If you’ve ever watched a kid eat a lot of sugar and start acting like a kid tornado, you know that sugar affects the brain.

Although scientific research has not proven this, sugar makes ADHD symptoms worse.

And for the record – when I say sugar I mean any food with a high glycemic index.

Don’t believe me?  Try eating something with a lot of sugar (a can of pop will do the trick) or giving it to your child, and watch what happens.

The key is in paying attention to changes in mood and behavior.

Everybody that I have spoken to has found that sugar does indeed have a drastic effect, especially on people with ADHD.

So what can you do?

First of all, really try to avoid foods with a high glycemic index.

Eliminate junk food as much as possible.

Second, when you eat carbohydrates, or foods with sugar, make sure to take some protein with it.  Protein levels out the highs and lows of sugar in your bloodstream and therefore evens out the amount of sugar that gets to your brain.

I have found that protein really helps in  minimizing the effect of sugar on the brain, and can often even eliminate symptoms (of course, it depends on the amount of sugar you just had)

In fact, since you don’t want to have drastic sugar highs or lows in your bloodstream, eating small frequent meals with some (complex) carbohydrates and protein is a good idea.

If you are unnverved by ADHD symptoms in you or your child, seriously consider the amount of sugar you have in your diet.

There is no scientific evidence that ADHD & sugar are related.  However, we mothers see it every day, as the following story will show.

One day when my oldest, Jason, was around 13 or 14 we went out for ice cream.

I ordered an ice cream and he got a slurpie.

When we were done eating, he said to me: “Mom, I don’t think I should have slupries anymore.  They give me that feeling”

He was referring to a feeling he would get when his ADHD was acting up.  I will write about it in another post.

At the time, I was trying to get him to understand the direct effect that sugar was having on his behavior and his general feeling.  He knew that sugar wasn’t good for him, but it took a few incidents like this one to make him understand fully just how direct the effect of sugar was on him.

Now, if you think about it, a slurpie is a really bad thing to have for someone with a sugar sensitivity.  It’s just all sugar (and food coloring :-0 ) in liquid form that goes straight into your bloodstream.

Yet I am happy that he had this experience.  I believe that Instead of  forbidding him to have foods that are bad for him – he was able to come to that conclusion himself and take responsibility for himself.  I don’t think he’s had a slurpie since, BTW, and he is 15.5 now.

Do you have a story about ADHD & Sugar?  If so, please post it below.