Foods to Avoid if you have ADHD

You may be asking yourself, “What foods should I cut out for ADHD?”

This post will help get you started in the right direction and know what foods to avoid in your ADHD’ers diet.

I have known for a long time that what goes into the mouths of my two boys with ADHD, significantly affects their behavior and their ability to concentrate and focus in school.

Every kid is different, but read on to start uncovering what foods may be triggers for your kids’ ADHD symptoms.

Caveat: I am not a doctor, nor a nutritionist. I share this for informational purposes, so you can do a deeper dive into what you are eating and feeding your kids. 

What foods should you avoid for ADHD?

Scroll Down for a Big List of Foods to Avoid That You Can Screenshot and Take to the Store.

1. Limit Sugar 

“Sugar” and ADHD might be worse than you think. These facts, when seen together, really paint a grim picture for sugar.

• Many studies have shown that sugar increases inattention.
• 1 in 4 teens are now considered pre diabetic as a result of too much sugar consumption.
• Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and causes an addictive response in the brain.

Wait, there’s more bad news about sugar and ADHD:

• Sugar interferes with the actions of calcium and magnesium, increases inflammation, increases erratic brain cell firing, and has been implicated in aggression.
• Studies showed sugar causes increased slow brain waves, and a study at UCLA showed that sugar alters learning and memory.
• Sugar does not fill you up and encourages you to eat more. 

Sugar does damage to the liver , building up fatty tissue, leading to liver disease. Also, when you are eating sugary foods, you are less likely to be getting the nutrients your brain needs to function, increasing your ADHD symptoms.

Sugar can also wreck havoc on our dopamine levels, as our brains become used to high levels of sugar. ADHD kids (and adults) have lower levels of dopamine, and so sugar can be especially addictive for them. In fact, dopamine receptors can be altered in certain areas of the brain from consuming too much sugar over a long period of time.

How much sugar is too much?

 As Americans, on average, we consume about half a pound of sugar a day. In this article, Katie Wells  tackles the question of why even eating sugar in moderation is just not the answer. Sugar is not a food group.

Did you know that the American Medical Association says that kids should eat less than 25 grams of sugar a day.  

Yes, 25 grams of processed sugar a day is the allowance.

This was a BIG realization for me when I learned this. 

Just look on any label and see how fast this adds up. A bowl of cereal and a glass of juice will catapult you over 25 grams-and that is just breakfast!

Our family is no way near the 1/2 pound a day norm, but we often exceed  25 grams of processed sugar per day recommendation for kids.

Remember we are talking about processed sugar…so that includes juices and dried fruit- as well as the obvious candy, frozen pizza, tomato sauce, cakes, cereals, granola bars, ketchup, salad dressings, barbecue chips, and cookies.

Fructose from whole fruits and vegetables is not counted in that limit, as whole foods contain fiber, enzymes, and vitamins and minerals that effect how the body processes the sugar.

What forms of sugar are “okay”?

Fresh and frozen fruit are the best, followed by maple syrup and raw honey, which contain antioxidants and gut beneficial ingredients.   Stevia is a low calorie, plant based sweetener that can be okay in small amounts.  

Cane sugar is far better than high fructose corn syrup or any artificial sweetener, but is highly caloric and should be eaten in very small amounts. 

The best solution is to cut back – maybe way, way back – on sweet foods in general. 

Take a look at what your kids eat in any given day and see how close you are to 25 grams a day. It is not hard at all to come in at double that – even while eating a seemingly, healthy diet

2. Also, stay away from artificial dyes.

Unfortunately, there is more to worry about in these sugary foods than sugar. Artificial food dyes are used to make candy look fun and inviting and exciting! Yet, they are another one of the foods to avoid for adhd.

For instance, if your ADHD Kiddo experiences hyperactivity after eating a food, it may be from Red Dye 40, an artificial coloring found in even brown, green, and white foods. Blue 1, it seems, crosses the blood brain barrier, entering the bloodstream and possibly the brain. 

And it’s not just hyperactivity we have to worry about. Food Dyes can also increase inflammation and disrupt the functioning of the immune system, contain toxic cancer causing elements and may cause growth of cancerous tumors.

This doctor ,and mom of an ADHD kid who avoids food dyes, did some extensive research on food dyes. While she had trouble finding conclusive evidence, she wholeheartedly keeps her kids away from artificial food dyes when she can. 

The good news is that as concerned parents and physicians keep noticing a link between food dyes and adhd symptoms, more and more studies are cropping up listing the possible harm of food dyes. 

The FDA requires companies to list artificial food dyes on their labels, so avoiding them is easy. Look for dyes with numbers, like Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1.

3. ADHD’ers should avoid preservatives in their food.

 The Feingold Diet for ADHD eliminates three main artificial preservatives – butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and tert-Butrylhdryquinone (TBHQ).

