The road to autism recovery begins with diet. That is, making calculated omissions and additions to food choices is the first step to improving children’s health and well being. Certain food substances (most notably gluten and casein) are known to be problematic, and should be avoided – and other foods rich in healing nutrients are beneficial when added to children’s diets. Attention to these factors is intended to balance biochemistry, affect systemic healing, and provide relief of autism symptoms. In simple terms, these are the underlying tenets of diets for autism.

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There are many “autism diets” to choose from and deciding how to begin nutritional intervention can seem overwhelming. Ten years ago, it was a simpler choice-do diet! And, “do diet” meant do the Gluten-free Casein-free Diet (GFCF). Eliminating gluten (the protein in wheat) and casein (the protein in dairy) was the primary focus of diet for autism for many years, and provides many positive benefits. Since then, significant advances in biomedical nutrition research and mom-centric anecdotal data have resulted in broader dietary strategies for autism.

Now, one has to decide which diet to do. This can inhibit even the most recovery focused parent from getting started. Parents hear “You need to do this diet,” or “my son improved on that diet.” Because each diet has its group of supporters, parents whose children did well with a particular diet aptly tout it. How can there be so many varied opinions? It’s because every person is different-each has unique biochemistry, genes, environment assaults, and eating preferences. A diet that helps one child, may not be the best for the other.

My clients are relieved to learn that I do not spout the dogma of any one diet. As a Nutrition Consultant, I practice nutrition intervention focused on improved systemic health and relief of physiological and neurological symptoms. Autism diets are food-based strategies employed toward this objective. I help parents choose the best initial diet for their child and then work to customize that diet to further to meet their specific needs.

In my book, Nourishing Hope for Autism, I discuss thirteen different diets that are recommended for autism. While each diet has merit, some include advanced components that are best supported by an experienced practitioner and not necessarily required to get started. In this article, I will explain the top three diets for autism – they include the most immediately helpful dietary principles and practices and there is much literature and community support to help aid successful implementation. In addition to these diets, I’ll discuss the most common food allergies and substances, as addressing these comes hand in hand with diet.

The most popular autism diets are:
o Gluten-free and casein-free diet (GFCF)
o Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD
o Body Ecology Diet (BED)

Gluten-Free Casein-free Diet (GFCF)

Does your child crave milk?
Does your child only eat wheat and dairy foods?
Does your child seem spacey after consuming gluten or casein, and agitated before?
Are you just beginning to look at diet for the first time?

When parents decide to “do diet,” they typically begin with GFCF. There are many good books about it, and the food marketplace is increasingly GFCF friendly. This diet entails the removal of all gluten and/or casein containing foods. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, and commercial oats, and casein, the protein found in dairy.

When ingested by children with a compromised digestive tract and weakened immune system, these proteins can cause gut inflammation, pain, and digestive problems. If the protein is not properly broken down during digestion, it can form opioids (opiate or morphine-like compounds). The properties of gluten and casein can lead to digestive problems such as diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, as well as foggy thinking and inattentiveness for many children with autism.

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According to parents (Autism Research Institute survey), a gluten- and casein-free diet is helpful for 65% of children with ASD, even though a food sensitivity panel may or may not have shown a reaction to these foods. Therefore, I typically recommend a gluten- and casein-free trial period-often beginning the diet by removing first one, then the other.

Most of the foods containing these offending proteins are easy to identify. While following the GFCF Diet, you’ll need to avoid any breads, crackers, pasta, or bakery items made with wheat and other gluten grains, and all dairy foods such as milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, and cream. Some sources are not that apparent:

o Soy sauce (except gluten-free soy sauce)
o Potato chips and fries (often dusted with gluten during processing and not listed on label, ensure they are gluten-free by checking with the company in the ingredient list)
o Malt (derived from barley)

When beginning the GFCF diet, be careful not to introduce a bunch of GFCF junk foods such as cookies, candy, and chips. Even though they don’t include gluten or casein, the sugar can feed yeast, imbalance blood sugar, and disregulate energy. Remember, diet is more than just the removal of offending foods – attention must be placed on ensuring healthy and nutritious food intake.

GFCF is a great diet to follow when beginning nutritional intervention for autism.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

Does your child have chronic diarrhea?
Does your child have an inflamed gut, maybe even been on steroids?
Have you tried GFCF to no avail?
Does your child have trouble digesting grains?
Does your child have dysbiosis (pathogenic yeast or bacteria)?

