Are ‘Vegan’ and ‘ADHD’ terms antonyms?
A tale against the tide.
Any sensible person wouldn’t say that, right?
But why do I seed that proposition in your minds?
Because it’s literally a difficult path for self-declared or labeled ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) acronym holders to be vegan.
The usual advice from nutritionists and physicians is that you follow or turn to keto-diet because the carbs are bad for persons with ADHD.
It may be true and there’s evidence suggesting the change.
When we say keto-diet it’s usually to follow non-vegetarian diet with minimal carbs as given below
or no carbs as in the case of carnivore diet as shown below.
But what if someone doesn’t want to go either of those routes?
Are they doomed?
Or have to follow the standard vegan food pyramid? as given below which have grains as the staple food but the scientific literature is replete with suggestions to reduce the intake of carbs.
Not exactly.
What does a non-vegetarian or carnivore get through their diet?
Pat comes the reply, higher amounts of proteins.
And of course, add that extra fat one gets because of it, apart from the distinct taste one is addicted to it.
I am not against non-vegetarian diet. It’s an individual choice. I don’t have problem with it.
With that assurance, let me delve into the subject of topic.
Basically, the suggestion is to avoid carbs totally or use minimally with whole grains for hyperactive people as the processed carbs are not good.
What kind of whole grains are we talking about here?
There are several kinds of whole grains available around the world, namely, brown rice, oats, quinoa, barley, bulgur, whole wheat, farro, amaranth, chia seeds, wild rice and millets.
In the whole grains apart from the carbs you have both soluble and insoluble fiber, proteins, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients and even fat.
Of the grains in the above list, the last two i.e. wild rice and millets are gaining popularity around the world. Last year, 2023 was declared as international year of millets by United Nations as they are gaining attention and recognition worldwide for their nutritional profile.
Further many different wild types of rice are becoming available because of their nutritional values.
As any neurotypical person even ADHD persons need to get balanced diet, but this may be different when compared to former. Upon search on the internet, found the below food pyramid which has balanced food items for normal persons.
(For clearer image please open the link in a different window)
However, ADHD persons following vegan diet need to make few modifications from the above displayed food pyramid.
Just try to replace the different animal sourced nutrients with plant-based nutrients.
Wait, is that simple? Just replace?
Changing dietary habits is one of the most difficult changes one can make in their lifestyle and consequently less followed resulting in the various other disorders.
Coming back to the topic, if we avoid non-vegetarian food items how to get the required proteins and the fats by vegan ADHD persons?
This is not that difficult to answer as proteins from wide a variety of plants are available and even some vegetables are endowed with large amounts of proteins.
For plant proteins, legumes form the basis, and we need to include them in our diet. So, replace all animal-based items by plant-based items in the above nourishing food pyramid with respect to proteins.
What kind of legumes and vegetables can be included will be topic of another post.
However, I have already covered what kinds of plant proteins may be considered by ADHD persons in my earlier posts.
How about fats?
Even this is easy to answer. Many edible oils from plants form the basis for the fat nutrition.
Giving vague answers is not my intention here and I will give specific list of items vegans can use to replace animal-based items.
What kinds of plant oils or fats are suitable for ADHD persons will be dealt with in a different post.
Until then, cheers,
Vara
(Usual disclaimer applies for every article I am publishing here on Medium with regard to health. The articles don’t give a dietary or medical advice. It’s only for spreading the information to make relevant decisions in discussion with your care providers).
