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You are listening to the Navigating Adult ADHD podcast with your ADHD coach and expert, Xena. Hello my friend. Welcome back to Navigating Adult adhd, where today we're talking about something that I find very fascinating because we can often be at quite opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to this and that is how ADHD impacts our relationship with food. So just this past weekend I had my, one of my best friends staying with me and I was making breakfast at about 7am in the morning and I said to her, can I make you some? And she's like, oh no, no way. Like I don't eat till like 2ish. I was like, what? Really? She's like, yeah, like normally I don't eat till I'm like starving at about 2 o' clock in the afternoon. And of course, fellow ADHDer, I totally get it. So tell me my friend, do you ever forget to eat until it is 2 o' clock in the afternoon and you've got this like pounding headache? Or you find that you're like shaking and aggressively hangry, or perhaps you eat way past full and think like, why do I do that to myself? Maybe you have foods that just give you the absolute ick. So it could be the texture of the food is just a hell no for you or the smell. And maybe you have constant food noise. Is that you? Do you have that, you know, constant channel in your brain running 247 of like what should I eat next? What do we have? What sweet food do we have in the house? Like what salty food? What is it? If you're nodding along then my friend, you are not alone. I am one of those people who has, you know, the constant question of what am I going to eat next? In my head. Always thinking about food. And I've always struggled with it's not that I forget to eat, but eating way past full, like knowing when is a good time to stop. Now here's a reason for this, a very good reason. ADHD actually has a very big impact on our relationship with food. So of course today we're going to dive into this. Why is this? How does it show up? What does it actually look like in our day to day lives and from a brain based perspective in research, what's going on? And of course we're going to talk about how can we actually improve our relationship with eating and food without the shame, without the restriction or trying to become a completely different human. So my friends, from the top, let's explore. First of all, why is it that as ADHDers we can forget to eat. So the very first thing I want to talk about here is interoception. So this is your ability to read and interpret the signals and sensations that your body, your internal body is sending you. So it's your ability to notice things like being hungry or how full you are, or that you're thirsty or that you need to go pee, you need to go to the bathroom. It also helps with emotional regulation, noticing you're getting stressed before you know you're losing your shit and throwing your toys out the cot. So this is one, I've got a whole episode on this. It's one of the 70s, I want to say around 76, 77. But this is a fascinating one because this plays a massive role in our ADHD in a lot of different ways. But of course, when it comes to our ability to know that we need to eat, if we're not hearing the signals, if we're not feeling the rumbling tummy or the dry mouth, or if we're not feeling that that tummy is full, then we are not getting that signal, that message that most people get that, hey, it's time to eat something. So of course for ADHD brains, this interoception, this internal sense, it's a little bit glitchy. So it's kind of like our fuel light doesn't come on and suddenly like the car is spluttering on the side of the road. So instead of, you know, I'm getting a little bit hungry, I should probably eat soon. It's, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. Holy shit. Why do I feel like I'm dying? Right? It's like one extreme or the other. Now this also leads to something else that I see quite a lot of the time with ADHD is, and that is this like urgency based eating. So as people with adhd, we're not driven by importance, right? Neurotypical people will prioritize what's important in the order it should most likely get done based on importance, right? Whereas we're very much driven by things like interest, novelty and urgency. Urgency is a big driver for us. So eating doesn't just happen because it's something important, it's something we air quotes should do, we should have breakfast or we should have lunch. It happens for us often when it becomes urgent, okay, so that'll look like not eating, not eating, not eating. And then suddenly you're shaking, you've got a headache, you're snapping at people, and now food has become like in a mo emergency, and you'll eat anything. Okay? So of course, like instead of having this nice steady relationship with food, it becomes a very kind of classic adhd, which is that all or nothing. So the second thing that plays a role in why ADHDers can forget to eat is medication. So my friend, if you are on a stimulant based medication, so for example, that could be Ritalin or, or a dexamphetamine or a Vyvanse, that can