The Link Between ADHD and Nutrition

Your child has a hard time sitting still in class, but you loathe the idea of having him take Ritalin and lose his sparkle. And yet, he does need to stop bouncing off the walls. Increasingly, parents are looking at their child’s diet before turning to medication to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD.

Characterized by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and the inability to focus, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood, affecting from 5 to 7 percent of U.S. school-age children.  Most parents and physicians treat ADHD with medication—in fact, the use of medication tripled worldwide between 1993 and 2003, with the United States prescribing more medication for ADHD than any other country. Yet some parents have taken a rigorous look at their child’s diet, as a substitute for or in conjunction with meds, in an effort to minimize symptoms and ultimately sidestep a dependency on drugs.

Medication produces fast results and is preferred by many physicians, parents, and teachers. “It does improve behavior, it is easy, it is quick, but the problem is it doesn’t heal anything,” says clinical nutritionist Marcia Zimmerman, a former research scientist at Stanford University Medical Center and author of the book The ADD Nutrition Solution: A 30-Day Drug-Free Plan. “And moreover, when a child has been on these meds for a period of time [they may]develop side effects and you have to use more drugs to relieve the side effects.”

A nutrition approach takes longer to show results. “With [medications] you can see improvement in behavior in a week or two,” says Zimmerman. “A food approach is more of a long-term thing—a 30-day plan, for example.”

There are many ADHD-healing diets to choose from. The Feingold Method has sparked some degree of controversy with nutritionists because of its regimented program and recommendations that you steer clear of select fruits that are high in natural salicylates.   Another option is elimination diets, in which parents take away multiple food categories and then reintroduce them one by one to see how they affect mood and behavior.

Whichever approach you choose, make sure the changes are realistic for your family and don’t create additional stress as you attempt to follow them. “There are diets out there that are incredibly strict,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association with nutrition practices in Long Island and Manhattan. “Those diets could have credibility, but I would recommend picking some aspect of the diet—let’s say sugar—and really watching that to see if your child has a change in behavior.”