Ten steps to a healthy ADHD diet

Feed your brain

1. Drink lots of water which helps eliminate toxins and avoids dehydration which compromises the brain’s effective functioning
2. Divide your meal plate between 1/2 vegetables or salad, 1/4 protein like oily fish, beans and white meats and 1/4 carbohydrates like pasta, rice or potatoes.
3. Eat good amounts of high quality protein, preferably organic. Slower digested and the source for dopamine production in the brain, make sure you eat protein at each meal, and maybe start the day with an egg, meat or cheese
4. Eat vegetables raw or briefly steam them, so as not to destroy vitamins or leach them all into the water
5. Eat organic if possible, with no animal hormones or antibiotics, and no skin laden with pesticides, organic is best. Plus you get better levels of minerals and 40% more vitamins than farmed artificial fertilised vegetables. Organics taste much better too!
6. Avoid too much tap water as it contains chlorine and residual chemicals such as anti-depressants and female hormones from the pill. The water companies are unable to remove these as part of water processing. Drink bottled or filtered tap water if possible.
7. Don’t eat too much tuna or sword fish. Sadly despite oily fish being healthy, some fish have high levels of toxins particularly mercury. The fish that eat fish that eat fish are the worst where the toxins are concentrated, plus tinned tuna has had it’s beneficial oils replaced.
8. Avoid artificial sweeteners and sugar. Research that indicates that people with a high intake of artificial sweeteners end up more obese as food cravings are affected and bacteria in the gut is changed. Sugar, sweets, sugary foods, juices and even white flour can set your body into glucose highs and then lows, so minimise ALL sweet intake – sorry!
9. Take a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, pro-biotics and fish oil and Vitamin D for your mood. See here for more on supplements but in essence our modern diet is deficient and it’s really not possible to get all the nutrients and minerals you need from food.
10. Eat colourful food. Many useful enzymes and nutrients and found in the more colourful foods, so eat red, orange, green and purple when you can!