The SCD diet involves the removal of all complex sugars: everything except honey and fruit sugar, including the removal of maple syrup, cane sugar, agave nectar, brown rice syrup and more. SCD also removes all starches and all grains, including potatoes and sweet potatoes. This diet allows: meat, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, certain beans, all non-starchy vegetables, and fruit. This is not a low carbohydrate diet but a specific carbohydrate diet that focuses on non-starchy vegetables, fruit, honey, and certain beans for carbohydrates and avoids other sugars and starches.

SCD is the second most commonly applied autism diet, and 66% of parents say it is beneficial for their child (ARI ratings). It is very helpful for those who have inflammatory bowel conditions and chronic diarrhea, although it can help constipation too.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet aims to reduce gut inflammation and aid healing by “starving out” the bad gut bugs and avoiding foods that require carbohydrate digesting enzyme that are often in short supply. By eliminating problematic foods, the bugs can’t feed. Because it is more restrictive than GFCF, parents don’t usually begin dietary intervention with SCD. However, if there is a significant inflammatory gut condition, some will go straight to SCD.

SCD is often applied when doing GFCF is not enough and digestive problems still remain, or if someone needs to further evolve the diet to see any additional benefits. A variation of SCD is the GAPS (Gut And Psychology Syndrome) diet, created by Natasha Campbell-McBride, M.D. It includes the essentials of SCD, plus the addition of wonderful principles such as fermented foods and homemade broths.

While SCD diet is not inherently casein-free, I recommend that SCD be done casein-free until someone is certain that casein is not a problem.

The Body Ecology Diet (BED)

Does you child have persistent candida?
Does your child have harmful bacteria in the gut?
Does your child have bad smelling stool or gas?
Does your child sometimes act drunk, spacey or have maniacal laughter?
Does your child seem itchy or yeasty in any “moist” areas of the body like elbows, knees, or crotch?

The Body Ecology Diet is an anti-candida diet focused on clearing up yeast and dysbiosis (imbalance of bad bugs in the gut). BED is often called BEDROK (Body Ecology Diet Recovering Our Kids) in the autism community. BED incorporates the principles of proper food combining, acid/alkaline balance with low acid-forming foods, low/no sugars and limited starches, easily digestible foods, fermented foods, and other solid nutrition recommendations to clear up candida overgrowth and support health beginning in the gut.

BED allows only a few grains such as quinoa, millet buckwheat, and amaranth (when properly soaked)-restricting more starches and grains than GFCF. In addition to being gluten-free, BED is rice-free, corn-free, and soy-free. Foods such as rice bread, gluten-free pretzels, and rice pasta are not allowed on this diet. BED allows casein, but can be done casein-free. I always recommend going casein-free (on any healing diet) until you are certain that dairy is not an issue.

If you child has candida, BED may be for you. Though it requires that the child eat vegetables as the food combining aspect allows meat with vegetables and starches with vegetables but not meat and starch together. BED may be challenging if a child is picky and does not have a varied diet.

Like SCD, this diet is beneficial for helping reduce dysbiosis and restoring good flora balance in the gut. However, these two diets conflict with each other as they rely on very different underlying principles. SCD removes certain sugars and all starches, while BED removes all sugars and certain starches. Even if someone chooses a different diet, many of the Body Ecology principles can be also be applied, such as the inclusion of fermented foods, soaking grains, and consuming more non-starchy vegetables full of minerals and alkalizing to the body.

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Getting Started

Now that we have discussed three effective autism diets and problematic food substances, where does someone start? Typically I recommend GFCF or SCD. Sometimes, based on the diet of the individual, I may suggest BED instead-for example if a child has significant yeast over growth and is currently on GFCF (which may filled with too many sugars and starches), but the child will eat vegetables, I may suggest BED. Additionally, I may suggest just adding fermented foods, soaked grains and nuts, and more vegetables-several BED principles, but not the full Body Ecology Diet.

The most important dietary principle is to start. It sounds simple, but start somewhere – even with the most simple thing – such as getting rid of all artificial ingredients – and then progress.

You Can Do Diet.

I know what you are thinking, “My child is picky and very inflexible with eating new foods. I’m never going to be able to get him to eat anything other than wheat and dairy, and never mind anything “healthy.”

I appreciate this concern. I have had some very picky eaters in my nutrition practice-many children ate only bread and dairy, others subsisted on just pancakes and fries. However, there are solid reasons why these children are so one-sided in their food choices, primarily craving. When the body creates opiates from foods, one can become addicted to them and thus crave nothing but those foods. Children eventually narrow their food choices to include only those that make them “feel better.” It’s worth trying diet because once the child gets passed the cravings (a few days to a few weeks), they often expands food choices dramatically and it becomes much easier to do.

