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?

Food intolerance and food allergies can cause people to be a bit hyper and make it difficult for them to concentrate. A lot of people also react like that to certain artificial food colours. Sugar hype is also real. But I am pretty sure that the specialists can tell the difference.

But sure if you suspect ADD or ADHD it doesn't do any harm to eat less sugar and processed food so by all means do try that before getting an assessment. Just please don't let the test fase run for too long before you go see a doctor.

A symptom of food allergy and food intolerance is that you sometimes poop white slime as well as normal looking poo. Another symptom is eczema. They dont both have to be there for it to be food allergy.

Being hyper and struggling with focus and concentration are just two of a myriad of ADHD traits. Joe Wicks appears to be saying that these traits are leading to an increased number of ADHD diagnoses, when they might actually be caused by a reaction to poor diet. But he's still talking bollocks, because no specialist is ever going to diagnose ADHD in a child based on these traits alone. If diagnosed with ADHD, they will be just two of many, many symptoms on which a diagnosis is based. The idea that children with ADHD are being scraped off the ceiling because they're so hyperactive is an outdated stereotype. My son has a few friends with ADHD (all his friends are ND). Only two of them have 'obvious' traits (eg standing ON the bus shelter instead of under it because they're bored and restless). The rest have more subtle signs which are really only obvious when you get to know them, but which likely affect them very deeply.

Diagnosis is nonetheless 100% behavioural. The genetic links are not at all provable or usable for diagnosis, i think you’d have to say ‘potential genetic links are being investigated’ rather than ‘it’s genetic’. I learnt recently that there are is a portion of the medical community that don’t think adhd exists, which surprised me. I expect they mostly think it’s a variant of something else, or that you can’t define a disease with such a vague behavioural diagnosis and very mixed outcomes to medication, that it needs a lot more understanding.

Of course diagnosis is 100% behavioural - that's the case for pretty much every condition out there Very, very few conditions are diagnosed solely on the fact that there are proven genetic links.

I learnt recently that there are is a portion of the medical community that don’t think adhd exists, which surprised me.

A leading fish expert (according to QI) didn't believe there was such a thing as 'fish'. That doesn't mean we can't observe and acknowledge slimy creatures with no legs that swim in the rivers and seas.

Definitions and descriptions of disorders change all the time. The DSM is regularly rewritten as our understanding changes.

Oh and the reason ADHD is mostly diagnosed behaviourally is because although there are differences in brain activity, MRIs can't reliably diagnose yet. But I'm willing to bet they will be able to soon.

As someone with diagnosed ADHD, both sugar and devices exacerbate mine. I was around 11 when I discovered I couldn’t concentrate after I’d eaten sweets.

Dd has diagnosed ADHD devices help her concentrate she literally had the TV on YouTube music in the background and was focused on her uni work plus her brothers sword fighting infront of her device and noise calm her brain

Everyone ADHDs differently

White noise is slightly different.

I find flicking around on devices makes it harder to concentrate afterwards.

It's not white noise she could tell you what was happening on the TV sing the music and update you where she was in her work her brain is wired completely different

And I'm assuming the professionals who diagnose us know the difference between 'an acquired ADHD type condition' and actual ADHD

You'd like to think so, but so much of the diagnostic burden has become commercialised.

I had a patient who came for an ADHD assessment, who I found not to have ADHD. She then went to a private provider who disagreed and felt she did have it.

She then tried to sue my trust for £30,000 to cover the costs of her ongoing care and private prescriptions

Now, what might have motivated the private provider (who was a pharmacist and took less than 30 minutes to complete the assessment), to disagree with my diagnosis?? 🤔