40 Ways to Eat Healthy and Resist Impulsive Snacking
Here, ADDitude readers share the strategies they use to resist impulsive snacking and eat healthier all year long.
“I know how to eat healthy; it’s just so much work to plan, shop, cook, and clean up. Opening a bag of chips is so much easier.”
About half of adults with ADHD say that finding time to prepare healthy meals is a major barrier to better diet and nutrition, according to a new survey of 1,900 ADDitude readers. Additional challenges related to diet and nutrition cited by readers include the following:
- Resisting impulsive snacking: 48%
- Planning healthy meals: 43%
- Habitually overeating: 22%
- Dietary constraints, food allergies, or picky eating: 21%
- Grocery shopping: 20%
- Affording healthy foods: 13%
- Managing a health condition that impacts diet: 12%
- Low appetite or undereating: 12%
On a 10-point scale, where 10 is extremely satisfied, ADDitude readers rated their diet and nutrition a 4.97.
“I have a hard time not eating after dinner. When I’m watching TV, reading, or even just folding laundry at night, I get bored and food is a fun way to enjoy myself.”
“I eat as a coping skill. I have worked on it for years, but when things get bad, I eat.”
[Get This Free Download: ADHD Brain Food – What to Eat, What to Avoid]
Best Nutrition Apps, Meal Kits, and Health Resources for ADHD
Following are the top apps, meal kit services, websites, and other resources recommended by ADDitude readers for improving diet and nutrition.
- MyFitnessPal: An app to track food intake, calories, exercise, and overall health goals.
- Noom: A psychology-based weight loss app that combines tracking with behavioral coaching.
- Lose It! A calorie counting, nutrition tracking, and intermittent fasting app.
- Mealime: A meal-planning app that provides customizable recipes with integrated grocery shopping.
- WeightWatchers: A popular points-based weight-management program/app that also offers coaching and community.
- HelloFresh: A meal kit delivery service with pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards.
- Blue Apron: Another popular meal kit subscription service.
“Mealime has been a lifesaver. It has tons of available, easy, tasty recipes with tons of customizable options. It makes grocery lists for you and even randomizes recipes to reduce over-buying and food waste. I have no idea how I’d feed myself without it.”
“Lose It! is mainly used for weight loss, but I use it to be more conscious of my food choices.”
Other Nutrition Resources
- Forks Over Knives: A website that promotes a whole-food, plant-based diet through recipes, meal plans, and educational content.
- Pick Up Limes: Offers plant-based recipes, videos, and lifestyle tips for mindful living and wellness.
- Brain Over Binge: A recovery resource and podcast that addresses binge eating through a neuroscience-based approach.
- NutritionFacts.org: A science-based website that provides unbiased nutrition information and research findings.
- Nerd Fitness: A fitness resource tailored to “geeks” that offers creative workout plans and habit-building tips.
- SuperCook: A recipe search engine that generates meals based on ingredients you already have
- GoblinTools. Its “Chef” feature can generate recipes that factor dietary constraints, serving sizes, equipment, time, and other personalized factors.
[Read: Build a Better Relationship with Food to Benefit Your Brain]
How to Eat Healthy: Essential Supports for ADHD Brains
What helps adults with ADHD eat healthy, resist impulsive snacking, and plan meals? Here’s how ADDitude readers rated the helpfulness of the following diet and nutrition supports on a 5-point scale, where 5 is extremely helpful:
- Medication (e.g., GLP-1 agonists): 3.54
- Spouse, family member, friend: 3.26
- Meal service (e.g., HelloFresh, Blue Apron): 3.10
- Registered dietician or nutritionist: 3.09
- Personal chef: 2.94
- Weight-loss or healthy-eating app or service: 2.86
- ADHD coach: 2.76
- Cooking class: 2.68
“Since starting semaglutide therapy, I have been able to stop dopamining through snacks. I can choose more nutritious foods and control portions.”
“ADHD medication curbed habitual overeating and impulsive snacking, which were both emotional coping mechanisms for me.”
“My husband’s nutrition and cooking habits not only help keep the family going, but also inspire me to do the same.”
How to Eat Healthy: ADHD-Friendly Strategies to Meal Plan and Resist Impulsive Snacking
1. Build in Accountability and Support
“Set monthly nutrition challenges and find people to keep you accountable.”
“Get a friend/family member/co-worker to check whether you’ve remembered to eat. My boss does this for me and it helps a lot.”
“Find a time to plan meals with a body double, maybe while on video.”
“My partner and I make weekly plans of what we will eat and who will be responsible for the cooking.
2. Curb Impulsive Eating with Strategic Buffers
“Cut veggies to have them available for snacking (with a yogurt dressing). Better than chips!”
“Consider getting groceries delivered, so you don’t see snack foods in stores.”
“I look at how much money I’ve saved from not impulsively buying something to eat. It’s a great way to see not just the cost in terms of weight, but the monetary cost, too.”
“I remind myself to check that I’m eating slowly and stop when I’m 8/10 full.”
“I’ve found quick healthy things that don’t require a lot of preparation, like instant oatmeal. They help with portion control and minimize the chances that I’ll order fast food.”
“I think of future-me. When I want to grab something easy, like chips, I say to myself ‘Midday-me will appreciate protein and fruit.’”
“I ask myself, ‘Do I need to eat this, or is this my brain seeking dopamine?’”
3. Reduce Decision Fatigue and Meal Planning Overwhelm
“Print out and laminate easy go-to recipes and stick them inside your kitchen cabinets. They’ll help you the next time you need inspiration.”
“I have days where all I want to do is be creative in the kitchen, and days where I have zero spoons for anything culinary. Making big batches of taco mince, bolognese sauce/ragu, stews and soups and freezing them in portions helps me stay nourished and feed my family when I’m in shutdown.”
“I have emergency meals stocked — like protein bars or Soylent — when I’m too tired or busy to make something.”
“Cook more than you require for healthy leftovers.”
“I maintain a list of meal options in a spreadsheet for inspiration when I’m having difficulty figuring out what to make. I also have a shared grocery list with my spouse, so that we can both add to it.”
“I have just started buying a few frozen meals to take the pressure of having to cook every night. My energy is usually pretty low in the evenings.”
“The ADHD tax of wasted food is immense. Give yourself permission to buy the prepared fruit salad or the diced/frozen/steam packed veggies. These things make better choices accessible.”
4. Do Things Your Way
“I allow myself to eat food the way I want to. Cutting up my sandwich into small cute triangles gives me extra dopamine and also makes the meal feel less intimidating.”
“I really appreciate the advice given online by ADHDers, (e.g., How to ADHD on YouTube) regarding how to eat well depending on your symptoms/needs. YouTube is a wealth of resources for learning how to cook or prepare food that you prefer to eat.”
“Have go-to weekday dishes that most will eat and do what you can. Not every meal needs to be fancy and Insta-worthy.”
5. Look Beyond Eating
“Getting more sleep often helps with my hunger.”
“I find that having an exercise class or other activity with others influences my diet and helps keep me on track.”
“Drink lots of water! Sometimes what we perceive as hunger is actually thirst. I also think having a glass of water gives me something to do and prevents me from snacking.”
“Track how you feel when you eat well.”
“Don’t do fad diets. Look at eating properly as a lifestyle and stick with it.”
How to Eat Healthy with ADHD: Next Steps
- Celebrate Every Step! Join the Small Wins Appreciation Network
- Download: Small Wins That Add Up to Big Change!
- Read: 9 Healthy Food Rules for ADHD Families — What to Eat, What to Avoid
- Read: Healthy Eating Habits for Impulsive, Dopamine-Starved ADHD Brains
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