Limited evidence elimination diet resolves ADHD symptoms

"70% of kids lost ADD symptoms," says text over a December 19, 2025 Facebook reel, using the abbreviation for attention-deficit disorder, the name for ADHD used in research prior to 1987 (archived here).

The clip comes from an interview that psychiatrist Daniel Amin gave during a June 23 episode of British life coach Jay Shetty's podcast, which has 5.21 million subscribers on YouTube (archived here).

In the conversation, Amin -- a celebrity doctor and author -- touts a "great study published in the Lancet," saying it showed the value of placing children with hyperactivity symptoms on a diet that cuts out "gluten, dairy, corn, soy, artificial dyes and sweeteners."

The clip featuring his elimination diet recommendation has spread repeatedly across platforms, including in Korean.

Other posts on Facebook and Instagram have referenced a "recent study" in which children supposedly saw results after "eliminating artificial sweeteners, dyes, gluten, dairy, corn and soy."

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Screenshot of a Facebook reel taken January 16, 2026

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken on January 16, 2026

ADHD is a long-term neurodevelopmental condition that impacts children and adults (archived here). The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated as of 2022 that 7 million children between 3 and 17 years old, or roughly 11 percent, have ever been diagnosed with ADHD (archived here). 

Treatment for the inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity caused by the condition tends to focus on three components, according to Boston Children's Hospital: behavior therapy, medication and educational intervention (archived here). Dietary changes have also been studied.

However, "there are no robust findings for elimination diets," said Lara Litvinov, director and a senior psychologist in the ADHD and Behavior Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute (archived here).

Litvinov told AFP in a January 16 email that long-term studies have found "a healthy diet helps significantly more because it is easier to maintain" (archived here). It also often includes other lifestyle changes, such as increased exercise and sleep, which can improve symptoms.

Jane Liddle, a pediatrician and the board chair of the Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance, agreed (archived here).

"I focus on healthy diet, not an elimination diet," she told AFP January 16.

Lack of citation

The social media posts do not cite any specific study, but keyword searches for research published in the Lancet surfaced a 2011 paper titled: "Effects of a restricted elimination diet on the behaviour of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder" (archived here).

The paper studied 100 children in Belgium and the Netherlands, 50 of whom followed an elimination diet.

Its finding: "The restricted elimination diet had a significant beneficial effect on ADHD symptoms in 32 (64 percent) of 50 children."

But Liddle said the study -- and others like it -- focused on a small sample, and that the diet was only restricted for a short period of time.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says: "In practice, additive-free and oligoantigenic/elimination diets are time-consuming and disruptive to the household; they are indicated only in selected patients" (archived here).

For example, research has found that Celiac disease is "markedly overrepresented" among ADHD patients, and that eliminating gluten for those individuals does help with symptoms (archived here).

Liddle said the evidence for elimination diets overall is "very, very mixed." She warned that there is actually a risk children could miss key nutrients under too strict of a diet.

Mental health is also a risk.

"If you're starting to restrict a child from most of the foods that most of their peers will be eating, they're going to feel isolated," she said. "These children already can have issues related to low self-esteem and not feeling included, so you're going to isolate them even more."

Rather than restricting foods, research has pointed to the importance of consuming more fruits and vegetables to help tame symptoms (archived here and here). Children with ADHD may also have low levels of nutrients including Magnesium, zinc, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids and B-vitamins, which can be increased by focusing on whole rather than processed foods (archived here and here).

Find more of AFP's reporting on health misinformation here.