Feingold Diet

Does your child get upset too easily? Are they stuck on fast forward? Are they fine one minute and out of control the next? If you've said yes to one or more of these behaviors, then stay tuned. This episode could change your life. Welcome back to Keep It Good. I'm your host, Emily. And I'm your host Carly. So today we're going to dive into a topic that I am very passionate about. It's the fine gold diet. It helps ADHD kids and

families. So like we said in the beginning, if you had said yes to any of those questions, then this episode is right up your alley. So you're probably asking, what is the fine gold diet? What is this all about? So your child could be potentially intolerant to salicylate acids. And this is something I never even thought was an option, but it has truly changed our life for the past two years. Okay. I've looked this up and basically what you're doing is you're eliminating

these things out of their diet. BHA, BHT, TBHQ, and salicylates. Yeah. So basically, yeah, all of those included, but I just focus on the salicylic acids. They're in foods that you wouldn't even realize that they were in. So my son was diagnosed with ADHD at five. But two, we started seeing the difference in behavior. He was the most calmest baby you would ever meet and toddler. But we didn't really put the correlation together because, you know, I had just had my second son. We were

tired. trying to get it all into like a rhythm. He started daycare. We introduced finger foods that I didn't make. I breastfed and I made baby food, you know, until he was two years old. So right around two was when we noticed a big difference and it was a struggle, struggle for many years until we figured out what was going on. It was horrible. He went on a million different medications because, you know, you trust the doctor's opinions and you trust their guidance. And they put him

on so many different medications. The poor thing was like five years old, hallucinating and terrified of the grass or night terrors. And I mean, you name it, the poor thing went through it. And it was devastating to watch as a mom. you're looking for answers or you pray to see if something will help your kid because you see him struggle so much. And finally, me and my husband said, enough, enough with this medication. We got to

look into something else. And I started reading a whole bunch of different books about ADHD and focus. Couple times I read about the fine gold diet and I was like, seems like a lot of work. I don't know if I could do this, but two or three times I read it. So I was like, okay, this might be a sign. Then we kind of ditched listening to the pediatrician and we went and saw a naturopath and she had brought up the fine gold diet again.

And I said, okay, this is definitely something I need to consider because this is many times that it's come across my path. So we looked into it and we eliminated all the diets. I mean, in the beginning of the diet, you really need to be strict. So for two weeks, he was just eating a few things off of the list. And the fine gold diet is really great because it organizes it into, you know, low, very low salicyl acids,

moderate, very high. So you start with the low column and you see any type of behavior that is changing for the better. And immediately we saw the difference. So it was like, finally, and he was clean of all drugs. On Christmas vacation, we stopped all the medications. We let his whole body kind of detox and just normalize and see where are you at, at your baseline. Then we started

the diet and it's been life changing. I mean, not to say it's gonna help every single child because maybe your child is not intolerant to these specific acids, but. Mine definitely was. So you started to notice a difference, like what, within two days, two weeks, a month? I would say about four days. Little by little, four days. I mean, his attention was a lot better. Not to say he's perfect, he's still a little boy. Of course not. I mean, we would have uncontrollable

meltdowns, more so than the average kid. everything is he's very rigid. He is very hyper focused.

He's he's a sweetest little boy but he also has like if he doesn't get his way he would flip and I mean when I say I cried every day for two years straight during this whole journey of medications and therapies you name it we tried it and Nothing was working and this was kind of our our last hope to see if something natural so I didn't feel the guilt of trying to get him to take medicine in the morning that I knew he he didn't really want and I just started listening to him and

more more so his body telling him this is not what I need and I trusted that and you know, I think it was the best decision I ever made that's truly amazing because I think a lot of times the kids are kind of telling us what they need. And it's hard because we think we're doing good things. Like you were giving them fruits and whole foods. What we're talking about with these acids are whole foods. But unfortunately, some things have a lot of the salicylates in

