Many of my students suffer from ADD symptoms and many are officially diagnosed. A large percentage of my ADD students came to me because their doctor recommended martial arts training to help them with structure, focus, self-control, and so on. After all, martial arts is branded as a perfect program that can help children in those areas.

Even if your child doesn’t have ADD, keep reading because this information will help all students.

Unfortunately, martial arts doesn’t cure ADD. Martial arts alone may not even improve it. It all depends on what the student and family are willing to do beyond martial arts training. There’s a secret weapon I recommend to all parents who seek my advice in this area. And no, doc, it’s not medication.

The medical community trains (and often rewards) doctors to prescribe medication as the first approach. I’ve taught tens of thousands of children over a decade in a dynamic physical and social environment. I also worked for half a decade as a pharmacy tech and got to talk to pharmacists who know the exact short and long-term effects of different medications on the human body. Those two experiences lead me to suggest that parents avoid medication as a first line of defense as there are alternatives that can be far more effective and less costly that you should try first.

So what’s the secret weapon?

Before your jump to medicate your child, please consider revamping their nutritional habits and see what effect it has on them. Don’t write me off, it’ll cost you nothing to do the following experiment and it may save you thousands of dollars in health care costs and may save your children years of not solving the core issue.

The fact is that the typical American diet is poisonous to long-term health. For developing children, it presents a road block to brain development and wreaks havoc on their physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. When children fail to consume the core nutrients they need and instead consume empty, anti-nutritious fillers, chemicals, and poisons they become confined to a constant state of malnutrition and toxic response that–depending on the child–can manifest itself as a lack of focus, a surplus of energy, poor behavior, bad attitude, and so on.

When presented with those symptoms, doctors do two things: prescribe medication and suggest the parents bring the child to me. The fact is that unless we resolve the underlying issue, there’s little I can do. Medication alters the child’s behavior, but does nothing to quell the war his body is waging to fight against the constant assault from the toxins and anti-nutrients the child is consuming throughout the day. Even if the child doesn’t present ADD symptoms, poor nutrition negatively affects brain development, learning, and behavior. Revamping their nutrition can only promote improvement.

So what’s the experiment?

I want you to experiment with the following information for 90 days. If your child is already on medication, I cannot suggest you take them off, but will instead leave that decision up to you. If you’re thinking about putting your child on medication, try this experiment first. If your child doesn’t have ADD, try the experiment anyway and see what happens: there’s never a reason to knowingly give your child poison and that could very well be what you’re doing day in and day out.

I don’t have the room necessary to give you every detail and all the background information for every step in the experiment. It would make the post too long and you probably wouldn’t read it all anyway. Just try the experiment and then if you want more information you can email me.

Do this for 90 days…

• Cut out all grain-based foods from your child’s diet. This is bread, pasta, rice, corn, wheat, etc. Grains are highly processed, toxic to animals, and full of anti-nutrients called Lectins and Phytates and a poison called Gluten.
• Do not feed your child Gluten. It’s a poison designed to prevent animals from eating the grain it protects. It’s in a bunch of stuff; cutting out grains will help you avoid 98% of it but you should still proceed with caution.
• Do not drink calories: no soda and no juice. Not even natural juice. One glass of orange juice has almost as much sugar as a can of Coke and more fructose than your child should consume in an entire day. Drink water only.
• No sports drinks. They’re coke with different marketing. No fake sports drinks either (e.g. Powerade Zero), they’re full of chemicals. Again, water only.
• Do not consume dairy. Even people who aren’t lactose intolerant can suffer negative side effects from dairy consumption. You have to cut it out to find out if it’s a problem. After 90 days, you can add it back in (but pasteurized dairy lacks nutrition anyway) slowly but keep an eye out for any strange symptoms.
• Limit carbohydrate consumption to less than 150 grams per day. Most carb consumption should come from vegetables. If you remember ANYTHING, remember this: carb consumption = insulin = fat.
• Limit sugar as much as possible. If you’re eating right, sugar is naturally limited as an issue unless you’re chowing down high-sugar fruits all day long. Even natural sugar is bad in excess. Your job is to limit insulin spikes (caused by too much of ANY kind of sugar intake).
• Consume only high quality animal products. Steak, chicken, pork, eggs, bacon, etc. is all fine. If you want to go the extra mile, only consume grass-fed & finished beef and free range organic versions of the other animal products.
• Limit your cooking oils to real butter (not margarine), avocado, or coconut oil. No hydrogenated oils. (Definitive guide to oils)
• No caffeine.
• Make sure your child gets at least 8 hours of sleep each night.
• Let them play outside every chance they get.
• Attend martial arts training at least three days per week.
• Give them an Omega-3 supplement such as Barleans Fish Oil supplement (tastes amazing). The body cannot produce Omega 3 or 6 by itself, so it is essential that humans consume these fatty acids. It’s real brain food because Omega 3 is found primarily in the brain and the brain depends on it for cognitive and behavioral function. The typical American diet is very high in Omega 6 and very low in Omega 3. It’s important to balance that out.
• Pack your child’s lunch every day. School cafeteria food is a nutritional disaster. It’s amazing how schools will feed kids dog food and then suggest that parents medicate the side effects.
• If all that’s hard to remember, just print out this food pyramid and tape it to the fridge.

I know the experiment is difficult, it’s frustrating, and it’s a general PITA, but it’s absolutely worth it. With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, the task is even more difficult. But this isn’t about you, it’s about your child and their well-being. It’s time to take charge, do the uncomfortable thing, and force change.

Remember, you can always go back to chemicals, medications, and food ingredients that you can’t pronounce should you feel the need. But at the very least, give it a shot for 90 days of your life and see what happens. Oh, and if you actually do the experiment please email me with your results!!!

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