Wellness Coaching – Linking ADD/ADHD to Gluten and Sugar
The most common food sensitivity associated with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is gluten. Some research has shown that up to 80 percent of all people with ADHD are gluten sensitive, with many of them having celiac disease.
Children — who are much more likely to get diagnosed with ADHD than adults — are consuming dangerously high levels of sugar and gluten in their diet. The sources of sugar may even be derived from “healthier” fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, and/or starchy carbohydrates.
Fruit juice is mostly sugar. Fructose has been shown by research to cause more havoc to the body’s leptin and insulin levels than sucrose. So, just because you’re drinking fruit juice, it doesn’t mean you’re being healthy. You’re still drinking a glass full of sugar. Artificial sweeteners have also been shown to cause hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children. Even if all of the above is avoided, if the children consume a carbohydrate-dense, high-glycemic diet that contains foods such as pastries, pasta, bread, pizza, crackers, chips, and french fries, then their blood sugar levels will be rising and dropping dramatically as a result.
After blood sugar levels spike or dip, the body’s nervous system must shift into its sympathetic mode so that adrenalin can be released. In other words, it reverts back to its primitive fight-or-flight response. There’s nothing wrong with this if you need to protect yourself from an attacking saber-tooth tiger. However, if you’re sitting quietly in your classroom seat trying to pay attention to the teacher, it’s going to be very difficult to do when your body’s adrenaline levels are off the chart. The result: ADD, ADHD, cognitive disorders.
Instead of considering the obvious reasons for why the rates of ADD/ADHD have increased exponentially in recent years — such as a gluten- and sugar-rich diet, our disease-care system turns to Big Pharma to provide a remedy such as Ritalin, which like every other toxic drug, comes with a variety of side effects — some of which may be worse than the disease itself. Treatment is not the answer.
The only way to decrease our ADD/ADHD rates is with prevention, and to prevent these behavioral disorders from occurring in the first place, one must look to the diet. When you do, it becomes crystal clear that a low-carb, sugar-free, gluten-free, nutrient-dense diet is the only solution.
Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a health Coach, Online Life Coach and the founder of The Art of Transformation, a company with a mission to teach Self Realization to the world. His Online Life Coaching program uniquely synthesizes mystical wisdom with self transcendence, holistic health, life path astrology, heart-brain intention, the power of presence, and the law of attraction.