them. Yeah, I mean, like I said back to the finger foods. What I mean by that is we got very into the rhythm of like Goldfish and Cheez -Its and the little things that they serve at daycares because it was easy. And like I said, we had just had my second son, so we had a newborn and we're trying to just do all the things. You know, it's impossible. You try your best, but I mean, you get tired. Survival mode, for sure. Yeah. And you're running on no sleep. You can't make

homemade things all the time. So you kind of have to meet yourself where you're at. And that was where I was at. So it's eliminating all those processed foods for one and all the artificial sweeteners, all the dyes. We had started that maybe the year prior, you know, eating clean. I would make them smoothies with strawberries and protein and all these things. But little did I know, strawberries are one of the highest

fruits with salicylic acids. So you're talking all berries, just there's a whole list of foods that contain these that you would never think. There's tomatoes. I mean, certain vegetables and fruits that you think are healthy and you want to incorporate in your kid's diet are really, they're just, they're not tolerating it well. And it gets stored up and it causes these types of reactions, which it's kind of like if you

had celiac. or diabetes, you have to look at it like any other type of disease that metabolically your body can't digest. And I think it helped me being a nurse, because I could look at it on a cellular level, on a metabolic level, and it made a lot of sense to me why something like this would work with my son. And I think that's why I went with it full force, because I have that background in microbiology and everything

else. So I said, why not? We did it as a family, which was, I think, very helpful because you don't want to single out your child. I don't want to be eating something that he would probably enjoy in front of him and expect him to be okay with it. So I think doing it as a family really helped incorporate just everybody's on the same

page. Right. Well, that also helps with just keeping things a little simpler as a growing family and with events and things after school and sports and practices to just, you know, you're not making two, three different meals a day per family member. So you noticed the results of this, we'll call it, within the first week, but... Did you reintroduce any foods? You just kept him on the low foods for like how long? How did that work? So we did the low foods for about

a year. Wow. About a full year. Just to really give it a chance. And then we slowly started, you kind of introduced little things at a time and we would try a grape or something. And immediately, I mean within a half an hour you see it. you see what happens. They're very emotional. They're

just not, they're typical. Once you see what they can be at baseline with a healthy diet and all the tools they need to really succeed, once you mess with that or introduce something that they're not tolerating, you immediately see it. So we tried and then... You keep trying different things. Some things work, like he can eat sweet potatoes now or certain things that are on the moderate level, but we still stay away from tomatoes, berries, things that immediately strike as a

behavior. Okay, we will definitely get into the food because I want people to hear some basics of, you know, what is high, what's low, but we will link all of this in the show notes too so you guys can check out the diet and see the list of what is high and what is low. Do you think that introducing this was or reintroducing? Did you do it really slow? Like you said, it was just kind of one thing at a time. You never tried anything high again. Like, did you try the strawberries

again and kind of see the difference? Oh, yeah. Yeah, because it is sad. I mean, they love berries. And, you know, part of it is we feel really bad that They can't have it, but they're also so smart and aware of how it makes their bodies feel That honestly now they don't even miss it

because they understand so much. I mean, they're only seven and nine They understand their bodies in a whole different level more than I knew my body at seven or nine And they can recognize how it makes them feel different and more like I said, just emotional and defiant and just they kind of lose a little bit of their control. And I think that they like having their good days versus having a strawberry. Right. I get that. I love strawberries too, but I understand. Do

you guys have skip days? Do you let them cheat or how does that work? You know, there's birthday parties and we... If they do really well, we have reward days, like the Goshen Fair, we go and we just say, you can have whatever you want, like, go nuts. And we pay for it, for sure, the day after, but we're going into it prepared. You know, it's one thing to kind of plan those days, so you are prepared. Versus, I can tell immediately if he gets off the bus and he snuck

something. from a friend and I ask him in the first 10 minutes, he's defending and no, no, I didn't. And then eventually he says, I gotta cheese it. And I mean, and I just sit with him and I say, do you see how different you feel and how you're acting and how, you know, the choices you make are not the best ones. And we're kind of, do you see that? And he a hundred percent recognizes it. So it's getting easier. Yeah. So, what does a typical day look like? What are

you feeding them for? Breakfast? What are you packing for school? Maybe a quick dinner? Just a quick example. So, I make everything. I mean, don't think this is going to be a walk in the park because it is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but it's so worth it in the end. So, I try and prep a lot. I make... these protein muffins that will last about the, you know, half the week to if not the whole week, depending on what else I feed them in the morning.

