Has anyone tried the Gluten-Free/Casein-Free Diet?

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kinftw,

Are you still doing GF/CF? Hows it going?

I decided to try this, mostly because it's already been established that I am intolerant of casein. It's just so hard to resist cheese and creamy things. Anyway, it's only been a week or 2 and I'm not totally on it yet, because I'm not going to waste food by throwing out what I already have. But I've been buying only gf/cf food.

I already feel better, as casein makes me sick and tired all the time. (So why do I have such a desire to eat dairy? It makes no sense.) I haven't totally gone gluten free yet, and I'm not sure it will make much of a difference, but it's not that big of a deal to me since I'm not much of a bread and pasta eater anyway. I can still eat my curries without any change in them, and eggs/sausage/potatoes for breakfast. I suppose it depends on what your diet currently is like whether or not gf/cf is a big deal to you.

I'll let you know in a few weeks whether I've turned into a high-energy social butterfly going on spontaneous adventures or not.

i'm nearing a year for gluten and dairy free now.

I started Adderall at about the same time, and I don't think I could have started the diet if I'd not been on Adderall to help me organize and strategize around the diet (and probably the fact that it lowers appetite in general probably helped too).

After about four months of being gf/cf, I went off Adderall. It started causing me problems by increasing my anxiety and started having physical effects that it did not at first.

Presently, i'm still gf/cf, it makes choices extremely easy when eating out, I almost always have an excuse not to join people at noisy restaurants, my weight does not fluctuate a lot like it used to and I feel a lot better about my body in general, and I have little to no acid reflux (which was a terrible thing for me before). I have also felt that my body responds more to exercise and that exercise is easier in general. Dairy makes me feel "packed" on the inside and sort of heavy.

I've ended up eating a lot more meat, which has helped a lot too. I was vegetarian before, and I sometimes wonder whether going vegetarian when I was younger could be considered a fair mistake. I need meat, I've found. and I don't need as many vegetables as I thought. I'd rather have a chicken breast than a salad almost any day.

Dairy, besides being tasty, is an addictive substance. Thats why you crave it!

I was reading that gluten and casein somehow affect the brain because of leaky gut syndrome that some people link to the mercury in vaccines. Reading this was so troubling to me, because it got me thinking that my AS was caused by an external source. But I realized that it could have been genetic, as my Father has somewhat similar interests as I do(electronics). I also thought about the children Hans Asperger worked with, which was years and years ago, which vaccines with mercury weren't available.

I know most of my diet is meats, whether fish, beef, chicken, and pork. I love fresh grown vegetables, I'm not to crazy about frozen or out of season vegetables. I love dairy, such as heavy cream, half and half, milk, ice cream, etc. I eat most of my grains in pies and things that that. I crave meats though, I'm not sure why. I melt for soft boiled eggs, too.

yes.

lactose and casein are the two main proteins in dairy products. the way to eliminate casein is to eliminate dairy. also beware of some soy cheeses which contain casein.

i've been gluten free for about five years and i feel better physically. my neurology has not changed. my theory is that people with ASDs are more inclined to have severe food allergies and intolerances, and disregarding or being unaware of the intolerances can certainly cause dramatic stress to the body and therefore traits may be worse, but i doubt the intolerances themselves cause autism.



products aren't food anyway. you can easily and healthfully and energetically live on non-gluten whole grains like rice / quinoa, and fresh veggies and fruits and legumes (and lean meats if you are so inclined, but not necessary). that's the healthiest diet anyway.

Lactose is a sugar, not a protein. The "ose" suffixs means it's a sugar, such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc. Lactose is broken down into glucose and galactose, if I'm not mistaken.

I have been nearly gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free for about 2.5 months now and have noticed no change other than to discover that dairy does make my skin worse. Which displeases me greatly, as I love cheese.

you're right. i wonder why so many people are intolerant of it? why would people have difficulty tolerating a sugar (but not other sugars)?

any chemists here who can explain this to me?

A lof people are fructose intolerant

Yes! I am gluten free and 90% dairy free, although I am on the milder end of Asperger's I find that being off of gluten and dairy has help me IMMENSELY with focusing and doing tasks, everyone says I am more alter and easier to be around

However, you have to be on it for a few weeks before seeing results,it was midway through the 3rd week when I started feeling a lot better, was able to focus better and generally I was happier.

I wouldn't say it "cures" autism but definitely helps a LOT

If you have autism and anything else, clearing up that other thing will reveal how mild or severe your autism issues actually are and make them easier to handle because they're no longer complicated by that other thing. That doesn't mean that other thing causes autism. Even having a sensitivity to tastes and eliminating something with a taste you react badly to could help, so that might qualify as a food issue. (I'm not dismissing actual food allergies as taste sensitivities.)

I sometimes wonder if the apparent increase in severity of autism cases might have partly to do with taste sensitivities that weren't being provoked in the past, simply because certain additives didn't exist or weren't in as heavy or widespread use. Think about it. How would a small child, with limited knowledge of what's in food, be able to articulate something such as, "Mommy, this cereal you gave me has a metallic flavor, and I can't stand it. I'm hungry, but I can't eat, even though there's food right in front of me, because I can't make myself put something that tastes like that in my mouth and chew it." (Am I the only one who, as a child, occasionally tasted what I think was a sharp, metallic flavor in fortified cereal? Maybe the mixing process wasn't so good back then.) If a kid has this kind of problem with a lot of foods, and to a strong degree, many meltdowns might result. Verbalization of the cause of the upset might be impossible for a child. But going with a really healthy diet would at least eliminate flavors that are artificially created and that might be irritating to a child with taste sensitivities. (Fake - and even some natural substitute - sweeteners are pretty unpleasant and strange. That stevia stuff has something nasty about it.) I think this might be something worth considering more fully than it has been so far.

I am gluten free, but definitely not casein free. I feel better without my gluten. I can't give up my dairy though. I've got more energy and I'm slimming down a little bit. As for focus and stuff, I notice no difference.

I grew up eating no dairy at all, and not too much wheat. I'm female and 5'7", so it sure as heck didn't stunt my growth. I started eating dairy as a teenager, and put on 20-30 pounds. About ten years ago, when I was in my late teens, I started eating a vegan diet (still do) and dropped most of that extra weight. Also started getting lots of regular exercise. This past summer I cut gluten out of my diet as an experiment. I dropped a bunch of bloating I didn't realize that I'd had, and when I later tried eating wheat again it made me retain water, and I would get REALLY itchy. That's about it.

With me I try to control and have the least amount of Flower like in White bread etc. I notice that I have upset stomach when I eat white bread. When i have frozen pizza I have to cook it over the amount of normal to allow the Flower to be used up or cooked off. Then I am deficant in some Vitamin so I am takeing a essential Multi-Vitamin.

School psychologist and speech therapist forced me to go on a GFCF diet though I refused. The speech therapist said, that it improves speech in autistic children she takes care of (but she also said that it helps mainly children with speech delay, and I didn't have a speech delay, so I don't get it) and the psychologist said that it is good for children with Asperger's too. I don't believe that, how can eliminating dairy and wheat from my diet help me? Now, they claim to see some effects in my attention and social skills, but I don't see any. My parents believe that I would see effects in a few months, but it's unlikely.