It's interesting that you say there are Gluten intolerances on your father's side of your family. However, it's not realy a Gluten Intolerance we're discussing here.

(Other people may have mentioned intolerances but that's not the process going on here).

Most Aspies love eating gluten, they can't get enoguh of the stuff, they have no idea what it's doing to them, except they may notice their craving for it. Casein on the other hand which is in milk is a bit different in that a lot of Aspies have a natural aversion to milk because it tastes, feels too creamy and they are aware thier brains tend to get fogged up by it.

I'll send you some links and tips about the diet but I wouldn't advise you to go on it straight away and definitely don't go "cold turkey".

Well, I find that I do have a few symptoms of Gluten intolerance, maybe they are more prevalent in Aspies?

I am planning to make a few diet changes and see how things go, it can't hurt anyhting, and if nothing else i could do with looisng a few pounds.

It is good to discuss things and I htink it is possible to both over react, and be over sensitive to other peoples over reactions, I konw i do both, the best thing all round it is just to forge it and move on!

Oh, apologies.

If it is not gluten intolerance - what is it that causes the problems with gluten? and can you show links to research (not necessary) I am interested.

Also - I have had problems with overgrowth of candidia albicans - in my digestive tract.
I have read that people on the spectrum are more susceptible to this - any ideas on this?

I avoid gluten ...  I'm still hungry and I haven't lost any pounds despite avoiding gluten for years.

As to your second point, and I find it really hard when to forget and move on when I feel hurt. The feeling I get tends to overwhelm me, and I tend to shoot back.

I avoid gluten ...  I'm still hungry and I haven't lost any pounds despite avoiding gluten for years.

As to your second point, and I find it really hard when to forget and move on when I feel hurt. The feeling I get tends to overwhelm me, and I tend to shoot back.

Well i said i could do with loosing a few pounds, not that I had any serious plans to do it As GArfield said 'I never met a calorie I didnt like'

I agree on your second point I do the same in real life and online, it is easy to spot others making mistakes but hard to stop doing it oyurself, don't worry about it, I am sure no one holds any real resentment against each other here, we are all on the same side!

Well i said i could do with loosing a few pounds, not that I had any serious plans to do it As GArfield said 'I never met a calorie I didnt like'

I agree on your second point I do the same in real life and online, it is easy to spot others making mistakes but hard to stop doing it oyurself, don't worry about it, I am sure no one holds any real resentment against each other here, we are all on the same side!

Ah fair point, on your first point.

As to your second point.... I am never wrong!!

One point about diets:
Unless you know you have an intolerance (do a short-term test of the GF/CF diet or get a full blood panel etc) it is likely that you will end missing out on some nutrients. Exclusion diets have the issue in many cases that people take anecdotal evidence as fact and then proceed to eliminate whole food groups. This tends to be worse among parents fiddling with their kid's diets, but it's a risk in all age groups.

Long story short: there's no confirmed evidence that autistics have food intolerances in the majority of cases, if you find that you do have some food intolerances then talk to a dietician who is unbiased (not someone who pushes GF/CF as relating to autism - an unbiased diet specialist). The key is to only go this path if you need to, and if you must then try and make up for the nutrients you'll be missing out on.

I don't see how it can work - what's the link between the bowels and the auditory nerves?

That seems a pretty direct conection to me, think of an animal that is fightened by a sudden loud noise and it involuntarily evacuates it bowlels. A fear response has actions on the bowels, and noises are often the things that cause fear responses, so their must be some conections.

This is of coures all just my opinion and i have no training in the field or proof so could easily be on the wrong track

I agree Tinkerdill, seems a logical connection. A difficulty digesting gluten throws the body out of synch. (badly in my experience). I would become extremely irritated and just want to sleep.
Throwing me in a crowded noisy wouldn't help anything.

Take away the stress associated with a reaction to gluten - social interaction will be much easier,  more focus would be able to be applied to auditory processing.

Most (if not all) actions set off a series of chain reactions. Not much happens in isolation.
The body as a system is holistic - there are many parts that link together to make up the whole.

But what if you don't have an intolerance to gluten? Or are you saying all Aspies do even if they don't realise it? FYI I've only taken laxatives twice in my whole life.

Gluten intolerance is more likely to cause diarrhea than constipation.

No intolerance to gluten... no chain reaction.

If you have no symptoms related to gluten intolerance you are unlikely to have gluten intolerance.

I don't know if gluten intolerance is a trait typical to people on the spectrum.  I know research studies have been done - but (in my opinion) not nearly enough to provide conclusive evidence.

People on the spectrum have a variety of traits, we are all different.

I’m grateful to you guys Tinkadill, Aeollienne, Chamuel - for being open-minded and willing to consider the GFCF diet but I’m afraid to tell you this stuff can’t be figured out just by ordinary people chatting on a forum without reading the scientific material, understanding it and then maybe they can discuss it properly.

The science behind this is the product of the work of scientists from all over the world going back decades, you can't just figure it out off the top of your head. If you don’t try to read and understand the science your discussion is going to remain at a low level.

“Gluten intolerance” is not, in my opinion relevant. This is the process the GFCF diet theory is based on: peptides from gluten and casein are not properly digested, they pass through the very permeable leaky gut which people with Aspergers and Autism tend to have and then pass get into the blood and into the brain where they can cause changes to the way the brain functions.

Go to http://www.autism-help.org/intervention-...n-free.htm   to read a simplified introduction.

I would not advise people to go on this diet unless they already have the discipline to eat a conventional balanced healthy diet and have some understanding of nutrition. The diet will then not cause any danger of malnutrition, more likely it with improved bowel function it will lead to the better absorption of nutrients. Casein and milk are of debateable dietary value anyway (I’m going to open a debate about this – there’s plenty of material out there).

This diet does not work in all cases, and its results will vary from person to person. The science behind it is not completely worked out. That is the nature of science, it’s always in a process of development, discovery and investigation – in contrast to the dogmas held by usually reactionary people with fixed ideas.

Can you explain what is so questionable about the study I linked to?

While I certainly can't say that I've read through it all, it is hard to see how the opioid excess theory can have any bearing anymore after several studies have been unable to confirm that autistic children are more likely to excrete what was believed to be opioid peptides.

The study I directed to, aswell as this one, indicates that the substance detected by HPLC chromatography that people previously have believed to be opioid peptides, are infact not.

I'm not saying that the GF/CF can't help, I'm just saying that I find the opioid excess theory pretty damn dead, aswell as the most vulgar insult I've ever heard.

Here in Norway, where Kalle Reichelt is presented as some kind of smart-ass Galileo pioneer in the media, there's quite abit of dogma surrounding the GF/CF diet. Like this:

- If you haven't tried it, you have nothing you should have said.

- If it doesn't work... well, it doesn't work for everyone!

... leaving only those who believe to have seen improvement allowed to display any scepticism. I am one of those who it didn't work for, after I was claimed to be addicted to dairy products according to a HPLC test.

That pest Candida albicans usually moves in after a bout of antibiotics. Take some live bacillus yogurt regularly to rid ones self of it by swamping it and changing the flora and fauna content. There are conventional treatments available which work for a while, then it returns after one stops. This worked well with my wife.