ADHD and: Eating

Imagine sitting down for a meal, but somehow, you can’t quite focus on the food in front of you. You’re either distracted by the things around you, or the never-ending to-do list in your head. For many women with ADHD, eating often feels like an afterthought.

In this episode, Dr. Monica Johnson explains how ADHD impacts eating habits. From planning meals in advance to impulsive eating and forgetting to eat altogether. Listen as she shares the unique challenges women face in maintaining healthy eating patterns. And learn ways to have a more balanced relationship with food.

We love to hear from our listeners. Email us at podcast@understood.org.

Related resources

• ADHD and women

• ADHD and diet

• ADHD and eating disorders

Timestamps 

(01:19) Types of eating issues

(04:51) ADHD, forgetfulness, and eating

(05:50) How to practice healthy eating patterns

Episode transcript

Dr. J: Imagine this. It's a hectic day and you're completely absorbed in your work. Hours fly by and suddenly you realize you haven't eaten anything all day. Or you find yourself at a dinner party with the weight of everyone's eyes on you. And instead of enjoying the meal, you restrict yourself to just a few bites.

If you've ever felt the pull of impulsive eating when stress hits or felt crushed under the weight of impossible beauty standards, know that you're not alone. This is "ADHD and," where we talk about everyday life and ADHD. I'm Dr. J. I'm a licensed psychologist who works with those with ADHD. Today we're talking about ADHD and eating patterns.

I think it's safe to say, in general, at least in America, women don't always have the best relationship with food. All you need to do is look at the money that we spend on fad diets, exercise programs, or more recently, drugs like Ozempic. It's clear that we continue to have a poor relationship with food and our body image. So, today we're going to look at some of the eating issues that can arise in women and what that can look like for women with ADHD.

(01:19) Types of eating issues

Let's start by giving you a brief overview of the types of eating problems that a person can have. The research mainly focuses on clinical binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia. Binge eating focuses on ingesting large volumes or large amounts of calories of food.

This is not the same as having an extra slice of cake at a party. For many, this looks closer to a private mukbang session. If you don't know about Mukbang, it became popular on social media a few years ago and it involves people eating large quantities of food on camera. So, imagine viewing a woman eating 20 tacos on YouTube.

Bulimia involves a pattern of binging and purging, and anorexia focuses on restrictive calorie intake. When we look at the research on ADHD and eating disorders, there is a link between the two. Most often this is binge eating or bulimia less so for anorexia. One study that I read found that ADHD girls were 3.6 times more likely to meet criteria for an eating disorder at follow-up than those without ADHD.

However, even if you don't meet criteria for a clinical eating disorder, there are lots of unhealthy patterns that both women with and without ADHD can get into. Women can engage in emotional eating, which is a term often used interchangeably with binge eating. However, it's not always the same thing. For the purposes of this conversation, see my earlier definition of binge eating in terms of emotional eating, this is typically using food to cope with an unwanted emotion. You may or may not overeat in terms of quantities of food, but more often than not, you're likely going to be consuming comfort foods.

There aren't many times in my life where someone was depressed and chose kale over double-fisting a pint of ice cream and a Snickers. Additionally, many women follow restrictive eating patterns which can lead to missing meals or irregular eating patterns which aren't the most healthy. As a person with ADHD, know that you may struggle with emotion, regulation or impulsivity, and that can sometimes lead to emotional eating or binge eating.

Or on the flip side, you may experience hyperfocus, time perception issues, or problems with feeling overwhelmed with your emotions, which can lead to missing meals or not being on a good food schedule. Let's dig into this further with a few examples to make the point even more clear. Impulsivity, combined with inattention, can lead to mindless eating. For example, someone might snack continuously while engaging in another activity, like watching TV or scrolling online. And they're not really aware of how many calories they've consumed.

Impulsivity can lead you to having a preference for easier options. What I mean by that is you may choose fast food or convenient, prepackaged snacks over cooking healthier options. These convenient options are often calorie-dense and lack nutritional value. Impulsivity can be linked to difficulties in managing emotions, which can lead to emotional eating. Stress, boredom, frustration, and other intense emotions may lead a woman with ADHD to seek comfort in food, especially because these unhealthy foods often lead to a temporary emotional boost.

