A new kind of restaurant

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Many people with Asperger's syndrome and on the Autistic Spectrum suffer from food intolerances. Like many others I benefit from avoiding carbohydrates such as potatoes, wheat, rice and corn. Eating a diet consisting solely of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and cooking fats helps me a lot.

A lot of other people benefit from a gluten free and/or a casein free diet.

In both cases there are few restaurants that cater to our needs.

I'd like to see a new kind of restaurant. It would be a kind where you were automatically assumed to want to tailor a recipe to your needs. For example if you ordered the spaghetti Bolognese, the waiter or server would ask, "Would you like it gluten free? Carb free? What kind of fat would you prefer it to be cooked in?"

There's no reason people should have to eat whatever the restaurant thinks is best for them. We should get to make our own choices.

I kind of disagree. People who want special foods, cooked very special ways, are very tough for restaurants to deal with... because the customer can take one bite and not like it. Then what happens?

When I was a kid growing up, people ate what was put in front of them. People didn't say, "Oh, I don't eat meat, or carbs, or potatoes with cheese." Special diets didn't come around until the late '50s and the '60's. People weren't fat for one thing, so diets were often like spiritual quests. Like the macrobiotic diet, or vegetarian diet for people who felt sorry for animals. The Atkins Diet was published in 1972.

restaurants woud have to charge a lot more to cater for the specialist nature of special dietry needs.

back in september when was detained in a intelectual disability acute hospital for four months the NHS catering company refused to cater for severe dietry needs of mine so ended up starving for days on end until was brought out to sainsburys every so often so woud come back with a ton of junk snacks,ended up putting a load of weight on,yet they catered for soft diets, kosher and halal [which are choices yet were still catered for].
its not quite the same thing as a restaurant but it shows how little understanding the food industry has for special needs around food,and woud be really surprised if anyone ever woud foot the bill for such a specialist restaurant.

As a celiac the level of gluten I have to avoid wouldn't allow me to eat at that restaurant unless it were always gluten free.

It's a lot of work though, for people without such severe restrictions of cross-contamination like I have. Can you imagine running a place like that? It's terrifying.

As to the comment about people's diets and obesity, I fully blame obesity on plastics that interfere with our hormonal systems. That's why BPA is such a nasty plastic these days, because it was found that, in the smaller quantities present in our day to day lives, compared to the 1000x higher quantities that were tested in the lab for toxicity, they interact quite a bit differently. Hormones affect how much we want to eat too, this isn't just me whining about metabolism. Turns out, that in small enough quantities, BPA interacts with our hormones. I can't even begin to imagine all the new materials that are in regular use today that didn't exist until this past century, or even be able to imagine the numbers of them that have been banned since their discovery and use! And of course these things affect fetuses and babies more than adults.

Also, although celiac disease incidence is probably on the rise just like all other auto-immune diseases currently, it's certainly not that much more common now than it was. People are just *actually getting diagnosed* now.

That comment about diets and obesity and people just being picky with their food is so uneducated.

I would like to see more restaurants that only serve organic or all natural food, no Monsanto, no microwaving, no BPA, no trans fats, real butter and no margarine or other artificial crap, just fresh high quality ingredients that taste like REAL FOOD instead of some overprocessed garbage that barely has any real food in it. I don't want it to be something special you have to ask for, or go out of your way to find, I want it to be the norm.

As for food intolerances and allergies, it would be far too expensive for most restaurants to try to cater to any possible needs, but these days with so many people needing to eat special diets, there should be a market for restaurants that can cater to specific needs. I just think it would probably work out better if that is the primary focus of the restaurant, for instance if everything they serve is gluten free, rather than just having specific options on the menu that would be gluten free.

I want to see a restaurant that only serves meat from animals raised in a humane and "healthy" manner, what I mean is like free-range, grain-fed, antibiotic/hormone-free, etc. Similarly, all of the dairy products used in house would be obtained in such a manner. Also, the vegetables and fruit used would be obtained from "organic" growers that avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides. The food would likely be expensive, but f*****g delicious, and I would feel good about eating it.

Or, I could just go to my grandparents', and have a moose steak with some garden vegetables. Same thing, but a lot less expensive!

I agree that restaurants should serve real food and the best quality food they can serve. I don't agree that a restaurant should be equipped to meet the special needs of every person that has special needs. That would cost way too much and the price of meals would be astronomical. There could be restaurants that specialize in this need of that need but for a single restaurant to be expected to be able to cater to the needs of everyone is unrealistic.

How does avoiding Carbohydrates help you? Unfortunately that is the main part of my diet. I try to avoid fat as much as possible, and really don't like protein. I eat a can of tuna every other day or so to try to keep from getting anemia again.

We actually have a restaurant in my state that serves grass fed only very humanely raised and very humanely slaughtered beef. Unfortunately it's like three hours away from my house but I was really glad to see that. We try to eat grass fed only organic beef and we use grass fed only cow organic butter. And pasture raised get to run around in the sun all day organic chicken eggs.

It would be very expensive with no economy of scale. you'd be paying for someone's time to prepare every meal individually.

A lot of restaurants are getting better at this. I'm highly gluten intolerant but probably not true celiac. I'm finding in a lot of restaurants now either the server is a lot more gluten aware or the chef will actually come out and walk me through the menu on my gluten free choices.

A number of restaurants in our area now advertise they use local organic produce and meats in their kitchen.

The key seems to be to stay away from the big fast food chains and to frequent smaller local restaurants. You pay more, but you get what you pay for - healthier meals.