It’s a common trope in many ADHD nutrition books or blogs: cut out gluten because it’s inflammatory, and ADHD is exacerbated by inflammation!!

But is this true? Let’s chat!

(But first, my obligatory plug)

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The Gluten-Free Diet: Why does everyone recommend it?

I’ve come across countless blogs, influencers, etc. who have claimed that going gluten-free was a key in improving their ADHD. It’s a common idea that has some good reasoning behind it on the surface: gluten causes inflammation in people with celiac disease, so avoiding it should lower my own inflammation.

The thing is, this isn’t necessarily supported by our current scientific research. In fact, there was even a study that added gluten to people’s diets who ate mostly gluten free, and there were no differences in inflammatory markers after they ate the gluten for a few weeks. That’s not just a one-off result: there was another randomized, placebo-controlled trial that found gluten intake did not impact inflammatory markers or intestinal permeability.

WHAT?

Yup, you heard me. The intuition is not always right. This is why I encourage everyone to be skeptical of claims being made online without studies to back it up (especially randomized, placebo-controlled studies). This is why science is so amazing! We get results that completely go against what conventional wisdom tells us.

But what about celiac disease? Or non-celiac gluten sensitivity?

Obviously, if you have celiac disease, eating gluten causes inflammation. So please avoid it if that’s your case! Non-celiac gluten sensitivity, though, does play a potential role in ADHD as anecdotally some people report experiencing less brain fog and more focus when off gluten products. Again, though, we want to look at actual studies to see if this anecdote translates to real-life, and unfortunately we find no differences in cognition measures comparing eating gluten to not eating gluten (this was a longitudinal study). We also find no correlations between non-celiac gluten sensitivity and ADHD.

There are conflicting results out there on the prevalence of celiac disease and ADHD. However, overall, celiac disease is not correlated with ADHD, though people with celiac who eat gluten may experience ADHD-like symptoms (this is a good study as well). However, celiac-induced ADHD is not true ADHD as the symptoms resolve after removing the trigger. ADHD cannot be ‘cured’ through dietary interventions, unfortunately. It can aid in symptom management, but it is really only one small piece of the puzzle.

That being said, despite the evidence, there’s still people who claim it as an important step to take when working to manage your ADHD through nutrition. Honestly, if that’s your path, go for it! I just want you to be aware that changing to a gluten-free diet has potential to lead to some deficiencies if you’re not being careful and that you should always consult with a registered dietitian to ensure that you are doing it adequately for your body.

What research do we have on going gluten-free for ADHD symptom management?

We have only one study to my knowledge that investigated the impacts of a gluten-free diet on ADHD. This study was not a randomized, placebo-controlled study (it was a pretest-posttest) and had a small sample size. But let’s break it down!

Again, obviously a deficit of this study is its small sample size. Another deficit is that it didn’t contain a placebo (yes, we can do placebo studies with dietary interventions!). However, we can gleam a bit of preliminary evidence here: it appears that switching to a gluten-free diet may improve the short-term memory of people with ADHD, but beyond that, there are likely no benefits. Even so, since half of the participants experienced the ‘feeling’ of having more control over their ADHD symptoms, the placebo effect may override reality - meaning it has the potential to make you feel as though your symptoms are being alleviated even though it really isn’t.

Again, we really just need more studies to give us a better understanding of what to do moving forward with gluten and ADHD. With the evidence we have currently, there is little to no reason to do a gluten-free diet if you want to improve your ADHD symptoms. If you do choose to do so, again please only begin under the direction of a registered dietitian if accessible to you, and be sure to ask your physician to test regularly for any nutrient deficiencies. Common nutrient deficiencies associated with going on a gluten-free diet include the B vitamins, vitamin A, magnesium, calcium, and iron.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments, be sure to shoot me a DM on Instagram @Nutrimindcoach or simply reply to this email. I LOVE hearing from you!

This week on the Nutritional Mental Health Podcast: Diet diversity: How the food we eat impacts our mental health. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, author of Nutrivore, and I chat about the current research out there on diet diversity and nutrient density. Don’t miss it!

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