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?

Watch yourself if you feed them any aspartame as they go from bouncy fun boys into fucking little terrors 😜
The wretched stuff is in so many things.
They took the sugar out and put that in instead.

I agree

It is a MASSIVE thing to put a child on amphetamine, yet the number of parents who 'just do it' is horrifying to me.

He’s got a brass neck given how much shite he eats when he’s on a binge

Yeah this he's not the brightest button and just opens his mouth I mean he's just feeding into fears of some people he's a bit culty! Oh and he's an app to promote.

DS1 now 24 has (mostly) good control over himself now but my god after a few vodka’s his ADHD goes into overdrive!

Except that's not really what he said is it?

It's quite the jump from 'I wonder if nutrition plays a part?' to 'Junk food causes ADHD'. Asking a question, not making a statement.

Typical tabloid froth and any anger is best directed towards the Mail rather than Wicks himself.

Would you mind posting links to tonnes of these studies, even a single meta study, that demonstrate poor diet contributes to high rates of ADHD?

Oh, in that case I have jumped the shark
Lately though I have been a bit pissed off at influencers giving health advice.

I was diagnosed with adhd last week. By some bloke with a medical degree and a string of post grad specialisms, rather than some prick who’s written a couple of books.

I don’t eat junk food, I’m gluten free so most junk food is unavailable to me anyway and I prefer to avoid gluten free substitutes

I eat takeaways probably once or twice a year

still got adhd. Apparently exercise is the best way of controlling adhd, next week
im running London marathon. How much fucking exercise do I need to do before it’s controlled???

he’s a prick who’s jumped on the “adhd is in the news” bandwagon to get his name some current visibility.

fwiw, I was always firmly of the belief that adhd is bollocks and down to poor parenting. Then got two boys with adhd so that view bit
me right on the arse 🤣

I think this is just click bait.

My two children have had the same diet from being babies (mostly...unless sensory avoidance in my DS). My DS has ASD, ADHD and dyspraxia. My DD doesn't.
I have noticed some behaviour changes in my children when they were younger with certain foods (mostly sugar related). I don't think that had any impact on neurodiversity.
If anything my 8 year old DS eats more healthier than my teenage DD. 🙄

There are some warnings on food labels with certain E numbers that's say, may cause hyperactivity in children. So whilst it's might make the issue worse, unlikely that diet alone would cause it.

He’s going for an OBE…

The fact is what we actually know about adhd is minuscule and the actual experts agree on this. I read a quote recently that said our understanding of adhd is akin to when we were still using leeches to heal physical problems.

There are many people working in the field who believe junk food is a compounding factor, others who believe childhood trauma is, there's a doctor having apparent success treating adhd with only social prescriptions and others attempting to treat it with digital detoxes.

My own personal belief (just an opinion not a fact) is that we'll come to understand adhd as an umbrella term used to describe a group of behaviours with a range of different causes from dopamine deficit to early childhood trauma. However this is just my own opinion the point is we don't know yet.

Joe Wicks today claimed ultraprocessed junk food may be behind the explosion in child ADHD diagnoses

That's not the same as saying 'junk food causes ADHD' though op.

I think he has very good points. In short, that feeding your kid a shit diet can severely impact behaviour which leads to them being misdiagnosed with ADHD.

Junk food can definitely exacerbate symptoms, not sure that they cause it though.

Couple of studies here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608000/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9322602/

https://bnrc.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42269-020-00466-x

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01684-7

He is such a prick.

DS1 is the same and if he has had a diet coke with it it's unstoppable 😂

This! He reminds me very much of Jamie Oliver

Obviously what you know about ADHD is miniscule. I think the medical profession might not appreciate your personal beliefs.

Did you read the article?

He claimed that a reliance on junk food can lead to lack of energy and a struggle to focus in young people.

True.

”And then we're taught this is what kids eat, kids need these snacks in their lunchbox, this is what they have for dinner. […] So, we're kind of being confused and led down this path that adults have adult food and kids have kids menus and kids food.

And that's the issue we've got because people are cooking less than ever and relying on these processed foods and it's a shame because kids are getting their energy sucked out of them.

”They're struggling at school with focus, they're gaining weight, and probably having really low energy crashes because these foods are just not going to give your children the energy they need to sustain a healthy day — a balanced level of energy.”

All of that is also true. He’s not claiming ADHD doesn’t exist or that it’s caused by junk food. He’s saying his own behaviour when young was caused or exacerbated by a poor diet and I think suggests he’d have diagnosed with ND if he was young now.

He doesn't say it causes ADHD, though.

It's well known that a bad diet impacts your physical and mental health - so it follows that a bad diet could make various symptoms worse.

That doesn't mean junk food causes ADHD, just that ADHD won't be helped by a bad diet.

It's like saying exercise cures depression - it doesn't, of course, but it does help with the symptoms.

This is false. The first recorded mention of ADHD symptoms in medical literature was in... 1775.

British paediatricians were recognising the symptoms of ADHD and lecturing about them in the early 1900s.

What has improved in recent years is the field of ADHD study in general. We know a lot more about the causes (genes rather than chocolate bars) and effective treatment options.

To say that personal choices, e.g. food, cause ADHD is utterly stupid. The ADHD brain is wired differently from birth.

I don't think he's saying it is the only cause is he?

I think its probably quite logical for there to be an effect of ingesting harmful chemicals on the brain, especially in vast quantities.

How about saying symptoms can be worsened by a poor diet?