suppress your appetite when the meds are in your system, okay? Which means that those hunger cues get even quieter. And when those meds wear off, it can lead to binging, which is something that my friend and I were talking about at the weekend. She said when the meds wear off out of her system later on in the evening, she often finds herself binging, eating anything she can get her hands on. Okay? And that's quite a common pattern that I hear about barely eating all day and then like eating a lot at night. The third thing that impacts not eating for people with ADHD is the hyper focus and the accidental fasting because we've gone down a rabbit hole. So you sit down to do something, next minute it's 3pm and you haven't eaten all day because you're so busy researching how deep is the ocean and what lives down there. Which I may have done. Yes. So you've forgotten that you've got this body that requires fuel. And it's not that we've like ignored it on purpose. We've just been pulled into something that is way more stimulating. It's so interesting to our brain. Now this is also where time blindness can sneak in, okay? Because a lot of people, right, have a natural rhythm to their day, especially our neurotypical friends. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. But for the ADHD brains, we're out here living in time soup. Right? Time blindness is where we have difficulty interpreting time, like being able to feel the passing of time and feeling how long things take and interpreting how long we have between tasks. So instead of, oh, it's lunchtime, I should eat. It's like, oh, wait, how is it 3pm when did that happen again? Time blindness comes into it here. Like sometimes lunch doesn't even feel like a thing. Just also it can feel like it's interrupting whatever I'm doing. It's a nuisance. Okay? So sometimes meals don't necessarily feel like these kind of anchored points in your day. They might feel really random or optional or even inconvenient, which again will make it really hard to eat consistently. Consistently. I had to get that word out. All right, the fourth thing that can impact our ability to eat and why we might not eat, and this is a really sneaky one that I see. I've got a few clients who do this, is not eating, because it actually can feel kind of good. And it's not that they necessarily have realized that often it's something that we will talk about in sessions, but it can create this kind of weird sense of clarity. If you've ever been in a state of ketosis where, like, you're really switched on and your brain is, like, all lit up, like, very focused, less of that sluggish feeling and just very alert. And because they like that feeling, because it helps their brain to operate, to do what they need to do, they might just avoid eating to continue to keep that feeling going for as long as they can. Okay. And what's happening is in the brain, your brain begins to start running on these stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline. But, yes, having adrenaline in your system can feel quite good. It can give you that kind of alert that you like. But running on cortisol, the stress hormone, can not be so good. It's kind of like borrowing energy from a credit card. It works in the short term, but the crash always comes. Right. At some point, you've got to pay it back. Okay, so this one here, we're moving on to the second part here, which is why we overeat, something I myself can very much relate to. Same brain, but opposite behaviour. So, again, the first thing that interacts with our ability to overeat is that interoception, right, which I've just talked about. That's that internal sense. It's one of our body's internal senses that helps us to interpret what our body needs when our body needs it. So it'll send us little cues like, hey, my tummy's starting to feel really tight and really heavy. Okay? So just like you might struggle to feel the hunger cues, you might also struggle when it comes to feeling those fullness cues. So instead of like, oh, I'm satisfied, it's like, yeah, I'm good. I'll just have a bit more. A bit more. I'm fine, I'm fine. Oh, my God, I've gone way too far. And forever saying, oh, my God, I ate too much. It's kind of like what people describe of Christmas Day, but that happens all the time. Another reason we overeat is dopamine seeking. Our ADHD brains have less dopamine so of course that means that we are seeking it, we want it, because it's feels good in our system. So we're constantly looking for that dopamine and it gives us stimulation, right? Stimulation to act. So food is something that's quick, it's easy, it's reliable when it comes to getting this dopamine, especially things like sugary foods or energy drinks or like carbs, like processed carbs or high fat foods, you know, like take out that sort of thing. A lot of dopamine in that. So these give us that fast dopamine hit and your brain's like, yes, I want more of that immediately. Okay, so of course dopamine seeking can play quite a big role in the reason why we will overeat. You know the funniest thing, total side note. Hello, ADHD brain. Going on a