Autism and diets

[andy]

Why are so many people with autism that I encounter in my work placed on diets? Quite often these people have not been asked or given a choice. Being healthy and fit is a good thing, however, most of the people I work with have a restricted range of pleasures in their lives. So limiting something pleasurable in those circumstances seems a little harsh to me. For the record I am unfit, moderately obese and extremely happy. Just consider this: if you have had a bad day and a member of staff says here is your salad could that cause challenging behaviours? Personally, healthy offered in such a manner without can make very aggressive

[anon_e-mouse]

Why are so many people with autism that I encounter in my work placed on diets? ................

The word diet is emotive as it has lots of social meaning.
how about the view that:

food affects mood
people who have allergies or food intolerances feel bad when they have food that contains allergens.It can also be shown that some people have benefited from the absence of certain things in their food intake.

"Placing someone on a special diet" or alternatively "presenting a person with a choice of foods which does not contain ingredients which are damaging to their health" could possibly be a good thing. It should also be argued and documented that this method was the least intrusive method for managing behavior for that individual - if indeed that was the reason.

It might be considered negligent if it was clear that a person was allergic to a particular food and a service did nothing to reduce the likelihood of that person ingesting that "toxin".

But there has to be a good reason for "putting a person on a diet". Only being as you suggest "unfit and moderately obese" does not sound like a good idea.

:rolleyes: With the greatest respect for any happy fat blokes reading this, but if you have information it might affect your choices. have a look at your death clock and see the effect of reducing the BMI on lifespan, you might then feel that adopting a lifestyle which eventually reduced your BMI or improved your health was worth it if it improved your likelihood of living longer. You might decide the opposite of course.

But that would be your decision.

[andy]

Thanks anon e mouse I feel so much better know I know the death clock is ticking. Susie Orbach ( a feminist) wrote a good book called 'fat is a feminist issue'. I think it's a masculine issue. For the record it's not the end point (death) but, the journey which is important. Anyway I watched the darts the other day and saw Andy Fordham..... I felt better

[ged]

tick, tick, tick, tick...

Another week closer Andy, changed your mind about the lettuce yet? ;)

xged

[bethr]

returning to the original question (good low arousal distraction techniques by ged)!!! I thought i had read some research regarding particular 'diets' and autism?? I don't know an awful lot about this; thoughts???

[nikkij]

I think food can have quite a lot to answer for. I know myself if I have too much sugar or caffine I can become more restless and irritable. I have also noticed effects on my 5 year old nephew....10 minutes after a tube of smarties and he can be climbing the walls!!

From what I can gather about diets and autism the one that is said to be most beneficial is the gluten and casein free diet. Gluten is found in most wheat products and some other cereals. It is also used as a thickening agent so is used in sauces such as gravy and tomato ketchup. Casein is a protein found particularly in cow's milk.

Some individuals may have difficulty breaking down these elements...the enzymes designed to break down these elements dont seem to work as well. Instead of removing nutrients from the food and providing the body with the "good stuff" for some individuals eating these foods can have the opposite affect...chemicals can be produced which can affect the brain. A result of this can be sleep problems, irritability, hyperactivity, 'low-moods', excessive tirdness etc.

Some foods can also increase physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, stomach cramps etc

As with most things, different individuals are affected differently....if removal of some food items has no affect, then perhaps the diet is not affecting the behaviour, or at least not the foods removed. If removing food items is succesful, it is unlikely to "cure" that person....instead it will just aleviate some of the problems listed above.

I'm curious to know why they have focused the diet on autism....if a survey were done on a wider range of individuals, they may find that more people have similar difficulties......

[anon_e-mouse]

Why are so many people with autism that I encounter in my work placed on diets?

i like nikkij approach to this if it works use it. I am also glad you did the background on some of the major well known food problems.

I am one of those people with an intolerance and allergy and i don't think it affects my mood. Interestingly everyone i know thinks it does affect my mood!

Maybe off topic slightly but its one of those things i wrote down and never got round to finding more out on the subject...i will need others help to verify. The secretin debate has some crossovers here i feel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretin

What i am interested in here is the inflammatory effect of food intolerances on the digestive tract. it is well known that gluten and other intolerances can causes scar tissue on the small intestine so that certain areas cannot absorb nutrients. It has also been suggested that IBS is caused by allergens (not identified).

I am wondering whether one way that secretin might be working is "topping up" the peptide hormone that would normally be released if that area of the intestine hadn't been damaged?


Note: It's a bad idea to administer drugs, including secretin, without proper medical knowledge and monitoring.

If a person has intermittent and difficult to diagnose stomach pain and overall discomfort, their tolerance to other peoples behavior reduce and involvement with their immediate environment becomes a lower priority concentration on "other things" would also be difficult to obtain. in this case secretin might bring about a balance which is being eroded by certain foods.

With all these possibilities if it can be shown that removing a food type from your diet has a beneficial effect then that is great.

Unfortunately there is not any good full proof tests that would establish in advance whether removing a specific item from your diet will help.

[Kayp]

Although I agree, to an extent, that people shouldn't be placed on long-term exclusion diets, such as the casein- and gluten-free diet, without good reason, I must point out that there is still a lot of controversy about this subject. Testing for intolerance to such products seems like an easy way to determine whether an exclusion diet should be considered, however these tests are in no way conclusive. The main argument is that samples taken from urine are by no means representative of what is going on in the brain. Also, there are many people who are casein- and/or gluten-intolerant who do not have autism, so the relationship of such an allergy with autistic symptomatology is not so clear cut. Having said that, however, I do think that where there is a suspicion of such an allergy or intolerance, an exclusion diet should be tried for a short period of time to determine if it would be of benefit in the long run. I worked with a girl who was lactose intolerant, and the effects of lactose on her behaviour were extremely evident when she consumed dairy products, which she craved. I think that we all, at some point in time, crave products which we know won't do us any good, but whereas we might be able to control ourselves, and allow ourselves an indulgence once in a while (or not!!), people with autism may not be able to do this without help. It may seem unjust to withold something that a person loves, but i suppose it all adds up to having to choose the better evil.

Hope this makes sense, since Im writing this after a few nights of very little sleep! :)

[sophiewood]

hiya my name is sophie wood and im 13 i have aspergers syndrome and wanted to know if any one could give me some information on diest eg what foods help what foods are bad thanx

[Archer]

I have been told it's an Autistic trait to keep eating and not stop , although as carers we try and keep them to their BMI .. not that i agree with a BMI as all humans are different.

We have to keep an eye on some of ours as they have food fixations ..

<< Is the one usually slaving over the cooker ..

Ours eat really well .. better than i do at home or anyone i know .. :D

[lee]

Why are so many people with autism that I encounter in my work placed on diets? Quite often these people have not been asked or given a choice.

It is interesting how everyone has been comenting about the benefits of diets and asd, but to get back to Andy's original point I think most of these people who are diets are on them for one reason and one reason only and that is weight loss. A lot of people who I work with have very little activity in their day to day lives and because of this they pile on the pounds. The managers of these homes then decide to put put them on weight control diets and hey presto we have an increase in challenging behaviouir because they are hungry. The reality is that if these people were given sufficient excercise then they would not need to be put on diets. Of course there are always exceptions.