Research Paper - ADHD and Nutrition

 Alright, so this was a research paper I completed April 2024 for a topic of wellness of my choosing. I selected ADHD and nutrition. I researched the topic for six weeks and this was my final submission for the course. I figured that sharing my research could be helpful to someone else. 

The topic I have chosen is nutrition and diet as it relates to health. Specifically, the relation that nutrition plays on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its symptoms. “Over the past 30 years ADHD has been recognized, assessed, investigated, and treated around the world” (Hinshaw & Scheffler, 2014). There is no secret that artificial ingredients and synthetic colorings have been around for decades. In today’s society, what we consume typically includes both natural and artificial ingredients. “Diet has been an environmental factor of long-standing interest in ADHD” (Pelseer et al., 2020). ADHD, typically more associated with school-aged children, is usually addressed through medication for the symptoms of ADHD and various interventions. More recently, diet and nutrition have been studied to find a link between it and ADHD. Although ADHD is not new, the studies linking nutrition and ADHD symptoms are becoming more of an interest in finding the cause and underlying parts of ADHD as well as how to mange it more effectively and without the need of medications.

ADHD affects roughly about 8.5% of the world’s population of children, more so in males than females, of those currently with an ADHD diagnosis (Chatfield, 2023). ADHD is basically explained by the name of the acronym, unable to pay attention and overly hyper. There are three categories of ADHD being impulsive/hyperactive, inattentive/distracted and both combined. “Currently, ADHD treatment advice consists of non-pharmacological interventions complemented with medication if necessary” (Pelseer et al., 2020). ADHD not only effects the child with it, but also many of people the individual come in contact with everyday. This can include family, school mates, teachers, coworkers, or extracurricular activities. With the challenges of being able to sit still, wait their turn, being calm, talking too much or too fast, fidgeting constantly or acting without thinking, those with ADHD and who they come in contact with are affected by all of this. It can be frustrating for the adults who have kids with ADHD or teachers with students with ADHD with constant interruptions, reminders, repeating and plain ignoring what is being said. Speaking from personal experience, they tend to have a social identity of a troublemaker and are looked at with issues. With today’s world, generally spotting a child with ADHD is not an uncommon sight or even to know quite a few people with children with ADHD.

Society impacts ADHD individuals by labeling them as wild children that need constant attention, reminders and various other needs. It also has impact on where the blame is placed, with a wide range of finger pointing, usually winding down to parenting. As society progresses, large companies have looked for ways to make their food cheaper to make and a bigger profit. Along with finding ways to help individuals be more normal via medications. With trying to keep costs low, it has introduced many artificial ingredients into the food. All of these artificial ingredients, most of which we cannot pronounce, have slowly been researched and taken out of foods all together as they have been proved to be harmful for consumption.

While the effects nutrition plays for individuals with ADHD is not widely studied, evidence does show a connection between symptoms of ADHD being affected by nutrition and diet.

The general education interdisciplinary lens chosen is natural and applied sciences as nutrition and the effects that it has on ADHD is not specially a humanities, history or social sciences. With the sources and research conducted, majority of it is science based and research supported. Within the nutrition and diet affects it plays into ADHD, we will be looking into artificial ingredients and synthetic dyes.

In a recent study, evidence “supports a relationship between food dye exposure and adverse behavioral outcomes in children, both with and without pre-existing behavioral disorder” (Miller et al., 2022). In the recent years, food brands have switched from synthetic food dye to a more natural food coloring for their food. After the link between artificial coloring and dyes and ADHD was brought into light, if you looked into your pantry for foods which contained dyes and would find things like Yellow 5 or Red 40 on a lot of the packages. But now when you look into the pantry, you find things like beet juice or paprika added for a more natural color. With some foods still containing synthetic dyes, there is more room for change in the food industry to help with overall health and wellness.

In modern society, everyone seems to be obsessed with nutrition and what to eat, what is bad for you or when you should eat. Whether it be a trend with no science behind it or a massive change because of science. We live in a world where social media also dictates these changes and trends. With minimal research into humans for pregnancy related diets causing offspring to have behavioral issues later in life, animal studies have uncovered “in utero exposure was observed to have behavioral effects in the adult offspring” (Miller et al., 2022). As more studies are conducted and recommendations through doctors, researchers and politics, the intake of synthetic dyes and ingredients while pregnant is something that should be researched further and hopefully will one day be able to help uncover the link and causes to ADHD as there is some speculation for it.

