Nutritionally sensitive?

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I think I'm really nutritionally sensitive. Oddly enough I don't have any food sensory issues, and can pretty much eat anything, in fact at times I'm a bit Andrew Zimmern like in what I can eat, but yeah. Anyway, for some backstory, when I was younger, my dad was a bit of what you'd call a health nut. What'd happen was, my dad would cook from scratch basically every night, and most of the food he bought was organic. I'd have quite balanced meals, nothing really out of the ordinary, just meat, vegetables, and usually like, brown rice, too, and some salad. I was pretty much the only person besides my dad in my house that'd eat like that, basically my mom hated his healthy (but pretty damned normal) food, and my sisters didn't take a liking to it, so it ended up being the house split up, and I'd be basically the only one eating what my dad cooked. My dad would also buy a good deal of vitamins, too, and not cheapie ones, either, ones that cost like 10-20 a bottle, and for the most part, I'd take them every night. He'd actually give me very close to adult doses on some of the vitamins, too, at about, let's say...10 years old, but I got lots of neat supplements and vitamins as a kid.

So anyway, my mom and dad divorced, and the food issue was a big one. My dad was a bit of a hardass with the food, and very rarely would I get fast food and junk food with him "ruling" food, so to speak. Obviously junk food and stuff tastes awesome, and what happened was, my mom basically bribed me with junk food to take her side. I mean, there was other things, my dad wasn't perfect, but this isn't quite about my dysfunctional family dynamic, so yeah. So yeah, after living under my mother's "reign" you can see a drastic change. I was looking through my old school pictures, and right around 5th grade during the divorce, I instantly shot up in weight. I tried a lot of sports as a kid, but once the divorce went fully through, I basically stopped, mostly out of lack of money on my parent's part for sports, but partially because I got so athletically bad because I got fat. Judo was a huge example of this, my weight was high, so in a tournament, I got put into a heavier weight class full of kids like 2-3 years older than me and I got slaughtered. It's hard to trace, too, as it was a divorce, and obviously divorces and lots of changes really mess with your mental state, but I basically started getting "depressed" a lot after 5th grade. It's hard to say what exactly is due to diet and what's not, you kinda can't with those things. But, causation and correlation. I mean obviously going from skinny to "big" in a year or two isn't something that helps self esteem, even in grade school.

My mom's "cooking" would consist of giving us TV dinners and canned food, and having us cook it all in the microwave. Occasionally she'd try making us burgers and canned corn, maybe with baked potatoes, but with no seasoning, and usually boiled so there'd be no flavor left in the meat. So I didn't really like that. So yeah, I lived under processed food from about 5th grade through high school. No vitamin supplements, either. Finally at about 16-17 years old, I decided I had to learn to cook if I wanted to like, not die. And so I did. I learned to cook. It took the equivalent of pulling teeth for my mom to start buying me some fresh food to cook, but the improvements were like instant, I felt way way better.

Now my family is facing money problems (again screwy family dynamics, I know why my dad was pissed all the time now) and my mom is cutting down on the food budget, so I'm getting less food to cook, and I feel like crap. Like diet can pretty much change my mental state from "things aren't so bad" to "I hate everything." I'm wondering, is anyone else like this? It seems like, not so much my NVLD/ASD symptoms go away, but I'm at least happy/confident when my nutrition is good. I'm wondering how much ASD is related to nutrition, I'm not talking just, say, celiac allergies or whatever, but just is related to general nutrition. It just seems I'm VERY nutritionally sensitive, moreso than the average person. My sisters for example, all are for the most part, mentally pretty good, but they ate junk food more of their lives, they still, well, basically, got fat, but they still seem mentally unaffected by eating bad food. I wonder how much of ASD is just nutritional sensitivity?

What about you guys? Nutritionally sensitive, or do you see no difference one way or the other as far as nutrition in your mental states?

I will become deathly ill if I eat potatoes, bread, rice, chocolate, or anything that contains caffeine (even trace amounts).

If I have too much wheat or dairy I get somewhat cranky.

carbohydrates in general make me fat for a start, so they're no good. I always feel my digestion and therefore my general mood is loads better if I've eaten more protein and fat, oil for the old machine

That said, I really miss rice. Love that stuff.

