Food Additives that May Affect ADHD

One of the Most Effective Ways of Treating Childhood ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic condition that begins in childhood and often continues for the remainder of life. ADHD results in inability to focus on a single activity, inexplicable mood swings, temper tantrums or sudden anger, problems making choices and completing assignments, poor organization, and impulsiveness. It disrupts families, classrooms, careers, and lives. One of the easiest ways of relieving the symptoms ADHD, however, is by making the diet free of food additives.

The single most dangerous food additive for people with ADD and ADHD

Although over 3,000 food additives are associated with attention deficit disorder, the single most dangerous food additive is also the most common: sugar. To be sure, it isn't just children and adults who have attention deficit disorders who are negatively affected by sugar. Parents of otherwise normal children usually associate excessive consumption of sweets with aggressive and destructive behavior, and they usually try to limit in the everyday diet.

It is important to understand that occasional acting out after eating large amounts of sugar, whether by children or adults, may have more to do with the excitement of a special event than with ADHD. If a child eats too much sugar on Halloween or Christmas, and then throws a tantrum, this does not mean that the child has a psychiatric disorder. It may just mean that the child had an exciting day. Even normal children become hyperactive on Christmas!

Long-term problems arise when parents of children and spouses and coworkers of adults come to expect them to behave abnormally after eating sugar, and the children and adults oblige by acting strangely. Some behaviors mislabeled as attention deficit disorder are really a relationship problem.

How to tell whether it's really sugar that is causing the problem. People with ADHD whose symptoms are made worse by sugar don't just act up or act out on special occasions. They have an all-the-time appetite for sugar, which is really part of their body's attempts to cure their attention deficit disorder.

Limiting Sugar and Other Foods to “Cure” ADHD

The way sugar works in the ADD brain is to increase the ability to focus. Higher levels of sugar in the bloodstream make it easier for the brain to absorb the amino acid trytophan, the amino acid commonly associated with high-protein foods such as milk and turkey. The brain uses tryptophan to make serotonin, and this chemical makes it easier for the locus ceruleus, the brain's “conductor,” to organize inputs into the cerebral cortex. Actions become calmer as thinking becomes clearer, and thinking becomes clearer as the locus ceruleus sends information to the front of the brain in an orderly fashion. The effects of sugar, unfortunately, are short-lived.

Almost as soon as ADHD is calmed by a sugar high, it is aggravated by a sugar crash. The ADHD sufferer may crave sugar all the time, and in some cases, eating lots of sugar all the time does improve behavior. Unfortunately, it will devastate health. For most children and adults with ADHD, usi ng sugar as a crude means of self-treatment causes as many problems as it solves.

Controlling food allergies may also help

Many parents report that treating food allergies also can be very helpful in managing childhood ADHD. The idea is that allergies or sensitivities to certain foods, most commonly cow's milk (or goat's milk, if the child grew up drinking goat's milk rather than cow's milk), wheat, beef, tomatoes, tree nuts, peanuts, baked goods made with yeast, chocolate, and citrus fruit, cause inflammation that causes attention deficit.

Up to 88 per cent of children with ADHD test positive for allergies to food dyes, and there is general agreement that more than half of children with ADHD get better when they are put on allergen-free diets.

Controlling food allergies never is a complete cure

Unfortunately, eliminating allergies never cures hyperactivity. Even the one study that obtained an 82-per cent success rate with an extremely restricted diet found that its measures of success were subjective rather than objective. That is, parents felt good about all the effort but basic observable behaviors did not change even after allergens were eliminated from the children’s diets.

A Sensible Way to Use Diet for ADHD

A sensible way to deal with possible food allergies in children is to eliminate potentially offending foods one at a time. For example, don’t give your child chocolate (and make sure he or she does not get chocolate at school or from friends) for a test period of 1 week. If your child appears better off, then quietly stop offering chocolate at home.

Repeat the process for wheat, meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, refined sugar, citrus fruits, preservatives, coffee, and tea, eliminating just one food at a time and waiting to see if there are any changes. If you can make the changes in the foods you offer your child into a game, or associate them with a story, so much the better.

Adults with ADHD benefit from the same process, but tend to find it hard to get organized to make sure they stay on their diets. If there is a hyperactive adult in your life and you do not have ADHD, it may be up to you to help them organize their food testing to see if it will help get symptoms under control.

Why food additives are the last items you should restrict

Only after you have eliminated problems with the major food groups should you begin to restrict food additives. The reason for this is that you can spend a great deal of money and effort eliminating food additives, but still have symptoms because the diet contains far greater amounts of foods that cause the same problems.

Once problem foods have been eliminated, however, then it makes sense to take on food additives. The next step in dietary modification is eliminating food additives. The least-complicated way to eliminate food additives is to cook from scratch - a difficult undertaking for families in which both parents work. Another approach is to avoid foods sold in cellophane packages.

If time constraints in your household make it impossible to avoid all prepared foods, try avoiding the commercial antioxidants BHT and BHA, typically found in foods prepared with fat and stored without refrigeration, such as bread and baked goods. Then eliminate products made with emulsifier, such as pudding cups, canned soups, and ice cream, and foods containing the Aspirin-like compounds known as salicylates, such as raisins, prunes, curry powder, paprika, thyme, dill, oregano, and turmeric. Try each elimination for a week and if there is improvement in symptoms, continue it.

Preservatives like Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydrozyttoluene (BHT), and TBHQ (Tertiary Butylhydroquinone), commonly used in chips, nuts, and salad dressings, have shown effects on brain and behavior.

Artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Sucralose, Saccharin, and Acesulfame Potassium, found in processed foods and drinks, have been linked to a range of health issues including effects on intelligence and memory. Salicylates, occurring naturally in many fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices, and also found in man-made forms in food colorings, preservatives, and flavor enhancers, were discovered to induce ADHD symptoms. Bisphenols A or BPA, found in food and soda can linings and some plastic containers, can disrupt hormonal systems and are linked to various health issues including behavioral disorders.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), a common sweetener in processed foods, may contribute to obesity and disrupts brain neurotransmitters and chemistry. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), often used in processed foods to enhance flavor, is an excitotoxin that can overstimulate nerve cells and is linked to neurological and behavioral disorders.

Sodium Benzoate, used in salad dressings and carbonated beverages, may exacerbate hyperactive behavior in children. Sodium Nitrates and Nitrites, common in processed meats, are carcinogenic and can interfere with the thyroid and endocrine system. Sodium Sulfite, used in wine and dried fruits, can cause severe allergic reactions in sensitive individuals and is linked to asthma and other respiratory problems.

Diets for ADHD can truly work wonders. Just be sure to remove the biggest offenders before tackling the smallest ones.