Floris also has ADHD and therefore went on a very strict diet. That diet consists of “pepper, salt, turkey, cabbage and rice,” the teenager tells us EditionNL. That diet was further expanded after a few weeks.
Floris and his parents soon noticed that he felt better. “I was calmer than before,” the boy says. Normally he had trouble concentrating, but that also got better. The teen likes that very much, as he can now focus better, get higher grades and make friends more easily.
Positive results
Researcher at Wageningen University and Research Saartje Hontelez also sees that the diet produces positive results. “We see in a number of children that they respond very well to the diet and that they actually no longer fall into the ADHD category,” she says.
The study looked at the relationship between the activity of different parts of the brain and the changing symptoms of children with ADHD. The activity in these children is different in different parts of the brain.
In contrast to children without ADHD, one of the brain parts has a reduced activity. Medication can increase this activity, but “we see the same effect after following the diet,” Hontelez explains.
Research
Research is now underway into which foods cause this reduced activity. That is also the reason that the diet starts very limited with a duration of five weeks. “After that, the diet can continue for another two years. And then you expand it. It partly varies per child which food is a trigger.”
Hontelez emphasizes that the diet is not intended for all children. “It is very drastic. So we first want to know how it works, so that not exactly this diet, but something more accessible is also sufficient.”
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