An article about autism in a major newspaper says it all with just one headline: “Science disputes autism’s diet link.” This one headline conveys that there may be a connection between diet and autism, and that some scientists have rejected the idea.

The article features Tina Szenasi, a mother of three boys in Barrie, Ontario. The article implies that all three of her children are autistic. According the the article, her sons improved within weeks of starting an elimination diet – a reasonable time frame to expect.

Many parents with autistic children feel that by changing their child’s diet (specifically, eliminating wheat and milk, the GFCF diet), they can notice a difference in their child’s behaviour. Results reported by parents and teachers seem to vary from subtle to dramatic.

“Farfetched” a doctor in the article is quoted as saying. But are trained to recognize symptoms that can be masked or eliminated by surgery or a prescription. Many doctors are weak on nutrition, and prevention in general.

Since an elimination diet does not make money for either the medical industry, or the pharmaceutical industry, there is little incentive to recommend eliminating wheat or milk from an autistic child’s diet, or to study it in detail (given that most medical research these days seems to be funded by the profit-making medical industry).

According to the article, “most mainstream scientists remain skeptical of the gut-brain connection in autism”. Most scientists of course, do not study such a connection, so it is a little hard to understand what this statement means, other than the newspaper shying away from the anecdotal evidence supplied by parents. Read the rest of this entry »