Autism and the Gluten-Free Diet
A ground breaking study was performed by researchers at the mayo clinic on autistic children and the gluten-free diet. The gluten-free diet has generally been thought of as effective in treating children with autism, but this study indicates that this is not the case. Researches looked at the medical records of 100 autistic children over an 18 year period and compared them to 200 children without autism. The records showed no significant difference in gastro-intestinal patterns of the two groups. Dr. Samar H. Ibrahim, a gastroenterologist at the mayo clinic advises parents not to put their autistic children on a gluten-free diet unless they have been diagnosed with celiac disease because the diet can cause nutritional deficiencies. 34% of the autistic group of children complained of constipation compared to 17.6% of the other group, and 24.5% of the autistic group had feeding issues compared to the 16% of kids in the other group, but Dr. Ibrahim suggests that the medications for the autistic children might have an effect on their appetites.
While this study seems to imply that a gluten-free diet may not be beneficial to the the autistic community, anecdotal evidence might suggest otherwise. Parents of autistic children on a caseine-free, gluten-free diet have reported improvements in behavior. The theory is that eating gluten leads to high levels of gluteomorphines in some autistic children which have a drug-like effect on them and increases their anti-social behavior. While some isolated studies have been done on the subject it seems that more research is necessary to make a definite determination about the effects of a gluten-free diet on an autistic child. Consequently, it might be prudent for parents of autistic children to see for themselves how a gluten-free diet affects their children. There are ways to address the nutritional deficiencies that accompany a gluten-free diet, and anecdotal evidence sometimes proves to be just as legitimate as scientific studies.
6 Responsesto “Autism and the Gluten-Free Diet”
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Very interesting website!! It’s important for people to become more aware of the negative affects of gluten. I welcome you to try our Sam Mills Gluten Free Pasta. It is amazing! Excellent texture, cooks al dente, has a beautiful color because it is 100% corn pasta and what a flavor!! You can buy it online too!
Sincerely, Carol
This study does not address the possibility that ASD children actually have an allergy to gluten which then triggers the immune system to interfere with neurological development which may be a possibility (and which is more similar to celiac than the above mentioned theory).
My son who has ASD and my daughter who has Coeliacs have been on a GFCF diet for nearly 2 years now with fantastic effect, its strange these results never seem to show up in research, I suppose improvements in behavior and autistic triats are hard to measure, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!
I question the validity of this study due to sample size. 100 asd children and 200 non-asd children equates to less than 12 non-asd children and less than 6 asd children being studied each year. Consider how many asd children are in the US alone, they are not rare conditions. They would need to study 10,000 or more asd children for the study to be valid, IMO.
Also, not all reactions to gluten occur in the gastro-intestinal system and I get the sense that they didn’t look outside the digestive system.
there is still no permament solution for autism. we just have to take good care of the kids who are suffering autism.”,,