What Is an ADHD Diet? i.e. What Are Some Non-processed Foods?

It just means whole, real food.
Some things are highly processed and easy to avoid, like frozen dinners, canned and powdered stuff, boxed cookies, crackers, etc.
Other things are minimally processed, and a little harder to avoid, like pasta and cheese (not many of us are willing to make these things from scratch.)
The better you eat, the better you feel, that's a given, but if ADD or ADHD is treated or managed by diet alone than it was never ADD/HD to begin with.

Ditto Jo.
I have found nothing that really does a huge difference.
A couple of things that do make a small difference is protein , it will stick with them longer and you don't have the crash off of the carbs. The blood sugar crash can make symptoms much worse.

I didn't respond to the other questions, but sans actual food allergies, no diet can cure or help with ADHD. It really irritates me when people push diet. The reason is the nature of ADHD is no one can see something is wrong with you so they think you don't try hard enough. So you change the diet, it doesn't work, you must not be trying hard enough. There are all these layers that are all about it is the child's fault and then they wonder why kids with ADHD have awful self esteem.

The biggest thing that drives me nuts is sugar. Ask anyone that works with me, there is no difference between when I eat a bunch of sugary stuff and otherwise. Actually regardless of what I eat, no difference. Yet ask anyone who works with me when my meds kick in and they can tell you the very second!
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If you see a difference due to diet the child never had ADHD in the first place!

1) Good nutrition helps ADHD as much as it helps ANYONE. Which means its a GREAT thing. However...

2) Good nutrition in NO WAY affects ADHD
Also doesn't cure
- dyslexia
- giftedness
- autism
- schizophrenia
- musical talent
- facility for languages.
- etc

Because. Like. Everything. Above... ADHD is a brain disorder/neurotical phenomenon.

3) What nutrition CAN heal/cure/help/fix is
- malnutrition
- allergic reactions
- food intolerance issues

All 3 of which can MIMIC CERTAIN symptoms of ADHD. Just like "mommy brain" (aka sleep deprivation) can mimic ADHD. Its not ADHD. Amd taking stimulants will only make the sleep dep worse.

Another way to look at differentials
- A tumor is not a baby. No matter HOW big a woman's belly gets, she's not pregnant if its a tumor, not a baby.
- Yes. A high fever is a symptom of Ebola. But if you have strep throat, and your insides aren't turning to jelly, you don't have Ebola.

For some reason, people persist in telling other people how to treat their ADHD like they treated their malnutrition, allergy, sleep deprivation, etc. It makes as much sense as telling a mom to cut her baby out as soon as she finds out she's pregnant (because that's how you handle a tumor). And who goes around telling everyone she was pregnant until, thank heavens, they removed the tumor!! You should try it the next time you get pregnant!!!

4) If you're buying it in a store, its been processed to some degree (harvested or butchered)... Just like ALL foods are "organic" (inorganic substances are in edible! :D). But what people MEAN are single ingredient foods in their perishable form.
- Meat (not dried, smoked, canned, souped, etc).
- Fruit & Veg (not cooked, canned, frozen, dried, etc.)
- Grains level 1 (not ground, cooked/baked, etc.)
- Grains level 2 (ground whole into flour, but not separated, bleached, etc.)

5) Now here's a kicker:

ADHD people CAN have
- malnutrition
- allergies
- intolerance
- sleep dep
- etc.

I'm ADHD. I can't have dairy (violently, and explosively I'll! Dave Barry colonoscopy ill). Avoiding dairy Doesn't affect my ADHD EXCEPT that its easier to concentrate / do things when I'm not in blinding pain. Ditto, I function better with good sleep. When Im sleep deprived, Im an extra big mess. But diarrhea & sleep dep free... I'm still ADHD.

Everything is not processed in some way. :) It was a long journey to figure out a diet for my youngest, who has a myriad of dietary conditions including Celiac disease, but we got there.

First, if something has ONE ingredient, that's what you call a whole food. An apple, a banana, a head of broccoli, a pork chop, tuna, etc. Those are non-processed foods. You can go one step ahead and buy organic where it makes sense to do so...fruits and vegetables, mostly.

Most of her foods are unprocessed or minimally processed. She mostly eats apples, bananas, prunes, gf cereal, lf yogurt, tuna, tortilla chips, and peanut butter. I know that seems very limited, but she's very picky on top of having a necessarily limited diet.

Minimally processed is often more key, as most children won't live on the above diet. When you look at the ingredient list of a food that isn't a whole food, it shouldn't read like a lab sheet. If you can't pronounce a word and it sounds like a chemical, it probably is.

Dyes are listed just as such (Blue Lake, Yellow # whatever, etc) and should REALLY be avoided if at all possible. Essentially, there are "processed" foods that aren't so bad, but steer clear of long lists of chemicals and dyes. These things have been proven to cause problems in children.

