Eating puts them into a pleasant trance like state that is a respite from their often active and chaotic ADD brain. Although we don t think of food as a drug, it can be used as one. We have to eat, but eating too much or too little of certain types of food has consequences. Because there is no way to totally abstain from food, eating disorders are extremely hard to recover from. You may have to abstain from certain foods, perhaps those containing sugar, because they trigger a compulsion for more, yet everywhere you look you see and smell these foods.
Food is legal.
It is a culturally acceptable way to comfort ourselves. For some people with ADD food is the first substance that helped them feel calm. Children with ADD will often seek out foods rich with sugar and refined carbohydrates such as candy, cookies, cakes, and pasta. People who compulsively over eat, binge, or binge and purge also eat these types of foods. It is no accident that binge food is usually high in sugars and carbohydrates, especially when you take into consideration how the ADD brain is slow to absorb glucose.