ADD & ADHD Dietary Recommendations

By Thomas Stearns Lee, NMD

Here are some less allergic substitutes for common triggers of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).  Try using these for school lunches, snacks, etc.

Wheat: Substitute foods made with rice noodles, rice bread, oat bread, potato flour, oat flour, wheatless rye bread, cellophane noodles, rice cakes, rice crackers, rice chips, corn noodles, barley flour, rice flour, and soy flour.  The use of bleached white flour should be discouraged.  “Enriched flour” usually has had more nutrients removed than replaced.

Corn: Substitute any of the above suggestions for wheat substitutes except for the corn products.

Cane Sugar: Try substituting date sugar, fructose, honey, corn syrup, pure maple syrup, stevia, or beet sugar.  Any form of sugar, honey, or corn syrup can feed an addiction for sweets, which can lead to both immediate and long-term health problems.  The least trouble seems to come from stevia.

Snacks: Try substituting nuts, fresh fruits, carrot chips, corn chips, potato chips, rice chips, banana chips, dates, pure unsweetened coconut, and fruit roll-ups without sugar, dyes, and/or additives.

Baked Goods: Try baking, or purchasing baked goods, with various different grain flours.  Avoid the use of yeast in baked goods and breads if Candida or molds are a problem.  Try sweetening with a stevia extract.

Miscellaneous: Try peanut butter without sugar or honey, almond butter, cashew butter, or tahini with dried fruit.