What do neurodiversity and nutrition have in common? Well, food affects the brain, and the brain sometimes affects which foods we eat. I didn’t develop good eating habits until I entered college. After my grandma broke her hip, my childhood meals went downhill fast. My grandpa and mom, who’d already had her traumaticneuro brain injury, weren’t great cooks. I didn’t discover that food could be both nutritious and delicious until I went off to college and found that I loved raw spinach salads and well-seasoned asparagus versus cooked spinach and raw asparagus.
Then entered my mother.
When she came to live with my husband and me shortly after I graduated, money was tight and so meals became less and less nutritious and more and more processed. To satisfy my mom’s appetite, we ate a lot of boxed meals and other cheap stuff. I tried to teach her healthy habits, but her neurodiversity limited her ability to recognize the long-term benefits of these habits, such as weight loss and a flourishing, heart, body and mind. This same executive-functions setback causes her to lack the motivation even if she does desire to be more healthful.
Mom later transitioned to live in a low-income apartment. That’s when the battle over groceries began. At first we shopped together with a cart inspection before checkout. This consumed a lot of additional time of replacing many items she’d picked out. I decided to take the reins and grocery shop for her, but this also took a ton of time. I finally gave back the reins, and ultimately, she returned to her impulsive buying, wasting away her limited money on junk. When I’d come check on her, I’d find her cabinets filled with pastries and chips instead of canned green beans and fresh fruit—or canned fruit (I wasn’t that picky).
My ADHD child has the same problem—zero foresight. I have to remind her, often, that three bowls of cereal is not the small snack I’d agreed to. She can’t yet fully connect the importance of what goes into her body to her future health. It’s my job to teach her how to take care of her body, so she grows the way she’s supposed to. With her high impulsivity, I fear she may struggle with binge eating. I have to keep junk under lock and key. Not literally…not yet anyway.
When Kayla’s neurodiversity became obvious and prompted a teacher-parent meeting, we started the evaluation process. This took time, especially with winter break around the corner, so before I even knew for sure she had ADHD, I searched for the best ADHD food.
I discovered two nutrition sources that helped immensely.
- Protein for breakfast:
- Protein helps the brain make neurotransmitters, which send messages from cell to cell. The clearer the message, the better the concentration and ability to think first.
- Omega 3s:
- Kayla’s pediatrician recommended this one. Omega 3’s are an important part of brain growth and development. Studies have even shown that it helps with some ADHD symptoms. Especially hyperactivity.
Eggs have become a staple in our household. Kayla gets either eggs or high-protein yogurt with a carbohydrate like oatmeal or cereal every morning. Eggs cover both protein and omega 3s, but for additional omega 3s, we try to eat more salmon, and she takes a daily supplement.
Is the extra time required to prepare the morning protein convenient? No. But it’s so worth it. ADHD and food go hand in hand, as they both affect the brain. So when they’re in sync, good things happen. Even before Kayla started her medications for ADHD, her teacher noticed a big difference when school resumed in January. I highly recommend adding these two brain foods to any ADHDer’s daily diet.
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