But I'll make banana oatmeal protein chocolate chip muffins, or I make like chocolate pear muffins or, you know, there's a whole bunch of different varieties that you can dabble into whatever is your kid's preference. But high protein, we'll do eggs, toast. They can have yogurt, fruit that is on the list. Then for school, I refuse to school lunch. It's, I mean, that's a whole other topic on itself. It's disgusting. Agree what our kids are eating at school these days, but

they, um, they're really good about it. I pack them their lunch and it's usually like a peanut butter sandwich, yogurt, cheese, crackers, banana, apple, you know, it varies. They can have some. sort of carrots or two fish sandwich, things like that. And then for dinner, we do a lot of bowls with quinoa, some roasted vegetables, and a high protein on top. And we call it a day. Okay. Now, can they have dessert on this? Like, could they have a popsicle or an ice cream or

something? Yep. Well, in the summer, I make my own popsicle, which is a lot easier than you think. It's super easy. I bought these little containers off Amazon that were The best things in the world because you just fill it with three ingredients and they love it and it's so refreshing It's so good and I don't feel that they're lacking in any way if you go in the fine gold Association

website. I downloaded the manual the shopping list all the things and there's an actual like guide that tells you which brands are acceptable, you know with the lowest amount of ingredients and actually Haagen -Dazs is like fantastic because they have such little ingredients, you know. One thing is you read natural flavors. What the hell is natural flavors? No one can define it. And the FDA doesn't require you to define what

your natural flavors include. So that's one red flag that I've noticed along this journey is I buy things and I'm like, oh, well, this is good. And it says natural flavors, so okay. But there could be hints of strawberry, hints of anything that is on the high list that you should be avoiding. So I steer clear of that. As soon as I see that, that's on the no list for sure.

That makes sense. What about adults? I mean, I think a lot of us babies from the 80s, we got skipped through with this whole ADD, ADHD type diagnosis and figured it out some way somehow and dealing with it maybe in ways that aren't good. But do you think that this diet would be good for adults as well? Oh, 100%. I mean, now, you can, some kids can grow out of this intolerance, and some kids won't, but it's kind of just like a, you just have to see what happens as the days

go by. I'm not saying that this is gonna work for everybody under the sun. Of course. Maybe your child has ADHD and they do require medication, you know? I'm not saying anything bad about the medications. I'm a nurse. Of course, I understand the importance of medication, but it just was not, it was doing more harm than good for our case. And I think even if you are an adult, right, and I think a lot of us got skipped as ADHD because our food back in the day was not as shitty as

it is now. That's true. The dyes that they put in have, what, increased by 500 % since like 1983 or something crazy like that. I mean, there's no reason. There's dyes in everything. Shampoos, moisturizer. I don't need my shampoo to look pretty. I need it to wash my hair. So they're unnecessary additives that have been additionally put into our food, which we're seeing the effects of it now with increased diagnoses left and right. Right. So I'm going to go over a little bit of

a list that Carly and her family eat. So just to give people a little idea of some of the things that are low and what her family likes. So for fruits, some things that are low, bananas, golden delicious apples, red delicious, and pears. For veggies, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, onions, green beans, peas, beets, and turnips. Also leafy greens, right? Oh, absolutely. I can't get enough. Grains, quinoa, couscous, and farro. For meats, just pretty much everything, just

