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.