ADHD: It’s The Food, Stupid

[Guest guest]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/25-4

Published on Friday, March 25, 2011 by Civil

Eats

ADHD: It’s The Food, Stupid

by Wartman

Over five million children ages four to 17 have been

diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

in the United States and close to 3 million of those children

take medication for their symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

But a new study reported in The Lancet last

month found that with a restricted diet alone, many children

experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. The study’s

lead author, Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in

the Netherlands, said in an interview with NPR, “The

teachers thought it was so strange that the diet would change

the behavior of the child as thoroughly as they saw it. It was

a miracle, the teachers said.”

Dr. Pessler’s study is the first to

conclusively say that diet is implicated in ADHD. In the

NPR interview, Dr. Pessler did not mince words, “Food is

the main cause of ADHD,” she said adding, “After the diet,

they were just normal children with normal behavior. They

were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more

forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums.” The study

found that in 64 percent of children with ADHD, the

symptoms were caused by food. “It’s a hypersensitivity

reaction to food,” Pessler said. (Flickr image: by

Scorpions and Centaurs)

Dr. Pessler’s study is the first to conclusively say that

diet is implicated in ADHD. In the NPR interview, Dr. Pessler

did not mince words, “Food is the main cause of ADHD,” she

said adding, “After the diet, they were just normal children

with normal behavior. They were no longer more easily

distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more

temper-tantrums.” The study found that in 64 percent of

children with ADHD, the symptoms were caused by food. “It’s a

hypersensitivity reaction to food,” Pessler said.

This is good news for parents and children who would like to

avoid many of the adverse side effects associated with common

stimulant drugs like Ritalin used to treat ADHD—and bad news

for the pharmaceutical industry. The National Institute of

Mental Health reports that common side

effects from the drugs are sleeplessness (for which a doctor

might also prescribe sleeping pills) headaches and

stomachaches, decreased appetite, and a long list of much more

frightening (yet rarer) side effects, including feeling

helpless, hopeless, or worthless, and new or worsening

depression. But Pessler’s study indicates that up to

two-thirds or two of the three million children currently

medicated for ADHD may not need medication at all. “With all

children, we should start with diet research,” Pessler said.

There are also questions about the long-term effects of

stimulant drugs and growth in children. After three years on

Ritalin, children were about an inch shorter and 4.4 pounds

lighter than their peers, according to a major study published in the Journal

of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

in 2007. A 2010 study in the Journal

of Pediatrics disputed these findings, but all the

study’s authors had relationships with drug companies, some of

which make stimulants. According to Reuters, “The

lead author, Harvard University’s Dr. ph Biederman, was

once called out by Iowa Senator E. Grassley for the

consulting fees he has received from such drug makers.”

This is just one example of how the powerful billion-dollar

drug industry designs and interprets studies to suit their

interests. Since the 1970s, researchers not tied to drug

companies have been drawing connections between foods, food

additives, and the symptoms associated with ADHD but many have

been dismissed or overlooked by conventional medicine. One of

the earliest researchers in this field was Dr.

Feingold who created a specific diet to address behavioral and

developmental problems in children. The Feingold diet, as it

is now called, recommends removing all food additives,

dyes, and preservatives commonly found in the majority of

industrial foods.

There are a multitude of credible scientific studies to

indicate that diet plays a large role in the development of

ADHD. One study found that the

depletion of zinc and copper in children was more prevalent in

children with ADHD. Another study found that one

particular dye acts as a “central excitatory agent able to

induce hyperkinetic behavior.” And yet another study suggests that the

combination of various common food additives appears to have a

neurotoxic effect—pointing to the important fact that while

low levels of individual food additives may be regarded as

safe for human consumption, we must also consider the combined

effects of the vast array of food additives that are now

prevalent in our food supply.

In Pessler’s study the children were placed on a restricted

diet consisting of water, rice, turkey, lamb, lettuce,

carrots, pears and other hypoallergenic foods—in other words,

real, whole foods. This means that by default the diet

contained very few, if any, food additives.

As I see it, there are two factors at work in this study: One

being the allergic reaction to the actual foods themselves and

the second being a possible reaction to food additives, or

combinations of food additives, found in industrial foods.

Both certainly could be at play in the results of this study,

although the discussion of Dr. Pessler’s study thus far hasn’t

addressed the latter issue.

One theme in the discussion of the story has been skepticism

from mainstream media—the recent Los Angeles Times article (the only major

daily newspaper to cover the study) was very skeptical, if not

dismissive. The author writes, “Previous studies have found

similar effects, but, like this one, they all had fundamental

problems that made it easy for doctors to dismiss them.” NPR

interviewer, Guy Raz asked a question invoking this tone as

well, “Now, you’re not saying that some children with ADHD

should not be given medication, right?” Pessler does say that

there are some children and adults who might benefit from

pharmaceuticals but her research indicates that far too many

are being medicated unnecessarily—and this is the crux of the

story.

The Los Angeles Times article ends on this note:

“‘To be sure, the prospect of treating ADHD with diet instead

of drugs would appeal to many parents,’ Dr. Jaswinder Ghuman,

a child psychiatrist who treats ADHD says. ‘But parents who

want to give it a try should be sure to consult their child’s

physician first, she warned: ‘It’s not that simple to do

appropriately.’”

Call me old-fashioned, but changing your child’s diet seems a

lot “simpler” than altering his or her brain chemistry with a

daily dose of pharmaceuticals. It does takes patience, trial

and error, and commitment to complete an elimination

diet—taking a pill to target symptoms certainly requires less

effort on the part of the doctors, family and child. While no

one is denying that ADHD is a complicated web of symptoms with

potentially many contributing factors, why not start by

examining the most basic and fundamental cornerstone of our

health—the foods (and non-foods) we put into our bodies.

© 2011 Civil Eats

Wartman is a food writer living in Brooklyn. She

has a Masters in Literature from UC Santa Cruz and is a

Certified Nutrition Educator. She is interested in the

intersections of food, health, politics, and culture. You

can read more of her writing at kristinwartman.wordpress.com.