Joe Wicks says junk food causes ADHD

[RiffRaffBananas]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13292511/amp/Joe-Wicks-blames-ultra-processed-junk-explosion-children-ADHD-reveals-ran-sugar-kid-thinks-love-Sunny-Delight-Wagon-Wheels-jam-sandwiches-caused-behavioural-issues.html

I politely disagree with Joe. I have a very health conscious friend who cooks from scratch, plenty of vegetables and a Mediterranean diet as recommended by all healthcare professionals and has two children. One has ADHD and one doesn’t.

Has Joe jumped the shark on this one?

He was being interviewed verbally and used a figure of speech. "Every child" in this context means "a higher proportion". I'm virtually certain he isn't being literal. He merely points out that bad diets exacerbate behavioural problems which I really don't see as controversial. What I see here is an OP that says "JW says bad diet causes ADHD" and a tonne of posters just wade in with their insults and fail to a) investigate what he actually said, and b) make a reasoned argument for what they agree/disagree about what he said.

Oh how interesting, I'd also like to know Joes thoughts on vaccines, said no one ever.

Its a reference to the TV series Happy Days. After several seasons, they really ran out of ideas, and a character called The Fonze did a jump on a jetski, over a shark.

The phrase has come to mean that someone has run out of ideas and has come out with something completely bizarre in order to stay relevant and get attention.

Taking the piss in American speak 😉

Again, by saying ‘every child’, he was being goady. And he said ADHD diagnosis can be stemmed back to diet, which isn’t true.

He isn’t qualified to speak on this issue and has made himself look ill informed and silly, but maybe he feels that’s worth it for the attention it brings him.

You don’t need qualifications to say anything. It doesn’t make what you say any less ridiculous though. Many stupid people say a lot of stupid things. No qualifications needed.

And all the newspaper articles about how he made 7 million during Covid but once we weren't locked down anymore his profits slipped to 3 or something tragic.

In fairness, his advertising revenue from the lockdown videos went to charity, but by god he made sure we knew about it. The 7 million profit came from his other gigs.

@Everanewbie as others have said, he said, clearly and loudly, that "every child has a diagnosis these days" Just imagine if that were anyone other than Saint Joe. "they're all adhd these days, didn't exist in my day, it's because you all feed them shit because you don't know any better" THAT'S what he said. That's what he inferred. And the fact that ADHDUK has had to issue a statement about it shows that actual experts not only understood what he was saying, but know it was untrue.

And it's not just the Mail where the story has appeared. It's a very lazy trope to simply "ah, well, you will read the Mail"

He is absolutely unqualified to speculate about ADHD.

Its not a behavioural disorder, it's neurodevelopmental. That's a pretty basic distinction to get wrong.

Parents of ND children take more responsibility in any event - because they have no other choice.

Joe is hard of thinking. Very smug, but can't read a room.

Joe Wicks is as thick as mince but up to this point at least had the common sense not to wade into subjects he knows fuck all about.

Surely he's just trying to grab cash from the 'I read it online' market who will no doubt want to buy any products he comes.up.with (diet book, cook books, blah blah) to "prevent" adhd. Usual actions of the snake oil sellers. He loves a good line in judgy parenting 🙄

And his qualifications are...?

Contrary to popular opinion, having ADHD does not mean you are necessarily hyper active like the stereotypical ADHD child bouncing off the classroom walls and it can all be solved with a healthy breakfast...

Is he a doctor? I doubt it, so I will not listen to him.

@Willyoujustbequiet interesting some posters on here have said what their child with ADHD eats/drinks can have an impact

It’s actually cruel - basically “blaming” parents.

All the people I know with adhd children are very lentil-y: not junk food people st all.

Yeh, 70 years ago they would have blamed "refrigerator mothers" Now it's mothers to serve up pringles

Not blaming lentils before the lentil activists pile on. Just saying I don’t think the junk food theory holds!

But he isn’t saying junk food causes it

I thought that was the basis of the thread?

DCs ADHD would still be there no matter what he ate.
We do limit the amount of processed foods we eat because it does increase some ADHD symptoms. We find this with some cereals that don't even seem to have ingredients that you would associate with 'junk food'.

@Calliopespa basically what he actually said has been misrepresented in the headline. A lot of the comments are not about what JW actually said - which was a fairly measured comment on the effects of processed food on children.

He did however refer to 'all children' having adhd these days, which was either a figure of speech, misinformed or goady depending on your point of view.

Interestingly I was listening to a podcast the other day about how fake news spreads so quickly and the researcher in question had tracked news different stories on social media. The number of people who shared or commented on articles without actually clicking on them was incredibly high (I can't remember the number but close to 80% iirc). Basically all it took was a headline that you either really agreed with or really disagreed with.

ADHD kids were always there - they were just allowed to fail and left school at 14.

He's made a bit of a tit of himself, here.

Diet affects all of us whether neurodiverse or not.

But it does not cause ADHD and given that JW has no medical qualifications in neurodevelopmental disorders its pretty arrogant of him to discuss it in the manner he has.

Carbs have a huge range across the GI index. Are you suggesting all carbs are bad?