Factors that could impact the nutrition could be availability of resources. If we do not have a specific ingredient, the recipe is either changes or something else completely is made or timeliness, for instance a busy family that is always on the go, may resort to quick, fast meals rather than carefully prepared meals with better nutrition. While more recently families have been creating homesteads and being a bit more self-sufficient when it comes down to eating and growing their own food, it can impact the production of mass foods. Such as a decrease in grocery stores needing fruits, therefore it causes producers to have a large excess of fruit they have to do something with. As time goes on, the overages will slowly cause producers to produce less. If a drastic change happens to homesteads, for example a huge drought, the producers will not be able to keep up with sudden supply increase.

Other factors can include medications, allergies, availability to grow or produce and even nature. “Factors that can impact the diet quality of individuals with ADHD include medication, symptoms, and diet education” (Chatfield, 2023). It is common for a child with ADHD to be placed on medication at least during the school day. Certain medications can cause the child to not be hungry and even the opposite, where the child feels like they have not eaten in days. With various factors affecting our diets and nutrition, it is not always simple to change.

Various factors can cause obstacles to the effect that nutrition has on ADHD as well as other illnesses and diseases. Many people these days are against medications and with ADHD being a high medication rate, this could be an obstacle of parents. A study conducted in relation to ADHD and the Few Foods Diet (FFD), it uncovered that some children responded well to the FFD and medication use was decreased with an ultimate conclusion that the FFD may be a secondary prevention for ADHD (Pelsser et al., 2020). With doing the FFD, this would also hopefully remove synthetic food dye and artificial ingredients which promotes less unnatural ingredients into the body as well as a possible minimization of medication for the child. Overcoming the medication issues that some parents are hesitant with as well as the promotion of a healthier and less synthetic diet, overcomes various obstacles that would arise for the engagement and support of the general public.

Additionally, it also can help sway food companies to remove bad ingredients and use alternative healthier ingredients if the population moves away from brands with ingredients that are bad for overall nutrition. Which is something that has happened with the artificial dyes in 2013 when Change.org begun a petition and movement to remove these synthetic dyes from specifically M&M, however there were additional ones over the years coming addressing the dye in everything. In 2016, a new petition was started by Center for Science in the Public Interest to basically pressure the FDA into banning the dyes. “A number of studies -- and an emerging scientific consensus -- demonstrate that some children experience episodes of inattention, hyperactivity, and other harmful behavioral effects following exposure to synthetic dyes” (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2016).

The information within this critical analysis of nutritional effects for ADHD can, and genuinely really is, used for a personal goal of which is mainly to help support my son’s ADHD and ODD. As a mother with a child with severe ADHD and OOD, it is a day to day struggle with his behaviours. Mornings are full of yelling, screaming, jumping around and ultimately looks like a sped up version of a child going crazy. It is not until his medications, he takes two in the morning that should last all day, a 24-hour period, kick in, we are basically just trying to stay sane without anything breaking. About 4 hours later, he has to take a booster medication to help his 24-hour all day medication last until school is out. Then the medications wear off before supper time and we are back to a crazy rambunctious non listening 7 year old that cannot sit still or wait for more than 3 seconds. The ultimate goal for our son, as like other parents, would be to minimize even eliminate the need for medication. However, I do not think that will be possible anytime soon ever with research and studies backing up various changes to help.

The research and critical analysis within the paper provides some new information as well as some information that we already knew. We have gone through the food and tossed anything with synthetic dye, we try to monitor foods he eats but with the new information, a more in depth food log, food intact and what he consumers overall along with the FFD is something that we will greatly consider. The information that I have gathered through the course I did specifically in relation to him. I can always share as a personal story to other mothers and parents in the same situation as well as feedback to his doctors about the changes and how they have helped. “The bonus is that typical chronic illnesses that so many Americans are experiencing now can be prevented when the illness-causing foods are eliminated and replaced with the most nutritious options” (Yunus, 2022).

With all of the research I have conducted for my project topic of nutrition effecting ADHD, it had helped me grasp a better understanding of the overall factors and how complicated it is when you begin to look more into it. At the beginning, I was thinking ok, well, no artificial foods and sugars, but it has enlightened me into the depths of what actually can make ADHD worse. No surprise there with a wide variety of things. The research has changed the way I perceive the community and the general population as everyone is pushing these healthier, better environment, better made foods and products that I generally associated to people who were just health conscious. But now, I can see some science behind the claims they make and why they feel so adamant about the other products.

