ADHD kids? Get rid of the sugar, add yoga

Diet and exercise, well yoga anyway. Of course that ain't easy with the major food processors adding sugar to a huge majority of processed food to hide cheap ingredients and make the food taste good do to the big fat scare. You have to cook from scratch. (2 parents work)

And as a nutritionist, she says she has helped kids control their ADHD symptoms by having them cut their sugar intake and removing processed foods from their diet.

Teaching kids and teens how to breathe when practicing yoga also helps them.

“They understand that if they take 10 seconds to slow down their breath, they are able to calm and soothe themselves.”

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Anyone over 35 here?
I remember maybe 2 really hyper kids during school. We did not have all the sedentary activities (video games). Wonder if kids were "forced" to go outside and play if some, not all, but some of these kids could avoid heavy drugs? Of course this would have to go with a whole food home cooked meals.

When I was young, my parents used to have the saying that us kids were all sugared up. We were restricted from having too much candy and cookies and anything sweet was limited. People nowadays think that kids should be able to eat as much sweets as they want and if they have problems then the medical community calls it adhd and the blame is on genetics and a disease and not on the parents watching to make sure the kids don't get sugared up.

Sugar is similar to a tyramines, it causes neuro-excitement in the brain. Add to the sugar some tyramines and kids are all wound up. Prepared foods contain tyramines or chemicals that combine to form tyramines during the preparation or metabolically when consumed. MSG has many names these days, a different chemical but the exact same result. Added to foods to make us desire the effect of the Ummami chemistry. A little Ummami is good for us, too much is no good.

a reply to: atsgrounded

I'm 40 and I had two close friends that had add.

One had adhd and I felt like he had a real health issue. He tried exercising. It didn't help. In fact that guy seemed to never stop moving.

The other I think (and still do) that he just need exercise and to eat right.

The 1st guy hated having adhd.

The 2ed guy used his add as an accuse to get out of work any chance he got.

That 2ed guy would also claim that it was his add that made him an asshole. In his words, " I interrupt you while your talking so much because I can't help it."

That guy would also have panic attacks if you criticized him even a little. I spent so many hours trying to calm him down and reassure him that he was awesome and loved over 20 years before I got tired of it and stopped being his friend.

So add-adhd is real and I don't think exercise will help it. But I also think that it's a much rarer condition then people think. I think a lot of people claim to have add when really they were never taught how to have patience and focus.

I see a lot of spoiled kids clam to have add.

a reply to: rickymouse

I've never had much of a sweet tooth. For that matter I've never been into fruits all that much. Veggies, yes.

More and more I'm seeing 'health experts' cry about fruits and vegetables in their raw form "Too much sugar in an apple wah! Too much sugar in a beet wah!"

For real?

So now even unprocessed sugar found in fruits is the devil?

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

I ate tons of junk and candy while growing up and it had no negative effect on me at all.

a reply to: atsgrounded

I'm 36 and had ADHD. Didn't really see many other kids with it.

I struggled in my early youth. My parents had to put a lock on the outside of my door as I never slept much, still don't, and couldn't calm my brain so I would get up in the middle of the night and just ransack the house. My favorite was blowing stuff up in the microwave.

My mom had no idea what my issue was and finally was diagnosed in 3rd grade. I was restricted on sugar and foods with red dye. They put me on meds as well and I spent the next 6 to 8 years licking windows.

I've learned to manage the hyperactivity and struggle at times with the ADD in certain areas of my life. I've found that watching ASMR videos on youtube at night help shut my brain off so I can fall asleep easier.

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: rickymouse

I've never had much of a sweet tooth. For that matter I've never been into fruits all that much. Veggies, yes.

More and more I'm seeing 'health experts' cry about fruits and vegetables in their raw form "Too much sugar in an apple wah! Too much sugar in a beet wah!"

For real?

So now even unprocessed sugar found in fruits is the devil?

Over consumption of fruits is just as bad as sugary drinks most times. Many berries have a different sugar type and they do not have the same effect, no fructose or sucrose in them. Potatoes are usually a more resistant starch and have benzo properties that settle a kid.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

I ate tons of junk and candy while growing up and it had no negative effect on me at all.

