ADHD Nutrition: Eating for Energy and Focus 

ADHD nutrition is complicated. Honestly all nutrition is complicated, but studies show that ADHD may come with a marked sensitivity to dietary changes in a way that most don’t even experience. 

Honestly, I’ve been figuring out my own nutritional needs, but I’m not a nutritionist in any sense of the word, but I’ve found pretty heavy evidence all over the web to suggest that nutrition can help us out quite a bit. So, I’ve teamed up with some awesome nutrition experts who I can refer my clients to. And, because I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re heading into anything blindly, I’ve invited them to come share their knowledge. 

This week, I spoke with Coach Dre Williams of MOC Fitness, a self-diagnosed ADHDer who gets that eating well is important, but also very involved. And we had a great talk about how to figure out what you might need in order to  help keep steady energy and focus. Of course, you can go watch the conversation here, or listen on the player below, or on your favorite platform. 

Firstly, log your food

“Whenever somebody comes to me and lets me know that they’re having some energy issues and the first thing I ask is, have you kept track of your nutrition?” Coach Dre says, “Like, do you have a log?”

If you cringed a bit, I get it. Logging your food sounds like it can be difficult to stick to, and it can make you feel bad. After all, who wants to look at how many calories they’ve eaten, or how few vegetables they’ve taken in? 

Here’s the thing, though: you need to find the pattern between your food and your focus or energy. Even if there is a small connection, I’d bet money there is one. In order to get a better idea of how to eat to best help you, you have to know what you’re taking in already. So try to remember that this isn’t about counting calories or losing weight (unless you want to lose weight, or suspect you aren’t eating enough), and it’s more about making sure you eat, and that you’re taking in the stuff your brain and body need. 

But what if you struggle to keep track of this kind of stuff? Well…

How to track your food with ADHD

In terms of keeping track of your food, Dre agrees that doing it perfectly isn’t as important as just doing it: “Do you have to do that every day, forever and ever? Amen. No, because that’s not sustainable.” 

Instead, he suggests making sure that you do it when you remember, or even committing to it for a short amount of time, say a week or so. You can also do this through task-batching – that is, tying it to something you’re already going to be doing. Tie it into your morning routine, or to the meal itself, until your muscle memory automatically moves you to log as you eat. 

Also, journals are great, but if you don’t necessarily want to use a pen and paper, try an app. My personal favorite is the MyPlate app, but MyFitnessPal and Cronometer are very popular. Whatever you choose, make sure it makes your job easier. 

Next Up: Pay attention to your macros

Many of us pay attention to the wrong things, and we still operate off of the wrong beliefs. For example, we’ll complain about how much fat things have in them, or how we must have eaten “too many calories.” Fact is, though, we need to be thinking more about the balance between these three things, rather than whether or not we’re having them.

Don’t think that there’s some magical formula to this though; every single body will respond to different concentrations of macronutrients differently. 

“Even if I had somebody that was identical build to me, the manner in which they go through their day they’re going to use their macronutrients differently.” Dre says. “And me throwing out [the term] macronutrients, most people don’t know what they are. So macronutrients and for anybody listening, grab a pen or pencil, it’s protein, fats and carbohydrates.”

ADHD and Protein

Protein is a big thing for ADHD brains. Really.

Truth is, ADHD has a lot to do with neurotransmitters not doing the things they’re supposed to, and one thing that has a lot to do with neurotransmitter production is, as you’ve probably guessed, protein. A diet higher in protein has been linked to lower incidences of hyperactivity in people with ADHD, so y’know…that’s nice. 

There are also different kinds of protein, one of those types being lean protein (usually meat and dairy, but obviously there are options if you’re vegan or vegetarian),  which is very helpful for a brain like yours. 

You can get protein from things like the aforementioned meat, fish, eggs, and nuts, just to name a few things. Here are more, if you’re looking for ideas. 

ADHD and fats

Mistakes were made, and now everyone runs when they hear the word “fats.” But they’re just as important as the other two macros. 

