Diet?

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Hi,
I'm new here.
Both my husband and son are in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's. My husband has struggled for 30 years not knowing this was the cause of his troubles and frustrations. In my reading I found a link to diet. For a week my husband and son have been on a gluten and dairy free diet. Has anyone had sucess with this type of diet change? Or know of any positive stories in adjusting diet? How long before you may see any changes?
THANKS.

Oh I've seen this but it was the parents who swore by it, I'd love to hear what those who are on this or was on this has to say.

Some of us on WP have been trying this:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt45945.html

from wikipedia:

"Worldwide, gluten is an important source of nutritional protein, both in foods prepared directly from foods containing it, and as an additive to foods otherwise low in protein.
"Between 0.5 and 1.0 percent of the United States populace is sensitive to gluten"


Another thing you may be interested in:

Through the Looking Glass: My Involvement with Autism Quackery

http://www.autism-watch.org/about/bio2.shtml



In other words, you can put them on as many gluten diets as you like but any results you find are likely to be a placebo affect, based on the lack of scientific evidence.

I just took my son to an allergist last Friday because he had a persistent cough. It turns out that he is allergic to all the environmental allergies that they tested him for- pet dander, mold, pollen, etc.etc.
The allergist, who is just a mainstream dr, suggested trying the GFCF AND sugar-free diet because of my son's dx. He said that considering all the other allergies, it would be worth a shot to go on it for 3 months to see what happens.
I was really surprised to hear that from a regular dr. Well, we are trying it. It is super easy because they just built an enormous Whole Foods Market near us that carries absolutely everything you could imagine.

My husband, who has worse allergies and stomach issues than our son, was told by the same dr that he has to eat perservative-free and additive-free foods on top of all that, so I was really worried. Then I went to this store, and it is actually not that hard to find things at all!

I had already taken my son off of cow's milk products a few months ago because of the results I saw in another child in his class on the GFCF diet. Both the boys seem more alert, although I can't be sure if it is the diet or not. But I figure it is worth a shot. Will post again after awhile for results.

Science is not the be all and end all and thank God for that.

I have been on the GFCF diet and it works for me, and just because I come to this conclusion based on how I feel as opposed to what is proven by science makes it none the less valid.

I find any use of the work quack rather offensive in the context of the above issue.

I am not allergic to dairy per se, but it does seem to promote respiratory allergies. I can walk into a smoky bar and be fine. I can eat dairy and be fine. But if I eat dairy and walk into a smoky bar, I have problems.

So long as beans, lentils, nuts and seeds, whole grain rice, and even soya exists I don't think it's too important from a nutritional point of view whether eat wheat or not, except to the immense multinational, multi-billion dollar industries entirely based on it, of course !

What Jim Laidler writes about is very sad; here in France too there is an immense industry grown up around the search for a physical and mental Shangri-la. The lists of products, at astonishing prices, which promise to basically restore to you the paradise lost at birth, or soon after, as a result of this or that "pollution", is almost terrifying. I feel a mixture of sickness and sadness whenever occasionally leaf through the free magazines available at our nearest Health food store. I used to read them religiously. And that is the operative word, as if they contained the elixir of life, as if heaven could be bought.

But I had luckily come to the whole food-exclusion approach by way of an english doctor, an MD, called Richard Mackarness, who had found to his astonishment that many of his patients did better if he took them off their regular medicines and put them on food exclusion diets, and who wrote two classics of the field of Clinical Ecology; " Not All in the Mind" and "Chemical Victims" . Also had read books by clinical ecologists from the USA, whose work, in research and clinics, in cheap methods to cure common illnesses, has now been so well documented.
Food exclusion doesn't need to cost anymore than a normal diet, doesn't need to take any longer to prepare, and doesn't need to involve any of these completely bizarre experiences that Laidler describes, of carting huge quantities of stuff around etc ( even when my coeliac son was a toddler all we needed to carry around was a few nuts and dried fruit " just in case"). It is simple, cheap and just needs decision and information.

Just because Laidler was so unfortunately sucked into the increasingly widespread and profitable search for nirvana, in which cures cost money , because so many people are succeeding in THEIR lives by selling it, does not mean that food exclusion is quackery. And it would be tragic, not just a shame, if someones bitterness at having been involved in that side of it meant the approach was binned.

