Special diet to help lessen symptoms?

Post Reply New Topic

I was reciently tested for food allergies, and had to go through an elimination diet. I realized that most of my Aspie symptoms lessened significantly, and though i found some foods, like dairy and corn, that will put me in anaflaxis(sp sorry!), most, like sugar, soy, food coloring, carmel color, etc, give me mental/emotional symptoms, like anxiety, irritability, impatience, easily overwhelmed, obsessiveness, obssessive talking, etc. Later i read an artical in a natural medicine magazine talking about how gluted and casin, proteins from wheat and dairy, arent absorbed properly in patients with Autism Spectrum disorders and how eliminating them from diet made drastic improvements in quality of life for the patients in the study. has anyone else heard about reaserch on this or experienced help from this kind of diet?

In some cases of high-function autism and asperger's syndrome, gluten and cassein works as drug, which may cause the person to become impatient, anxious and all the other stuff that you mentioned. This is only the case of some people, however. I don't notice any difference when I don't eat gluten or cassein (for example on vacations).

Pseudoscientific garbage. Waste of time.

Maybe I'd better stay away from those diets.

It helps for me and I didn't even start to eat different for that reason. It was just a very nice side effect. I tried the raw food diet which is pretty good and I was running everyday, so excercise really helps.

There was long discussion of this on this forum just 5 days ago.
I think it's probably near the bottom of page 2, called " Gluten free Diets" . ( bottom of page 3 already!!)

I have tried it out extensively and found that it definitely makes a difference.

There is plenty of literature about it and websites. My favourite clear and concise info site is at " foodallergycure" which is Allergy International.

Good luck.

thanks for the replies! ill look up that discussion and the book.

I find it offensive that you state that the guten Asperger symptom link is pseudoscience. What I have experienced with a gluten and casein free diet in the past and now is nothing short of a miracle in my opinion. Thousands of other parents and adults with AS would agree with me.

Strangely, gluten doesnt seem to affect me, but dairy and other foods are a night and day difference. For the forst time in my life I have friends, I can express myself and even a little about how I feel. I have less anxiety attacks, less blank stares, and understand people and social situations better, though i'm still way off on another planet in certain situations. I know it not the answer for everyone, but it is a serious help for me.

If I were to cut gluten and cassein out of my diet, I'd not have much to eat at all. Sorry, I'd rather have a few of my symptoms than live a life eating food I don't particularly like. That would make me even more depressed. I like eating too much.

There is some evidence that food allergies (especially to gluten) are more common in people with ASD. There is also evidence that the antibodies to these proteins also tend to attack nerve tissue.

Here is a study from the Cochrane review - generally considered one of the best reviews of the medical literature. They found that only one human study was good enough to consider in their framework, and that it was small. That study did find a reduction in autistic traits (1 of 4 areas observed). On the 3 others, no improvement was found, which could have been a statistical effect. Bottom line? Maybe it helps, and more research is needed.