Are your stimulant medications affecting your appetite?
Stimulant medications are a god send for many ADHDers.
Unfortunately, one of the side effects of stimulant medications for many ADHDers is a loss of appetite. This can have it’s own implications leading to fluctuations in blood sugar levels, nutrient deficiencies and often mid afternoon crashes in energy. All of which can play havoc with ADHD symptoms. However, for some people stimulant meds are non - negotiable when it comes to their ability to function. So, how to work around this?
Eat small amounts
Eating small amounts every few hours or whenever you feel hungry is a good approach to managing the loss of appetite that sometimes comes with stimulant medications.
Make every bite count - Quality over quantity!
If you are eating small snacks during the day, make sure that they are nutrient dense snacks and not highly processed, sugar laden, empty snacks. Some nutrient dense snack ideas are smoothies, boiled eggs, veggies sticks with hummus, apple or banana with peanut butter or your favourite nut butter, a handful of nuts and piece of fruit, quiche ( doesn’t have to be homemade - a supermarket quiche is a better choice than chocolate) , a good quality bread with avocado ( extra points for adding hemp seeds!), soups or stews with bone broth ( even a good quality supermarket soup with a good quality supermarket bone broth if that is all the energy and motivation you can muster!).
Eat a protein filled breakfast before you take your medication.
Eating protein is incredibly important for people with ADHD. It balances blood sugars helping to manage energy fluctuations, brain fog, concentration and keeping you satisfied for longer as well as playing an important role in neurotransmitter production; here’s looking at you Dopamine, Norepinepherine and Serotonin! Eating before you take your medication is a simple way of making sure you get some good quality food in before your appetite drops. I am all for dinner breakfasts; butter chicken, lasagna, steak, chicken curry. If meal prep is your thing, prep up a bunch of dinner breakfasts that you can take out of the freezer or even take out and defrost if you forgot to do it the night before ( i’ll be the first one to admit, I am terrible at taking things out of the freezer the night before! )
I have found that these strategies can be of huge benefit wen it comes to getting some good quality food in which will improve your energy, concentration, brain fog, emotional regulation and preventing that afternoon crash.
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Jules x