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Cutting artificial preservatives out can genuinely help a child who reacts to them, because a child who feels unwell behaves worse. What it does not do is treat the ADHD underneath, which will still be there once they feel better.
Worth being clear with yourself about what you are hoping for, because these diets are expensive and hard to keep up. If your child does have intolerances, sorting them out is a real gain and worth having on its own terms. Expecting the diagnosis to disappear sets the whole family up for disappointment, and usually for blame as well.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Do not forbid the good things God has made lawful to you (Quran 5:87). A restriction that is not achieving anything is not a neutral choice, it costs the person something.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا تُحَرِّمُواْ طَيِّبَٰتِ مَآ أَحَلَّ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمۡ وَلَا تَعۡتَدُوٓاْۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُعۡتَدِينَ
You who believe, do not forbid the good things God has made lawful to you- do not exceed the limits: God does not love those who exceed the limits
Qur’an 5:87read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
International taskforce guidelines now grade which nutrients and plant compounds have adequate evidence for use in psychiatric conditions, which is a useful corrective to what gets claimed in shops and online. Reading a graded list is a quicker route than trying to weigh individual studies yourself. Where something is not graded as supported, that usually reflects trials that did not find what was hoped for.
Sarris J, Ravindran A, Yatham LN, Marx W, Rucklidge JJ, McIntyre RS, Akhondzadeh S, Benedetti F, Caneo C, Cramer H, Cribb L, de Manincor M, Dean O, Deslandes AC, Freeman MP, Gangadhar B, Harvey BH, Kasper S, Lake J, Lopresti A, Lu L, Metri NJ, Mischoulon D, Ng CH, Nishi D, Rahimi R, Seedat S, Sinclair J, Su KP, Zhang ZJ, Berk M. (2022). Clinician guidelines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders with nutraceuticals and phytoceuticals: The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) Taskforce.. The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Taking away something that was making a child feel rough returns them to their own baseline, and the baseline is still the baseline.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Some of these do have real evidence behind them. St John's wort has repeated support in mild to moderate depression, SAMe and methylfolate have reasonable backing as additions to treatment, and omega-3 has looked weaker in the larger and better run trials.
Own brand products from large retailers were among the worst performers in these tests. A big name on the packet is not a quality check, however much it feels like one.
Low mood that arrives with bloating, fatigue and a foggy head is worth looking at from the food side too. An immune reaction to something you eat regularly can produce all three, and it gets labelled depression far more often than it gets tested.