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?

@greasypolemonkeyman your diet sounds amazing! Just making the point that if a non-diabetic were to have a carb heavy meal and wash it down with a Mars bar, their blood sugars shouldn't vary too much (lucky souls!).

And in the early 70s, Tom and Jerry cartoons made kids violent, in the 80s video nasties made kids violent, etc, etc.
^^
And in the 20s we have kids who stab each other to death.

This is the man that decided to home school his DC after realising term times meant he couldn't spend 6 months of the year in the Maldives. The man that praised his glamour model wife months after giving birth to his third child for her hard work on her body. The man couldn't be any more surface level. He's an idiot and no one should be taking anything he says seriously.

I work in school and a lot of parents are jumping on the bandwagon proclaiming ADHD because they want a label and an an excuse and medication rather than looking at their parenting and see first how to mitigate the symptoms with diet/boundaries on screen time/sleep etc. because that takes effort and patience.

Blame away at the parents. But not for the reasons you think. Maybe consider the fact that many, many of those parents are neurodivergent themselves and have to work extra hard to help their child fit into a world that has been designed for neurotypical people. A world they struggle to navigate themselves. You can't parent ADHD away. I really hope you don't teach my children. Your attitude is appallingly ignorant and bordering on ableist.

To add, I used to follow him post PE lock down workouts but find him so insincere that I stopped. One minute he's saying what a fab mother he has, who raised him as a single Mum, leaving his drug addict Dad. The next he's proclaiming he was dragged up on junk food. It can't be nice for his Mum to hear. I'd imagine she finds his 'I'm a much better parent than you ever was Mum' attitude insufferable. When seemingly she struggled on to raise her children alone.

And this why so many ND kids struggle at school. It's hard to get a diagnosis, it's hard to get support. Waiting lists are long. I think people are under the impression it wakes weeks not years

I've got two children with ADHD - I have done innumerable parenting classes and am actually qualified to facilitate parent groups and have done. Do NOT come at me with your accusations of lazy parenting. How bloody dare you. I was absolutely devastated when my children were diagnosed with a life long issue that I couldn't do anything about. I would have absolutely rejoiced if someone had told me it was my parenting and I could change it. How dare you.

He is a gormless twat trying to stay relevant. He should stick to skipping about.

The person working in a school...has ever crossed your mind the reason why so many are being assessed now is we know more about the difference and how it manifests itself. Its not just about being a nutter. I think its far more prevalent than the figures suggest and perhaps a symptom of the education system or society .
Please never say to any parent of a ND child that they are seeking a label for lazy parenting.

Wasn’t there a tv programme a few years ago where parents were asking for diagnosis of their DC and the experts (who I assume were qualified) agreed some should have a diagnosis but others just needed some different parenting techniques (not necessarily lazy parents)

He can get in the bin and then fuck off some more.

Who the fuck does he think he is?

Just ignore it @LoveSandbanks

Like you I took loads of parenting classes, read everything, worked hard because DD with ADHD needed that. She was diagnosed very early because she has boy classic ADHD thankfully. Most girls struggle because they present so differently.

SEN parents can't win. DD now has so many coping strategies and masks so well at school that people don't believe she has ADHD. I am one of the 'parents who say their child has it because it's trendy'. If we hadn't worked so hard, and allowed her to be herself out of school, we'd be the 'lazy parents whose child is just disruptive and ADHD is an excuse'.

And on the laziness accusation that people love so much. My lovely friend said, when her fuckwad DH tried to give me parenting tips, "Terry works twice as hard as us for half the results". Her kid was a biddable thing. You'd put her down, she'd stay there. If she ran off, she's come back. DD was a wall-of-death, Tasmanian Devil. Never ever still. At that point the choices are:

1. Constant criticism and 'no'
2. Work harder than any parent works to distract, mould, humour, counsel, entertain, encourage, exercise and try to control with no criticism, because their rejection sensitivity coupled with their behaviour means you fail one of their needs all the time.
3. Parent normally and their behaviour is unacceptable and you just live with the judgement.

It's not 'lazy'. 3's the level all the non-SEN parents meet. It's just for our children, that's woefully inadequate. And when we don't meet the requirements of number 2, we're arseholes. Mean teachers and other parents want to see 1. But that's where a lot of kids with ADHD end up with anxiety and depression. Constantly being told they are bad and wrong.

All the parents with kids with ADHD on this thread, thanks. Good job. Have a cup of tea. You earned it.

Ignorant git

Most the kids in Britain must have ADHD then.

That's the point I'm making we are born with our neuro diversities. You can't just 'catch' one, bad diet or not. And I'm assuming the professionals who diagnose us know the difference between 'an acquired ADHD type condition' and actual ADHD.

What Joe is talking about is how food can affect behaviour. And most people would be on board with that. But he is saying you can 'catch' a developmental disorder through food which is incorrect and frankly insulting.

Next he'll be saying my DC are autistic because they had the MMR vaccination.

It's possible, but we really don't know enough to be sure. Neurodevelopmental disorders are normally a complex combination of genetics and environmental factors.

It's not going to have caused a developmental difference to my brain when I was born in the late 70s though really, is it? Not a vast amount of junk food on the go compared to now. 🙄

He's spouted some total crap, quite a lot of influencers/z list nobodies and also news outlets seem to like using ADHD headlines as click bait, never mind the actual people affected.

Wanks.

I’m definitely open to ND being caused or inflated by environmental factors.

Screen time makes ADHD symptoms worse, it makes SPD symptoms a LOT worse. It’s not a secret that high sugar foods cause hyperactivity and that food affects mood and mental health via gut bacteria.

Your reckons don't count for much. You just hand wave away the very clear genetic factors, or are you ignorant of them? Formal heritability is around 70-80% which is very high.

If I ate shit, did no exercise, sought my dopamine with games not work and didn't try at all, my symptoms might be worse. So might DD's. But shit food didn't cause my ADHD (hippy mum, no junk allowed, homemade 'ketchup' FFS) or DD's (BF, all natural weaning, my dad called me a sugar Nazi).

Crack a book.

Oh and the sugar causes hyperactivity myth has been completely debunked.

Crack another book.

I’m definitely open to ND being caused or inflated by environmental factors.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of neurodivergent children have one or both parents who are similarly affected? Why be 'open to' something that is simply nonsense? You may as well be open to magic spells instead of medicine.

Sugar makes my ADHD worse as does screen time. Big time.

As others have said, he’s an influencer with no medical qualifications or experience at all. Hopefully he realises how ridiculous he’s been with his opinion.

I dont think anyone can take issue with him generally promoting a good diet and exercise for everyone (stick to what you actually know Joe).

Oh look he says this and just happens to have a cookbook coming out. Complete snake oil salesman seedy.

Cook book? You don’t say!