tangent, but I gotta tell you, I've got my, like, fitness watch on, right? And it just buzzed and I was like, why is it buzzing at me? So I looked at it, I glanced down and it said, you move alert has been. Now the funniest thing is I'm standing in place, but I wave my hands around. Like, I'm such a descriptive person. I talk with my hands. So while I'm recording this and you can't see me, I'm waving my hands around so dramatically that I managed to clear the move alert on my little Garmin watch, my little fitness watch. I crack myself up. All right, so why we overeat? The third thing that contributes to why people with adhd, why we overeat, is emotional eating. Oh, my gosh. Hi, it's me. And eating to try and regulate yourself or perhaps numb yourself. So this is when food isn't just food, okay. It can become something that comforts you when you're overwhelmed. For me, it was always when I was anxious. Like, I would seek to eat especially sweet foods or just alcohol as well. Just get that it was a real emotional thing for me to help numb me so that I didn't feel the anxiety. It could be that you're eating for stimulation when you're bored. It could be that it helps to kind of ground you or chill you out a little bit when you're dysregulated. So of course it makes a lot of sense that as adults with adhd, we often use food to try and, you know, numb or soothe the emotions that we have. I find it really fascinating that food is often. Or alcohol is often something that we use to celebrate. It can be something we commiserate with, but also something that we celebrate with. So it's not that we have this lack of willpower, it's that our brain will often use food as a way to try and cope. So the next thing I want us to talk about is food noise and obsessive thinking. Okay? Because, oof. This is one I hear about from so many of you. It is that mental chatter, what should I eat? Do we have any chocolate? What's for dinner? Maybe I should get Uber Eats. What are all my options? What about dessert? And it's just on repeat 247 constantly throughout the day. Oh, my gosh. So relatable. This comes from the dopamine seeking. It can be decision fatigue, executive function dysfunction, rather showing up in there. And again, like, seeking that regulation. And your brain is basically scanning for its next hit. I see a lot of this in the evenings where, you know, we might find ourselves rummaging through the pantry and then going back to the fridge and then back in the pantry and just sort of looking for what's next. And it could be combination of, you know, you're a little bit bored, but also you're feeling really agitated and on edge, and you want that feeling to go away. And also you want to feel good. You want some dopamine, you want to feel good. So it's. It's like a reliable way that we can do that. But of course, that kind of perpetuates this food noise and this constant kind of food chatter that can go on in the brain and, my friends, executive dysfunction. Oh, my gosh. This can have a massive impact in our relationship with food. Because if you think about it like, eating sounds simple, right? Just grab something to eat sounds simple until you actually break it down. Because just eat is actually a whole chain of executive functions. It's a whole bunch of steps. There's the deciding what to eat. There's either remembering what you have or going to look at what you have. There's the planning, planning ahead. There's the starting the task. So the initiation, there's the following through, and then there's the cleaning up after yourself. That is a lot of brain power. Wow. And adhd, it is a condition that impacts your brain's ability to manage these exact things, my friend. This is executive dysfunction. Right? So executive functions are your brain's management system. If you think about it, it's kind of like the CEO that is supposed to organize and plan and, you know, get things done and make sure everything is followed through. Right? Except in ADHD is our CEO, he keeps Wandering off mid meeting. It's kind of what it's like when it comes to our executive functions. So next is the sensory stuff. And this can be a really big one for people with adhd, although a lot of people associate sensory more so with autism. And this can also be something that those of us with ADHD experience. In fact, any form of neurodivergence can have sensory challenges. Sensory icks, sensory preferences. We are very often very sensory and we are, of course, more sensitive in so many senses of the word. So food isn't just about taste. It is about the texture, the smell, the temperature, even the sound it makes. So a good example of this, actually is halloumi cheese. And some people call it squeaky cheese, because when you eat halloumi, it does. It squeaks in your mouth. We actually had this at the weekend. My best friend and I, we've got this, like, signature dish that we make every time we get together. And halloumi cheese is one of the things that is in that meal. And I know some people who cannot stand halloumi cheese because it squeaks in your mouth. And that is such a sensory ick for them. So certain