Does the GF/CF diet actually work?

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I've been wondering if the Gluten-free/Casein-free diet actually works because I've been thinking about trying some gluten-free foods to improve my symptoms, such as anxiety.

Here is a recent thread on the subject, with masses of links/refs, and some personal testimonies too.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt105368.html

In my own experience, and that of many other people, it can have a huge/dramatic/significant effect, if you have any kind of gluten sensitivity, which as many as 10% of the population probably do, and two recent ( sound, large sample ) studies have found that there is a connection/association between autism and auto-immune disorders esp celiac. See articles/papers quoted at length on other thread.

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it depends on the individual really ive tried the diet a couple times, one time was really dedicated to it, i dont have any bowel or gi problems but thought it help with eveyrhting else, instead i started refusing to eat, and i was on it for quite a bit, and nothing changed except my mother kept yelling to get off the diet because it was already limiting my picky diet as it was and i almost starved to death again. i did however love the gluten free soup i had, sitll have some, its jus really expensive and time consuming, a bottle of my gluten free soup was almost 10 dollars. either way if u do, i started gluten free first then went casien free, and give it time, the diet doesnt always work in weeks sometimes it takes months, good luck, lemme know if u want any websites i used!

You know what else is really great for decreasing anxiety? Kneading bread dough!

I have 2 asd sons, a teen aspie and a tween pdd who also has gi issues. We did the gf/cf diet for a while but ended it premature. After I researched I came up with a plan to journal my observations and to try to be objective as possible. Go to the health food store and list all the foods that are available in your area and make sure you add up the cost gf/cf is not cheap, make a sample diet. I then planned all the snack foods my kids would eat. If you cannot sub snack foods don't even try it, we all need snack foods. I tried cf first, casein leaves the body quicker, in approx 7-10 days. First must have of going cf is to get a great ice cream, we also found pudding and milk. After 7 days my aspie told me he was having headaches at the time 7yrs ago) I was trying to get him not to stim so much in the street and we were trying to only let him stim at home. My journal reflected that at this time when he was having the headaches I was reminding him not to stim only 2 times in the street. Before going cf I was reminding him at least 5-6 times. My younger son spoke his first word after 8 days on the cf diet. He was 3 at the time. He also stopped having ear infections, which was great because he was close to having an operation to put tubes in. My non-as husband started eating the kids very expensive ice cream. I told him not to do it because it was so expensive, he told me than he had no stomach pains after eating the special ice cream. We only went a few months going gf, the foods were horrible except for the cookies. I had to make a choice between making everyone suffer the gf or be happy with the cf and the positive changes we had made. All of the issues we had were long term and consistant, after a total of 10 days I saw concrete changes in three people. We are no longer cf offically, but we are very low casein and the behaviors that changed never regressed back. My advice is to plan, start cf first, journal and remain honest in your findings. I wish you the best of luck as you consider if this is right for you.

I tried it and it didn't help at all. It actually made me feel worse, because I'm already a picky eater, so my available diet shrunk magnificently.

If you've got celiac then yeah GF diet helps a lot.

If not, then no.

Also, GF free diet helps with GI issues due to bacterial overgrowth. Anyone who's ever taken a course of clindamycin antibiotic will know what I'm talking about.

Can that diet really work if it's limiting certain foods? Or does it have to be all or nothing?

If you have sensitivities to gluten and casein then removing them from your diet will improve your health. But if you don't have a problem with them you wont notice any difference.

[quote="Sati"]removing them

But it has to be completely removing them, doesn't it? Just eating less of foods with them in it won't make any difference.

Oh and I've heard that ASD people are likely to be addicted to dairy. Anyone have any comments to support or deny this?

Yes, you would need to completely remove them.

I don't know about people with ASDs, but all people can become addicted to dairy. It's unnatural for humans to consume dairy, so it's not surprising that it causes problems. Dairy is relatively easy to remove from your diet (gluten is a bit trickier) so a trial run wouldn't hurt.