Ever wonder why your ADHD child gets more lethargic and fidgety after lunch? That’s because popular lunch time options put the brain to sleep rather than wake them up. Here are great lunch ideas that will help your child stay alert, calm, and attentive all afternoon.

Achieve the right balance between carbohydrates and protein

Your child’s ability to absorb information after lunch has a lot to do with the amount of carbohydrates and proteins he or she eats. Turkey, milk, eggs, and bananas contain high amounts of the amino acid tryptophan, which sedates the brain and can cause drowsiness. Eating carbohydrates with these tryptophan-rich foods only increases its sedative effect. Carbohydrates trigger the production of insulin, which drives the tryptophan into muscle tissue and helps it reach the brain more quickly.

On the other hand, eating more protein and fewer carbohydrates improves alertness after lunch, especially if they contain the amino acid tyrosine. Seafood, legumes, tofu, and tuna are just some examples of tyrosine-rich foods. Try a salad topped with legumes, turkey, and tuna if you want to improve how your child works and learns in the afternoon.

Even the order by which the food is consumed can influence afternoon performance. A high-protein breakfast or lunch enables tyrosine to wake up the brain. On the other hand, if the brain needs to relax, eating a high-carbohydrate dish before protein will neutralize the effect of tryptophan.

Provide a light and healthy lunch

High-calorie, high-carbohydrate dishes like pasta with meat sauce might sound like an appetizing lunch for kids, but it will only diminish their performance when their meal is done. Same goes with fatty meals – high-fat foods divert blood to the stomach instead of the brain because they are difficult to digest. Instead, serve your child a healthy lunch that has only 600-800 calories. A great example of this is a whole wheat tuna sandwich with tomato, lettuce, and low-fat mayonnaise and a glass of milk.

Discourage your child from eating desserts or consuming soft drinks with the meal. The junk sugars in these foods might increase energy, only for your child to “crash” in thirty minutes or so. Aside from being lethargic and inattentive, this blood sugar low will also cause mood swings.

Fight for healthy school lunches

Parents who do not have time to prepare lunch for their kids need to lobby for healthier school lunches. Lunch options in most public schools are nutritional failures; fast food options like burgers, pizza, and French fries are quickly taking over the menu. Get involved in your child’s parent-teacher organization if you can and make nutrient-rich school lunches a top priority.

One of the most difficult parts about natural ADHD treatments – besides figuring out which ones work best for your child – is the support or lack thereof of the people around you.  An ADHD treatment program is only as successful as the people who reinforce it, and there are many times when people allow your child to break the rules you’ve set for him or her.  One such problem is the issue of relatives and grandparents who slip the occasional cookie or forbidden food to a child on an ADHD diet.  Here’s what you can do when this happens.

Clarify the rules with your child

Children are smart enough to realize that their parents’ rules are different from their grandparents’ or aunts’ rules. If your relatives indulge your child by breaking routine and allowing your child to stay up late, make sure your child knows that regular routines will resume once he or she comes home.

Educate your relatives

The issue of ADHD treatments warrants a more serious discussion with your family. Since the relationship between ADHD and proper nutrition is not well-publicized, grandparents and other relatives might not understand why you child can’t have just one small bag of chips or a bowl of candy.  Educate your family by loaning books or showing them articles about ADHD and how symptoms are aggravated by artificial food additives, gluten, casein, and other allergens. Explain that your child has been well-behaved ever since the diet started and that avoiding these foods is crucial to your child’s ADHD recovery.

Consider desensitization techniques

If your family still refuses to cooperate, especially if your child is allergic to a number of foods, it might be worth it to try desensitizing the body. This involves specialized approaches that make the body less sensitive to the effects of gluten, casein, and other allergens. There are currently three types of desensitization techniques.

NAET

Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET) was created Dr. Devi Nambudripad, a chiropractor and medical doctor. Not only does this approach desensitize the body from known allergens, but it can also detect hidden food intolerances.

ASERT

Allergy/Sensitivity Elimination and Reprogramming Technique (ASERT) is a more expansive version of NAET because the desensitization technique is only one part of a multi-step treatment plan. This is also the desensitization technique used in our clinic.