I doubt this has anything to do with AS, however. It's far more likely to be physiological.

I don't react well to carbs either. Unless I'm about to exercise, I shouldn't eat grains, potatoes or sugar or I get anxious or depressed, retain water and gain weight.

I'm the same way and found that eating B-complex vitamins keep the brain fog away. Not overloading on carbs and exercising helps too.

I don't think there is any doubt that there is a link between diet and mental wellbeing. Omega 3 being the big one - I really wish DS would at least try and eat fish...

There is a HUGE link between diet and emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. In fact, would say there is no bigger link. You are talking about the fuel your body needs in order to function, and that includes your mind as much as the rest of it. Would you expect a car to run equally well on gasoline or lemonade? If you are living on junk food, your body and mind, the vehicles through which you experience life, are the car you are putting lemonade in. Your body can only operate as well as the fuel you put into it, and I am horrified by the lack of education about the consequences of a badly-managed diet. Unfortunately there is a great deal of money tied up in the business of junk and convenience foods and our culture is more concerned with feeding conglomerates money than it is about the wellbeing of its population.

The downside to this is that everyone is a bit different in regard to the foods which most agree and disagree with them (though there are certainly also plenty of things which you can assume are true across the board - eg, eating junk food every day is incredibly bad for you). You may have to do some experimenting. Try to be aware of your body's reaction to food. A couple of hours after a meal, evaluate how you feel, both mentally and physically. Do you feel sluggish or sleepy, or do you have more energy (you need to compare this to your usual state, so if you are usually listless then "having energy" might just mean "being a little less listless than usual")? Do you feel depressed or peaceful? Foggy or clear-headed compared to usual?

If you have eaten the right sorts of things, assuming there are no other contributing factors such as illness or personal problems going on, you should not notice any negative changes. You may also have to regulate the amounts. Most of us eat too much because our culture dictates a system of consuming a large amount of food at once then nothing for the next five hours or so, but our bodies actually prefer smaller and more frequent meals. Unfortunately the system of feeding everyone in the household the same thing at the same times is convenient but not very healthful.

In my case, I found I needed to drop most carbohydrate-rich foods (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice) because I was so sluggish after eating them. Instead I eat small amounts of brown rice and gluten-free bread. I also stopped eating red meat and began eating more white meat and fish (my body loves fish, and the household I grew up in never ate fish so this was something I had to take into my own hands!). I hated vegetables as a child but discovered as an adult that there were many easy ways of preparing vegetables (such as with sauces or cheese) which are delicious and which my parents never had the knowledge or inclination to make, so I eat a lot more vegetables than I used to. This has all had a HUGE impact on my wellbeing.

If you are not yet of an independent age the changes you can make to your diet right now may be minor, but I suggest doing what you can. Above all, listen to what your body says, not other people.

That's very interesting, I have an identical list (I wouldn't say I become deathly ill, however my emotional state and ability to function physically and mentally take a huge nosedive). However, I find that gluten-free bread is fine, as is raw organic chocolate (which is unprocessed and contains no chemical additives). This is fortunate as I am a bit of a chocoholic - I now make my own raw chocolate, which is far easier to do than you might think.

I have came to realize that anything with gluten or wheat or dairy in it gives me major problems it makes me very irritable and zombie like tired where i can hardly keep my eyes open. Ive read on a few websites that if you avoid these foods it can help your symptoms of aspergers drastically. Ive also heard people who are allergic to these foods have aspergers.. I dont know could be a connection there I tried avoiding them completely for about a week thats as long as i lasted its very hard to take those things out of your diet gluten milk and wheat are almost in everything people eat lol.

i went to have myself tested for allergies and sensitivities a few months ago. i thought i might be allergic to a few medicines. when my results came back, i was told i'm allergic/sensitive to way too many things to list here. not just medicines, but foods, preservatives, additives, chemicals, molds of sorts.......... i had to entirely change my way of eating. it's made me feel much better but it is really difficult to avoid everything that i'm allergic to and still enjoy my meals. going out to restaurants has become a trying experience.
i used to be impatient with picky people, and now i'm one of the picky people i'm impatient with!