A recent study from the Netherlands is making headlines because it seemed to find a connection between processed food and the severity of the symptoms of ADHD in children. I have not been able to read the entire study yet because it is not openly available on the internet, but it looks like the researchers studied 100 children, ages 4 - 8, who were diagnosed with ADHD. Basically, half of the children ate an average healthy diet for 5 weeks, and the other half ate a restricted diet free of all processed foods. At the end of the study, 78% of the children eating the restricted diet had fewer ADHD symptoms. When the processed foods were brought back into their diets, the symptoms returned in two thirds of those children.
Of course I am not a scientist or psychiatrist, and I know there is a lot more research to be done in this area to arrive at valid conclusions, but I find this interesting nonetheless. It seems like ADHD is becoming so prevalent, not only as a buzzword but as a true, observable disability that impacts children's academics, peer relations, self-esteem, behavior, sleep, health, and more to concerning degrees. I don't know if processed food is part of the puzzle or not, but I look forward to more research that teases out variables related to ADHD and the best ways to help the children who have it succeed.
Of course I am not a scientist or psychiatrist, and I know there is a lot more research to be done in this area to arrive at valid conclusions, but I find this interesting nonetheless. It seems like ADHD is becoming so prevalent, not only as a buzzword but as a true, observable disability that impacts children's academics, peer relations, self-esteem, behavior, sleep, health, and more to concerning degrees. I don't know if processed food is part of the puzzle or not, but I look forward to more research that teases out variables related to ADHD and the best ways to help the children who have it succeed.
Incidentally, this article does not seem to suggest that ADHD is caused by processed foods. The latest I have heard at the ADHD conferences I've been to is that social and environmental factors (like parenting, diet, exercise, etc.) do not cause ADHD, but they can influence the outcomes (severity of symptoms and what happens in the future) for people with ADHD.
A news article about the study is available at this website:
The actual scientific study is available here, but you have to pay if you want to read more than the abstract:
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