The brain and those neurotransmitters all work together with help from healthy fats, so it’s super important that you make sure you take those in. The most popular healthy fat is Omega-3, which you can get in capsule form, or from eating a lot of fish. 

ADHD and Carbohydrates

“Now here’s something they don’t tell you,” Williams continues, “Carbohydrates. They have a subcategory carb, just like fats have a subcategory. So we know fats have a subcategory. There’s saturated and unsaturated fats. They don’t tell you that carbohydrates have a subcategory, you have complex carbs, you have non simple carbs and you have your grains and you have your fruits and you have your vegetables.”

Here’s the thing about that: you’ll hear a lot about how you can’t have “carbs.” But, as Coach Dre pointed out, you can’t just not have carbohydrates, because those are incredibly important to energy production. The point is to focus more on those complex carbohydrates that not only deliver a steady supply of sugar and energy, but also generally deliver other important nutrients you’ll probably need to get through the day. 

Fruits and vegetable are the best way to get your complex carbs, but you can also get them from things like oatmeal or granola. 

Lastly, experiment with your balance

Due to how personal this kind of thing can be, Dre then suggests figuring out what balance,  what foods work best for you. There is a hard option, and an easy option.

The Easy Option – Molecular Testing

The easiest option, he says, is to take a test that will review you on the molecular level. 

“The one that I recently partnered up with because I researched them, and I found that this one was the most accurate and the most robust in regards to really getting the information…So they do there’s two different types. They can do a waste test and then also a blood and waste test. So they test your gut health. And then it also tests your health at a cellular level. And what that does is now they’re able to tell you what your superfoods are. These are things that are going to give you that boost of energy, [and then they tell you the] things that you should stay away from.”

The company, called Viome, seems legit, and there’s a piece of me that really wants to just do this when I visit the US. I still might. The main issue I can see here for many is price, with the waste and blood test coming to a hefty $300 or so price tag. Still, the information may be invaluable, and if you choose to go this route, the link there is Dre’s, and it will take $10 off the final cost. 

The Harder Option – Trial and Error

If the test is not your cup of tea, then Coach Dre suggests adjusting your diet in little ways to see what works best for you. BUT. For a number of reasons, as I’ve suggested when starting a new routine or setting goals, the coach agrees that you shouldn’t change everything at one time. 

“…Find one meal that you know is your favorite meal and take one item in there and change it…So it’s like, if my go-to meal every night is some sort of pasta and salad and then I always have a dessert. Well, I’m going to go ahead and say, OK, well… we inherently know sugar is not great for us. So maybe I take that dessert and I don’t have that and I add fruit like I do like a natural sugar, something that’s innately made for my body. OK, so now I make that change and I’m like, OK, my body’s feeling a little bit. I could feel a difference…And then I can go ahead and say, OK, so I still really love my my pasta stuff, so I’m not going to touch that. Let’s look at the salad. I put like almost two cups of dressing on a half a cup salad. So maybe I should cut back on my dressing. So making small changes that can lead towards really big results in the end; if we make big changes, typically it’s not sustainable.”

While this is a longer game, it can also give you a bit more control over what you try and when, or how you try it. It also, admittedly, won’t call for you to poop in a cup or bleed onto a stick. So whatever works for you. 

In the end, neither Dre nor I believe in fully eliminating anything. If you’re not doing it because you want to, it’s going to be a struggle for you to keep with. That’s not even an ADHD thing; it’s just a human thing. 

So instead, the best thing you can do is understand yourself and your brain, and what makes you feel great vs. what makes you feel like crap. Starting there can eventually result in some wonderful answers to very hard questions. And if it’s one thing ADHDers love, it’s straightforward, honest answers. 

Coach Dre and I have teamed up professionally to ensure that our respective clients get the help they need, when they need it. If you’re thinking that you might need nutritional help, along with ADHD help, reach out to me and we can talk about the options you have. If you’d solely like to work with Coach Dre, you can reach him here.