Special Diets

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Hi,
I am a parent of a 6 year old child that has been diagnosed with Asperger's. We live in Venezuela, and after diagnosis he was put immediately on a gluten free-dairy free diet, aside of being referred to occupational and language therapy. I would like to know from some of the adult members of this community, if anybody is on this special diet, if it really works, and what happens when you don't follow it, do you feel any different? Do you feel ill? I am OK with the dairy free diet because I know that my child is allergic to dairy since he was a baby, but I have doubts regarding the gluten free diet, it is very hard to follow in a country like this (we have to order everything online from the States) and it is very limiting. Thanks in advance for your comments! Dealing with all the information, therapies and changes in diets has been overwhelming and it is very hard to decide what is good for my child and what will only upset him and make him miserable without offering any real improvement.
Monica120969

WOW, I was thnking about asking this SAME sort of thing, but heer are MY answers!! !

I came back from Christmas vacation, and noticed I was a different person! HOW?

1. Better memory!
2. Better study habits!
3. Read a german book I had for about 8 years and never fully read before!
4. DIDN'T sleep on the plane, though I HAD to for about 6 YEARS!
5. Worked a full day on 2.5 hours sleep!
6. Sat for a LONG time with NO lethargy, though I have had a problem with that for over 6 YEARS!
7. I had some nice dreams, and could remember them.

I have maintained this every day for about 2 weeks EXCEPT for 2 days! Could it be a mere coincidence that those two days are when I had wheat products!?!?

BTW I have been sub par for about 35 years. Thinking back, my lowest points HAVE been when I had more wheat.

BTW I have ALSO lost no less than 3 pounds a week! If this continues, I could be a good weight by sometime in april!

BTW I don't know if I have a problem with milk. I have a SLIGHT lactose intolerance problem, and my mother is worse, but I have been on a milk diet and was FINE, as I recall. It DOES look like I have a problem with wheat though!

I mostly follow the Fail-safe diet, though I cheat a bit on chocolate and other fruits and vegatbles.

There's a huge difference with wheat. I find my memory gets sketchier, my ability to respond to coversation weakens, I'm more apt to string together sentance of random words that come out all wrong. The worst thing for me, is my filters completely disappear, which means there's no pause between saying it and thinking of it. It can be extremely embarrassing. It's so much easier to study when I'm free of wheat. I also notice lately I tend to bloat when I eat it, but I should point out this only started happening when I got older; the other symptoms were life long.

Weight wise, I have to agreen with 2ukenkerl, after coming back from Christmas break where I tossed my diet to the wind, I droped about two or three sizes of pants within about 4 days of wheat free.

I'd strongly recommend trying it. He might need it, he might not. Chances are if you got for at least 3 months on the diet, then go off feeding him tones of wheat over say a christmas holiday and he goes nuts, you know he needs to be on it for sure.

i notice a major difference in me too. i also cut out all processes sugar. I do eat wheat thou, but only i there is no sugar or corn syrup in it. you'd be surp back immedrised how many things have sugar or corn syrup in it.

My memory is better, i'm less hyper, little to no monologues, ocd tenancies much better, depression nearly is gone, i have social skills, ive lost a ton of weight, better digestin, clearer skin, mental clarity, better impulse control etc. If I eay "bad" food all the symptoms come back right away. : ( i miss icecream.

The gluten-free, dairy-free diet helped me but I think it's unnecessary. Here's some background information on it and why I feel it is not necessary.

"In the early 1980's a number of researchers, including Herman and Panksepp, noted the similarities between the behavioural effects of animals on opioids, such as morphine, and the symptoms of autism."

"It is well known that casein (from human or cow milk) will break down in the stomach to produce a peptide known as casomorphine, which, as the name implies, will have opioid activities. Similar effects are noted with gluten from wheat and some other cereals [notably oats, barley and rye] in which the compounds formed are gluteomorphins [or gliadinomorphins.]"
http://www.princeton.edu/~serge/ll/gfpak.html

Some with ASDs such as Asperger's have a problem with the digestive enzyme DPP-IV that digests gluten and dairy. One problem that some labs find common in AS is an overgrowth of yeast (such as Candida) or bacteria (Clostridia) in the digestive tract. The overgrowth is believed to inhibit digestive enzymes and is a likely cause of IBS and digestive problems. This overgrowth can be cured with probiotics. I took probiotics and it cured my digestive problems. I went off the diet and noticed gluten and dairy didn't affect me as much so I went back on the diet and took more probiotics. I stopped the diet on December 25th so I could eat with my family and have been off it ever since. I didn't get worse so I think the probiotics cured an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria that prevented the enzyme from digesting gluten and dairy.

Below is from an article of the only study I could find on probiotics and autism:

The probiotic used was lactobacillus lantarum.

I don't follow that particular diet, but I find that whenever I eat something processed and with additives, dyes, flavourings, MSG, sweeteners, sugars etc in it I'm lethargic, irritable, slightly irrational (I'll fly off the handle a lot more), I can't concentrate as well, I feel bloated and 'fat' and as if I've eaten a bunch of chemicals (which I have), and I can't think clearly.

I mostly just eat fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, with probiotic greek yoghurt every now and then, and organic, grass-fed meat or fish once a week or so. I might have an occasional bit of chocolate or something, but find that one square is enough, or one biscuit (has to be home-made though so I know what's in it).

Since I started that diet I cannot express how much better I feel... my skin is clear and glowing, I have ridiculous amounts of energy, I'm no longer tired all the time, I can think and focus better, I'm happier and calmer...

