Gluten free Casein Free

Post Reply New Topic

So I have read around a bit and heard that gluten and casein can mess up some people with autism.
I want to know if anyone here has actually had that experience.

I've never had that experience, and I wouldn't touch a diet with a 10 foot pole. My favourite food is almost anything.

My favourite foods are the ones which include these things.

I'm skeptical about special diet treatments, and I'm definitely not trying a gluten- or casein-free diet until I see some empirical evidence supporting them. And anyway, I've been tested and I'm not allergic to gluten.

Human body is not so good at processing these things because, in an animalistic, evolutionary sense, humans would not naturally be eating milk and wheat. Thank you industrial revolution for providing us with ways to mess up our digestive systems

When I was 13 I got really sick, a mixture of anxiety and physical symptoms like stomach pain and bloating. Had a bunch of tests, ultrasounds, the gamut of medical tests for obscure disease, looking for a cause rather than treating the symptoms as indicators of overall unhealthiness.

While sick I stayed home from school and ate mostly ice cream, sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, etc.

Finally went to a chiropractic physician who put me on gluten free / dairy free diet, as well as giving me naturally derived (they were from sheep/cow livers and tasted every bit like you'd expect a liver to taste) vitamin B, vitamin D and some other random stuff. He also did some reflexology on me.

After I followed the special diet for maybe a week, I was feeling less anxiety and able to go back to school. I now think the physical sickness and a lot of my anxiety were connected to my health (although I was having trouble with other teenage girls too).

I now avoid gluten but eat dairy like yogurt and soft cheese. Yogurt has yummy probiotics which boost your good bacteria in your guts

If you want to try eating gf/cf I'd suggest you try it and then re-introduce gluten or casein (one or the other but not both because then you can't tell what it is that is irritating you) after a few weeks of gf/cf.. and see how you feel when the food item has been reintroduced.

(Ooooooh sorry as always I rambled)

Gluten can be very sensitive to someone on the spectrum. I am gluten sensitive. I'm also sensitive to a lot of other things, but gluten fileld products i'm probably most sensitive too. that and grease.

Thanks everyone. One thing that I already know is that dairy products make me break out. I have no evidence that it related to anything except for the fact that it makes me break out.
I already have pretty bad acne. cystic acne. for a few years now. so I am hoping this might make a difference.

This is not scientifically substantiated. Grains have always been the staple of the human diet, in general, and wheat is one of those grains. Many human societies are pastoralists and dairy based foods are staples of their diets. That is not to say all humans can tolerate wheat or dairy though. It's well known that while the vast majority of northern Europeans and Mongolians are able to digest milk and mil products, most Australian aboriginals are lactose intolerant. This really isn't surprising though as Australia has no native large mammals suitable to keep for milking purposes.

This whole wheat gluten, and dairy thing has been blown out of proportion. You can easily be tested for celiac disease (which isn't actually common except in Italian populations) and wheat gluten and dairy allergies.

My parents had me allergy tested for everything, and of the things I'm allergic to, wheat gluten or dairy is not among them.

True, it's rather debatable, though the high instances of gluten/casein intolerance seem to suggest that there is a connection between digestive problems and gluten/casein (among other things like preservatives/additives and refined sugars, but I won't get into that). This is just my cobbling, and may therefore be psuedo-science, but hunter-gather people didn't eat processed grains, and only since the agricultural revolution have we been eating them, something like 10,000 years, so we may not all have evolved to the point that everyone is able to break them down. See paleolithic diet.

We can debate science until the cows come home, or don't come home as the case may be, or we can conduct science experiments on ourselves That's why I'd suggest trying out a diet change if you're concerned about gluten and casein. As long as you get plenty of protein and eat colorful veggies or supplement with vitamins (or both), you probably won't be missing anything from your diet by removing these two elements.

I do not want to live in a world where I cannot eat wheat or dairy. Even if it were to lessen my anxiety or IBS, I would be unwilling to give it up. I like food and cooking.

I apologize for my blunt answer, last night.

Most pizza shops use high gluten flour to make their dough, therefore I will never be trying a gluten-free diet.

I was on it for several years as a child. I noticed no difference. I actually had my first episode of depression during those years, though I doubt it had anything to do with the food. (Much more to do with having at least one family member who treated me like garbage.)

Here's what I know about this issue:
1. Dietary intolerances and allergies are common. Our ancestors came from different places, eating different things; but now that we have a much more global society, chances are we are being exposed to things for the first time for our genetic backgrounds within the past hundred, or even fifty, years. That means that we're not adapted to some of the things we eat. For example, lactose intolerance is extremely common in Asians; but in Europe, where cows and goats have been milked for ages, it's much less common.

2. Dietary intolerances are no more common in autistics than in any other part of the disabled population, and it's likely that autism has nothing to do with dietary factors. <Link to article discussing research on GF/CF and autistics.> This particular study used only autistics who did not have a pre-existing milk or wheat allergy or intolerance; so it can be safely assumed that autistics who do not have an allergy or intolerance do not benefit from eliminating wheat or milk from their diets.

3. However, autistic people can, like anyone else, have dietary intolerances or allergies (in this case, celiac disease and lactose intolerance, as well as wheat or milk allergies, are the most common condition). And, when they do, it is likely that they will be more stressed by this food-related issue than an NT with an equivalent issue would be by his. Hypersensitivity makes what is normally an annoyance into a much more significant problem.

4. Therefore: I can conclude that, if you have a digestive intolerance or an allergy, you will probably benefit from removing that substance from your diet. If you are autistic, you may benefit more than an equivalent NT, just like you would benefit more from removing the tags in your clothing than an NT who is not tactile-hypersensitive but still finds them annoying. However, the focus on wheat and milk does not mean that wheat and milk are the only possible things you could have problems with. There are many other possible problematic substances, from red meat to strawberries to MSG. If you have problems with food, it may make sense to see a nutritionist, get an allergy test, or both.

^^^^ Exactly.

I am on a gluten-free diet, but that is because I accidently discovered that when I quit eating anything with gluten in it for a week, I felt inexplicably better. A lot less anxiety, I don't feel so tired when I exercise (I used to get fatigued sooner before I did this, I don't know why) and I no longer have a yearning to eat just about everything in the house (I would eat $20-30 of food in one day, not so good on a low income.) The one time I tried eating a wheat-flour based pizza, I got a terrible headache and I felt like I was restless and anxious. I haven't been gone for a diagnosis for anything, but in reality I am afraid to get one.

Edit: I am not doing this because of autism, but simply because I feel better then I have in ages.

I don't think you said anything that needed apologizing for.

It's not a cure for autism or even effects autism but I do know I will never, ever digest gluten again unless somebody paid me. I used to feel constant hunger and nauseousness.