Joe Wicks has been criticised online for suggesting a poor diet has led to more people being diagnosed with ADHD.
The Body Coach, who became a household name during the coronavirus lockdowns with his home workouts, recently appeared on a BBC podcast about children's mental health and nutrition. Joe, 38, reflected on his own childhood eating habits and mused that, if it were 2024, he might have been diagnosed with ADHD, believing his diet played a significant role in his behaviour back then.
Since the podcast aired last week, he has been criticised by many for his views, with some branding it "very harmful". Now, he has taken to social media to speak out against the criticism and said: "I do believe food has a massive impact, whether you have ADHD or not, I think it really impacts our mood and our ability to sit still and focus, even our energy and mental health. It has a massive impact."
He later went on to say that he "wished" he had said "misdiagnosed" after saying "many children are being diagnosed with ADHD and it can stem back to our diet." He added: "What I mean, many children are being misdiagnosed and that's happening around the world." Taking to Instagram in view of his 4.7 million followers, he wrote: "My response to the newspaper articles published this weekend which suggest I said 'ADHD is caused by poor diet'.
Joe Wicks has responded to backlash he faced over his views on the rise in people being diagnosed with ADHD (Instagram)
However, his comments have been dubbed 'harmful' (Instagram)"I really hope this explains what I said in context. The headline was triggering and very insensitive. That’s not something I believe and I would ever intend to upset someone. Sorry for any offence caused today. If you would like to listen to the full interview it’s on a BBC podcast called Headliners." Joe then added that he was apologetic that his comments had been "taken out of context".
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His upload which has gained over 64,000 likes was soon flooded with messages from disgruntled users who slammed his "harmful" views. One person wrote: "Joe I am an ADHD, ADHD assessor. This is a very harmful message. As clinicians we cannot lawfully diagnose people with ADHD if they do not fulfil the FULL (extensive) criteria. We cannot misdiagnose children with ADHD just because they have a poor diet. That is nonsense. We are not looking at short attention spans alone, we are looking at several executive functions at a deep level. I was really hoping you would make a positive statement about this and not fuel the message that ADHD is over diagnosed, which it is categorically NOT. It is massively under diagnosed."
A second added: "Out of curiosity, do you have any research that shows the correlation between ADHD misdiagnosis in children & diet? I'd love to give it a read." Another penned: "Is this an apology? Because you say you didn't sat it but you did you then go on to say it again. Are you qualified on neuroscience to know they are being misdiagnosed?"
Meanwhile, TikTok star Lydia Victoria fumed: "Joe you have been my hero from my first day I started my fitness journey but unfortunately today I’m going to have to unfollow as someone who is currently trying so hard to get her diagnosis for ADHD and who struggles every day with breakdowns after breakdowns because of how difficult ADHD is what you have said is ridiculous!
"From the day I was born my mum made us the best cleanest food, I didn’t have my first McDonalds till I was 10 for you to say this is so upsetting. You have no facts, you are now creating more shame around being ADHD or having a child with ADHD! As now it because parents aren’t feeding them correctly. For people who struggle with more this will cause more upset for parents. you are probably promoting your new cookbook and now hoping fearful parents will buy it is so upsetting. To have science speak out against you is embarrassing. You are in no place to speak about this. so don’t. I am gutted."
The Mirror has approached Joe's spokesperson for comment.
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