One good example...my two year old LOVES Delimex Tamales (beef) and they are gluten free, so we keep them in stock. Here's the ingredients list, taken right off the box:

Water, corn masa, cooked beef, soybean oil, beef broth, tomato paste, and contains less than 2% of salt, chili peppers, modified cellulose, cilantro, garlic and onion powder, jalapeno peppers, spices.

The only thing that might throw you is "modified cellulose" if you aren't familiar with it, but it is naturally derived from plant tissue, seeds, or wood, and is essentially used to improve texture, retain moisture, and lengthen shelf life (without the use of chemical preservatives! Yay!)

So essentially, even though this is a common frozen food product I buy at WalMart, it is made FROM whole foods and it is NOT full of ingredients I don't recognize. In fact, I know what everything in it is.

Now, for an alternate example...here's the ingredient list on a box of PopTarts (Frosted Pumpkin Pie.) Bear with me!

Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) corn syrup, high fructose forn syrup, vegetable oil (soybean and palm oil with TBHQ for freshness), dextrose, sugar, cracker meal, and 2% or less of wheat leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophospate, monocalcium phospate), corn cereal, molasses, yellow corn flour, eggs, gelatin, cinnamon, modified corn starch, nutmeg, cinger, caramel color, sunflower lecithin, tricalcium phospate, vanilla extract, soy lecithin, cloves, vitamin A palmitate, niacinamide, reduced iron, yellow #6, pyridoxine hydrocloride, riboflavin, yellow #5, thiamin hydrochloride, red #40, folic acid, blue #1.

Yuck. NO FOOD you feed your child should have that many ingredients, unless you made an awesome stir fry full of tons of different spices and vegetables. Several of the above ingredients are very obviously chemicals and dyes.

Anyhow, for breakfast...gf waffles with peanut butter, unprocessed cereal, yogurt, bananas, apples, prunes. Lunch is usually tuna, chicken, or tamale with same fruits, yogurt, or a veggie. Dinner is always something different, but common meals include...well, homemade anything, really.

I'm sorry I got so long winded, but hopefully that helps a bit.

Just look for foods that have one or few ingredients, or all things you can recognize.

Also, it's a good idea to shop the perimeter of a grocery store instead of the middle...produce, fresh meats, dairy. Can't go wrong there!

I will agree with Jo to the extent that diet is not a way to treat conditions besides dietary conditions (I'm not in the camp of using diet to treat ADHD)...but if you eat better, you feel better, you behave better, etc, and I think that's just a fact of life. I am all for a natural, minimally processed diet, simply because I think everyone ought to eat that way. I've lived both sides of this, and I can tell you that I have more energy and get almost no migraines eating this way, vs. the sluggishness and constant migraines that came with a really crappy diet.

Jo is right on. This is a brain disorder, so it's not something easily solved.

There has been a lot of research done and nothing has shown diet does anything for ADHD. It would be super if it were that simple, but it's not. However, if someone has food sensitivities in addition to the ADHD, it can help.

Just don't spend a lot of money on pricey food changes expecting to see the desired changes. Your money is best spent on working with medical specialists who deal with ADHD day in and day out and know what really works.

I've read through the other responses, and while some say they haven't seen a difference regardless what they eat, I've seen huge differences that directly correlate with the food that the kids around me eat (my son, my friend's two sons, and another friend).

If you regularly buy things from the store, open the package, and eat, I'd recommend reading all the ingredients. If you don't know how some of the ingredients are made, or couldn't recognize them by themselves, put the package down, write the ingredient down, and do some research. Find out what stuff is and then go shopping again.

Some of my go-to favorites are Applegate Farms lunchmeat (expensive but minimally processed), Stretch Island fruit leather, Stonyfield Farms yogurt (the plainer the better), and all fruit spreads (instead of jelly or jam).

Many of the people I know who are healing from ADHD naturally have been tested for food intolerances (not allergies). To diagnose an allergy, a person has to be exposed to the item often enough to build up a defense within their body. To diagnose an intolerance or sensitivity, they can use blood, urine, hair, or even mild electrodes (non-invasive) to figure it out. It worked for us.

Aside from food colorings, some other common triggers are gluten/wheat, milk/casein, soy, nuts, and eggs. Your son may or may not have any of these triggers. Again, the best way to find out what's up with his body is to have him tested for food intolerances or sensitivities.

If you pick up a package and there is a list of ingredients (plural), it's probably processed. (Peas and carrots would be an example of a list of ingredients that is not processed.)

Best chance of finding these foods is the perimeter of your grocery store.

Do I think it helps an ADHD child? I have mixed feelings on that. We have found several ingredients in foods that are triggers for my ADHD child. Food dyes, especially RD 40, affect him so badly even he knows not to touch the stuff. Beyond that, I can't really say we've noticed any difference.

Still, a whole foods diet is something to strive for. The less chemicals and junk we put in our bodies, the better for our heath. That's just my humble opinion. Also, IMHO, cooking a food does not make it processed. That would be a 'raw diet' vs a 'whole food diet.'

