Why Working With an ADHD Dietitian Will Help You Thrive

“Why Working With an ADHD Dietitian Will Help You Thrive” was written by Maurya Hart, BSc, RD and edited/reviewed by Jackie Silver MHSc, RD.

Medical Disclaimer: The information in this article is meant for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be personalized medical or nutrition advice. For a plan tailored to your needs, please consult with a Registered Dietitian or qualified healthcare professional.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links with which I may earn a small commission but at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links help bloggers like me to provide you with free content. All opinions expressed here are genuine. 

Last updated: May 20, 2025

Looking for an ADHD Dietitian?

Do you struggle with all the steps involved in meal planning, remembering to eat throughout the day, or sensory aversions to certain foods? These are all common nutrition-related challenges that ADHD folks experience on a daily basis. The good news is that working with an ADHD dietitian nutritionist can help you navigate your nutrition and optimize your health. At Jackie Silver Nutrition, our team of dietitians specializes in providing nutritional counselling to neurodivergent populations of all ages (children, youth, and adults), including ADHDers, in Canada and select states in the US (including New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey). If you’re interested in how an ADHD dietitian can support you, keep on reading!

Why Work With an ADHD Dietitian?

An ADHD dietitian can work with you to make eating simpler. We take into account your situation, strengths, and barriers to come up with a personalized plan that will positively impact your health in the long term. Most importantly, we are familiar with the challenges that ADHDers experience related to their nutrition, cooking, and more. We have a wide range of strategies, resources, and ideas to help you meet your goals!

Common Nutrition Challenges for ADHD Folks

There are several roadblocks that people with ADHD may face when trying to optimize their diet and nutrition. An ADHD dietitian nutritionist can provide personalized care to manage these challenges and meet your goals. Some common issues you may face include:

• Executive dysfunction is a common symptom of ADHD. It especially impacts a person’s ability to plan, prioritize, and start complex tasks. People with ADHD may struggle to plan meals, grocery shop, or follow recipes.
  
• Impulsivity can cause challenges for ADHDers when it comes to eating, as they may change their mind last minute about what they want to eat, or be drawn to more exciting food options even if they had already planned a meal.
  
• Sensory sensitivities can make certain textures, tastes, or smells overwhelming or unpleasant. Individuals with ADHD may find they gravitate towards certain textures (e.g., crunchy instead of mushy) or tastes (you may prefer bland foods over spicy foods). In children, this can manifest as a “picky eater” which may impact growth, development and nutrient deficiencies.
  
• Medication side effects that impact appetite and digestion are common in people with ADHD. Stimulant medications (such as Vyvanse, Ritalin, and Adderall) can suppress your appetite, making it difficult to eat enough throughout the day. In some cases, this can lead to concerns such as rapid weight loss, malnutrition, or impacted growth in children. It can also lead to “binge eating” in the evening when the meds wear off.

If you can relate to these, book a FREE 15 minute discovery call to connect with an ADHD nutritionist on our team and learn more about how we can support you!

We work with clients virtually across Ontario (Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, London, Kingston, Kitchener, Waterloo, Brampton, Mississauga, Markham, Vaughan, and more), and many US states such as New York (New York City, Westchester, Long Island, etc.), New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and more. 

ADHD Dietitian Team: Our Approach

Our team of ADHD dietitians takes a unique, adaptable, and personalized approach to work with you and meet your nutrition and health related goals. We cater our strategies to your situation and needs. Some of the approaches we use include:

• Health at Every Size (HAES) Approach: This weight-inclusive approach places a focus on health outside of weight. We know that individuals of all shapes, sizes, and appearances can optimize their health, through a focus on gentle nutrition and gradual, but long-lasting, changes to their diet and lifestyle.
• Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MBEAT): We encourage building mindful eating habits that allow you to be more in touch with your body and needs. This approach helps reduce stress surrounding meals and promote intuitive eating in a neuro-affirming way.
• SOS-Trained Techniques: These techniques are used for selective eaters and those with sensory challenges who want to expand their diet or try new foods. Using these strategies, we gradually go at your own pace and what you are comfortable with.

We take an evidence-based, neuro-affirming approach, based on both scientific studies and our extensive work with ADHD clients. Our main goal is to support you in optimizing your diet and health, so our sessions will be directed by your goals and needs.

How an ADHD Dietitian Can Help You

There are several ways an ADHD dietitian nutritionist can support you in meeting your goals. At Jackie Silver Nutrition, we have several services available to address nutrition and diet related concerns that individuals with ADHD may have.

Specialized Support for ADHD-Related Nutrition Concerns

1. Establishing a Consistent Eating Routine

Many people with ADHD (kids, teens, and adults) struggle to eat consistently due to lack of appetite from medication side effects and difficulties with meal planning. We will work together to establish a consistent eating schedule that works for you. 

2. Making Eating Easy

Executive dysfunction in ADHD can make all aspects of meal preparation daunting. An ADHD nutritionist will help you simplify every step in the process, from grocery shopping, to deciding what to eat, to preparing your food. Our ultimate goal is to simplify the task of feeding yourself so that you have time to focus on other areas of your life!

3. Working with Sensory Sensitivities

Navigating eating with sensory sensitivities can be especially challenging for both kids and adults with ADHD, often making meals feel limited and meal planning overwhelming. Our ADHD dietitians work with you or your child at your own pace, helping to ensure you’re meeting nutrient needs while gently supporting the introduction of new foods – always with respect for individual sensory preferences and comfort levels.