My own experience is not so much that excluding gluten and dairy "cures" AS, as that it makes AS much more liveable. I go from being an ill aspie to a well aspie. And this makes a BIG difference to my life.

Good luck!

We tried the diet six years ago, and didn't see a definite change in our son. We decided that enzymes were the way to go. But to be fair, we had never witnessed any pain, diarrhea, or stomach troubles with our son. We also did not see any reactions to his vaccinations. He just never seemed to have any definite thing we could see that MADE him autistic.

AND, six years ago, there weren't the plethora of foods in the stores that are gluten-free/casein-free that there are now. Often, I am very tempted to try going back on that diet, for my son and myself. It really doesn't seem to be too hard to do the GFCF diet now, and the foods that are GFCF are really pretty tasty.

Kris

My 2 cents: autistics seem to have a higher incidence of allergies. Some are food allergies, some are environmental allergies and some are plant/animal allergies. I think it's good to find out what they are from a medical doctor. I don't think it's a good idea to decide that you are allergic to some particular thing just because you're autistic.
As far as milk goes, most human adults are lactose intolerant (lacking lactase to break down the sugar lactose). That means drinking milk, some fresh cheeses, ice cream, cream products will make you sick. MOst cheeses (aged) and yoghurts have lactase in them to digest the lactose.
I've read that in celiac disease, the casein allergy is tied to the gluten allergy and once you eliminate the gluten and hence the symptoms of "leaky gut", you can return to drinking milk. (the source of casein, a protein)

It's not the question you asked, but I would suspect that diet really doesn't impact Aspergers. It might impact other things that are functioning incorrectly in someone in ADDITION to them having Aspergers. But, as I understand it, being Aspie is being wired differently neurologically. Other conditions might magnify that, but nothing really changes the underlying wiring difference.

Yes, that's sort of what I think. Like because of the hard wired AS differences in my brain the food-opioids in gluten and dairy have more of an effect on me than on an NT.
For instance when eating gluten and dairy the "peaks and troughs" of AS cognitive functioning/capacities seem exacerbated. My sensory processing is even more awry,( especially with noise , which is awful when eating gluten) and my tendency to black and white thinking is increased, and I feel much more disconnected from people etc.
It's as if the ASD is less noticeable, or more positive when not eating gluten and dairy; I feel "more in my skin", more securely in my body, grounded, more solidly here, less disorientated and spaced out than when on gluten and dairy.

I also agree with KimJ that there seems to be lots of evidence that AS people have more food allergies than general population, and it is known that food intolerances, not only to wheat etc, but also corn/maize, soya, sugar, eggs, oranges, etc etc , can cause significant mental and physical dysphorias, strangely ressembling AS difficulties, so... maybe if I carry on excluding gluten and dairy for longer than I've ever done before, say a few years, maybe I'll discover that being aspie is not difficult at all!! ! Hmm.

Was very struck today, while rereading book by Theron Randolph, american clinical ecologist, by how many of his patients were , until brain fog or general "nervous fatigue" took over, described by colleagues in their jobs as " walking encyclopedia" and "human computer", I quote, this in a book written before Aspergers was a widespread term. After exclusion diets they recovered their "computer-brain" etc capacities but without the desperate and incapacitating need for rest, quiet , isolation, that they had been suffering from ( aswell as very destructive/violent rages that had been prone to in certain cases).
I thought that was interesting .

There's lots of good links on the thread Hartzofspace linked to above, " Gluten-free-diet diary and support thread"

Last edited by ouinon on 16 Nov 2007, 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't believe in the glutin or cassine free diets. Personally I'd die if I was forced to follow one. I eat alot of wheat and dairy products usually but even when I don't my symptoms are the same, no worse. I'm not usually to happy though because I really like milk, but the glucien does not aggrivate my Asperger's Syndrome. I've read those accounts and even watched footages of them with the parents claiming there kids are recoverd, sometimes even cured, because of the diet and the children are still obviously autistic. They are doing better yet its hard to believe its the diet because they were, and are, recieving other treatments as well. In most of the cases behavior modification was listed as an additional therapy and as early intensive b-mod is still the most effective treatment I find the diet to be less likely the reason for their improvement.

