The GFCF Diet

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Has anyone on here attempted to eliminate both casein and gluten from their diets?

If so, may I ask what your results were?

According to a study conducted in 2009, parents of autistic children rated the diet very highly. If the statistics are to be believed, 69% of the parents concluded that their children improved on the diet. This was calculated from 3593 cases, so close to 2500 parents praised the treatment.

Here is the link:

http://www.autism.com/pdf/providers/ParentRatings2009.pdf

I've done it. The results were good but still not good enough.

Eliminating them helped me get through a year of college which felt like hell. It gave me that little bit of a sense of control over my emotions and thoughts. I still felt and knew there was something missing though.

There's a lot more people can do. It's only scratching the surface. Many people with Autism/Asperger's/ADD report feeling better when they consume probiotic foods and drinks. Examples are kefir and live yogurt (made from milk) and pickled vegetables such as cabbage. These help change your gut so that it is better able to make use of nutrients from anything you eat benefiting both your body and your brain. I expect it will take a few years before knowledge of probiotics becomes as mainstream as the gluten free/casein free diet.

Interesting fact. The Chinese workers who built the Great Wall of China, the longest structure known to mankind, lived on rations of pickled cabbage and rice everyday.

Any foods of this nature will help anyone's general functions immensely, provided no allergies.

Basically everyone should avoid highly processed / pre-packaged goods altogether. All you're going to hurt is big business, so yeah... good for them. This automatically limits your shopping trips, so you can't overspend.

What 'heart healthy' studies etc. don't tell you is that nearly all processed carbs and the like create fine plaque in your vessels that gradually lead to heart and other cardiovascular / organ diseases and conditions. Excessive grain (even whole) intake can create similar issues, because lots (even oats, quinoa, etc) contain proteins that can attack the intestines.

Eat eggs and animal fats! They're good for you, and so is ALL of the associated cholesterol (provided you don't mix them with plaque-causing processed foods).

Cutting out pre-packaged foods (even the 'gluten free' ones) dropped my blood pressure from 160/90 down to 130/70 in a matter of months with zero change in lifestyle habits. I did not have to give up coffee and drink more wine than I ever have.

I have Celiac disease and a serious dairy allergy, so I am GFCF for those reasons. It definitely helps my mental/cognitive state as well as my physical well-being. When I accidentally get contaminated with gluten, I have serious mental repercussions and can't think clearly for weeks afterward. I also regress majorly in my communication skills whenever I accidentally eat gluten.

I should go dairy free again. I have celiac disease. I'm not diagnosed with ASD, am unsure if I am on the spectrum or not; I have traits for sure though. Helpful. Not as helpful as I want.

Honestly no, it's a very challenging experience I'd probably need some type of special program or drug to do the diet. I have tried other therapies including sulforaphane with activated myrosinase and it seemed to help with cognition and anxiety but the study conducted was continued for at least 12 weeks which I would need to buy more if I wanted to see more results..

I don't believe a lot of people here have tried it or the GFCF diet simply because they don't believe it will help and mostly because they think being Autistic is just part of them.

There is not any good evidence to suggest GFCF works.

I like eating foods containing gluten and casein.

So, no.

They don't say how they found these parents. Could be a biased sample. If it was an internet survey, where they posted the survey could determine what results they found - eg if they posted it on any GFCF forums, those forums would attract parents who think GFCF helped their child.

Plus, even if it wasn't biased, it's looking at parent impressions, and I doubt most of those parents have done any blinded analysis of this issue. If the parent knows they've cut out gluten and casein and they think it'll help, they might treat the kid differently, and this change in behaviour might be producing the positive results instead of the diet itself. To test that, you'd need to feed the kid food that may or may not have gluten and/or casein, and make sure neither the kid nor any of the adults interacting with them know what the food is. Then record the kid's behaviour, and see if the kid acted any different on gluten/casein versus GFCF.