Bioset

Developed by chiropractor Dr. Ellen Cutler, Bioset makes use of enzyme therapy and organ-specific detoxification technology to desensitize the body.

Lack of focus, forgetfulness, and hyperactive behavior – children with ADHD put up with a lot of symptoms and discomfort.  But these aren’t the only problems they have to deal with. Research shows that kids with ADHD are also more likely to experience allergies than kids without.  There is no easy explanation for why this happens but we do know that certain allergies, such as an intolerance to artificial food additives, can make the disorder worse for some kids.  Although many allergens cannot be controlled (e.g. high pollen count), it is possible to avoid triggers that aggravate ADHD symptoms.

Find out what foods your child is allergic to

Food allergies are often the primary contributor to ADHD symptoms, but the problem lies in detecting them. Unlike allergies to seafood or chocolate, these allergens do not have immediate reactions. Rather, their effects are delayed because they build up over time, until they spill over and cause a number of symptoms like dermatitis, joint inflammation, mood swings, depression, anxiety, and poor memory.

You can slowly uncover these hidden allergens through an elimination diet, an effective process that eliminates the most common food allergens – citrus fruits, shellfish, wheat, dairy, nuts, caffeine, and artificial additives.  The goal of the elimination diet is to avoid all these possible allergens for at least four days, or until you notice a change in your child’s behavior. For instance, you want to test if your child is allergic to citrus. Citrus fruits, juice, and foods with citrus ingredients are eaten one to three times for one day. Over the next several days, all citrus fruits are eliminated, then slowly added back to the diet.  If your child’s behavior gets worse, or if allergic reactions occur, it is likely that your child is allergic to citrus.  To make it easier to locate the allergen, keep a diary of foods and any reactions your child might have.

Although it takes months to complete an elimination diet, all your efforts will be rewarded when you discover what your child is allergic too.  ADHD children who avoid food allergens experience a significant improvement in their symptoms, and can even function as well as normal children.

No smoking in the house

It’s important for a child with allergies to stay away from tobacco smoke; inhaling smoke increases the amount of allergens in the lungs and nose.  Aside from making the house a smoke-free zone, avoid using candles, incense, a fireplace, or plug-in air fresheners, as these are strong allergens too.

Bathe pets weekly

Pets can be a godsend to children with ADHD, but many kids are allergic to a protein found in animal saliva, urine, or dander.  When a furry animal sheds, the allergen gets carried by invisible air particles, and lands on the lining of your eyes and nose.  A child with allergies will then experience symptoms like watery eyes or sneezing fits. Research suggests that washing your pets weekly will lower the amount of allergens they release into the air.

Get rid of dust mites

Dust mites thrive on dust particles that gather in the house, and their droppings are responsible for many kinds of allergies.  Get rid of dust mites by changing linens twice a month, having your air ducts cleaned regularly, using an air-conditioner to filter out pollen and other allergen material. Additionally, avoid decorating the house with heavy drapes, carpets, and stuffed animals, as these are havens for dust mites.

In the morning rush before school, it’s perfectly natural for kids to skip out on breakfast. However, try to make sure your child gets a bite of a high-protein meal in the morning. A new study published in the Environmental Health Journal discovered that a healthy breakfast is good for children with ADHD, not only for the energy it provides, but because it reduces the body’s absorption of lead. As you may already know, lead is one of the leading ADHD causes in children today.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, lead is the primary environmental health threat to children today because of its harmful neurological impact. Aside from causing ADHD, lead is responsible for learning disabilities, violent behavior, and hearing loss. Children absorb more lead than adults because of their underdeveloped immune systems, and the study discovered that lead absorption is ten times higher on an empty stomach.

The study looked at blood samples from 1,344 children and assessed the amount of lead, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, and calcium. The parent of each child also filled a questionnaire about their child’s diet and eating habits. After looking at the data, the researchers observed that children who ate regular breakfasts had lower blood levels of lead at 6.1 micrograms per 100ml. Those who had irregular breakfasts had higher lead levels at 7.2 micrograms per 100ml. Interestingly enough, the researchers also discovered that low amounts of lead is also related to high zinc levels in the blood.

