March 16, 2026 | Source: BBC Science Focus | by Ian Taylor

“You forget to eat. You forget to buy food. You forget to buy healthy food. You even forget what counts as healthy food.” Dr Blandine French is talking about the complicated relationship that people with ADHD can have with something most of us take for granted – eating.

French would know. She’s a senior research fellow at the University of Nottingham, specialising in the lived experience of ADHD.

She works with doctors and affected families, and also has a personal connection to her work. She was diagnosed with ADHD herself, as an adult in 2010.

She says practically all of the interconnected symptoms and traits associated with ADHD can affect the way people buy food, cook it and eat it.