4. Managing Digestive Issues

ADHD folks may be more likely to experience gastrointestinal (GI) problems like constipation, bloating, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome. An ADHD dietitian can support you in identifying dietary triggers and making adjustments to your diet to reduce these symptoms and improve digestion and health.

5. Support for Stress Eating and Binge Eating

ADHD brains often crave dopamine, which can lead to reaching for fast food / high sugar food or impulsive eating. We’ll work with you to develop strategies that help manage these urges, ensure you’re eating enough during the day, and explore other ways to meet your brain’s need for stimulation and reward.

6. Chronic Disease Management Through a Neurodivergent Lens

Many of our clients with ADHD are navigating conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver, or high blood pressure. We take a neuro-affirming approach to help you manage these diagnoses with simple, realistic strategies that work with your ADHD brain and not against it.

One on One Nutritional Counselling

At Jackie Silver Nutrition, we offer comprehensive nutrition packages to provide ongoing, tailored support for ADHD adults, kids, teens, and their families in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and more. Whether you need short-term guidance or long-term coaching, our approach is designed to meet you where you are. We offer two tiers of nutrition counselling packages, both of which include an initial consultation and follow up sessions. 

All our sessions are conducted virtually through secure video platforms. 

In the initial consultation, we take a comprehensive approach to fully understand your situation and needs. Then, we will work together to create a game plan to work towards your goals. The 75-minute session will include:

• Nutritional Assessment: Reviewing your eating habits, medical history, sensory challenges, digestive health, barriers, and overall nutrition goals.
• Goal Setting: We will collaborate to set realistic and achievable nutrition goals, for both the short term and long term.
• Action Plan: You’ll leave our session with a clear plan and focus, feeling empowered to start making impactful changes to your diet and nutrition.

After our initial consultation, we will continue to meet for 40-minute follow-up sessions until you feel confident in the goals and strategies we have discussed.

• Reviewing Goals: We’ll go over our goals from the last session and discuss what worked and what didn’t. Together, we’ll assess if we’re on a good path or if we need to adapt the strategies we’re using.
• Making Progress: As we continue to work together, we can set new goals to build on your progress. 
• Flexible Scheduling: Sessions are spaced 4–6 weeks apart to allow time for implementing changes at a comfortable pace.

Meal Prep Made Easy Online Course

With the Tier 2 package, you’ll also get access to our Meal Prep Made Easy (MPME) course (which is also available to purchase individually). This course is specifically designed to help neurodivergent adults, including those with ADHD, build meal prep skills and strategies. 

We developed this course with input from focus groups to make sure it meets the unique needs of ADHD populations. You can complete the course at your own pace, prioritizing modules that are the most important to you. It can be a great way to complement the work that you do with your ADHD dietitian.

The MPME course offers strategies customized to different learning styles, making meal planning and preparation feel more manageable and achievable. By the end of the course, you will gain confidence, reduce meal-related stress, and free up time for other important aspects of life by learning how to simplify the task of feeding yourself.

Real Success Stories: Hear From Our Clients with ADHD

Please note that names have been changed to protect anonymity. 

Working with Jackie was such a positive experience. I had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and the medication had contributed to rapid weight loss. I stopped having hunger cues and when I would try to eat, I couldn’t eat a lot. I’ve always had very specific food preferences too which made eating enough calories now very difficult. Jackie was able to work with all of my dietary requirements and provide solutions that were easily incorporated into my daily life. Grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking food has always been a struggle and Jackie really made it all feel so easy. I’ve been able to maintain my weight now and feel that I have the right tools to keep this consistent with strategies for when things are really hard. Thanks Jackie!!

-Rachel

I hired Jackie to work with my 16 year old son who autistic, ADHD with an intellectual impairment. I wasn’t sure what to expect as this was something new for both of us but Jackie instantly made my son Ryan feel comfortable and he was able to be himself with her.

Thank you Jackie for your expertise, patience and above all, your support with respect to Ryan. He is on his way to making healthier options and slowly taking ownership of choosing, shopping and prepping his meals! I highly recommend Jackie to anyone who is lucky enough to work with her and we look forward to work together again in the future.

-Angela

Jackie is amazing to work with! She has been such a help with finding lifestyle and diet modifications to help with my ADHD and wellness. It was always a pleasure meeting with her and I have been able to take away so many tips and tricks to make my life better. Highly recommended!

-Gloria

Get Support from an Experienced ADHD Dietitian

If you want to learn more about if working with an ADHD dietitian will be beneficial to you, book a FREE 15 minute discovery call to connect with one today!

*Currently only available to Canadian residents of Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and US residents of certain states, including but not limited to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California. If your state is not listed here, please inquire to see if we can still support you.

Explore Our Services:

• Pediatric Nutrition Packages
• Adult Nutrition Packages

Are Your Services Covered by Insurance?

Our services are private pay and we do not bill directly to insurance, however many insurance plans in the US offer out-of-network reimbursement for dietitian services through a superbill. We recommend contacting your insurance company to confirm.

Additionally, Self-Direction Services from the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities in New York may cover our services. We also offer sliding scale spots and payment plans to make care more accessible.

For Canadian clients, many insurance plans cover dietitian services. We can provide individual receipts after each session for you to submit for reimbursement.

For more expert tips and insights, follow us on Instagram @accessiblewellness

👉 Check out these other ADHD-friendly recipes & blog posts:

• Working with an NYC Dietitian
• ADHD Meals: Easy Ways to Eat a Balanced Diet
• ADHD Meal Planning for Adults
• ADHD: Forgetting to Eat
• Protein for ADHD
• ADHD and Sugar Cravings
• ADHD and Picky Eating