How do children get exposed to lead? Even though lead-based paint and leaded gasoline has been banned, traces of this heavy metal can be found in most foods and drinking water because of lead in the soil and industrial waste containing lead.  Lead can sometimes be found in toys and certain cosmetics.  So aside from providing a good breakfast every morning, take a few minutes to wash all new toys, filter water, and use organic products to protect your child from lead’s harmful effects.

Exciting news for parents who want their kids to try an ADHD diet! A new study confirms once more that ADHD symptoms can be reduced by eliminating foods that trigger them. The study on the restricted elimination diet (RED) was recently published in The Lancet, with very promising results.

How do ADHD diets work?

If you have been following the UnRitalin Blog for some time, you might already be familiar with how ADHD diets work to relieve symptoms. But for the benefit of those who are new, let me explain the relationship between food and ADHD.  While ADHD is known to be the result of a neurotransmitter deficiency, many cases of childhood ADHD are actually allergic reactions to certain types of food. Dr. Doris Rapp explains that allergic reactions are not limited to familiar symptoms like coughing or watery eyes; some allergies affect how the brain works, which manifests itself as problematic behavior. If you click on the link, you’ll see an amazing video that demonstrates how exposure to allergens can completely transform a child’s behavior.

Most ADHD diets are designed to eliminate foods known to trigger allergic reactions. The tricky part about using a diet to treat ADHD is that each child is sensitive to different foods. For instance, while foods with gluten and casein are generally known to trigger ADHD symptoms, some children may be allergic to certain fruits and vegetables on top of gluten and casein. ADHD diets are not a quick fix; every child has to go through a trial and error process to determine which foods have to be eliminated.

Restricted Elimination Diet

The study on the restricted elimination diet shows more evidence that removing certain foods can indeed improve the behavior of children with ADHD. The study was led by Jan Buitelaar of Radbound University and involved the participation of one hundred children with ADHD between the ages of 4-8. The children were equally divided into two groups – one group was given a general healthy diet, while the other group was given a diet that was restricted to certain foods. These foods included rice, white meat, water, and fruits and vegetables that are least likely to cause allergies. Foods with tomatoes, eggs, oranges, dairy, and wheat were also kept out of the second group because they are related to food intolerances or allergies.

In the second group, 41 of 50 children completed the five-week period, and 32 of the 41 children (78%) responded well by having fewer symptoms.  Not only were their ADHD symptoms less pronounced, but they also had fewer symptoms of oppositional defiance disorder, which is characterized by temper tantrums, stubbornness, and defiance.

All the children who completed the five-week period went on another diet where the allergenic foods were reintroduced. After another trial, the symptoms returned in the children who showed positive improvements.

Going on an ADHD diet

Parents who are looking for an alternative ADHD treatment might find success in doing an ADHD diet. However, it is important that you do the diet with the help of a doctor or nutritionist. Some ADHD diets require the elimination of nutrient-rich foods, which can increase the risk of malnutrition if a balance of nutrients is not achieved.  ADHD diets will also require the involvement and participation of the entire family. In order to keep your child from getting tempted by the eliminated foods, everyone in the family has to go on the diet as well.  Getting used to a restrictive new diet will take some adjustment, but I never fail to get surprised by children’s high response rate to an ADHD diet.

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Getting your child to give up favorite foods for an ADHD diet is tricky, and the holiday season might make it more difficult.  The last few weeks of the year will be filled with dinner parties, family reunions, and other types of gatherings centered on food.  Your child might feel left out when cousins enjoy forbidden holiday treats, and relatives won’t understand why he or she can’t have just one tiny cookie.  It may not be a good idea to take a break from your child’s diet and start from scratch after a few weeks, but here are some tips that will make eating a fun occasion for your child during the holidays.

Host the party

Offer to host this year’s holiday dinner party or family gathering.  This way, you can make sure that all dishes being served is allowed by your child’s diet, be it the Feingold diet or the gluten-free casein-free diet. If your house cannot accommodate all your guests, offer to prepare the food for the party instead.

