Learning more about focus and the surrounding context, I am surprised how much diet and the environment impact it. In Stolen Focus, author Johann Hari explores the hidden ways our food systems and environment contribute to focus problems, including the rise of ADHD in children.

Our Polluted Diet and Environment

Dale Pinnock, British food writer, and nutritionist, emphasizes focus is a mental and physical process. To achieve sustained attention, your body is required to do certain things. A poor diet disrupts the body by depriving it of the nutrients it needs or pumping it full of pollutants, disrupting your ability to pay attention and get “brain fog.”

1. The modern diet (in the U.S. at least) creates energy spikes followed by sharp crashes, making it difficult to maintain concentration for extended periods. This resonated a lot with me as I drink caffeine to stay energized and feel deeply exhausted late at night.
2. Our food went through a degeneration mid-20th century with the introduction of preservatives and stabilizers. When you cut out this “ultra-processed food” from a child’s diet, their ability to pay attention improves by an average of 50%.
3. The chemicals found in our food act like drugs to our brains. Multiple studies and tests have concluded that food additives are more likely to make children hyperactive. There banned in European countries, but not in the U.S., which could explain the difference in ADHD rates.

There is also growing evidence that environmental pollution affects our brains and focus. Barbara Maher, professor of environmental science at the University of Lancaster in England, researched that living in a polluted city inflames the brain, causing damage to neurons. You are experiencing repeated chronic injuries to your brain. These generative diseases are also found in children who live in highly polluted areas. Maher has even found that “You can actually see plaques and tangles [in the brain, like in dementia patients], even in very young cases.”

Rethinking ADHD: Beyond Genetics

ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and it’s undergoing a rapid rise in the U.S. Between 2003 and 2011, ADHD overall soared by 45%, and 55% among girls. There are two arguments when it comes to ADHD. 

The first prevails in the U.S., that ADHD is caused by a genetic disorder and to treat it, stimulants should be prescribed. However, research over the years has presented a new idea. That ADHD is a result of environmental factors, not a biological one. Yes, ADHD is still real and painful; yes, prescription drugs can provide benefits to the child’s attention and behavior problems; but, it’s only a short-term overview and benefit of what ADHD is. Child psychology professor, Alan Sroufe points out that “the surrounding context is the most important thing.” If the child is raised in a stressful environment, their parent likely can’t soothe them, so they lash out at overwhelming feelings. This is what causes focus problems and the child inevitably gets diagnosed with ADHD. This was concluded after Sroufe’s massive research project, where they also found that “the strongest predictor of positive change was an increase in social support available to the parents during the intervening years.”

A Call for Systemic Change

Ultimately, addressing focus issues and ADHD requires systemic change. Our diet needs to return to a whole-food one, free of processed and junk oils. Then we tackled environmental pollutants and stress, which damage our nervous and harm children’s development. There’s a link between all of them, and only collectively can we make a change for future generations.