Avoid sugar. Sugar promotes the production and release of dopamine, and the ADHD brain loves a squirt of dopamine. Unfortunately, as good as that initial influx of dopamine might feel—you’re energized, cheery, satisfied—you have to keep ingesting sugar to keep up that feeling. That’s the reason for the gallon of ice cream at midnight, the jumbo Reese’s Pieces in the movie theater, sauces and gravies on everything, cookies galore. Not only is this bad for your waistline, but the post-sugar/post-dopamine crash of mood and satiety feels terrible.