as long as it's low nitrate. Obviously grass -fed, grass -finished is best, but spices, salt, and garlic. How come no pepper? Do we know the reason? Pepper is high in salicylate acids. Crazy. So it's like oregano, parsley, paprika, like literally all the spices. Oh my gosh. And yeah, so that's been a... And then like you said, they can have dairy because they can have milk and yogurt. Yep. We buy Greek yogurt with no extra ingredients. We don't need the flavoring or the

coloring or anything like that. You can naturally flavor anything. Right. Right. Now let's go back to the bath, the bath stuff, shampoos, toothpaste, mouthwash. What I mean, because like you said, there's dyes and preservatives in those things.

Yeah. Did you have to go through that too? Oh yeah but we didn't that didn't hit us until like a few months in and we were like what is going on like every couple of days we get we're having fantastic days and then all of a sudden like every other night or every two nights we'd have a complete and utter meltdown and it was like going back in time and I'm like I don't understand and then When it clicked one night and I ran upstairs and my husband's like, what are you

doing? And I'm like, just, I have a thought. And I looked at their shampoo and their body wash and sure enough, like red 40, yellow five, blue seven, like whatever the hell. And there's, you know, strawberry extract and all these things. And I was like, what? Like I didn't, my mind didn't even go other than the kitchen for controlling this. The salicylic acids and all these things and and I never ever realized or even gave myself the time to think About what is actually in our

products right our? Everything even your hair stuff like there's dyes in the hair gel You know and your body is your biggest organ I mean, that's where you absorb everything and so as soon as we switch to all natural products for shampoo I mean, laundry detergent, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And it kind of put me down a rabbit hole a little bit, but in the best possible way, because, I mean, we've eliminated so much junk from our house. We didn't even know we were allowing

in. You know? Right. Now, in the beginning, I was that crazy lady walking down, looking at every single label. And, you know, I used to be like, that'll never be me. It's me. I wear it, I wear it proudly. As you should, this is incredible. So also, you know, it's in Play -Doh, it's in slime, it's in paint, like things that kids touch and want to do. My kids are very crafty like yours. So do you have them wear gloves?

Have you found alternatives? So this past summer, I kind of turned our little shed into an art barn and We started painting a lot and I noticed a big difference when their hands got all covered in paint. So I was like, ah, okay, here we go. This is definitely another sign. And so yeah, they will use gloves and smocks when we do paint and anything like that, Play -Doh. As for like coloring Easter eggs, everything is dyes to get

those bright and beautiful colors. So last year we made them with like heat juice, spinach juice. you know, there's a whole bunch of natural colors. And I think they come out beautiful. Better than the, you know, neon green and all the craziness. They're just, they're just stunning. The natural colors that come from a natural beet or carrot or coffee grounds. So there's, you know, you don't have to eliminate all the fun. You can still make it work just in a better, natural,

healthy way. I love that. Okay, so during Christmas or a holiday, we kind of talked about birthdays or cheat days, but how does that work? You know, people are bringing over food and treats or you're getting candy for Halloween. How have you guys done that in the past few years? So Halloween, we absolutely went trick -or -treating. And what I did this year was I had a swap bag. So I bought

candies that I knew they can have. And they gave me all their Halloween candy, and I gave them a bag of all the candies that they can have. It's basically all the same stuff. It's just eliminating all the junk. And then as for parties and play dates, those can be really hard, especially when all the other kids, you know, we do cheat days, but like during Christmas, we can't have 15 cheat days, you know, because we're way off

track. So... You got to pick and choose. And a lot of times I will pack their own dinner and snacks and I make little brownies. I mean, they can still have good things. They just have to be homemade and just whatever. And they're so good about it. I think I feel worse not giving them these things than they actually care, you know, because when you're on a play date, they

don't even want to eat half the time. But you just bring a little leftovers or a peanut butter sandwich, banana, apple, cheese, and They eat and then they run. So you just have to plan ahead. Same with sleepovers. Like our parents are so great. They really support what we're doing and they don't sneak foods or anything like that because they know how important it is. And they have also seen the difference. We have a 504

