Gluten and casein

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Have cutting these things out made a difference for anyone? The clinical studies have conflicting results.

Usually it helps a little but you're not addressing a lot because, most often, if you're sensitive to one type of grain, you're likely sensitive to a lot.

Is there a way to verify allergens professionally? I have almost free access to my university health services, including lab work, if necessary.

Last edited by Tyri0n on 26 Feb 2013, 11:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There's a difference between an allergen and an intolerance.

I do better off both of those things and others but whether that is related to ASD or simply genetics, or some combination of the two is unknown.

I had actual allergies (think big red welts and massive meltdowns as well as becoming nonverbal) to multiple foods as a child. They seemed to disappear over night, which allowed me to transition from low-functioning autism to something more like Asperger's Syndrome for the remainder of my life. Not sure if they just got milder or disappeared completely, but I've had lingering reactions to certain foods, including cow's milk and gluten. Certain cheese still makes me vomit.

My thought is that removing certain foods and/or deactivating certain allergens could allow for further improvement to the point of becoming fully NT, if I do, in fact, have allergy-related autism.

I know this diet doesn't work for everyone, but I've seen significant improvement for myself (26 yo female with Asperger's). For what it's worth, I do test allergic to both gluten and casein proteins.

I've had multiple food allergies and intolerances since I was born - when I was 3 I had a scratch-test for allergies and I reacted to most foods they tested me to. I've ALWAYS had a problem with milk but I am somewhat addicted to it. It's only when I cut it out of my diet completely that I don't crave it. When I eat it (or any kind of dairy like cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.) I feel temporarily 'high' and then crash a few hours later. Just this last Thanksgiving I ate about a plateful of cheese cubes (hey, it was a holiday ) and my dad said he noticed my eyes glazing over about 20 minutes later, and he knew I'd be very irritable and annoyed at everything later that day - because that's what has happened since I was little. My parents just didn't know it was the milk triggering these outbursts.

Gluten, on the other hand, gives me severe stomach issues. This might be celiac-related - there are a lot of people in my family with GI diagnoses and I also have had stomach problems my whole life. I can't eat gluten at all and I don't have the desire to 'cheat' on this because it puts me in a lot of pain. The one time I did on purpose I ate two brownies at a wedding (about 3 months into the GFCF diet) because I thought it would not be a problem - wow. I had stomach pain like I had swallowed glass for the next 3 days.

Since going fully GFCF, I've been much more stable mentally and I don't get sick as often. It has not 'cured' my Asperger's; I don't feel like I'm any less myself; I just don't have as many co-occurring medical issues and I'm able to think more clearly.

Thing is, you'll likely have to stay on the GFCF diet for life because there's no dietary healing involved in this program.

Tyri0n,

Why don't you just give it a try? Start a blog and write down any changes you've noticed. You can start with the GFCF program and it that works, go further and try the GAPS. Really, you've spent a lot of time talking about it on various forums because it's an important matter to you. So, trying either programs is not going to be a waste of time - even if it doesn't work.

What I learned from GAPS is how to cook - period. I was a lazy cooker who used the wrong oils, the wrong fats, and bought the occassional packaged items. I tried to be as organic as possible but really, what's best is fresh, local and homemade.

Beware of any fad diets. Even though GAPS is meant to be short term until your gut is healed, I don't think they recommend the best foods during or after the "healing." For instance they allow fruits, nuts and "properly prepared" grains. From what I've read fruits and nuts are okay on a very limited basis. Most fruits are very high in fructose, and certain fruit/legume sugars (especially high in FODMAPS) can exacerbate IBS and the like, so I only eat bananas, some berries and the occasional citrus. Nuts must also be prepared properly and are easy to binge on, which isn't ideal because they are high in omega 6 fatty acids. A while back I read about a girl who combine GAPS with low carb and paleo and ended up in the hospital with dangerously low electrolytes and poor thyroid function.

Recently I've started reading Dr. Kurt Harris's blog, from which he's on hiatus, www.archevore.com
His argument against typical "paleo" is that you can't recreate the ancestral diet, so he'd rather take out what our ancestors DIDN'T eat lots of: gluten grains (wheat), fructose, and linoleic acid (omega 6 fatty acids found in seed/vegetable oils). These are what he calls neolithic agents of disease. His approach takes us closest to our ancestors' "evolutionary metabolic milieu," and allows for cream, fermented dairy, and carbs like potatoes and rice (although the latter isn't the most nutritious choice). He doesn't preach about macronutrients, but has shared for the curious that his typical diet is about 60% of calories as animal fats (about 25% saturated fat) and 20% as carbohydrate.

The hardest things for me to completely give up have been wheat with added sugar, and milk, which are hard to avoid because I work in a coffee shop. I eat very little of these but I suspect the opioid affect of wheat slows my digestion significantly. I'm going to try eliminating milk products and gluten to see if my sporadic constipation improves, but I'm curious to see if it has other possible psychological effects. I knew there was some correlation between gluten and autism (really I think everyone could benefit from eschewing it) but I'm just now learning about casein.

Since eating predominantly animal fats I've found that I'm almost never sick. While vegetarian I had seasonal allergies, and on the standard american diet high in wheat, sugar, and linoleic acid I had frequent bronchitis and some pretty horrible sinus infections along with a persistent rash on my arms.

My new diet has made it easy to learn to cook at the ripe age of 25. Most of my meals can simply be prepared in a cast iron skillet, boiled, or baked.

I've also recently learned how harmful organic pesticides are so I no longer am afraid of conventional produce. It is more important to me to buy grass-finished meat/pasture raised eggs.

If I notice any benefit to GFCF I'll be sure to let you know. Do you think you will attempt it in the near future, Tyri0n?

I'm gluten intolerant, but can't say if that is AS-related or not. It took me a while to figure out I had a problem with gluten because, unlike a lot of other people, GI problems were not my most prominant symptom. My main issues were frequent headaches, fatigue, dizzy spells and malabsorption of nutrients leading to anemia.

It was a lifestyle change to cut out gluten, since it hides is so many processed foods, but completely worth it. I've been gluten-free since about 2006, so I've gotten used to reading labels, cooking from scratch and, luckily, feeling better. Unfortunately, I 'got glutened' at a family dinner last night (I asked my Aunt several times what the ingredients were in a dish and she somehow forgot to mention the wheat flour!) and have been feeling pretty run-down and headachey since. It was a reminder that going through the trouble of changing my diet has made a huge difference, though.

If you think you might have an intolerance, I'd suggest giving an elimination diet a try, but bear in mind that it can take several months to get everything out of your system and it will often take a few weeks or more for you to start seeing an improvement. Sometimes people don't automatically feel better within a day and just give up on it, which is a shame.

I am going to be trying the glute.n and casien free diet. I also am on omega 3 vitamins now to try and put on about 15 lbs. I am hoping the gluten casien free diet will help my stomach pains subside and allow my body to better retain nutrients and weight. I know I'm allergic to the gluten because it tears me up like crazy. I'm glad to have pinpointed the source of my agony. i'll post back in a few weeks on the results. it seems like a healthier diet anyway.