Controlling ADHD Through Diet

When it comes to treating ADHD you might not need to look any further than the meals kids eat.

It looks like placing young children on a special diet, just for a few weeks, might do the trick when it comes to controlling their ADHD.

It's what's known as an elimination diet, where certain foods are taken out of what someone is given to eat. We've know that with other issues, like eczema or gastrointestinal problems, these restrictive diets have worked, at least a little bit.

In this case researchers cut processed foods out of the diets of young children, aged 4 to 8. They found that after just a few weeks 78% of them following this type of diet eliminating food additives and preservative, had less ADHD symptoms.
When these same children were placed back on a diet including processed foods their ADHD symptoms tended to return as well. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy diet to follow, especially as kids get older.

Knowing that eliminating processed foods might help cut back on behavior issues associated with ADHD, gives both researchers and parents a bit of hope that we are getting closer to finding more answers and hopefully developing better treatment guides.