By Marcy Landes, MSN

COOKING WITH ADHD MEANS…

Grocery stores are overstimulating, with way too many options—seriously, why didn’t I make a list beforehand??

You keep telling yourself, “I’ll go tomorrow,” but tomorrow turns into three more days of scavenging for crumbs.

By the time you finally make it to the kitchen, you’re ravenous because your hunger cues decided to take the afternoon off.

You don’t have the spoons to follow a recipe (and even if you do, you somehow miss a crucial step anyway).

And then—those veggies you were actually excited to roast? Yep, burnt to a crisp because you forgot the timer.

You’re stuck in a hyperfixation food loop—loving it one week, hating it the next, and suddenly… no idea what to eat.

You don’t want to cook because the dishes aren’t clean, and the thought of washing them? A major chore (without the allowance money).

While cooking, it’s chaos: cupboards and drawers wide open, bowls crashing, and somehow, you’re using seven utensils for one dis...

 It’s not Halloween, there’s no masquerade ball invite, and we didn’t catch a cold—so why are ADHDers masking? 🎭

*Ba dum tss!*

All jokes aside, masking—sometimes called “social camouflaging”—is when neurodivergent individuals hide or suppress their natural behaviors, traits, or tendencies to fit societal norms and expectations.

Across the neurodivergent community, some common examples of masking include:

• Suppressing stimming, like avoiding repetitive movements or motions.

• Mirroring social behaviors, such as copying facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice.

• Forcing eye contact, even when it feels deeply uncomfortable.

• Hiding sensory discomfort (like noise, lighting, or certain textures).

• Rehearsing scripts for conversations to navigate social situations more easily.

But masking doesn’t just happen in social interactions.

What does masking look like when it comes to food and eating? How do social stigmas—and societal expectations—show up at the tabl...

The results are in…

*SUGAR IS NOT ADDICTIVE*

Good news, fellow ADHDers! We are NOT addicted to sugar because sugar is NOT an addictive substance. Thanks for tuning in—see you next time!

...

But seriously, sugar addiction is a hot topic (and we have a lot to say about it). Whether you’ve felt an uncontrollable pull toward sweets (maybe due to diet culture, undernourishment, using sugar as a coping tool, the list goes on) or heard friends, family, or partners share their own “sugar struggles,” I’m here to offer a fresh perspective on this tasty debate.

Let’s start with the basics… What the heck is sugar?

SUGAR / STARCHES / CARBOHYDRATES = GLUCOSE

In our bodies, all sugars—from fruits, grains, roots, legumes, veggies, sweets, and drinks—are eventually broken down into their simplest form: glucose. Glucose is a neat little ring-shaped molecule that gets absorbed from our bloodstream by our cells to create energy. In fact, about 45-65% of our energy comes from glucose alone. Wowee! T...

Over the past 10 years there has been a volcano 🌋 of research on the connection between the digestive system (or “gut”) and our brain. While there is still so much more research and exploration that needs to be done, there are some interesting tidbits that have come to the surface regarding the Gut-Brain-Axis. 

You may have heard about the gut/brain connection in the latest probiotic commercials, from social media ads, or on your containers of yogurt from the store. “Gut Health” has become a buzzword, “healing your gut” is now trendy (and no surprise, a biiiiiiig money maker in the wellness industry), and of course, is now common discourse in diet culture. And it can be dizzying, with all of the available information from a zillion different sources, to tease out the real information and throw away the flim-flam.

So, we’re gonna offer some help. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty, the microscopic, the inner-universe inside of us (Magic School Bus anyone!?), and gather some wisdom around...

✨This is the new-age old question.✨ 

Here are some of the questions we frequently get asked by clients and members of our Eating with ADHD® Neurished community:

“Shouldn’t I just KNOW when I’m hungry?”

“Why can’t I tell the difference between hunger and seeking dopamine?” 

“Isn’t it ‘bad’ to use food for a dopamine hit, if I am not hungry?”  

Does some of this brain chatter sound familiar to you? Want some answers? Read on!!

Bringing awareness to, interpreting, and responding to our internal cues (which include both hunger and a need for dopamine) takes time and practice to learn and feel comfortable with, especially for those of us living with ADHD. 

ADHD Brains are Different  

As neurodivergent humans, we tend to have…

• 🧠 Lower Interoceptive Awareness 

• Difficulty recognizing and understanding the sensations going on inside of us that communicate what our bodies need in any given moment - this includes hunger, thirst, needing dopamine or stimulation,...