These preservatives are found in foods that need to last a long time – snack foods, gum, butter, meats, baked goods, to name a few. Avoiding processed foods is the best thing to do to avoid preservatives. 

These preservatives can cause serious health hazards such as hypersensitivity, allergy, asthma, hyperactivity, neurological damage and cancer. 

The Feingold Association has a list of approved foods you can find HERE.

4. Avoid typical allergens like gluten, dairy, soy, and corn.

Foods that are common allergens, like gluten and dairy, can cause inflammation in the body and have an adverse effect on executive function skills. ADHD’ers already struggle with executive function skills like short term memory and gluten may compound it. 

There are some interesting links to ADHD and allergies. Some researchers think that 70 to 80% of ADDers have a gluten insensitivity .Both food allergies and ADHD have many things in common like lowered neurotransmitters and the two are often co-morbid. 

So, it makes total sense that cutting out allergens very well might help the symptoms of ADHD.

Ideas to Avoid These Ingredients for an ADHD Diet

(An Update for a teenager is below! Keep Reading!)

Ideas to keep sweet treats way down for your kids as you follow an ADHD Diet:

• Read labels and avoid anything that has High Fructose Corn Syrup – or one if it’s new forms.
• Say,”No, thank you.” to all treats we are offered at the bank, the hair salon, the grocery store, etc. 
• Drink water, carbonated water, and unsweetened almond milk at home.
• Limit “desserts” to one or two days a week. 
• Limit processed foods to one packaged item per day, in school lunch.  Choices may include organic sweet potato chips, or Mary’s Gone Crackers.
• Make your own “treats” as often as possible, like cowboy cookies, or walnut date bars using dates, almond or coconut flour and as little sweetener as possible. (These cookbooks are my favorite for finding healthy treats.)
• Talk about how food makes you feel and notice how you feel after eating not so healthy choices.
• Try to get a dopamine rush from exercise. Make exercise a daily habit to help stay away from sugar.

 BUT, perfectionism is not the goal. just keep making changes to do better.

When you know better, you do better

It’s up to you to dig and find information – the food companies do not want you to know this stuff – because you’ll stop buying their food. 

In the seventies, scientists came up with the perfect mix of sugar, salt, and fat to maximize your brain’s pleasure center. The food industry has been using this formula for years and is literally creating food that “hooks your brain”. 

As a parent to two ADHD kiddos myself, I don’t have to explain to you that this journey is one of learning and arming ourselves with the correct information.  When you have all this great information about all the havoc that sugary foods can wreak, it is so much easier to make changes. 

Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Make changes slowly. Do what seems the easiest first. 

Wait, how does this work with teenagers????

*******Update: I now have a teenager!******************

My 15 year old, who struggles to fit in socially as it is,  begs me to have a lunch that looks like everyone else’s.

I feel his pain and I continue to make it an opportunity to talk to him.  

We have conversations with my son where I talk about the benefits of our adhd diet and the negative effects of too much sugar.  He barely listens and really doesn’t believe me.

But I do it anyway and it’s slowly sinking in. 

There are lots of situations where sugary sweets are present and I am not – and he overindulges just about every time.  He comes home feeling sick and we talk about why his stomach aches, his usually less than stellar behavior, and what to do the next time. 

He’s had a few instances where he is beginning to see the correlation between his behavior and how he is feeling and what he eats. 

Start the conversation and keep it going…and going.

I know it will take time. There are so many ridiculous places where sweets are offered-school parties and functions, boy scout meetings, track practice, band competitions, houses of friends and family, holidays, and birthday parties.

We really do have the power to change the world-one sucker at a time!!

Please share this article if you know of a mom who would benefit from this information and take a screen shot of the list below to take to the grocery store.

The Best Snacks for ADHD

The Big List of Foods to Avoid for ADHD

• all artificial colors, such as:
  • blue 1 (Brilliant Blue)
  • blue 2 (Indigotine)
  • green 3 (Green S or Fast Green)
  • orange B
  • red 2 (Citrus Red)
  • red 3 (Erythrosine)
  • red 40 (Allura Red AC)
  • yellow 5 (Tartrazine)
  • yellow 6 (Sunset Yellow)
• artificial flavorings, such as:
  • vanilla
  • peppermint (including mint-flavored toothpaste and mouthwash)
  • strawberry, raspberry
• artificial preservatives –
  • butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
  • butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
  • tert-Butrylhdryquinone (TBHQ)
• Foods that are common allergens, like gluten, corn, soy, and dairy.

Need more advice for an ADHD Diet?

Read about The Best Breakfasts for ADHD HERE – it’s our most popular post to date.

Need some great unplugged gift ideas for ADHD kids? Get the guide, HERE.