Feingold Program

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What percent of people can expect to have success using dietary modification?

Last update 9/29/2008

Nothing works for everyone, and sometimes the diet is just Step #1 in finding help for your child, who may also need educational accommodations, supplements, heavy metal detoxification, glasses or hearing care, or even medication along with the diet. According to our member feedback surveys, more than 80% of members are pleased with their response to dietary intervention.
Let's look at some of the studies below, in chronological order. Clicking on the name of each researcher will bring you to the abstract of the study in MedLine. You can see many more studies at our Research Section.

Salamy 1982 - Children were given drinks containing food additives or placebos (double-blind, meaning that nobody knew which were the additive drinks and which were the placebos). Measuring EEG (brain waves) and heart rate, Salamy found that the additives caused physiological changes in all the children, but the hyperactive children showed greater changes.

Egger 1983 - 93% of 88 children with severe frequent migraine recovered on an oligoantigenic* diet, and a double-blind study confirmed this in 40 of the children. In addition to headache, other symptoms improved: abdominal pain, behavior disorder, seizures, asthma, and eczema.
* An "oligoantigenic" diet is a "few foods" additive-free and allergen-free diet similar to the Feingold Diet but more restricted.

Egger 1985 - 81.6% of 76 overactive children improved using the oligoantigenic diet. Other symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain, and fits, also improved.

Rowe 1988 - 72.7% of 55 children put on a 6-week trial of the Feingold Diet "... demonstrated improved behaviour."

Egger 1989 - 80% of 45 children with epilepsy and recurrent headaches, abdominal symptoms, or hyperkinetic behavior improved on an oligoantigenic diet. 55% of these children ceased to have seizures and 11 had fewer seizures during diet therapy. Egger reports, "Headaches, abdominal pains, and hyperkinetic behavior ceased in all those whose seizures ceased, and in some of those whose seizures did not cease." 75% of the children with generalized epilepsy, and 85% of the children with partial epilepsy, recovered or improved. 18 other children, who had epilepsy alone, with no other symptoms, were treated with the same diet, but none improved.

Kaplan 1989 - More than half the children put on a Feingold-type diet (but not eliminating salicylates) exhibited "reliable improvement in behavior and negligible placebo effects." In addition, several other problems these children suffered from tended to improve, including halitosis, night awakenings, and latency to sleep onset.

Egger 1992 - Some children with migraine and/or ADHD also have night-time or daytime wetting problems. 76% of 21 such children whose behavior and headaches had improved on a diet similar to the Feingold Diet, also improved or were cured of their urinary problems.

Carter 1993 - 75.6% or 78 children referred for "hyperactive behavior" improved on an open trial of an elimination diet similar to the Feingold Diet. 19 of them were studied in a placebo-controlled double-blind challenge protocol.

Rowe 1994 - 75% of 200 children improved on an open trial of the Feingold Diet, and deteriorated upon introduction of foods containing synthetic colorings. This was followed by double-blind challenge tests, in which 82.5% of "reactors" and 10% of the "control" children (those not expected to react to food dye) reacted to a variety of mild single-item challenges of tartrazine (Yellow #5) - at a maximum of only 50 mg per day. The kind of reaction and length of time the children were affected depended on the dose, as well as their age.

Boris 1994 - 73% of 26 children responded favorably to an elimination diet similar to the Feingold Diet. 16 of them were challenged, double-blind, and ALL of them reacted to the challenge of 100 mg food dye plus some food ingredients chosen by parents. Placebo effect was carefully ruled out.
The author writes, "Dietary factors may play a significant role in the etiology of the majority of children with ADHD."
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Uhlig 1997 - This is the first investigation to show an association between brain electrical activity and eating "provoking foods" in children with food-induced attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Pelsser 2002 - 80.6% of the 31 children who completed a 2-weeks trial of an elimination diet showed an improvement in behavior of at least 50% on two official rating scales. Authors write, "An elimination diet can lead to a statistically significant decrease in symptoms." Note: This study was done in Holland where a Feingold Foodlist is not available. Their diet was very much more limited than the usual Feingold Diet.

Schnoll 2003 - In this review of studies, Scholl says that nutrition is a "neglected but important" aspect of treatment for ADHD. He concludes, "In general, diet modification plays a major role in the management of ADHD and should be considered as part of the treatment protocol."