foods might make you go, absolutely not. I would rather starve. And that's not just being fussy. That's actually the sensory processing differences that those of us with ADHD can have, which, of course, impacts our relationship with food. Hyper fixation is another one. We can also hyper fixate on foods. You find a food and suddenly it is all you want. You want to eat it all day, every day. It is like your personality for a whole month. That was me with pickles. I used to laugh about this because of all the things. It was pickles. I would literally put pickles in my omelette for breakfast. I would put it in whatever I was having for lunch, and then I would have pickles on the side of my dinner as well. I was eating pickles, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And even on snacks. Like, I could have pickles with snacks. I was obsessed with pickles to the point where, like, I brought pickled. Like, I've got pickles on a T shirt, right? Like, it became a whole thing. Like, literally, it became part of my personality. It was a joke. We were going through more than a jar of pickles, a huge jar of pickles every single week. Like, obsessed. And then one day, no, don't give a shit. Like, don't even want to. Just done. It's, like, dead to me, right? Our ADHD brains love novelty, but they also can Burn through it really fast. So hyper fixating on foods is another thing that we see. Then we've got to talk about diet culture and the all or nothing that we can get stuck in. Because this is where things can get really, really tricky. As people with adhd, we are more vulnerable to extreme diets, to that whole, I'll start on Monday. God, the amount of times I have said that over the years. So I'd start on a Monday and I'd quit the diet and exercise routine by Wednesday. And then I'd say, you know what? I'm just gonna eat whatever I want and go crazy and make the most of all the food and all my favorite things, and then I'll start again fresh on Monday. So it would really create this very kind of bingy sort of a cycle, right? Always saying, hey, I'll start again on Monday. And of course, we often can be vulnerable to cutting things out completely, becoming very all or nothing, very restrictive. And of course, right, that leads to restriction. It leads to. It can lead to burnout. It can lead to that bingeing cycle. So it's no surprise that ADHD is. We are more prone to developing eating disorders. Okay, I'm not just making that up, my friends. There are stats and studies around this. It was actually something that I remember during my. My consultation with the psychiatrist when I was going through the process of getting diagnosed with adhd. It was something she talked to me about. Have you had an eating disorder? And, you know, what is your relationship like with food? And I was like, oh, that's random. Why are you eating? Why are you eating that? Why are you asking that? And then, of course, I got my diagnosis and she told me why. Etc. And then I went down this whole rabbit hole, like, Googling that and looking at all the research. I became obsessed with understanding why we're more prone to having eating disorders. I was like, oh, because that was me. That was my experience. I had an eating disorder as a teen that sort of followed me through into my 20s. And of course, that still impacts my relationship with food today. So, of course, no surprise, my friends, we are more prone to developing eating disorders. Now, I want to bust a myth here because you might have heard, and this was something, I think quite big in the 90s, but you might have heard that sugar causes ADHD. That is total bullshit. I was curious about this and I did a bit of research. There is no research to support that. There is no evidence that supports that sugar will cause adhd. Okay. However, what the research does show is there you may find certain things, foods. Maybe it's certain foods or additives. It could be sugar. It could be preservatives. Additives impact how you feel and your ability to use your brain. Now, there is research that does suggest certain additives, like artificial colors or preservatives. Right. Can impact some individuals. Now, I know I have one client I work with in America, and it is the red food dye, which can be in, say, red velvet cupcakes, for example. Like, red food dye will literally send her into a spiral. Like, it'll spike her and make her feel physically ill, but also, like, just shuts down her ability to use her brain completely. And for me, sugar is one of those things that makes me quite sluggish. And I know I'm so, like, prone to being addicted to it. Like, I just want more and more and more and more. I can never get enough. Like, I could. I could never just be that person who bought a packet of chocolate biscuits and just had one or two. Like, I had to get rid of the packet. Like, I would demolish the whole thing. So for me, I know, like, because of the way it makes me feel, sugar is one of those things that just doesn't feel great in my body. So I limit the amount of it I have because it makes my brain more sluggish. But that's not the case for everyone. But