ADHD and Sugar Consumption - What We Need to Know

Sugar is a substance most people crave. We consume sugary treats when we’re happy and want to celebrate, when we’re sad and want to cheer us up, when we feel tired and want more energy or we them to other people to show our love and affection.

Sugar temporarily raises our dopamine levels and makes us feel good – which can make us reluctant to eliminate sugar from our diet even though most of us know that sugar isn’t healthy. In fact, consumption of sugar can lead to early physical and cognitive decline. As a result, many nutritionists suggest we eat sugar sparingly – if at all – especially if we have ADHD.

Or at least that’s what the media and many so-called experts tend to make us believe. Sugar allegedly exacerbates hyperactivity, reduces our ability to focus on a task and, to boot, even causes ADHD. But is this really true?

Does sugar cause ADHD?

When it comes to sugar, the research is fairly clear: Sugar does not cause ADHD. ADHD is a hereditary disorder that runs in many families and is passed down from parents to children to their grandchildren.

When we’re born, the propensity for ADHD is already preserved in our genes. Yet, it is not always clear how ADHD symptoms will show up – or if they’ll show up at all. Environmental factors like financial hardship, unsupportive parents, divorce, death in the family, and sexual harassment all potentially contribute to the emergence and severity of ADHD symptoms. But sugar is not one of those causal factors.

Does sugar exacerbate ADHD?

Similarly, sugar doesn’t make ADHD symptoms like hyperactivity or difficulty focusing worse. Studies have found no evidence for the widely assumed belief that sugar is instrumental in hyperactive behavior.

Still, even though sugar isn’t worsening your child’s ADHD, you still might notice your child is particularly sensitive to sugary foods. Just as a neurotypical child may be sensitive to sugar without having ADHD, a child with ADHD may become more boisterous or unruly for reasons that have nothing to do with their neurotype. There’s no hard-and-fast rule here. If your child is sensitive to sugar, reducing their intake is a good idea for any number of reasons – the most convincing being that sugar is simply bad for us.

Negative consequences of sugar consumption

Sugar does not do our bodies good. From blood sugar spikes and Type-2 diabetes to obesity, tooth decay and heart disease, sugar can cause a variety of ailments that impact our entire body. Sugar is considered a neuro-toxic substance that damages nerve cells and leads to long-term diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or strokes. It raises our dopamine levels and lifts our mood, but only for a little while before our blood sugar levels – together with our mood – crash again.

That boom-and-bust cycle makes sugar an addictive substance. We need another sugar hit to feel better – and enter a vicious cycle that is hard to escape from – especially for ADHDers with chronically low dopamine levels. Thus, sugar is oftentimes used as a form of self-medication helping neurodivergent people to get through the day, leading to significant health consequences later in life.

As a result, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the World Health Organization suggests to reduce our daily sugar intake to below 5% of our total energy intake (6 teaspoons of added sugar per day), while physicians such as the American plant-based doctor Michael Greger recommend to avoid sugar completely for optimal physical health and cognitive ability.  

Yet, how possible is it in a world where sugary foods are ubiquitous to avoid them or at least reduce our sugar consumption drastically? Especially when we still have cravings for sweet stuff, what are our options?

Alternatives to sugar consumption

To go from high sugar consumption down to zero might be a difficult undertaking. The key to success is to slowly cut out more and more sugary foods and to replace them with healthier alternatives. That way, we’re not only taking beloved foods out of our diets, but we’re also adding new foods into our diet to fill the void left by cookies, cakes and candy bars. Here are a few suggestions to help you on your journey to a low-sugar existence:

Whole fruit

If you want to avoid sugar, try to consume more of nature’s candy: fruit. Fruit comes in all shapes, colors and sizes but the common denominator is its sweet taste. Some people may claim that fruit has too much fructose and should be avoided as well but that is simply not true. Fruit contains a lot of dietary fiber that slows down the release of sugar into our blood stream, so our blood sugar does not spike but remains fairly stable. Fruit contains many amazing nutrients such as the aforementioned dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals that are vital for optimal health.  

Eat fruit in its whole form, put it in the freezer to turn it into a cold treat or mix it with veggies to make it into a fantastic salad. You have loads of possibilities, and the result is usually delicious.

Smoothies

Smoothies, like fruit, can be quite satisfying and help with sugary cravings. Smoothies can contain many different ingredients such as frozen fruit, plant-based milk, yoghurt, nuts or even spinach or kale.

Some people believe that smoothies cause blood sugar spikes because of their blended nature. But even though more research has to be done, there is a general consensus among the whole-food, plant-based community (e.g. see Forks over Knives) that having smoothies is much better than eating highly processed junk food. Enjoy your smoothie in a glass or make it into a smoothie bowl with toppings such as grated coconut, almonds or even sugar-free granola.

Beverages

It’s okay to have soda or lemonade occasionally, but many people have a sweet drink every day, which is just too much sugar. For everyday consumption, have water or unsweetened tea. You can also drink homemade nut milk (even though nut or oat milk is almost like an entire meal for me) or infuse water with strawberries or peaches, lemon or lime to give it more flavor.

Homemade sweets

Can you make your own “candy?” Even if you don’t eliminate sugar completely, you can easily reduce it and have a better sense of how much sugar goes into your food by making treats yourself. You can make nice-cream with frozen bananas, cocoa powder and some almond milk; you can use bananas or apple sauce to replace sugar in baking, or make healthier treats such as stuffed dates or date energy balls.

Sweet potatoes

Some people love yams or sweet potatoes and use them as breakfast food or even desserts. If you like sweet potatoes, you might be interested in trying out a few recipes like sweet potato brownies or sweet potato breakfast bowl.

Alternative sweeteners

According to Dr. Michael Greger, the only natural sweetener with any health benefit is date sugar because of its antioxidants and dietary fiber. Even honey and maple syrup – often touted as health foods – are, according to Greger, just sugar and thus mere empty calories. If you want to sweeten something, he suggests using dates either whole or cut up or in the form of date sugar or powder.

Potential pitfalls

One of the main difficulties when it comes to replacing sugar with better alternatives is the lack of availability of those alternatives. You can’t go to a regular grocery store and expect non-sugary treats to line the shelves. Often, even high-end supermarkets like Whole Foods don’t have a great selection of alternatives.

You may need to look around and find options online or make them yourself, which can be tricky – especially when you have ADHD. Making your own food warrants another article – which will arrive in a few weeks. Stay tuned!