Dr. David Perlmutter discusses the high prevalence of ADHD in U.S. children—about 6.5 million, two‑thirds of whom are medicated—and highlights lifestyle factors that may influence attention. He reviews a 2014 Journal of Nutrition study involving 65 pre‑pubertal children (ages 7‑9) tracked for nine months, during which dietary intake (including fiber and omega‑3s) was recorded. At the study’s end, participants completed the Flanker Test, a measure of attentional inhibition and cognitive control. The researchers found a positive correlation between higher dietary fiber consumption and greater accuracy on the Flanker Test. Perlmutter explains possible mechanisms: fiber promotes beneficial gut microbes, reduces systemic inflammation (the “static” that interferes with focus), and, in animal studies, boosts brain‑derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), supporting neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. He argues that improving diet quality—especially fiber intake—could enhance children’s ability to stay focused, potentially reducing the need for or dosage of ADHD medication. He concludes that increasing fiber is a low‑risk, potentially high‑reward strategy for supporting cognitive control in children.
Chapters
Hi everyone, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. We have in America close to 6.5 million children diagnosed with so-called ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and about 2/3 of these kids are now being medicated. And certainly there is a time and a place for medication, but I think it's really helpful for us from time to time to take a step back and look at the influence that certain lifestyle factors have on a child's ability to remain focused on a task. I'd like to take a look at a very interesting study that looks at the role of dietary fiber in terms of a child's ability to remain focused. So let's take a look at a very interesting study. The study is called Dietary Fiber is Positively Associated with Cognitive Control Among Prepubertal children. So this is a study that was published in the American— the Journal of Nutrition, rather, November of 2014. And what this study looked at was a group of children, 65 of them, between 7 and 9 years of age. They followed these kids for 9 months and they recorded components of their diets. They had the kids and their parents, I'm sure, be involved in reporting what these children were eating, you know, 3 times a week they would have to write down what they were eating. They were able from this record keeping to determine things like fiber consumption, omega-3 consumption, which we know are certainly very important in terms of how the brain works. And they also, at the— towards the conclusion of the study, they administered something called a flanker test. to these children. And what the Flanker Test does is it measures the ability of what is called attentional inhibition, meaning how— basically how well-focused a child can remain on a task when there is an attempt during the test to distract that child. So it is a subcomponent of what we call cognitive control. Can you remain focused on a task? The researchers were able to correlate dietary fiber With accuracy, in other words, ability to stay focused on a task. Higher accuracy on the Flanker Test was correlated with higher dietary fiber consumption. Now, why might there be this correlation between dietary fiber consumption and cognitive function, in this case attention? Well, what we know about dietary fiber is, of course, It enhances the growth of good probiotic organisms, and as such, it reduces inflammation. And I kind of think of inflammation as the static on the line when you're driving your car, listening to the FM radio, and there's lightning around. You know, you hear that static. It keeps kids from being able to focus. In addition, at least in the laboratory animal studies, we know that— Dietary fiber enhances the production of what is called BDNF. BDNF is basically a hormone-like substance that nurtures brain cells. It causes the brain to grow new brain cells, and it leads to better functionality as well as even better connection from one brain cell to the next through what we call neuroplasticity. So we're weighing then this idea of growth of new brain cells called neurogenesis On the one hand, against inflammation on the other side. So neurogenesis enhancing BDNF being a good thing to help that child's brain work more effectively, and inflammation obviously working against the child, certainly working against us as adults as well. We don't want to tip the balance in favor of inflammation. Rather, we want to tip the balance in favor of neurogenesis, and we can do that, it looks like, by using things like dietary fiber. What did the authors conclude? They concluded that these results demonstrate that children's diet quality, specifically dietary fiber, is an important correlate of performance on a cognitive test requiring variable amounts of cognitive control. So a very interesting study that relates fiber consumption to this important metric of cognitive control. Well, I think you'll agree this is interesting information, and certainly increasing a child's fiber intake isn't going to have any negative consequences and may very well be just a significant help in terms of allowing that child to remain focused to the extent that maybe he or she might not need medication, or perhaps if that child is on medication, the dosage could be theoretically reduced. Who knows? But, you know, it's always worthwhile, I think, to look at all of these other avenues as opposed to always thinking that we have to rely on hardcore pharmaceuticals, especially as it relates to the risk upon the developing brain. Hope you enjoyed this information. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter.
