This website has been put together by Jane Donlin and Richard Jeffreys, who live in Western Australia. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the PhosADD Australia mail address.

Jane's story:

Richard's story is below

Taking control of ADHD with a low-phosphate diet

A friend - who is also an experienced schoolteacher - living in Germany knew of Hafer's book, The Hidden Drug - Dietary Phosphate and sent me a copy. I was raised in Germany and thus welcomed the German text. I could not put the book down until I had read it from cover to cover. It answered so many questions and provided us with a wealth of practical, dietary and scientific information.

I tried the four-day diet test which Hafer suggests. Tom settled down - within reason of course, he is a very lively, energetic boy, with or without the phosphate-reduced diet. On the fifth day I reintroduced him to a diet high in dietary phosphate and within half an hour his usual behaviour, which was all too familiar to us, was back: excessive fidgetiness, high irritability, extreme mood swings - over the top with exhilaration one minute and plummeting to an unhappy low the next. He was very uncooperative and cried a lot. The following day he was feeling miserable and had developed a migraine headache. We had seen this pattern many times before but were never able to pinpoint the exact cause. In addition to Tom's difficult behaviour, he suffered frequently from colds and the flu. He was always the first to catch a stomach virus. The chlorine in swimming pools and cleaning products gave him migraine headaches. Tom was also very accident prone. He has broken his wrist, his collar bone, has suffered a compound fracture and shattered his elbow whilst riding his bicycle. As a toddler he frequently ran into things or bumped his head. He was always covered in bruises and cuts and had his chin stitched at least twice. 

From that day and in support of Tom we made a conscious decision to put the whole family onto the diet Hafer recommends. Again we did not want Tom to feel different. It has undoubtedly worked for us. As parents our primary concern was his psychological and physical well being. Tom became much healthier and happier in himself and as a family we functioned a lot better. The colds and flu did not seem to affect him any more, his migraine headaches disappeared (switching to natural-based cleaning products also made a huge difference. You can check them out on our 'Links' tab). Our world no longer revolved around Tom and his difficult behaviour. Tom's well being in fact improved over the years so significantly that switching to a low-phosphate diet seemed a small price to pay. Today Tom is grateful for the steps and measures we took.

Tom felt that school was not for him and he left at the end of year eleven. After a period of not knowing what to do, he took up an apprenticeship as a Chef where he made excellent progress. He enjoyed the challenge and responsibilities that came with the job. Tom has completed his apprenticeship and is now a qualified Chef working in a prestigious restaurant. He received the grade "excellent" in his final exam. As parents we are very proud of his achievements.

Tom still has his susceptibility to dietary phosphate. But mainly he manages his condition well just by drawing on his own inner resources and relying on his ingenuity. Because he has had a very healthy diet at home he has come to appreciate the benefits it offers him and has no problems continuing along this path.

I was so delighted with the outcome for Tom and our family that I wrote to Hertha Hafer to thank her for her book and to let her know that even in far-off Australia a child had been hugely helped by her amazing discovery. I also asked her if an English translation was available, as I had friends who would be interested but could not read German. She responded that no English translation yet existed but she would welcome one. 

So began this project of translating Hafer's book. At the outset I didn't realize what I was taking on, or the length of time it would take. It was one thing to do the translation, research the scientific nature of the text and ensure that the English terminology for the molecular and cell biology was correct. It was quite another task to get the book ready for publication, a task in which I have been hugely helped by my colleague Richard Jeffreys.

We commend Hafer's book to all families living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and related problems. The phosphate-reduced diet is inexpensive; it is not unduly restrictive; and it may remove altogether the need for medication. It is a very healthy diet based on the way our grandparents used to cook and will be beneficial to your family for other reasons. A phosphate-reduced diet does not lack vitamins or minerals.

But it is not always easy to implement the diet for it involves lifestyle changes. You will have to be persistent to gain the full benefits. Your child will need to understand the reasons why s/he cannot consume soda drinks, chocolate and other foods listed; it is essential to encourage her/his cooperation. Diet unfortunately will not work as instantaneously as a Ritalin or a Dexamphetamine tablet but it is much more effective and much safer as a long-term method as there are no side effects. We believe that a very healthy diet, such as is so strongly recommended by Hertha Hafer, can help rectify many problems associated with ADD/ADHD.

Richard's story reads as follows:

I am a language teacher of many years experience and one of my languages is German. I have also been involved over the years in grassroots campaigns for social change, political change and one campaign on a significant medical issue.

A mutual friend knew that Jane, having completed the first draft of her translation, was having trouble working out how to find a publisher for it. The friend introduced me to Jane, who gave me her manuscript to read.

Some teenagers - a minority - were as quiet, manageable and focused as the children I remember from the sixties. With these there was no problem. But at least fifty percent were to varying degrees unfocused, overactive, talkative, fidgety, disobedient, careless and uncaring, impulsive, lacking in persistence. They were displaying in fact, to varying degrees, all the symptoms of ADD/ADHD described in Hafer's book, which I had just read, and which are summarized on this website. Importantly, it was not just the children diagnosed with ADD who were affected but many others. In my opinion the very worst affected are, at least in my subject area (foreign languages), virtually uneducable in a normal classroom. Hafer's book was a powerful explanation for what I was witnessing in front of my eyes in my classroom every day. I felt that families everywhere need to know about it. From that time I was hooked on Jane's project.

All this despite the fact that I work in an outstanding, fee-paying private school with above average discipline, caring and committed parents and a record of relatively good academic success. Dietary phosphate is no respecter of wealth, privilege or parental concern.

I commend this site and Hafer's remarkable book to despairing teachers everywhere, to equally despairing parents of children who fit the picture described here, to medical professionals who genuinely want to help ADD/ADHD children and above all to research institutions. Research to explore and validate Hafer's conclusions is an urgent necessity. If such research proves, as I am convinced it will, that she is right - or substantially so, then the implications for education, for the medical profession, for the food industry and above all for public policy are truly immense.

Due to pressing work commitments Richard unfortunately has had to pull out of this project. Jane Donlin, the translator of The Hidden Drug - Dietary Phosphate will continue to promote Hertha Hafer's work.

Please Contact Us!

Please let us know what outcomes you have from the use of this information.
We can be contacted by normal mail at the following address:

PhosADD Australia
c/o Jane Donlin
112 Amethyst Crescent
ARMADALE
Western Australia 6112

Or send us an e-mail using the e-mail link below:

Return to top