Sugar

We all know sugar gives us energy, and while we could discuss the science of why that is, you've only got to watch kids at a party fuelled by cake and sweets to know it's true.

There's a bit of a history of controversy when it comes to sugar and ADHD, largely fuelled by the unfounded idea that high sugar consumption in childhood causes ADHD: completely untrue of course (Del-Ponte et al, 2019)^[1]. Unfortunately, this misunderstanding means some consider sugar harmless, when in fact there is a relationship between sugar and symptoms of ADHD, although we don't yet understand the full extent (Farad-Naeimi et al, 2020)^[2].

There are further reasons why sugar isn't a great idea for adults with ADHD.

• There is an association between ADHD and dysfunctional dopamine signalling (AArts et al, 2015)^[3], and high fat/high sugar diets are known to affect the availability of dopamine in our brain (Hartmann et al, 2020)^[4]
• There are correlations between ADHD and obesity that go beyond impulsivity control (Faraone & Larsson, 2019)^[5]. A high sugar diet does result in fat stored in tissue around our middle (I'll bore you with the science in a later blog), so it makes sense that if a person has a biological propensity to obesity or weight gain, keeping sugar low will help manage that.
• There is an association between ADHD and altered blood-glucose stability in children with type 1 diabetes and adults with type 2 diabetes (Leshno et al, 2025)^[6]
• Anxiety is the most common co-occurring condition with ADHD (Katzman et al, 2017)^[7]. High sugar intake makes our body's response to stress worse. To explain: when faced with stress, our brain triggers a response via something called the HPA axis. Simply put, it starts with adrenaline (that increases our heart rate and sometimes makes us sweat), then goes through a series of chemical reactions resulting in cortisol production. Cortisol increases blood pressure, heart rate, how much glucose we have in our bloodstream, and how our brain uses glucose. It's what we need for a high stress situation, but in anxiety, this happens too often. If you add have a high sugar intake then you are adding fuel to the fire, because when blood sugar peaks and drops quickly, the body triggers an adrenaline cycle again. This repeated activation of our HPA axis (adrenaline to cortisol) is linked with type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, even negatively affecting memory and cognition, and is implicated in depression (Chrousos, 2009)^[8]. Keeping our blood sugar stable helps us avoid serious long-term health conditions, and regulate our emotions better on a daily basis. It may seem a small change but it has big consequences!

So how do we eat in a way to keep blood sugar stable?

• have protein with each meal, as protein and fat slow down the release of glucose into your bloodstream. Protein includes nuts, eggs, meat, fish, cheese, tofu etc.
• swap white starchy foods (white rice, white flour, white pasta) with wholegrain options (e.g. brown basmati rice, wholewheat flour etc)
• if you fancy cake or chocolate, eat it just after the savoury/protein part of your lunch, which helps minimise the impact on your blood sugar
• to sleep better at night, don't eat sweet things in the evening
• avoid drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, have a handful of nuts first or drink with a meal
• never ever ever have sugary drinks (including those with sweeteners and concentrated fruit juices), as they have shown to be particularly influential on symptoms of ADHD and raise blood sugar very fast

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