Our meals consist of lean protiens, fruits and veggies. I usually make my own bread. A grilled chicken breast, steamed brocolli, and a sliced banana. 2 scrambled eggs, toast with butter, and some grapes. We buy only organic milk because even though it's a one ingredient food I know first hand living in dairy country all the chemicals they put into cows.

Finally, if I have the choice and it's not going to destroy my budget, I'll pick organic over regular any day. Again, for me, it gets back to the chemicals found in foods. How could eating trace amounts of pesticides be good?

SEE: feingold.org/overview

The Feingold diet has been popular for years and years.

Steer clear of corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, conventional soy (which is GMO...), etc...

One definition would be single ingredient whole foods like vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs. Cooking an egg and drying and hulling rice however, could be considered processed, so I think for practical users the definition would be that if you could make it from scratch in your home kitchen using single ingredient foods, its not processed. So for example, no one could make a power bar from a home kitchen because its full of laboratory foods. Same with most boxed cereals because they have corn syrup ( a chemical process not easily achieved in a home kitchen) and adatives . However there are lots of pastas, breads and cheeses that could be made in a home kitchen with single ingredient foods. A can of vegetable soup, if all the ingredients are recognizable, obtainable, and not created in a laboratory, would be considered minimally processed.
Consider fruit shakes and oatmeal with fresh fruit, nuts, and milk for breakfast. For lunch I give my kids whole wheat bean and cheese burritos. For dinner brown rice, broccoli with lemon and grilled fish with olive oil and salt. Work from whole foods, as one person suggested, shop the perimeter of the grocery store and skip most foods in the isles.

Do the bulk of you shopping in the outside aisles of the store. What are the outside Aisles? Dairy, fresh produce, fresh meat, bakery. Stay away form process cheese such a Velveta go for real cheese, such as chedder, Swiss, American -- stuff like boxed mac and cheese is not good for you and if you read the package most of the nutrition comes from the milk that is added. Overly processed cereal, most kids cereal, is over processed. Things like Shredded Wheat and oatmeal are not processed. Be careful when buying bread --- all bread is wheat bread because the flour used to make the bread is ground from wheat. You want whole grain or whole wheat. But read ingredients carefully. Canned sauces and soups are processed foods and contain lots of ingredients we shouldn't be eating. the are usually high in salt and have MSG, a trigger for ADD and ADHD and Autisim.

Basically you have to learn to cook like grandma and great-grandma did. Fresh ingredients, with herbs and spices, real food. It's not that hard I do it every day.

Check out heavenlyhomemakers.com She makes everything basically from scratch. She also posts her meal plans and has an index of healthy recipes. Not sure if it'll help with ADHD but it's always better to eat less processed anyway. Good luck!

Understand where Riley is coming from and what she is saying. To a certain extent, yes, she is correct. However, having a daughter who has SPD and having implemented an organic diet as well as taking out specific food groups and putting in a reverse-osmosis system, I have noticed a complete and total CHANGE in my daughter for the better. And it all had to do with just changing her diet.

I have done extensive research for the past 5 years on food and nutrition and how both affect health and dis-ease. Riley states "ADHD is a brain disorder/neurotical phenomenon." Yes, I will agree with that. But WHAT CAUSED that brain disorder/neurotical problem? Could it possibly be, gulp, that something you're eating has crossed the brain barrier and--oh, I don't know, is causing issues in the brain? Like an issue with food intolerance/allergy or an allergy to a chemical, pesticide, preservative, flavoring, dye/coloring, hormones, etc., that was put into whatever you're eating or drinking? I think that is highly likely and probable, yes.

We have a lot of new and different chemicals, pesticides, preservatives as well as lots and lots of processed, manmade foodstuffs in our food supply that our grandparents and generations before them never had to contend with. Why is it that in our generation and that of our children, so many of us are sick with all of these "weird brain disorders/neurological disorders?" Could it not be linked to what we are eating and all of the stuff being put into the food that isn't natural to our bodies?

Sorry, but I think so.

Non-processed diet generally means that when you read the food label you know and understand what it is the word says (not that it says something that is a chemical-sounding or scientific-sounding name) and usually it is made with 5 ingredients or less (I allow up to 7 ingredients as long as I can pronounce all the words and know exactly what it is that is in the food). It also means you eat lots of healthy food--fresh produce like fruits and vegetables, fresh pasture-raised meat and eggs, nuts, legumes, whole grains, good oils (like coconut or olive oil). Eating a more wholesome diet.

Try the Feingold diet. Omega 3 oil can also help.

What Riley said except that giftedness is not something to be cured, it is a wonderful 'gift' and salt is both edible and inorganic.

Hi, CW:
Check out the CHADD website.

Good luck.
D.

You just cook a lot of food from scratch. No artificial colors or flavors (that is an easy one to avoid). You can also try eliminating certain types of food like dairy or gluten to see if that helps. Sometimes it does, othertimes it doesn't. Just eat whole foods in their natural state.