you may have already noticed that there are certain foods that impact your ability to focus or to pay attention or impact how you feel. And again, like I said, the research does suggest that certain additives can impact some individuals. So, my friend, I know we've kind of gone through this quite quick. I feel like there's a lot to cover when it comes to food, and we probably could have done two episodes, but no, we're not. We got a lot of. We've got a lot to cover. We've got a lot of other things to talk about. So let's talk about the supports, some of the realistic kind of supports if you have a difficult relationship with food and. And eating. So number one is protein prioritizing protein, because this is your brain's building block. Protein supports the production of dopamine and other key neurotransmitters in the brain. Okay. As ADHD is, we've already got less dopamine. So if we can help it to get built. If we can help to produce more of it, hell yeah, let's do it. So getting protein in and trying to get that throughout your day, especially if you can even just start the day with Protein. That is a really supportive thing to do. So when we talk about protein, think, you know, eggs, maybe eggs for breakfast or boiled eggs as a snack throughout the day. Chicken, right? Yogurt, Greek yogurt, protein shakes, protein bars. Okay? Protein is a really great one to sprinkle throughout the day wherever you can. And to make it easier, the second support, the second thing I recommend is low effort foods. Like literally lowering the bar and making it easy. Okay. This is about being like survival smart. It's not lazy. It's like this is smart. So examples of this is like buying a cooked chicken. I went through years of like just buying a cooked chicken. Now I just buy a pack of chicken legs and just shove them in the oven every, like it's either Sunday or Monday. I'll just cook up a batch of chicken legs and use them all throughout the week. It's just like I've already got this thing I can snack on or throw in my lunch or my dinner or whatever. Like just having that cooked chicken there just makes my week so much easier. Boiled eggs is another great idea. Frozen meals, you can buy like amazing frozen meals these days. Even like high protein ones. Pre cut vegetables. Like buying a bag of just pre cut veggies. Even using a meal delivery service. Okay, you don't need to be a chef. How. No, I am surely not a chef. Like, oh, one of my, like one of the things I dislike is having people over and having to cook for them. That's just not a thing I love. So again, you don't have to be a chef. Just like lower the bar and make it easier to either have food available or make meals what have you. Just make it way easier. Right? Low effort foods is number two. The third support I recommend is using external cues instead of relying on those internal ones because your hunger signals can be completely unreliable. All right. If you're one of those people who forgets to eat all throughout the day, having an alarm on your phone, having a reminder of some sort, maybe it's a visual cue, like a post it note or a giant poster or something. And you eat because it's time to eat, not necessarily because you feel hungry. It was actually something that my friend and I talked about at the weekend. She said, actually, you know, I know it leads to this binging cycle. So I might start setting an alarm on my phone for say even, you know, 10 or 11am Because I don't want to eat first thing in the morning, but 10 or 11am so that I am getting something in my body a Little bit earlier to try and, you know, curb that binging cycle later in the day or having a headache and feeling terrible come mid afternoon. She said that her co workers will sometimes like send her out of the office to go and get food. They like, banish her because she gets so hangry come mid afternoon because she has not eaten all day. So again, like using those external cues instead of relying on your body telling you that you need to eat, that is not a reliable source. Number four is snacks everywhere. Oh my gosh. If you're hanging out with me in person, you're guaranteed I'm going to have snacks literally everywhere. I've got them in the car, I've got them in all of my different bags, like my, my handbag, like my satchel, my. Like all the bags have snacks in my desk here and my desk drawer. Even in the shelving of my desk. Sorry, in the shelving cupboards here. Like, I have snacks everywhere, right? Putting snacks everywhere makes it so much easier because it's the visual cue as well. You're going to have that visual cue. But also it helps me to eat healthier foods because if I forget to eat, by the time I want to eat, I'm going to go for anything and everything. So I stock up with protein bars. I've got nuts, like little packets of nuts or fruit and nuts everywhere. Beef jerky is another one. Even like using a shaker and protein powder and having that. Like, we can just have all sorts of different snacks. But having them everywhere is so helpful. The fifth support is building more slow dopamine into our day. I know this has helped hugely with