I know that any child’s diet can change. It may take time and require great patience, but you can succeed. I’ve never seen a child’s diet that did not improve eventually-increasingly so as the body heals. It’s crucial that parents believe that it’s possible for their child to change and improve. By envisioning the changes, you project a positive image that is important for your child and the success of your overall efforts.

Gluten is a special type of protein that is commonly found in many cereal and bread grains such as oats, rye, barley, bulgur, durum, kamut and spelt and foods made from those grains. It is also found in food starches, semolina, couscous, malt, some vinegars, soy sauce, flavorings, artificial colors and hydrolyzed vegetable proteins.

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Casein refers to protein found in milk and other diary products such as cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, whey and even some brands of margarine. Those that are affected by casein may also be sensitive to soy products since the protein is similar. Some parents report that removing theses proteins led to equal or greater improvements in their children’s behaviors.

Some believe that the proteins break down into molecules similar to opium-like drugs. Children with autism usually have leaky gut or IBS. The child’s stomach and very permeable intestines have an inability to break down the proteins, thus, allowing the protein to leave the intestines and be absorbed into the bloodstream. The molecules of the proteins then travel to the brain giving the child a sort of high.

This sort of gut distress can cause array of symptoms, and your child may have only one symptom or could have several. Many autistic children have trouble communicating their symptoms or discomforts. Your child may feel miserable and display behaviors that are difficult to handle.

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These symptoms are clearly associated with a gut problem. Such discomforts may include, but are not limited to, bloating, abdominal pain, headaches or sensory irritabilities. The majority of autistic children have poor food or non-food choices. They may also have a delay in language, motor and socialization skills as well as focus issues and difficulty sleeping.

You may notice the obvious symptoms like constipation, leaky gut, acid reflux and vomiting. Consider altering your child’s diet if he/she shows signs of any of these behaviors.

Many communities have health food stores or regular supermarkets that carry products that are gluten-free as well as websites and businesses online that sell GFCF foods and vitamins. Some of our favorite brands like Welch’s, Bush’s Baked Beans, Ore-Ida Golden Fries and many others are considered gluten-free and casein-free.

Foods that can be eaten on the GFCF diet include, but are not limited to, rice, poultry, fish, nuts, eggs, potatoes, buckwheat flour, beans, vegetables and many others. There are also many cookbooks and recipes that can be found online or in stores for gluten and casein intolerance.

So, you can see how important it would be to remove gluten and casein from the child’s diet. By removing a source of constant distress parents are helping their children improve behaviors, focus, and even lowered distress.

Most of us already understand that gluten can have damaging consequences for people with celiac disease and other kinds of autoimmune disorders (ASD’s). But the question that keeps coming up over and over is whether gluten can interfere with the development of people who are non-celiac’s.

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Recently there have been a number of researchers who have started examining the link between autism spectrum disorders and diet-which seem to have risen significantly over the last 20 years.

The centers for disease control and prevention say that ASP’s-which is the name given to a number of neurological and developmental disorders, which include Aspergers Syndrome, by this fact is many as one in 100 children born in North America. These are significant numbers and experts are still looking for answers as to why they are on the rise.

Everybody knows that nutrition has a direct impact on the development of children. What I am seeing and what the experts are seeing is a growing body of proof which suggests that removing gluten and casein [which is the protein in dairy products] from the diet of children with ASD’s can have a beneficial effect.

In fact there is a well known and diet specifically recommended for children with ASD’s, it is called the autism diet and it is a diet that is devoid of any gluten or casein. Also known as the GF CF diet.

Kids on this diet cannot eat any dairy products in addition to any wheat or gluten containing foods, as well as all of the other dairy foods such as milk, yogurt, ice cream, and cheese.

I have not been able to find any direct medical evidence which links celiac disease to autism. In fact all of the evidence that I have gathered is entirely anecdotal and is from speaking with other people, a handful of publications and with parents of children with autism. The only clear overlap that I’ve found as of this recording in the literature existed in two publications.

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The first was the Journal of behavioral pediatrics which interviewed 50 children in New York that were autistic and found that 70% of them with ASD’s that gastrointestinal issues compared with 28% of the children with normal development. The other place I’ve found evidence to support the link between autism and gluten consumption is with Dr. Kenneth Bock, who is an internationally renowned expert on autism and author of the book Healing The New Childhood Epidemics.