Allergies, and food intolerances are highly individual things. Just because you don't experience any amelioration doesn't mean that other people won't.
Also the results, particularly in the case of gluten and casein take more than a few days to show full effects. Some specialists say it may take over a year to feel the full benefits.
In addition gluten and casein are so widespread, in so many foods , in form of hydrolised vegetable protein for instance, or binder for flavourings, in sausages, soups, common brands of baked beans, and so on etc, that unless pay attention to all food labels , are probably continuing to consume both.

And in the example given by Jim Laidler of reintroducing gluten and/or casein into their childrens diet and not noticing any difference this is perfectly normal after a longer period of exclusion.
If one reintroduces the food SOON after noticing first positive effects of exclusion will usually see very clear, sometimes dramatic negative reactions, because the body is still close to edge of stress, but if introduce the food after a long period in which body has almost fully recovered normal functioning the initial effect is so slight or even non-existent, as to make one think that it is ok after all to eat it from " time to time".
I have made this mistake a few times. Forgetting the ill effects, beginning to think couldn't have been all that bad, deciding that "just once" won't matter, and indeed experiencing little or even no ill effect at all, so that within a week I repeat the experience, and then again, and again, increasingly frequently , and only when realise that am once again in trough of depression in which have lost touch with the world, have spaced out , disconnected again, do I realise that the opiate effect has accumulated, bit by bit.

If you haven't tried an exclusion diet of at least a month, with real avoidance of all foods containing traces of gluten, or casein, or corn, or whatever might be the problem, then cannot know if such a diet has any effect. So please don't rubbish other peoples efforts to feel better , based on science and research now going back 60 years and with a decent "pedigree" in terms of people working in the field before it became fashionable/trendy. Clinical Ecology has been working for people with cognitive and sensory processing disorders since the 40's , before the name aspergers had even been invented.

When we took my son of cassein, we noticed an immediate change in his behavior...He no longer had horrible tantrums throwing himself on the floor...When we took him off gluten, he began to play with others instead of next to others...We are not religious about the diet, but we do see a difference when he's on it.

With cassein, he starts getting a runny nose as well, which quickly turns to asthma or upper respiratory infection...so if he has anything with cassein (not hardly does he, but if we are out and he has some, we give him some benadryl because technically he is allergic. Again, this is not a daily issue, maybe once every couple of months of someone offering him pizza or similar). With the gluten, his skin rashes begin disappearing within days and also his dark undereye circles almost dissapear.

As far as gluten being necessary...there was a discussion about diet, etc...on Larry King Live a few weeks ago and every single doctor there, whether they agreed with the best way to lose weight, etc...did state that gluten was not really good for you...None of them ate it...There are many other ways to get whatever little benefits it might offer...

Actually, there's a cheap magazine called First (for women) that just had another article about the whole gluten issue...

I tried the GF/CF diet with my own son because he had big tantrum issues that included head banging. Upon removing casein I noticed an immediate improvement to his behaviour. The head banging stopped and tantrums lessened considerably. I didn't notice a change removing gluten.

After a year of casein free I re-introduced dairy foods starting with butter, then yogurt and old fashioned cheeses, then finally milk from grass-fed cows (non-homogenized). He has been fine with these and has about 8oz of milk daily and cheese/yogurt one-two times a week. Butter is used liberally. I go to these great pains with dairy b/c I don't want my kids getting those hormones and because if he eats processed dairy I still notice effects.

Now, I have to agree with the previous poster who said that ASD people seem to have more allergies. And gut issues. I think to say it's quackery is quackery. Heh.

My partner cannot eat gluten. He is in horrible pain if he doesn't. I didn't notice a difference with my son without gluten, but I have most certainly noticed when my partner is in horrible pain from eating gluten.

To the poster who said that they'd die without gluten and casein, I'm pretty sure my sweetie would come close to dying if he were forced to eat gluten.

I find casein free/gluten free cooking to be so incredibly easy it's not funny. Much of the world eats a casein free gluten free diet!! ! Now I love love love love love dairy. But it's just as easy to make tasty foods that don't have it. I also cook mostly from scratch, very very little processed stuff (and none of those fake foods made gluten free to pretend to be the gluten foods...) I also limit sugar and food dyes, etc. Though we do do occasional treats ^.^