Many different foods can affect our emotions, thinking and behavior. Sometimes it's the food coloring or preservatives, sometimes it's the sugar, and sometimes it's the food itself. These foods can irritate the brain, making the child sluggish or hyper. The lists of symptoms are long and each child is different. Many in the medical profession estimate that 5% of all ADHD children have the behaviors because of diet.

Diet is one factor I look at when I have a child who knows a subject at one instant and then forgets it the next. Any child who has groups of good days and groups of bad days should have his diet evaluated.
How does a parent do this? It depends on the child's age and your professional support. Two good choices to help you determine if food is part of the problem are a simplified elimination diet or the Feingold Program. In my practice, I like to start with the elimination diet because it is so simple, quick, and involves no cost. You can do this test over one or two days. Here are the steps:

Simple Elimination Diet
1. Weigh your child first thing on the morning you begin. Record the weight.
2. For that day, allow your child to drink water and eat one simple food only, and nothing else. Most choose apples so they can also drink/eat 100% apple juice and 100% pure applesauce (no sugar, preservatives or anything else added). Others have chosen oranges (and 100% orange juice), or bananas. No sodas, tea (herbal or regular), milk, or coffee.
3. Your child may eat all that he wants of the one food he has chosen, but no other foods. No vitamin pills. Do continue any medications.
4. Keep a journal for the day, noting child's moods, energy level and so on.
5. Weigh your child first thing the next morning, and record the weight.
6. Repeat the one food and journaling this second day.
7. Weigh your child first thing the third morning, and record the weight.
8. On this day, your child may eat normally, whatever he likes that you normally allow.
9. Keep a journal for the day, noting child's moods, energy level and so on.
10. Weigh your child first thing the next morning, and record the weight.

Understanding The Results Of This Simple Elimination Diet
Look at the weight: If your child has lost less than four pounds after the first two days on this diet, it's not food allergies. If your child has lost four pounds or more after the first two days on this diet, it is food allergies.
Look at the journal of moods and energy: If your child's symptoms of ADHD go away while he is on the elimination diet and return after he returns to his normal diet, you may safely assume food allergies are causing his ADHD.

Sometimes the elimination diet is inconclusive, or the child may be unwilling to follow it, even for two days. Or it may reveal one or more food sensitivities, and more testing may be needed to see if other sensitivities exist. Here is where you may begin some detective work, looking for relationships that are not always clear. (Food allergies show up in many different forms. The kind most likely to cause ADHD-like symptoms come from partially digested food proteins. Food sensitivities do not use the immune system, but affect the nerve cells directly.)

At this point you may want to try the Feingold Program. This program eliminates artificial coloring, flavoring, sweeteners, preservatives and salicylates, an aspirin-like chemical, and certain fragrances. (Because either eating or breathing can absorb allergens and brain irritants, some fragrances are also eliminated in the Feingold Program.)

Now your detective work comes in. Once you have checked all your food labels for all of the above, you then see if any of the ADHD symptoms have cleared. If you are unsure, go back to your child's normal diet and see if the symptoms return. Please note that because we are dealing with symptoms that affect the brain, the one person who may not notice anything is the child himself.
If you are sure that something you eliminated has cleared or improved the ADHD symptoms, then you have choices. If it is a chemical, then processed foods need to be carefully avoided. If it is the food itself, then avoiding the food may help for a while, but gradually new foods will cause problems.

Sometimes it is just the total sugar load. The average American eats about 160 pounds of sugar a year. (In fact a human born in 2000 or later has a 50% chance of developing diabetes during his lifetime, mostly because of diet.)

Our brains run on glucose, a simple sugar. So when the sugar level goes up due to a Twinkie or some other high-sugar, low-fiber food, the rush of sugar affects the brain. A good analogy is to see the brain as a computer, and blood-sugar concentration as electrical voltage. What would happen to your computer if the voltage went from 60 to 120 and back to 60? It would burn out. Well, the brain doesn't burn out, but it does get irritated. Brain irritation shows up as symptoms, some of which can be confused with ADHD. (Sugar Blues, a book by William Dufty, discusses in much greater detail the problems with sugar.)

This effect from sugar was exactly what kept Sean from learning his math, until he realized he could avoid sugar to do his homework, study or take a test. For him, the answer was simple. Your child's answers may take more detective work, patience and persistence, but the effort is worth it.

Dr. Guffanti has spoken at WHOís annual convention the past two years on the topic of ADHD and learning styles, with attendees responding, ìThis is a life- changing class,î and ìThe best and most helpful of all.î
A medical doctor, tutor, teacher, author, and homeschool parent, Dr. Guffanti was born with a passion for education. Dyslexic and a kinesthetic learner, he has served as the medical director of a clinic specializing in learning disorders, and has focused on creating education that meets the needs of all children. He is the author of Rocket Phonics and Is It Really ADHD?
Stephen Guffanti, MD
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