My bias has altered slightly as I still feel like people are paranoid and are wanting to get rid of the huge money making companies. While I still can see that, I also see the actions and results of what they are doing. As my awareness has become more in depth to support their claims, my bias is slowly changing however, companies, as they want to stay competitive, also change with the information.

Critically analyzing can influence your field of study by giving you areas that have not had a lot of research into and help branch out into other areas that could use some researching as well. As for within the field of profession, it can help overall understand what you are putting in your body as well as the effects that it can have on you. “As parents, we do the best we can with the information and experience we have” (Yunus, 2022). Which is exactly why sharing the research, advocating for other non-medicinal methods, when I am talking with another parent about a child with ADHD or a like issue. Wellness overall, as it is such a vast category, it can help to influence a new topic of study. By looking at the topic of study, it can help understand various influences on what is going on and also add ideas to further guide you.

The research conducted through the project has promoted me to look into ADHD and nutrition through the various other lenses to determine if there are other, less medical type interventions that possibly can aid in ADHD symptoms decreasing. While a lot of research and studies do go into medical diagnosis and what can affect them, it would be interesting to see possible studies done outside that might affect it. Such as various cultures, the social sciences, that could prompt a try.

With all of the research I have conducted for my project topic of nutrition effecting ADHD, I mainly looked at it through the natural and applied science. I used a lot of sources with factual, science-based results. However, there are some additional lenses applied into the information. When researching more in depth for nutrition and artificial colors, it stems from a social acceptance that artificial coloring is bad, then was researched to confirm the hypothesis. The history lens, as well as the others, supply information that feeds into the science lens. Over time, nutrition has changed. When we think back to the olden days, we think about corn and wheat being a main source of food. When looking at skeletal remains for the pre-Columbian world, “the infections signify a weak immune system connected with poor net nutrition” (Steckel, 2005). The history lens itself I feel that it would have been a bit more generalized or specific to a certain topic. Which I guess is what I ultimately ended up with using science and research to support the artificial dyes affect on ADHD. A very specific topic drawn out through history.

Overall though, looking through a different lens for the relation between nutrition and ADHD, I feel like in general I would get the same ending result that ADHD can be affected by nutrition. However it may have a more direct route and a completely specific topic of interest using a different lens for how I conducted my research.

The analyzing of wellness can help interactions with individuals with various perspectives, different cultures and different viewpoints to look at things differently. In some cultures, they grow and live off of their own foods where as some people are reliant on the foods they can get quickly and cheaply. In order to analyze wellness overall for the nutritional effects it plays on ADHD, it would be biased to solely use a single general educational lens and not take into consideration other individuals views, cultures and beliefs. It also helps when having an open discussion and debate-like conversation in ways as being able to understand and respond appropriately to the another individuals thoughts and ideas.






Sources

Center for Science in the Public Interest. (2016, February 8). Tell the FDA to Ban Harmful Synthetic Food Dyes. Change.org. https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-fda-to-ban-harmful-synthetic-food-dyes

Chatfield, S. (2023). The Role of Nutrition in ADHD. Today’s Dietitian, 25(3), 44–49. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=162285557&site=eds-live&scope=site

Hinshaw, Stephen P. & Richard M. Scheffler. (2014). The ADHD Explosion : Myths, Medication, Money, and Today’s Push for Performance. Oxford University Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=689397&site=eds-live&scope=site

Miller, M. D., Steinmaus, C., Golub, M. S., Castorina, R., Thilakartne, R., Bradman, A., & Marty, M. A. (2022). Potential impacts of synthetic food dyes on activity and attention in children: a review of the human and animal evidence. Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1186/s12940-022-00849-9

Pelsser, L., Frankena, K., Toorman, J., & Rodrigues Pereira, R. (2020). Retrospective Outcome Monitoring of ADHD and Nutrition (ROMAN): The effectiveness of the few-foods diet in general practice. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00096

Steckel, R. H. (2005). Health and Nutrition in Pre-Columbian America: The Skeletal Evidence. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 36(1), 1–32. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1162/0022195054026310

Yunus, T. (2022). ADHD and a WHOLE FOOD PLANT-BASED DIET. Exceptional Parent, 52(2), 42–45. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=155291352&site=eds-live&scope=site