Is Your Breakfast Giving You ADHD? So Frickin' Mini

Hey, Donna.

How you doing?

Megan?

I am well.

How are you?

I'm.

I'm awake.

That's a plus.

Donna.

The other day I was tick tocking, as one does, and I ran across this TikTok where this guy was talking about food induced ADHD symptoms.

And I thought, oh, immediately I thought, I need to talk with Donna about this because we both have adhd, we both enjoy food, and therefore we are.

Experts on this topic.

Exactly.

So have you heard of inducing ADHD symptoms?

And I think when he was talking about it, it's more along the lines of people who might not be diagnosed as adhd, but when you eat a certain way, you have the same symptoms as someone who's been diagnosed with adhd.

But I feel like it could also go beyond that to say, like, when you eat certain things, your symptoms could get worse.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on that or do you have thoughts?

I have a lot of thoughts and I actually have some experience with it with my own ADHD and with the boys.

Adhd.

Because I was walking around when the kids were small, I was a. I'd like to call it a Nazi mom.

Probably not a very good terminology for a Jew to.

Probably not.

But I really was.

I was like, there was no.

I mean, at home there was no sugar, there was no processed foods.

When we went out, we would eat whatever, but at home it was quite strict.

And what I noticed was that my, especially my oldest, when he got a cookie, literally a cookie outside, or we went to a party or something like that, birthday party, he would be a different child.

He would be bouncing off the walls.

He wouldn't be able to complete a sentence.

His stories went on way beyond what they should be.

He was a talker anyways, but he had a point, usually.

And then I brought it up to a couple of doctors and experts that kind of dismissed me because they knew him and they were like, no, he does not have adhd.

What are you talking about?

And then with everything that's been going on and stuff, and, you know, he kind of started, you know, teenager hood, he started eating whatever the he wants.

And.

And now when they diagnose him, they're like, we don't need more than five minutes to know, right?

So it is pretty clear to me.

And I also feel it when I consume, like sugar, when I consume certain things, I do feel that I don't have control over my brain somehow or, you know, that I'm losing the plot, that I don't.

That I'm not as focused, which I think is a little bit easier for ADHD people to feel because it does, it is more extreme.

You know what I mean?

Like it's.

Yeah, it's just, you just feel it more.

So yeah, I do definitely believe and know that there is a big, big difference when you manage to keep to a certain diet.

But it's obviously not that easy, especially not for ADHD people.

So.

No, actually that's one of the things.

Yeah, exactly.

That's one of the things when you start to look into dieting or eating healthy as an ADHD person.

A lot of ADHD people with ADHD struggle with that.

They struggle like, oh, I just make a meal plan and follow a meal plan.

No, that doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

Yeah.

But I also notice personally that when you eat a better diet, it's better.

It's interesting though, like for example, caffeine is one where you would think, think that caffeine would make it worse.

And a little bit of caffeine actually makes it better if you're not already medicating.

Like if you're not medicated at all, caffeine can help a little bit.

And this I noticed back in 2018 when I went off coffee, went off caffeine for the first time in my adult life.

Yeah.

And had extra extreme symptoms of ADHD that I had not felt for a very, very, very long time, especially since I was in high school.

And I was just like, that was the moment when I realized like, oh, I still have adhd.

I just have been self medicating.

So that's interesting because then there's certain foods that can also lessen the symptoms.

But it's, it's, I mean we all, we all come around to like, food impacts you more than you think.

Yeah, 100.

But also I think it was something really important to understand is that for some people caffeine is not going to do the trick.

I am super sensitive to caffeine, so caffeine will do the opposite for me.

Unfortunately.

I would love to drink a proper caffeine.

It depends on how much caffeine, Right?

It depends.

No, but I can't even handle decaf.

So that's what I mean.

Like I can't like the little bit of caffeine that's in decaf.

I already feel the effects of it, but for a lot of people.

Yeah.

Because it's a stimulant and the medication for ADHD is a stimulant.

So it usually helps for me also, medication didn't really do the trick.

So but, yeah, it is.

You're just weird, Donna.

I totally am.

I wear it.

I wear that badge proudly.

I am not.

I am definitely not the cookie cutter, you know.

Yeah.

But anyways, no, I do think that there is a lot to say about.

Yeah, of course.

For everyone.

We all know that food has a huge impact on everything, right.

People who will suffer from, I don't know, pimples, people who suffer from inflammation.

It's all connected.

Obviously, it's the energy and the information that we give our body to figure out how to live a better life with or not a better life with.

But there are very specific things for ADHD that are also helpful.

So it's not only like eating healthier and having more protein or, you know, not having a sugary breakfast or cutting out sugar, but it's also having omega 3 heavy foods or supplements, like good quality supplements.