Let's delve into a notable, and all-too-familiar hurdle that arises when navigating food and eating with a neurodivergent brain (ADHD, Autism, OCD, or any other flavor of neurospicy). You probably know it: the cringe-worthy and dreaded experience of guilt, frustration, and self-judgment that often shows up in response to finding (or avoiding) that rotten broccoli, moldy bread, container of something unrecognizable, freezer-burned chicken, and SO. MUCH. MORE.

It's an experience often marked with spirals of negative self-talk, echoing "WHY does this keep happening!? WHY can't I get a handle on it!? What's WRONG with me!?" And despite earnest efforts, genuine intentions, and constant attempts at pushing those thoughts to the back of our minds (and refrigerators), the issue remains stubbornly present.

So, it's time to talk about the shame monster that haunts so many of us day after day after day: FOOD WASTE. 💀🥬

The refrigerator holds all our deepest, darkest food waste secrets, an...

Oh Ozempic. What a time to be alive and witnessing the new sci-fi-like rubbish from the worlds of diet and wellness culture. You have probably seen a story about *it* in the news, had conversations centered around *it* at your holiday tables, or maybe even have done your own curious digging and searching around the “extra extra!! new weight loss solution!!” BS that diet culture loves to spoon feed us on the regular.

The time has come to have a little chat about Ozempic.

OZEMPIC: What It's DOING, What It's DONE, & What We DON’T KNOW

If you are currently living under a rock or have somehow found a way around hearing about this new craze (but still somehow managed to find this blog post, lucky you!), We will give a brief overview of some current Ozempic deets and facts: 

• Originally created and FDA approved for type 2 diabetics for blood sugar and insulin level management from one shot a week
• Imitates the hormone glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is naturally produced in...

How often have I found myself in this trance? Aimlessly wandering through the house with a restless lack of direction, motivation, and a daunting sense of uncertainty about how to break free from this stalled out inertia. Luckily, I’ve been hit with a BRAIN BOLT that once again reminds me of the trusty tool that has rescued me time and time again from this restless state. 

Out of the desk drawer and into the light, I unearthed my once-forgotten but still perfectly serviceable "dopamine menu". Its novel, yet familiar presence was just the guidance I needed to pinpoint activities that could infuse my brain with some MUCH-needed dopamine, providing the energetic *spark* necessary to tackle the day of pending tasks.

In the whirlwind of our fast-paced world, where distractions abound and demand after demand looms, creating and sustaining focus and motivation is a very real challenge, especially for folx with ADHD. 

Cut to our shining “dopamine menu” - a dynamic visual tool craft...

Rounding the corner, momentum strong, pumpkin spice thick in the air. You guessed it, the holiday season is nipping at our heels again! 

Along with a good dose of joy, merry, and warmth, this time of year can also conjure up some bigger (and sometimes downright uncomfy) feelings, emotions, and reflections within our mind and body around sticky food rules, harsh and critical self-talk, and shame shame shame for every little move we make (or don’t make). 

Personally, I’ve been feeling the pull to reflect on my food and body journey of holiday time past, my navigation of newer territory around the holidays this year, and some bigger picture food and body relationship realizations for future holidays (and future life in general)! 

Oh yeah, who am I you may be asking? Let me introduce myself! 

Hi there! I’m Marcy :) I’m a current Masters of Science in Nutrition student at Bastyr in San Diego, an ADHD human with a decade of (too much) familiarity with diet culture, a passionat...

As a human who is eating with ADHD, you likely experience some *unique* patterns and habits around food and eating. Even when you do your very best to nourish yourself, you might often find yourself in a pretty sticky ADHD eating spiral.

Medicated for ADHD or not, it’s hard to snap out of hyper-focus, hard to hear and understand your special and subtle hunger cues, hard to face the steps on steps on steps it takes to get food from the kitchen to your mouth, and with an undernourished mind and body, your animal instincts can quickly become a barbaric sensation of NEED FOOD, ME HUNGRY… NOW! And thanks to diet culture, there is a steady stream of guilt, shame, and self-judgment that follows all of this. 

That my friends, is what the Wise Heart team likes to call the ADHD Eating Spiral.

*click to check this post out on our the_adhd_rd Instagram!*

And for those of you that are of the unmedicated ADHD variety, this spiral has a similar loop but a different flavor to it.  If you a...