Best types of food for people with autism

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christinejarvis21
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13 Jan 2021, 10:46 pm

What are the best types of food that I should avoid due to my autism, ocd, and anxiety? And ones that I should be getting because of it.



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13 Jan 2021, 10:56 pm

Because autism is such an individual thing, I'm not sure there's one fixed set of answers to your question.

Personally I found caffeine really magnified my anxiety problems. The only way to find out whether that's true for you too, will be to give it up for a month and see if that makes any difference to how you feel. Ideally a month that's otherwise fairly stable and predictable, if you ever have those?



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13 Jan 2021, 10:58 pm

P.S. There's quite a lot of evidence linking high processed sugar intake with emotional instability.

I haven't managed to give up sugar yet, though, so I can't vouch for how true that might be.



christinejarvis21
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14 Jan 2021, 12:00 am

I think I first may have to start slowly removing the caffeine because I have a keurig and k-cups and creamer as well as cappuccino k-cups and wants me to finish those. So I’ll have to slowly remove that while finishing those probably just having one cup a day instead of two or a Starbucks drink :arrow: and then try not having caffeine for a month.



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14 Jan 2021, 12:09 am

christinejarvis21 wrote:
I think I first may have to start slowly removing the caffeine because I have a keurig and k-cups and creamer as well as cappuccino k-cups and wants me to finish those. So I’ll have to slowly remove that while finishing those probably just having one cup a day instead of two or a Starbucks drink :arrow: and then try not having caffeine for a month.

Starbucks do decaf. Though I suspect sometimes if you order a "snowflake" drink it gets sabotaged. Ordering a decaf soya latte with sweeteners seems to trigger the more hardcore, real-coffee-or-else baristas.



christinejarvis21
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14 Jan 2021, 1:55 am

Well my mom wants me to finish the k-cups including the cappucino ones so i'll probably do that and only do one cup a day of one of them that way i'm going down from 2 cups but not going completely cold turkey and gives my body sometime to adjust without the withdrawl side effects.



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14 Jan 2021, 5:04 am

I agree re. avoiding or at least reducing caffeine and sugar.
You might try adding in cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, asian greens), which are supposed to be good for us.
I'm not too keen on them, but I try to eat some a few times a week for my health and they certainly don't do me any harm.
Fermented versions such as sauerkraut or kimchi are supposed to be even better.



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14 Jan 2021, 8:50 am

Gluten free casein free works for some (not all) autistics

Elimination diet



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14 Jan 2021, 11:06 am

I am sensitive to so many types of food I have a very limited diet, which is hard work but worth it as I'm not ill all the time. It's a pain in the arse though, it isolates me more from people.


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14 Jan 2021, 11:09 am

I would recommend staying away from liver, lutefisk, and bird's-nest-soup.



Last edited by Fnord on 14 Jan 2021, 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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14 Jan 2021, 11:22 am

I would recomend to eat what you like to eat.


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14 Jan 2021, 11:33 am

always wondered if it is the aspie in me, but I am not a fan of food tbh. none of it does anything for me and I eat to not feel hungry.

if I had a button to press and the need to eat vanished forever I wouldn't hesitate. gets in the way of my day and is just annoying



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14 Jan 2021, 11:43 am

christinejarvis21 wrote:
What are the best types of food that I should avoid due to my autism, ocd, and anxiety? And ones that I should be getting because of it.


Weed edibles.......that's pretty much it really.



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14 Jan 2021, 12:36 pm

I expect this is a very individual thing even among people on the autism spectrum. Some sorts of diet changes work wonders for some people, whereas I have no reason to believe that it would help me any (though would be willing to try). I wonder if it has anything to do with the gut issues that I hear are common in people on the autism spectrum (which would mean that for people like me who have no gut issues, diet change wouldn’t do much/anything). I strongly suspect that the cause(s) of autism symptoms vary from person to person.


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christinejarvis21
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14 Jan 2021, 3:48 pm

Yes I have issues with my stomach where if I eat too much then my stomach really hurts and try and drink some water I end up throwing the food back up and its still pretty much whole pieces coming out where it hasn’t been chewed. If that makes sense



NeilM
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14 Jan 2021, 10:45 pm

KitLily, I am in a situation very similar to you. I am now down to chicken and fish and some vegetarian meals.

I eliminated sugar from my diet back in the 1980s when my hypoglycemia got worse. Just after Y2K, I got so I couldn't digest eggs any longer (gave me a rash) so they were gone. A couple of years ago, I got so eating beef and pork made me physically ill with fever and muscle stiffness; that was it for them.

Now I my rotation for suppers are chicken, vegetarian, fish, vegetarian in an effort to get enough variety in my diet. But I am doing quite well this way I have to say.

Regarding foods and anxiety, I do seem to recall becoming somewhat less anxiety ridden when I stopped caffeine back in the early 1990s. But its been so long since I gave up sugary stuff that I don't remember just what my anxiety level was before. On the other hand, I have found that WalMart's house brand Great Value Yogurt actually diminishes my anxiety somewhat. Ymmv of course but that was my experience.


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