Look for alternatives to forbidden ingredients

The holidays won’t be as magical for a child without a steaming mug of hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, or candy cane.  The problem is that these foods are normally eliminated in most ADHD diets.  However, you can easily give your child some holiday treats if you can find additive-free, gluten-free, or casein-free alternatives to these unwanted ingredients.  Gluten-free casein-free cookbooks are easily available in all bookstores, but you can also find useful recipes when you search online.

Consider a desensitization treatment

If you do not have time to host parties or prepare holiday feasts, consider a desensitization treatment to make your child less sensitive to food allergens. Look for chiropractors or doctors who specialize in enzyme therapy, food allergy elimination, or organ-specific detoxification. A caveat: these techniques won’t work overnight; it may take several months before you see any noticeable results.

Ask for support

Support from family and friends can make it easier for your child to stick to a diet but it’s likely that your relatives don’t understand why your child can’t just take a pill. When planning the holiday festivities, take time to educate them on the logic behind your child’s diet – certain food substances or ingredients influence brain activity and trigger hyperactive behavior, aggression, or inattention.

Last week, I talked about how the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed over the last few years, and posited some possible explanations for this phenomenon.  While some might argue that ADHD awareness and overeager doctors contributed to this increase, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that diet and lifestyle parallels the high rate of childhood ADHD cases today.

This study, which was done by researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center, looked at 201 children and adolescents between the ages 10 and 18.  All children were referred the URMC’s Children’s Hospital hypertension clinic, and it was found that 101 had sustained high blood pressure or hypertension.  We’re all familiar with how hypertension increases the risk of heart disease among adults but in young children, high blood pressure has a stronger impact on their mental development and functioning.  Not surprisingly, 28% of the 101 children were found to have ADHD and learning disabilities.

Children with ADHD used to be excluded from studies like this because the medications they take may increase blood pressure. However, the researchers included ADHD children this time because they wanted to see if high blood pressure impaired their mental functioning. What’s interesting is that when ADHD was removed from the picture, hypertension was still related to a higher rate of learning disabilities in children.  This suggests that high blood pressure may contribute to mental development problems among children.

Hypertension in infants is usually caused by problems with the kidneys or heart, or premature birth. With proper management, blood pressure normalizes during early childhood. However, at least 3% of children today have high blood pressure, and many of these cases are not due to birth complications.  Many adolescents and teens with hypertension do not have other health problems, but they do have a family history of hypertension and live an unhealthy lifestyle characterized by excess weight, bad diet, lack of physical activity, and stress.

Fortunately, it’s not difficult to prevent hypertension in children, even if the child has a family history of the condition. These preventative measures are also often used as natural ADHD treatments:

• Regular exercise not only keeps ADHD symptoms at bay; it strengthens the blood vessels and helps control weight.  Though organized sports is the most common way to get regular exercise, unstructured activity like running, biking, or skating also works for kids with ADHD.
• Avoid high-fat and high-sodium foods – the two culprits behind high blood pressure. Give your child healthy meals with low-fat products, fruits, vegetables, and fish.
• Supplement meals with omega-3 essential fatty acids from fish oil. For ADHD kids with hypertension, omega-3 fats serve a double purpose – it reduces ADHD symptoms by forming the structure of the neuron membranes and facilitating neurotransmitter communication, and it prevents hypertension by keeping blood vessels supple.
• Get a regular check-up. A child’s blood pressure naturally increases with age, and a doctor can tell if your child’s blood pressure is normal for his or her age, height, and weight.

If you are aware that sugar can cause ADHD, then you may no longer buy sweets, pastries, commercial fruit drinks, and other sugary foods when you do the groceries.  Instead, you purchase sugar-free alternatives and artificial sweeteners. After all, it would be cruel to deprive your child of these sweet treats.  But did you know that sugar-free foods won’t necessarily help your child overcome ADHD? Sugar-free products contain substitutes that children with ADHD can be intolerant to. Below are two sugar-free ingredients that your child needs to avoid, and the surprising truth behind them.

