What about diet?

I have read on a website that sugar (natural or refined), gluten and dairy can make symptoms of Autism worse.  I did a search after observing my daughter become agitated and started to complain of extreme anxiety after having a substantial amount of grapes. She loves all fruits and she does eat considerably more than five a day. She doesn't eat much bread but loves pasta. I would like to hear from anyone who has had experience in benefits of changing diet before I suggest it to her.

  • Since I’ve started eating a whole food plant based diet I feel so much better. I tolerate the food better and don’t overeat. Caffeine is not good for me, sometimes it makes me tired and other times it makes me crazy so I decided to give it up, as well as sugar and gluten, meat and oil. It’s a bit of a slow process but the more I eat this way, the better it gets and when I go back to the foods I used to eat,  I  feel so *** after eating them that slowly but surely I’m shifting to a whole food plant based diet, it’s just taking a while to get used to it but I definitely feel a whole lot better. There’s some good ted talks about diet and autism that show a marked improvement when the diet is changed. 

  • The NHS website does not recommend restricted diets such as gluten-free or casein-free because there is no evidence they work and they could potentially be dangerous.

    Having said that I follow a diet based on my blood group (A) which is largely dairy free (yoghurt is ok) and I find that excluding dairy helps my sinus problems.

    (The book also suggests that autism is more common in people with group A blood than other blood types.)