Any time we avoid cramming pills into children’s systems, parents have to listen and take note:
Characterized by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and the inability to focus, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood, affecting from 3 percent to 5 percent of U.S. school-age children. Most parents and physicians treat ADHD with medication—in fact, the use of medication tripled worldwide between 1993 and 2003, with the United States prescribing more medication for ADHD than any other country. Yet some parents have taken a rigorous look at their child’s diet, as a substitute for or in conjunction with meds, in an effort to minimize symptoms and ultimately sidestep a dependency on drugs.
Medication produces fast results and is preferred by many physicians, parents, and teachers. “It does improve behavior, it is easy, it is quick, but the problem is it doesn’t heal anything,” says clinical nutritionist Marcia Zimmerman, a former research scientist at Stanford University Medical Center and author of the book The ADD Nutrition Solution: A 30-Day Drug-Free Plan. “And moreover, when a child has been on these meds for a period of time it develops side effects and you have to use more drugs to relieve the side effects.”
A nutrition approach takes longer to show results. “With dietary supplements you can see improvement in behavior in a week or two,” says Zimmerman. “A food approach is more of a long-term thing—a 30-day plan, for example.”
There are many ADHD-healing diets to choose from.
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