According to his book he sees over 2000 children per year with ASD’s at his office in the Rhinebeck health Center in New York, and he believes that even though further investigation is still required, that children with ASD’s clearly have significant reactions to the consumption of gluten.

In addition many parents swear by the GF CF diet all citing tremendous improvements in their children’s development, behavior, and communication skills.

Dr. Bock points to a survey of over 25,000 parents of autistic children, and found that over 60% of them interviewed reported that gluten free, or casein free diet resulted in improvements in their children.

Dr. Bock also points to the response in the bloodstream of children with ASD’s who eat gluten to be kind of like morphine. Which means that the kids can act almost stoned-producing the usual stoner behaviors such as erratic behavior, poor language and social skills, and impulse control issues. He warns that parents need to be aware of the impact of removing gluten from the diet of a child with an ASD can create something of a withdrawal affect.

And he warns parents that this is a very real possibility to keep an eye out for during the first few days-not much different than when addicts detox. However he sees consistent evidence that after a few days of the detoxing, children with ASD’s start to make improvements-some of them quite dramatic. Many parents that I have spoken to said that children with autism are much calmer and had fewer behavior problems without gluten in their diets.

So if you have a child with autism I would recommend that you talk to your doctor about the GF CF diet.

Both autism and celiac disease are fairly well-defined. There might be a link between them that hasn’t been as well-defined, but there are some things we know. First of all, autistic people have a higher risk of developing celiac disease. Research has shown that this risk is almost three times greater than that of the average person. We’re not entirely sure whether it’s autistic people who are more likely to have celiac disease or the other way around.

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Autism itself might actually be celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. This would not be too outrageous because the symptoms of these conditions are very similar. It might explain why a gluten-free diet can help treat autism.

Or maybe autism and celiac disease don’t have any actual connection, but the symptoms of both simply improve on a gluten-free diet.

Or maybe the fact that celiac disease leads to leaky gut syndrome and severe malabsorption affects your body’s ability to synthesize neurotransmitters, which promotes autism.

But maybe if there is a link and we put certain children on gluten-free diets, we could prevent autism from even occurring.

But regardless of the possible connections between celiac disease and autism, they do have one thing in common: leaky gut syndrome. Maybe it’s this leaky gut syndrome that allows toxins to enter into the bloodstream that help promote autism.

The gluten-free/casein-free diet has shown some success with autism. The belief is that these proteins are causing some sort of reaction in autistic children and that removing them from the diet can remove these reactions. Now although there is no such thing as an allergy to gluten, there can be sensitivity…where similar symptoms can arise. Research is still looking into this.

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There is another thing to consider. When certain autistic people eat gluten or casein, these chemicals are not broken down properly. They can actually end up in the bloodstream as morphine-like chemicals, which might be putting them in the “high” states typical of opiate drugs. This is called the Opiod Excess Theory of Autism, developed in the early 90s. It’s also interesting to note the similarities in mental state between autistic people and opiate drug users. One is the tendency towards monotonous movements that you can see it autistic children. There is also the desire for a certain social isolation. And there is the preoccupation with examining the parts of a system or whole.

Actually if you examine the urine of autistic people, they typically have higher levels of these morphine-like chemicals than the average person, which has led to the urine peptide test. If the elevated chemical levels are found, a doctor might suggest that the person go on a gluten-free/casein-free diet.

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Many believe autistic children may have an allergy or high sensitivity to both gluten and casein and choose to have allergy testing done. However, there are those that claim, even with no shown allergies to gluten or casein, that their child improved considerably with a GFCF diet. The belief is that children with autism process the gluten and casein differently and as a result their symptoms are exacerbated. Some parents, as well as Doctors, believe that removing gluten from an autistic child’s diet can be beneficial. Gluten is a protein found in the seeds of barley, oats, rye and wheat. When on a gf diet most breads and crackers are avoided, unless of course they are gluten free and reading nutrition labels becomes a way of life. Gluten can be found in many foods such as soy sauce, BBQ sauces and many times is a hidden additive so it is important to become familiar with safe gluten free foods. Removing casein can prove to be just as challenging because casein is in many foods as well. Casein, a milk protein, is contained in dairy products and other foods containing dairy. Casein can also be found in dairy and lactose free foods and is often times a hidden additive, just as gluten is.

