Understanding Hyperactivity

Hyperactivity is often identified by a person’s inability to focus their attention on a task for a period of time. This is more common in children than in adults; however it can affect people of any age to a varying degree and severity. Hyperactivity however is now know by a new name called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Diet can increase the severity of ADHD or help prevent it depending on the foods which are being consumed. Certain types of food can exacerbate ADHD in one of two ways. It can be caused by particular contents within the food, or through the person having an allergy or sensitivity to a particular substance escalating the severity of ADHD.
The difficult thing with ADHD is establishing what foods increase the severity of the problem. This can often only be achieved through trial and error to ascertain to what extent behaviour improves through the absence of certain foods.

Try starting the child or adult on a healthy diet for two weeks and limit the amount of dairy and wheat. It is important to avoid all junk food, sweets, soft drinks and any foods which contain MSG or colourings. After two weeks you should be able to notice an improvement and you can introduce one type of food at a time to your diet. The introduction of certain foods can then show if a particular food is detrimental to the behaviour or not. The introduction of a particular food to the diet is done by inserting one type of food at a time. Eat larger amounts of that one variety of food over four days and after four days you will notice if there has been any change in behaviour, if no change has occurred that food can continue to be a part of the diet. If the food being introduced has a negative effect on behaviour you then need to go back on a clean diet for two weeks and reintroduce other foods, until you can determine which foods can be included in the diet and ones should be avoided.

It is very hard to control what children eat for a variety of reasons. When children are at school or with friends you need to have faith in the child that they will make the right choice in regards to their food when you are absent. Often when children know the benefits of eating certain foods and know how much better it makes them feel, they will make usually make the right choices.

Unfortunately many of the foods which can exacerbate ADHD are manufactured by large companies which heavily target children through magazines, television, advertisement and sporting sponsorships. The Government is now looking at ways of curbing the level of advertising allowing children to establish healthy eating habits.

Ultimately healthy eating habits and education about food can enable people to make the right choices about their diets. So parents need to establish this role of education and lead by example if they want their children to maintain good eating habits that will benefit them for life.