Two Indian researchers recently published an study in Food Science Research Journal, showing a connection between sugar consumption and ADHD.
The researchers split the 50 school-aged participants into 2 groups: a control group and an experimental group. The children in the experimental group received diet intervention and 6 sessions of diet counselling. The control group, of course, received no interventions.
The diet intervention included eliminating sugar rich snack foods, such as the following:
- Chocolates
- Bakery confectioneries (cakes, pastries, doughnuts, cookies, etc)
- Soft drinks
It also included replacing those foods with what researchers called “highly nutritive value foods”.
What the researchers found was that when comparing scores prior to and after intervention, the experimental group saw reductions in ADHD symptoms. Eliminating sweet snack foods and replacing them with nutritious food appears to reduce ADHD symptoms in children between the ages of 4 and 12.
This study joins a growing body of research showing a strong connection between nutrition and mental health. Here at Truehope, we’ve been promoting nutrition as mental health treatment for over 20 years.