(04:51) ADHD, forgetfulness, and eating

A common symptom of ADHD is forgetfulness. Even if somebody plans to eat, they might forget, especially if meals weren't structured into their day or it feels overwhelming to prepare the food. People with ADHD often experience issues with time perception, where they struggle to estimate or monitor the passage of time. They may become so engrossed in a task or activity that several hours could pass without them realizing that they've missed a meal.

If you struggle with inattention, you might start preparing a meal and then get distracted by another task or stimuli like a phone notification, and then you'll forget to come back and complete your meal. Inattention can also make it more difficult to notice sensations of hunger and fullness. People with ADHD may not notice that they're hungry until their symptoms, like fatigue or irritability, become more severe. Let's get into a few practical tips that I love.

(05:50) How to practice healthy eating patterns

I'll spend the most time talking about mindful eating. Mindful eating is the practice of bringing full attention and awareness to your experience of eating without judgment. It encourages you to focus on your senses, your emotions, and physical sensations of hunger and fullness in order to improve your relationship with food. Here's a deeper look at what mindful eating entails. The first thing I want to mention is eating with awareness.

Pay close attention to the taste, smell, texture, and appearance of your food. Notice how your body feels when you're eating. Pay attention to sensations of hunger and fullness. The next part of mindful eating is avoiding distractions. You want to try to eat without distractions such as watching TV, scrolling on your phone, or even working to focus solely on the act of eating. I recognize that you might not be able to do this every time, but it is going to help if you intentionally practice.

Next is a non-judgmental observation. Approach eating without guilt, shame, or judgment. Observe your food choices and eating patterns with curiosity and acceptance.

The next step is all about listening to cues of hunger and fullness. You want to learn how to distinguish between physical hunger and emotional cravings. There is a difference, and the more you practice mindfulness, the more you'll be able to notice. Over time, I've been able to somatically feel the difference between the signal coming from my stomach versus coming from my head.

One way to practice this is to eat slowly. Pay attention to how being truly hungry feels inside your body and also pay attention as the sensation changes over time. And the last thing that I'll mention in regards to mindful eating is to recognize your emotional triggers. Reflect on whether you're eating to cope with stress, boredom, or other unwanted emotions. Think about: are there other ways to address those feelings?

The next tip is to have structured meal times. What you want to do is plan out the times that you want to have meals throughout the day. The next thing that I want to mention is just having healthier food options available. If you struggle with eating nutritious foods, you want to figure out ways to have healthier options in the home and limit your access to unhealthy options. If you don't have it in you to cook on the stove every night, you can, for example, get microwaveable veggies and eat those instead. If you're a person who loves chips, find other crunchy foods with a higher nutritional value like kale chips, popcorn, edamame, or nuts.

I have a huge sweet tooth so I never have full-sized ice cream in the house. Whenever I want a sweet, I get a pint. It's more expensive, but I think about cost outside of just monetary value. And my health has definitely improved since I've started engaging in this habit. Pro-tip: You can buy or make veggie muffins that have at least one serving of vegetables in them. It's a way to satisfy your sweet tooth while increasing your vegetable intake. Meet yourself where you're at with healthy eating and avoid all-or-nothing thinking.

Lastly, stop calling food good or bad. They don't have morals. Apples are not good and ice cream is not bad. If you want a bowl of ice cream, have it in moderation and move on. We've all been trained that when we do something bad, we deserve to be punished. So, every time you eat a food that you consider to be bad, all you're going to do is create feelings of shame, guilt, and unworthiness. And guess what? You'll just want to eat more ice cream. Except now you can't even enjoy it. And what's the point of that?

Figuring out healthy eating habits is a struggle for all of us. Remember that you can desire to change or improve your eating habits, your body, or even your mental health without having to hate yourself along the journey. That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. If you decide to use any of these strategies, please let me know. I am genuinely curious about your experience. If you enjoyed this episode, I highly recommend that you watch our session on ADHD and caffeine. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and I'll catch you on the next episode of "ADHD and."

This show is brought to you by Understood.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences like ADHD and dyslexia. Learn more at Understood.org.

"ADHD and" is produced by Tara Drinks and edited by Alyssa Shea. Our video producer is Calvin Knie. Ash Beecher is our supervising producer. Briana Berry is our production director. Neil Drumming is our editorial director. Our audio engineer and music composer is Justin D. Wright. Our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cocchiere, and Seth Melnick. And I'm your host, Dr. J.