Well now someone is trying to tell me raw fruits and veggies are just as bad. Kids, stay away from those fresh carrots now! They make cakes out of the stuff doncha know!

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
So add-adhd is real and I don't think exercise will help it. But I also think that it's a much rarer condition then people think. I think a lot of people claim to have add when really they were never taught how to have patience and focus.

I see a lot of spoiled kids clam to have add.

Yes, ADD/ADHD is real. My daughter is ADD - - and this was way back in the early 70s - - before it was abused.

A hyper kid with focus issues - - is not automatically ADD.

Yes, diet and exercise helps.

Yoga is great because it helps train the individual to focus.

However, not all ADD kids are going to adapt to Yoga. Its too slow.

I used swimming. Had her on a swim team that practiced every single night and had meets almost every weekend.

Swimming is a patterning exercise that has many benefits.

Also, since you compete with yourself - - bettering your own times - - its a no fail.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha
The only expert I listen to when it comes to what I should eat is my own body.

They make cakes out of the stuff doncha know!

That is one of my favorite kinds. mmmmmmm
With icing on top in the shape of a little orange carrot.

a reply to: atsgrounded

I agree, sugar is more evil than we understand. With the lost art of cooking home meals from real ingredients instead of chemical crap they pass off as food anymore, this trend will not get better for a while.

I can't imagine our mainstream actually investigating this issue too much, there is a massive amount of money to be made off of us sheep remaining ignorant. From the pharmaceutical companies giving us a 'fix' to hid the symptoms, that never really cures anything, to the medical establishment ballooning to epic proportions off our sickness.

attention deficit means to be deficient in attention

that is the root of much confusion

a reply to: atsgrounded

things could have been so much different for me

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Agree that there are actual cases. I also think that diet and exercise should be done first. But the ones who have it for real, like your one friend, medication can be a God sent.

a reply to: ClovenSky

I think sugar and the large processors of food will have the same style law suits filed against them that tobacco had. It is only a matter of time that it will become mainstream that sugar/carbs are bad and fats are good (over simplification I know). The soda pop market is already falling out of favor.

Kids need sugar. Because they're so active, they often don't have a lot of fat built up, so if then need more rapidly metabolized energy they can't wait for fat to be processed. So eliminating sugar for something like yoga might be okay, but if they're going to be playing basketball for a hours, sugar is just the thing.

I likely have a mild degree of it, but I was into sports like crazy and even then still had issues unless I was actively engaged at that moment.

My first seasons in softball and soccer, even though I loved them dearly, the skill I was best at was chaining dandelions while waiting for something active to occur -- in the outfield during a game, in the backfield during a match.

I got much better, but it took time. It also helped a lot that we lived in a mid-size small town with lots of kids in our neighborhood, and mom could mostly kick me out of the house and tell me not to come back until dark most days. Otherwise, I'd run aimlessly back and forth through the living room until she was fit to be tied.

Even today, I struggle a lot with a two track mind. If what I'm doing isn't engaging enough, half my mind will tend to distract the other half unless I occupy it. Piping music into my skull through earbuds will work or reading a book while watching TV if neither one is fully exciting. Some night, I can't shut my brain off or I'll wake up out of a sound sleep with my brain on fire and can't go back to sleep until I engage whatever is fueling that fire.

My kid is a lot the same only with his father's strong emotions on top of it all.

We control his access to sugar. He can have it, but we don't keep a lot of it around the house. He still calls soda "fizzy water," for example, and it's a rare treat he sometimes gets when we go out to eat at a pizza place. We do a lot of cooking around the house for ourselves instead of eating processed crap, and he's starting to eat what we do more and more.

I got him into sports last year, and we make sure he gets about 20 minutes or so of activity before he leave the house in the morning. We also try to encourage him to make good choices about his activity level. We have provided space for him in the basement to be as raucus and rowdy as he needs to or he can go outside. We have an old car tire he pushes up the driveway and rolls down again among other things to burn of energy. In other words, we don't tell him not to move, only to take it to the right places to move.