T he title of this book expresses the purpose for which it is written. My intention is for you to experience joy and ease in your gluten free/casein free (GFCF) journey with your loved one. I have come to find that the key to great GFCF cooking lies in relaxing and enjoying the experience. Dont worryeverything else will flow. Chances are you have found this book because someone you love has autism, ADHD, ADD, or a similar developmental condition. You are interested in a biomedical approach to helping the person gain wellness in his or her body, yielding improvements in behavior, focus, attention, and physical comfort.
You realize removing offensive foods is one major part of the health approachand this is a general truth in wellness. Our son, Justin, was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Within three weeks of changing his diet, we began to see drastic improvements in his sleep, mood, and language. We were convinced that a GFCF diet for children like Justin was more of a health necessity than a choice. How is this so? Most children with autism cannot digest gluten and casein, a condition called food sensitivity or intolerance. The simple truth is that undigested food builds up in the digestive tract and wreaks havoc on all body systems, including the brain.
Thus, food affects behavior. Please visit the recommended Web sites listed on page 236 to further your understanding of cooking GFCF. If you are convinced and want to learn more it will be very easy to find grocers, health professionals, educators, family members, and friends who will support you in your journey. Most importantly, remember your true purpose for seeking a GFCF diet and worry less about making perfectly round pancakes. If your first batch is misshapen, cut it up, dip it in maple syrup, and share it with someone you love!
Foreword
H ealth and wellness is all about addressing and correcting the cause; headaches do not result from a lack of Aspirin. Indigestion is not a result from a lack of Pepcid.
Depression is not a result of a lack of Wellbutrin, and autism is certainly not a condition resulting from a lack of medication. Autism has, as its origins, an imbalance of normal physiology. Addressing this aberrant physiology should be every parents first impulse. There are many ways to do this. However, with closer consideration, only a few approaches address the primary and the determining causes; the determining being chemical toxicity, physical traumatism, and emotional tendencies or stressors that lead to these aberrant functions; and the primary being the actual manifestation of these stressors, brain hemispheric deficiency, nutritional deficiency sublaxation complex, and heavy metal toxicity. For years now, clinicians and researchers have noticed positive changes in the physical and emotional health of children under chiropractic care, for example.
Among the observed benefits are improvements in children with hyperactivity, autism, anxiety, low mental stamina, lack of concentration, asthma, and discipline problems. Improvement in grades and IQ has also been recorded. Combine this now with the overwhelming body of evidence that shows direct connections between specific nutritional deficiencies and cognitive health and development issues and one begins to see a positive paradigm shift emerging in healthcare and the standard treatment of these childhood conditions, such as autismtreatments that have, until recently, been largely ineffective. In my practice and in the practice of many colleagues, care is given based on this different paradigm of health and the results are nothing short of extraordinary. Give the information in this book a diligent tryyou have nothing to lose and so very, very much to gain. Dr.
Peter Bauth, D.C. LCP, Trilogy Wellness
Introduction
J anuary 1, 2001 was D-Day for my family. No, we did not storm the beaches of Normandy, although at times I felt so challenged that it did seem akin to a war. In reality, our D-Day was different. The D stood for diet. It was on that day that my husband and I started our almost threeyear-old son, Eric, on the Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet.
Eric was diagnosed with autism in November of 2000. We were given a grim prognosis by our pediatrician. I also remember having an overwhelming feeling that this trusted pediatrician knew nothing about autism and knew nothing of my son or my family. Luckily, I found a great network of parents on the internet that were treating their childrens symptoms through diet and supplements following the Defeat Autism Now (DAN) protocol. The GFCF diet was central to this treatment. Due to my sons bowel problems (alternating constipation and diarrhea) a diet made perfect sense to me.
My trusted group of veteran internet parents, who would later be the individuals to start Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), gave me guidance through the early days of GFCF. There was not much available to purchase at my local grocery store so I took many trips to health food stores. I bought some items online and learned to cook like my Scottish grandmothermeat and potatoes for almost every dinner. A short time later, Eric started to respond to the diet. The first improvement was the cessation of his night screaming. After that, Erics mystery fevers disappeared.
And then a miracle happened Eric started to behave much better than before the diet. I have to believe that it was simply because he felt better. Lets face it; all of us do better when we feel well. My son is now thriving. He will be twelve in a few short weeks. I still classify him as a child with autism, although we have a few opinions from teachers and therapists that he doesnt meet the qualification for autism any longer, which shows fantastic progress.
I know that the GFCF diet was the foundation for his improved state and could not have been attained unless we went through our diet D-Day so long ago. Rebecca Peabody Estepp, National Manager, TACA (Talk About Curing Autism)
Autism and Diet