for him at school. And in the beginning it was like, oh yeah, I would get a call every single day from the principal. And I was like, oh my God, like, is this going to be my life? literally getting a phone call every single day from the principal. I never went to the principals when I was little. I was terrified of her. It was just never ending behaviors at school, lack of attention. He just couldn't focus. And then immediately after kindergarten is when we initiated this

diet. And our 504, this past month, I mean, we're pretty much like, we don't have to do any special ed anymore. We're just kind of talking about the fact that we probably won't need a 504 coming up next year because he's doing so well. I haven't had one phone call from the principal this year. That's incredible. That is so huge. I mean, that's just positive, you know, reinforcement for us as parents that like, okay, I think we found

the right path. Our kids deserve better, you know, we're we want them to succeed, but yet we feed them like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and then send them to school and expect to sit down and behave at seven years old. We're not doing them any favors saying yes to that stuff. We're really not. Right. It's definitely hard to wrap your brain around, I think at first, but our kids' health is so important. It's not even just the

kids. It's like us in general as a... Just as a human whole like your body could potentially be reacting to certain foods that you're not even aware of and yet you're you have constant inflammation constant headaches constant IBS or Something else and and people are so quick to run to medication and it's kind of hypocritical me as a nurse I try and get my patients off the medications like I'm trying to introduce like you can do this naturally, you know, you don't

need because one medication leads to the next medication leads to this and they all have their own different side effects and then you need a medication for that side effect and this and that and I mean it breaks my heart when I go to do a morning pass and I'm giving this 83 year old woman like 12 pills before eight o 'clock in the morning you know I'm like what are we doing what are we doing the first medication was food that's the that's the OG Back in the

day, they would use certain herbs and spices and flowers and foods to heal yourself. And I think we kind of have to take a look back and see what we're doing. Totally agreed. I noticed when I was on Dr. Feingold's website that there are plenty apparent, plenty of story of success with this. And not just on the ADHD level, there's kids who are suffering from other things as well. I definitely recommend everybody take a look,

see if it's for you. If not, you have something in your back pocket to try all the things to help your child or maybe yourself. But I think that you should give it a look. 100%. I mean, really, at the end of the day, you have nothing to lose. You're only experimenting with food. Right. And the best possible outcome would be he's finally focused, you know? Right. He's in his normal body, right? Yeah. And isn't crawling

in. He's got all the tools he needs to have a successful life now and a clear mind, you know? And like I said, it's not a fix -all. We still have our days. We still have our issues that we work through. But I mean, compared to where we were when he was five, it's night and day. And a lot of it could be maturity as well, but I mean, even as a five -year -old, we were dealing with some stuff that a five -year -old typically shouldn't be exuberating, you know? Right. That's

just, it's just an incredible story. So say you try this out and you see no difference, right? These are just a couple of super foods if your child does have ADHD and is on medication and you just want to give them an extra boost. Bananas are huge. because they have a lot of potassium, fiber, magnesium, vitamin B6. It's a superfood for ADHD. Leafy greens like kale, spinach. These are huge for them. Contains the iron and the magnesium. Salmon with the omega -3. Omega -3

is such a great supplement. And you don't even have to supplement. Like I said, you can find it in certain foods. That is big for ADHD. Almonds. Basically anything high in protein. You want to fill your body. with a high protein diet so that your brain can function at the best capacity it can. So those are just some things that in case this fine gold diet did not work out for you, these are a few little ingredients you can add. Each family goes through their own journey.

They find what works, what doesn't. This just happened to work for us and I had never heard about it until I started researching. different alternatives. So hopefully by you hearing this, it just kind of opens your eyes to a whole other option. So I'm going to leave you with a quote this week. Since we talked so much about food and medicine, this one is a classic by Hippocrates. Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food. Alright guys, remember, keep it good.