Aspartame

Aspartame (sometimes labeled phenylalanine) is the chemical sweetener behind Equal, Nutrasweet, and other sugar alternatives.   Although it was approved safe for human consumption in the 1970s, this sweet poison is surrounded by controversy.  It is said to be connected to many serious diseases like lymphoma, brain lesions, and brain tumors; often, its side effects are misdiagnosed.  When exposed to extreme temperatures, aspartame can break down into toxic chemicals like formic acid and formaldehyde.  And if taken in high amounts, phenylalanine works like any neurotoxin – it will excite the neurons in the brain until they reach cellular death.

Aside from these toxic effects on the nervous system, aspartame can contribute to ADHD and other neurological conditions in another way.  Amino acids are the building block of neurotransmitters, and low levels of this substance can be the reason behind a neurotransmitter deficiency (biologically speaking, ADHD is caused by a deficiency in the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine).  The opposite can also be true – high levels of amino acids can lead to an overproduction of these neurotransmitters.  Aspartame can cause hyperactive symptoms because of an amino acid excess, especially if your child consumes large amounts of this substance in soft drinks and processed foods.

Sugar alcohols

Sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, isomalt, and other sugar alcohols occur naturally in some plants and fruits. They are often used as low-calorie sweeteners in gum, candy, and other foods because they aren’t easily digested. These sugars are said to be very helpful to those with diabetes because only parts of it get digested. As for the sugars that get absorbed, they enter the bloodstream slowly, avoiding the rise in blood sugar levels often caused by refined sugar.

Unfortunately, it is this very characteristic that makes sugar alcohols a problematic substance for children with ADHD.  The parts that do not get absorbed or digested goes through the intestinal tract and ferments, attracting water and causing dysbiosis – a condition where the gut flora in the intestine gets overwhelmed by harmful bacteria.  These bacteria feast on the undigested sugars and multiply as a result. When there is too much bad bacteria in the intestine, the gut flora cannot absorb nutrients properly, causing nutrient deficiencies, leaky gut syndrome, and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Additionally, the gastrointestinal tract is connected to the nervous system; any problems with the GI tract will influence neurological well-being.

Natural alternatives to refined sugar

Because of these hidden dangers, it’s best if you avoid sugar-free foods and use natural sweeteners when you cook or bake for your child. Some sweeteners you can use are honey, molasses, brown rice syrup, or maple syrup (the real one). Not only are these free from the additives known to trigger ADHD; they are also rich in vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. Just make sure you inspect the label carefully for any additives or ingredients that shouldn’t be in there.

ADHD cannot be diagnosed by checking off a laundry list of symptoms because many disorders often cause similar problems. Celiac disease is one such overlooked disorder. You might have been aware that food intolerances and intestinal problems have a hand in causing ADHD symptoms. Celiac disease is a condition where a person is intolerant to the plant protein gluten, which is found in wheat and wheat products. When a child with celiac disease eats pizza, pasta, or any food with wheat in it, the immune system reacts by damaging the upper region of the small intestine. The initial damage only amounts to minor inflammation but if the child continues to eat foods with gluten, painful symptoms and impaired nutrient absorption can occur.

The latter effect is particularly significant. In our previous articles, we have shown how deficiencies in zinc, magnesium, calcium, and other nutrients can trigger or aggravate ADHD symptoms. Iron in particular has been found to be useful in suppressing ADHD symptoms, assuming that there is indeed an iron deficiency. Research shows that a gastro-intestinal system damaged by celiac disease can lead to an iron deficiency, which can complicate things for a child with ADHD.

Celiac disease has also been linked to other common psychological conditions like chronic depression. This could be due to the fact that the gastro-intestinal tract produces 90% of the body’s serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for mood control and feelings of happiness. Another possible reason is that a damaged gastro-intestinal tract might be unable to absorb adequate amounts of tryptophan, the amino acid precursor to serotonin. Tryptophan is found in high concentrations in meats like turkey.