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Beginning a GFCF diet is becoming easier than in the past because of the wide availability of gluten and casein free foods. Many companies are making it easier to identify GFCF foods with marketing and labeling and health food stores have begun to carry GFCF foods as well. Mainstream stores are jumping on board and making it easier for the consumer to identify and purchase GFCF foods. The elimination of gluten and casein is gaining recognition and support in the world of autism. If your child suffers from autism this may be an alternative approach worth educating yourself on.

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If you’re reading this article, either you or someone you know has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. If you love corn bread but didn’t think you’d ever be able to eat it again, you’ll want to read on.

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Corn bread is one of those foods that goes well with everything. Tasty by itself, it’s even better soups, chili, salads, meats, almost anything you can add cornbread to and it will enhance the meal. I’ve scoured the earth for something Gluten Free that makes an acceptable Substitute for Corn Bread. Not only did i find it, but I think this recipe is actually better than other, regular recipes that include Gluten.

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups yellow corn meal
1 ½ teaspoons of Gluten Free baking powder
2 tablespoons potato starch
½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon Xanthan gum

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup milk
½ cup corn oil
2 eggs

Begin by Pre-heating your oven to 400 Degrees.

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Grease an 8x8x2 inch baking pan with some butter. You can use cooking spray also.

Mix your dry ingredients in a good sized bowl.

Separate the Yokes from your egg whites, and beat them separately.

Mix together your egg whites, milk, and corn oil together. After blended nicely, stir in the egg yolk.

Mix your wet ingredients with your dry, make sure everything’s well blended.

Pour your batter into a pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes or until it’s nice and golden.

And now you have a perfect Corn Bread Recipe to add to any meal.

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To look at gluten free recipes you would think anyone could do it but I quickly found it to be challenging and many times frustrating. I cannot tell you how many gluten free loaves of bread I threw out when I first began baking and I had been baking all my life, just not GF! It is no fun throwing anything you have spent time on baking out, but even less fun when it is gluten free because the ingredients are so expensive. Hopefully, after you read this, you will be on your way to baking beautiful loaves of GF bread!

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The most valuable lesson I learned when I began is there is really no need to go and purchase GF bread cookbooks. Unfortunately, I did not figure this out until after I had purchased several, but that aside, you can use any bread recipe for baking GF bread. In fact, I prefer some of my childhood favorites, such as my Mom’s cinnamon rolls or my Aunt’s sourdough bread, to any of the gluten free recipes I have tried!

The key to using “regular” recipes is finding an all purpose GF flour that you can substitute in the recipe. And believe me, this took awhile! Many blends that are on the market now are full of starches, which produce decent bread, but are full of empty carbs, and have no protein. The key to a good all purpose GF flour blend is one that contains small amounts of starches, flour that is higher in protein, and it is awesome if you can find one that contains xanthun gum, a dough enhancer that is vital in gluten free baking.

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Gluten free bread making is not like traditional bread making in that you do not need to allow the dough to have two rises. When you are mixing the bread dough you will notice that it is not the same consistency as regular dough, in fact it is more like a thick gooey cake batter! Once mixed you can just place it in a greased bread pan and let rise until almost to the top of pan and then pop in preheated oven to begin baking. Many bread machines today have a GF setting, which eliminates that second rise and cuts down on overall bread making time.

Once your bread is done, whether in bread machine or oven, you will want to remove it from the pan immediately. If it is left in the pan the crust will quickly become soggy and wet, ruining your bread, so make sure you are able to remove immediately so all your hard work does not go down the drain!

These gluten free baking tips should help to make your gluten free bread making enjoyable and less frustrating.

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If you have recently given up eating yeast, there is probably one thing you’re worried that you will miss eating: bread. Yes, bread is such a common part of most people’s diets, that it seems almost unthinkable to not eat bread ever again. But there is a way round it.

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I have been eating yeast-free and gluten-free food for about 5 years now. I have tried most of the main brands of yeast-free and gluten-free breads out there, and one thing I can tell you is this: none of them are as nice as the homemade bread mix you can get. 

Almost all good health food stores sell this special type of bread mix, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s the closest you’re probably going to come to “normal” bread if you’re avoiding yeast or gluten. 

It comes as a powder, which you then add water or milk to, and basically just mix it up and then bake it in the oven in a bread tray. However, the first few times I made this bread, it came out really crumbly. 

My advice to you is: substitute some of the water/milk for an egg, and also add some seeds into it. This will make for much more substantial/thicker bread, which you can enjoy just like you used to enjoy “normal” bread. 

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The bread mix is made using corn and rice flower, so the end result looks like a typical loaf of white bread. But because it is made of corn and rice rather than refined wheat flour, it is much more nutritious than normal white bread.