Best Foods To Eat And Which To Avoid To Help With ADHD

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If your child suffers from ADHD, you know how difficult it can be to help them. Doctors simply want to push drugs on your kids and tell you that you are “ruining” your child’s life if you don’t give in to them. Of course, some adults also suffer from ADHD, but in this article we are going to focus on school age children.

Although scientists do not yet have a cure, or even a magic pill, (and don’t be fooled, drugs like Ritalin are NOT the answer) there are other options besides pharmaceuticals. Diet alone is not the driving force behind ADHD, but it certainly does play a large part. Several studies have found that certain foods or food additives affect certain symptoms of ADHD.

We have compiled a list of some of the worst ingredients and foods that anyone suffering with ADHD needs to avoid as well as a list of foods that seem to help improve the symptoms.

Keep reading and find out which foods you should avoid and which foods you should offer more of to your child and see if these make any difference in their behavior.

Foods and Additives to Avoid:

1. Artificial Colors and Other Additives

As early as the 1970’s, doctors and scientists have believed that the synthetic dyes, preservatives, and flavors cause behavior problems. Researchers have found in numerous studies that there is a link between artificial food colors and hyperactivity. Although FDA law states that certain colors, such as FD&C Yellow #5 (sometimes called tartrazine) and FD&C Red #40 (sometimes called allura) need to be on all food labels, there are plenty of other colors that do not. If you eat something and it colors your tongue a bright color, it almost certainly contains artificial colors. This includes things like canned fruit, barbeque sauces, fruit flavored drinks, sports drinks, some kid’s vitamins (such as chewy, gummy type vitamins), and fruit flavored cereals, dried fruit snacks, gelatin powder, and even toothpaste.

You should also be aware of a preservative called sodium benzoate. Studies have found that this synthetic preservative increases hyperactivity. This preservative is found in numerous foods such as condiments (ketchup or soy sauce for example) salad dressings, and carbonated beverages. Other preservatives that are suspect are TBHQ, sodium nitrate, BHA and BHT.

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