Given that ADHD has so many potential causes, it’s likely that your child’s symptoms may be caused by an underlying factor like celiac disease. You can confirm your suspicions through a combination of lab tests. The first step to a celiac disease diagnosis are blood tests designed to measure levels of a certain auto-antibody. Unlike antibodies, which attack foreign substances and viruses in the body, auto-antibodies target the body’s own tissues. The auto-antibodies measured for celiac disease are immunoglobulin A, anti-endomysium antibodies, and anti-tissue transglutaminase. The blood work might also include a complete blood count to rule out anemia. Other tests you might want to include are nutrient element test to check for vitamin deficiencies and an intestinal permeability test with stool analysis.

The good news is that the effects of celiac disease can be avoided by a gluten-free diet. An Italian study on celiac patients with ADHD symptoms discovered that eliminating gluten for six months reduced the severity of ADHD symptoms. Although the prevalence of wheat products in the typical Western diet might be hard to implement the gluten-free diet on a child, ADHD cookbooks can help you find alternative ingredients for gluten-free cooking and baking.

In the UnRitalin Solution, we place a lot of importance on diet and proper nutrition as a key to overcoming ADHD. Research shows that artificial additives and certain other food substances can aggravate the trademark symptoms of ADHD, including inattention and hyperactive behavior. These foods cause adverse reactions that impact the brain wave patterns in specific areas of the brain, which in turn triggers the ADHD-like symptoms.

Although very few researchers have looked into the actual mechanisms by which food allergies affect ADHD symptoms, a small study done in 1997 was able to document the phenomenon well. Researchers from Australia’s Institute for Child Health Research investigated the changes in brainwave patterns when participants with ADHD ate foods they were allergic too. The results are very telling and support the theory that an intolerance to certain foods are responsible for ADHD-like behaviors.

Before moving on to the study’s main points, it might help to have a brief discussion on how ADHD is traditionally diagnosed. Since the three hallmark symptoms of ADHD are also symptoms of other disorders, simply checking them off a list is not enough. One other widely-used diagnostic tool is called the Conner’s Rating Scale. This numerical scale is usually filled up by parents or teachers to provide an objective measure of the ADHD symptoms. The higher the numerical score, the more intense the ADHD symptom is. Using a certain cut-off point, the clinician can determine if a child qualifies for ADHD. Aside from that, the symptoms should have been present for over six months in at least two different environments. Although other professionals use different tests to make the diagnosis, the Conner’s Rating Scale plays an important role in screening ADHD from other behavioral disorders.

In the Australian study, twelve children with known mild to moderate food allergies had their brain wave activation patterns mapped by a Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG). You might want to read our article on the QEEG test to understand the differences in the ADHD mind’s brain wave patterns. The QEEG scan was done twice – once after five days of consuming the allergenic food, and once after two weeks of avoiding these foods. In addition, the children were made to take the Conner’s Rating Scale twice – once after eating the allergenic foods, another after the two week period of avoiding the allergenic foods.

Below is a table of the children’s Conner scores. In the version of the scale used by the study, the cut-off score for ADHD is 15.

As you can see, ten of the participants had scores above the threshold for ADHD once allergenic foods were introduced to their diets. It seems that consuming foods that provoke allergies is enough to cause ADHD-like symptoms when they weren’t there before. The researchers also noted that the most common allergenic foods among the children were wheat, milk, food colorings, and beet sugar.

Aside from that, the QEEG scans showed the changes in sixteen different brain regions after eating the allergenic foods and after avoiding the allergenic foods. To help you understand the results, below is a table of the brain wave types and activity levels.

Of all the brain waves, the researchers noted that the beta-1brainwave was most affected by the food allergies. The frequency changes were highly concentrated in the temporal and right frontal regions of the brain – the brain regions most associated with ADHD.

Although the population of the study is very small, the findings pose interesting questions as to how many cases of ADHD are actually caused by food intolerances and can be treated with the right ADHD diet. Of course, food allergies are just one potential cause of ADHD, but studies like this one lend credibility to the effectiveness of eliminating gluten, casein, and food additives from a diet.

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