The Facts To Help You Decide

Treating ADHD With Diet and Proper Nutrition - Learning The Facts To Help You Decide

The first thing that springs to mind when talking about treating ADHD with diet and nutrition is to remark that there is NO ADHD diet. If there were, then there would be no need for ADHD drugs such as amphetamines and psychostimulants. That would be a wonderful world where ADHD children on a healthy diet were behaving perfectly normally! There would be no problems of impulsive behavior, hyperactivity, aggression, irritability and defiant behavior. Bliss!

But there are several indicators and studies which indicate what may exacerbate some of the ADHD symptoms and which foods seem to help. That is really as far as we can go and also remember that each ADHD child is different. One way of treating ADHD with diet may be a stunning success with one child while it could have zero effect on another. It is worth while experimenting though because when food starts to affect behavior positively, your task as a parent is so much easier.

I always like to quote the story of Appleton Central Alternative High School in Wisconsin where they changed children's lunches to contain a healthier balance of carbohydrates and protein together with fruit and just plain water. Burgers, burritos and fries were replaced with salads, whole grain bread, meat and vegetables. The changes in the children's behavior was remarkable and they were better able to concentrate and pay attention. There was less violence too and the police did not need to be called in to get rid of weapons which had been brought in by some aggressive individuals when they were on junk food.

Now, as you can see, not all these children had ADHD but it does show what effect food does have on the brain and subsequently on behavior. For an ADHD child, that will be even more marked. That sort of healthy diet is easily the best diet for ADHD, in my opinion.

However, in addition to the healthy school diet above, I know that some ADHD children seem to lack some nutrients and there have been hundreds of studies on this. They seem to lack the fatty acids, magnesium, zinc and Vitamin B. In this case I would try and ramp up foods containing these nutrients and if I could not do that, then I would give my ADHD child a multivitamin supplement which contained all these.

Treating ADHD with diet is not possible but there are lots of ways we can improve our children's health and behavior by making sure they are not eating junk and that they are getting the right nutrients. I have mentioned this on my website where you will find that I have touched on how to cure ADHD with homeopathy and other natural means. Food is just one of these!

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