Well, I don't have any real symptoms of digestive disorders. WHO KNOWS! I said earlier that the problem with AS is that at some point parts of the brain couldn't be used for their tasks, and were remapped. That is almost like a post Intel 386 computer(If a block of memory is bad or can't be accessed, good memory can be mapped into it's place. LATER, the previously bad memory can be mapped somewhere else.).

Who knows, maybe these opiods, which apparently affect those SAME parts of the brain, are the reason for autism. Of course, even though the symptoms will DISAPPEAR after you remove the opiods, the remapping has already been done, and parts that have had their growth stunted won't start growing again.

I SWEAR though, I just had a flash back a few minutes ago. I read a whole page of a dictionary basically. A few minutes later, I went over it and KNEW EVERY WORD! That is like it was when I was 5! I HAVE had days that were excellent. One day, I learned every french word in a book(DOZENS of pages of unique words)! I later forgot some. 8-( Was that because of my wheat intake? It would be funny if I finally found the last answer to the riddle of my development. And It only took me a few DECADES!

The probiotics cured symptoms I had several years before I had any digestive problems. I think the overgrowth of yeast or bacteria (called intestinal dysbiosis) blocks the DPP-IV enzyme that digests gluten and dairy first and only causes digestive problems if it gets worse enough to block other enzymes.

Two problems I always had were a reduced sensitivity to some types of pain (like being punched in the arm) and below average upper body muscle strength. People used to punch me alot because I didn't react as much. I thought I was just good at handling pain. Opiates are known causes of these symptoms. Now, thanks to probiotics, I have a normal sensitivity to pain (it now hurts 10x as much when I punch myself in the arm) and my muscle strength has increased by 50%. I lifted weights for over a year and only got up to bench pressing 120lbs. Now I can lift 170lbs and I didn't lift weights or take body building supplements while I was on the diet and probiotics. The reduction in autistic symptoms may be subjective but the only possible explanation for the change in pain sensitivity and muscle strength is reducing high levels of opiates with probiotics.

Also, the effect of opiates is temporary. Opiates are known to cause brain fog, drowsiness, and neurological symptoms and these symptoms go away when the opiate level is reduced. Just ask anyone who's ever taken Vicodin, OxyContin, or other opiates for pain. Or ask a former heroin addict how it affected them.

Last edited by zendell on 13 Jan 2008, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm dairy free, but not gluten free. This has nothing to do with a diet restriction, and more with the fact that I can't digest dairy. I also don't eat meat because I literally get ill when I eat it, so you could say I am on a special diet. It has more to do with food intolerance than anyone else. Though I haven't met anyone else who can't digest meat.

When i was about 12, i went on some special diet or other.
and to be honest it didnt work what so ever.
in fact when i was on it, it made things a lot more difficult than they had been before.
i hated it but these kind of diets can proberly help some people
but certanly didnt help me very much.
xx

I started a thread on "members only" about 3 months ago called "Gluten-Free-Diet Diary and Support Thread" ; some of us are still going strong and experiencing the positive effects. ( i'll go get link..; is at : http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt45945.html ..)

There are several useful and interesting links on it too, aswell as recipes kindly provided by some people.

An important thing to remember is that it needn't be expensive if you simply switch to rice ,potato and corn foods instead of trying to continue eating "bread" style things.

Good Luck!

I want to try a gluten free diet.

I'm not gluten-free, but I don't think I really consume that much anyway. I instinctively move away from it, though I never seem to have any obvious problems if I do consume some.

I've been gluten free for a couple of months now. Whilst I am certainly a less stressed out person to be around than I was two months ago, it is so hard to separate the effects of my diet from other things. Some confounding variables would be...

*Going gluten free has pushed me towards a diet that has far less additives and weird processed foods. This is because processed foods often contain gluten, mostly for ridiculous, superficial reasons. I am now much more likely to eat jacket potatoes, wholegrain rice, lots of fresh fruit and veg, and much less likely to eat microwave meals, pizzas and other assorted junk. Is the difference caused specifically by being gluten free, or just due to healthier food with less additives?
*I also got a gym membership and exercise a lot, which I'm sure must account for a lot of my improvement.

In defence of the diet I would like to say two things...
*It is not actually as limiting as you think it will be. Essentially, any dish which is made up of meat or fish, vegetables, and potatoes or rice you can still eat. That gives you loads of choice for your evening meals. It is not hard to make up rice salads for lunch, and you may end up preferring them to sandwiches.
*Whilst it's effect on my brain is subject to debate, it's effect on my gut isn't. It's nice not being in pain most of the time. Gives me more energy to deal with my other problems.

Well, I have only been on it for about 2 weeks, and cheated once at that. The cheat gives me SERIOUS reason to believe it is wheat or gluten. I am EXCITED to see where I could be in 3 months! Based on my current success, I could be at a healthy weight, look better, and MAYBE finally get some of the mental ability, that I once had but didn't earlier, back.

BTW the effect on MY brain wouldn't be noticable if not for the fact that I sit down A LOT, and study A LOT!

ANYWAY, when I cheated, the ONLY real change was wheat products! I almost wish I was deathly allergic to wheat so it would be easier to tell if I slipped up. I EVEN recently found some DONUTS that are gluten free! I would LOVE to check them out. I am also toying with going to outback(A nice restaurant here with an australian theme http://outback.com/foodandmenus/pdf/glutenfree.pdf ) to have a gluten free dinner!

My problems do seem to flare back up at odd moments and sometimes I've been able to tie this to gluten - for instance I forgot a couple of times that I can't eat sausages because they have flower in them, and my mum accidently brought me chocolate brownie ice-cream and I accidently ate it... before thinking... 'brownies. can't eat brownies... oh dear'. But it isn't always that obvious.

Yeah I'm losing weight on it, mainly because it stops me eating most of my pigging out foods.