As CrossFit Kids grows so does the celebration of everything youthful. Within weeks of kids starting CrossFit parents can’t help but notice improved academics, confidence and focus. As far as I can tell, the only thing linking these households is the Paleo diet, and CrossFit of course.

As I don’t have children and no have no real source of measure I will simply take the words to heart of the Mothers and Fathers bringing their kids to WOD multiple times a week. And what hey have to say may make for an interesting argument against the validity of ADHD, disorders akin to it, and the drugs to treat it.

ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a mouthful that you can Google on your own time. I’m not interested in parroting back WebMD suffice to say often times it sounds a lot like a kid acting like a kid, and an adult acting like an adult….annoyed.

For the most part everyone seems to theorize about the cause of this disorder effecting an estimated 5% or so of children in America. Specialists claim heredity, diet, and even environment cues as substantial contributors.

Whats wrong with kids today

Nothing. Whats wrong with parents today? The first contributing factor to any disorder effecting a child is its caregiver. Before you get pissed at junior, turn that power of perception around and get pissed off at yourself.

How well can you focus? Do you play “Office Space” at work Facebook 5+ hours a day and then get pissed off at little Janie because she won’t pay attention? Is your forty hour work week much more water cooler BS, coffee breaks, and lunches than actual work? If so, maybe you need the Ritalin to be a better example for the kid your pissed off at for being a kid.

Nutrient deficient

I like this study but you don’t have to. You can Google your own opposition disproving my link all you want. Thus why I normally reference nothing. Everyone else has an “opinion”, no one is willing to test it for fear of the right answers.

My lifetime in fitness has made me view diet as the number one culprit for any and all aliments attacking us today. With ADHD, I would think the same, and as the study I Googled by simply putting Celiac’s (for nutrient deficiency) clearly shows, its a good theory.

Its well known today that humans are imbalanced. Not the buzzword imbalanced people use when they don’t know what their talking about, the kind that relates to eating to much of one thing, and not enough of another.

I like this study but you don’t have to. Omega 3 was once prevalent in our ancestors diets. Omega 6 is prevalent in today’s diet. Without the proper ratio, (1/2) we begin to initiate a host of problems stemming mainly from the gut, leading to the brain. In fact the enteric nervous system is located in the gut and without the proper ratio of n-3/n-6 we find an improper breeding ground in the gut resembling Celiacs, or Crohn’s, or UC. Once inflammation from imbalance attacks one thing, it attacks everything. All the sudden one deficiency becomes many. This is why we cannot pin-point one nutrient, by the time full-fledged ADHD has taken effect its too late.

Colorful food

Not only are most children, and adults, outside of the CrossFit world missing their “good fat”, but they are replacing it with something else. Sugar.

Its well known bathing in sugar constantly blunts the release of stored fat as energy thereby rising insulin, a storage hormone keeping us fat. The increased glucose in the blood is then responsible for insulin resistance leading to all sorts of other problems characterized by Syndrome X.

While we simultaneously drown in insulin trying to mop up all the acidic glucose from the sugar, neuroplasticity of the brain misfires creating what looks a lot like diabetes III, or more well know as Alzheimer. Excessive sugar intake makes Alzheimer sound a lot like ADHD that just grew up?

Why Paleo and CrossFit

My kid doesn’t eat 100% Paleo or anything, but after bringing him to CrossFit, and after throwing away the junk food so I don’t eat it, he is like a different person”, one CrossFit Mom told me. Not that this is a controlled study or anything, but since I have heard this for years I thought it best to give it room to breath.

Not only does the Paleo diet eradicate most allergens to the human condition, but CrossFit wears it out.

The effects of eliminating gluten, sugar, and trans fat reach far more than just a child’s demeanor. We are talking about their future as an adult. Their confidence as a human, or lack their of. We are talking about the possibility of something much greater than a life full of Doctor visits, and medication.

I don’t have kids, and I can’t tell you if they are different little people after a WOD, and Paleo meal. Their parents can in the comments below. However, I can tell you that if you have been testing pizza and pop up until now, CrossFit+Paleo isn’t going to hurt.