my own relationship with food. So when I talk about slow dopamine, not all dopamine is created equal, okay? If you think about it like fast food versus, say, healthy food, okay? There are some sources of dopamine, which could be gaming or gambling or drinking alcohol or eating sugar like chocolate lollies get, you know, playing on your phone, all of that. They are kind of like fast food, okay? They're the sort of thing that when we do those dopamine related activities, as soon as we stop doing them, our dopamine levels drop. We spike really fast and then we drop really fast, okay? Whereas if we are to have more slow dopamine, slow dopamine is things like working on your hobbies or your goals, going for a walk, watching the sunset, being out in nature. For me, I go for a morning walk every morning. I love to go, like to the beach and sometimes I'll just sit on the log at the beach and just be there, those sorts of things, right? It might be just time with friends. Like there's so many different things, but those sorts of things, those slow dopamine, when you stop doing them, you're still getting the benefit of that sprinkled, sort of dripped throughout your day, okay? It's like you've been nourished. So again, it's a lot like, you know, having fast food, which is great every now and again, but if you have it every single day, it starts to have a negative impact. Whereas healthy foods, right, Nourish you and help you, you know, throughout the day to feel good, to sustain your energy, all of that sort of thing. Okay? So again, if we build more slow dopamine into our day, rather than having all of your dopamine coming from food, right? If you're, if that's what's happening, your brain's going to keep going back there. If you add in just a little bit of movement or sunlight or music or connection with people that you enjoy connecting with. So that food isn't your only tool. That slow dopamine is really gonna help for you to manage your sort of energy levels and how you feel mentally and emotionally throughout the day. But when I do talk about emotion, slow dopamine will help with emotional regulation. Okay? So going for a walk, getting out in nature, those help to turn down the dial on your emotions and on that dysregulation. They are very supportive of that. Okay, so again, sprinkling a bit more of that into the day. And that leads to me to number six, which is emotional regulation tools, right? For so long, food and alcohol really was my only way of sort of. I'm not, I say regulating, but I think I was more trying to numb myself so that I didn't feel. But it can be, you know, something that we do to try and turn down the volume on our emotions because if we fill ourselves up enough, right, we don't feel quite so much. So rather than, you know, removing emotional eating or emotional, you know, using food as a way of numbing or regulating or coping, whatever, we don't want to remove it. We just simply want to add in more options, more emotional regulation tools. And I've talked about it many times before and I'll keep doing that. EFT tapping is one of my absolute favorites. That stands for emotional freedom technique. Tapping on various meridian points around the body is the science. And the research behind this is wild at how effective it is in helping to calm your nervous system. Like if you're in a state of fight or flight. It's the research on people with PTSD as well. It's mind blowing. So I've got a whole podcast on that. I've actually got a few. But number 59, I talk about using EFT tapping. Right? Also, if you check out episodes numbers 82 and 83 of this podcast, I'm talking about emotional regulation, how to identify when you are dysregulated, and how to regulate your emotions. Okay, so that was number six, just having more regulation tools. And the final one is if this is something that you really struggle with and this can really hijack your day, especially if there's a lot of shame around this, get support. Work with a neuroaffirming dietitian. Speak to your doctor. If you have a good relationship with your doctor, a therapist, a coach, doing this can really help to unpack the patterns, the emotions, the behaviors. And doing it with a safe person helps to remove that layer of shame. Okay, so my friend, if you have been struggling with eating and food, I want you to hear this. You are not bad with food. You are working with a brain that processes hunger and reward and emotion and decisions differently. And when you understand that, everything starts to make a whole lot more sense. Okay, so my friend, if this episode has resonated with you, if it has helped you to understand yourself better, to feel seen, would love if you would leave us a review and also share it with a friend. Share it with a fellow ADHD PhD er who you know also has an interesting or challenging relationship with food. All right, Huge love, my friend. Take care. I'll speak to you soon. Hey friend, if you want some more help navigating and thriving with ADHD and some help applying everything that you're learning here on the podcast, then head over to our website, navigating adultadhd.com it.