It's, you know, iron, zinc, and magnesium have been shown to be common deficiency in adhd.

Right.

People.

So it's just kind of like also understanding that there's a little bit more to it.

And we're learning more and more and more we go along nowadays.

So some of the supplements I've tried, so I use magnesium every evening before I go to sleep.

Same.

Yeah.

I.

You.

I have Omega 3s in the morning.

I have vitamin D as well.

Yeah.

And then I also have here that I don't use regularly, but I use basically during that time of the month where my.

My mental clarity goes down because of my hormones.

Um, then I use L. Tyrosine.

Tyrosine, which is a neurotransmitter support.

Basically, anything that says it's a neurotransmitter support is.

Is.

Is.

Is valid.

I also do things like lion's mane mushroom.

That's supposed to be very helpful for people with adhd.

So I think in general, the point is that, you know, try a few of these things out.

You know, some.

Some of them take two or three months to kind of build up.

And.

And over time, you can start to see that you have some effects on the brain.

Yeah.

And like.

And the other thing, like, for example, I don't.

Even though I drink caffeine, I don't drink a lot of caffeine, and I don't drink caffeine first thing in the morning.

So I always have the first hour to 90 minutes without caffeine because I don't really need it to wake up.

Yeah.

And my husband, who is on the spectrum and not adhd, but yeah, we're one of those like unicorn couples.

One of them's autistic, the other one's adhd.

Yeah.

And he gets decaf in the morning because I bring him his coffee.

And you trick him.

He just.

He just found out.

Well, I don't trick him anymore.

He just.

He just found out probably a month ago.

And I.

He's like, wait, what do you mean you give me decaf?

And I'm like, listen, I give you decaf because it's healthier for you and you don't need it to wake up.

And he goes.

And then I explained the rationale, and the rationale is, literally, your body has chemicals and hormones that it uses to help wake you up.

And when you take caffeine or when you ingest caffeine, you're.

You're blocking that.

And so I said, I know.

I'm just helping you out, honey.

You don't need it to wake up.

He can have his first one when he goes down to his office.

And so now he knows.

He knows it's decaf, and he's okay with it.

He's like, I know you're trying to make me healthier.

And I'm like, no, I'm just.

Yes, exactly.

I'm just trying to look out for you.

So.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, look, I think in terms of supplements and coffee, I agree.

I think there's also a fine line between consuming coffee, caffeine, and consuming too much caffeine, because ADHD people usually also have some sleep problems because our brain is just buzzing and we.

It's harder for us to fall asleep and stuff like that.

And if we're consuming too much caffeine, we are disrupting our sleep patterns and our quality of sleep.

So that's really important to say as well.

But also in terms of supplements, I think something really important to say is don't start buying all the supplements and not changing your diet, because that's not going to do anything.

And then you're just wasting your money.

Like, it might do something, but you're just wasting your money because you're not going to see the full effects of it.

If you're starting the day with cereal or, you know, like a sugary breakfast, carby breakfast, then you're already shooting yourself in the leg.

You're already not necessarily helping yourself and your brain to kind of work better.

So I would definitely say try to make sure you're cutting down on the sugar and high carbs, especially in breakfast.

For sure.

For sure.

Cutting down on or out artificial colors, dyes, additives, sweeteners preservatives, all the crap that's not that you're not going to be using as a, an ingredient in your own food that you're making from scratch.

That's true.

Maybe just leave that out and see how that affects you already, because that might be a huge, huge difference to begin with, where you don't have to invest in all of the supplements and you can just focus on specific ones.

Right.

Omega 3, I'd say, would be the first one to go for.

Omega 3 is easy.

It's everywhere.

And again, you know, consuming it with natural sources, you know, for all of these things, trying to just bump them up naturally in your diet is great, and then add a little bit of on top as a supplement.

But note to people who are not diagnosed with adhd, the symptoms that people have with adhd, most regular people also experience these at some point in time.

And I will say it again because we've talked about it many, many times, because you have the symptoms does not mean you have adhd.

Everybody has these symptoms every once in a while where we forget something, we get hyper focused or we can't sit still or whatever, it really comes into the situation where that starts to affect your daily life.

And so if you are having those symptoms, ADHD symptoms, and it is affecting your daily life, then you should probably think about getting diagnosed and see a specialist.

And there are more and more ADHD health coaches out there, ADHD family coaches, and people who are now specializing in helping families with adhd, like our friend Kelly Brendle.

And then there's a lady I know over in Geneva area.

So if this has interested you at all, let us know and maybe we can maybe try to get that one lady over in Geneva on the phone and have a longer conversation about food and ADHD.

Sure.

Love that.

All right, Donna, that's been 10 minutes.

We'll see you later.

Bye.

Bye.