Gluten Free Diet (for Asperger Syndrome) – Introduction

A Gluten Free diet is supposed to help thosse with Asperger Syndrome or Autism. I’ve tried it and found it really works!

I decided to go on a Gluten Free (GF) diet this summer(2007). Having read the Sunderland Protocol I am convinced there is a strong connection between Gluten (and Casein) and Asperger Syndrome and Autism.

As soon as I discovered the Sunderland Protocol, not long after I found out about Aspergers, I reduced my gluten intake. I had previously eaten as much as 8 slices of wholemeal bread a day – I was a toastaholic! – so I reduced this to 4 slices. I also stopped eating pasta which sent me to sleep anyway. I cut out pizzas which are a toxic combination of gluten and casein (wheat and cheese). I stopped eating cheese and yogurt. I still took a little powdered milk in tea and coffee.

A couple of times I tried a GF diet by going “cold turkey”, i.e. withdrawing gluten just about completely in one fell swoop. This did result in positive results: better sleep, improved bowel function, reduced social anxiety and possibly improved filtering of background sound. But the negative withdrawal symptoms were unmanageable: severe depression, loss of previous self contentment and its replacement with loneliness. I was forced to give up the diet on both occasions but had glimpsed its effectiveness.

I’ve read about people going on a GF diet and they make it sound so easy with no mention of withdrawal symptoms. I find this hard to believe. Unless like me they had first implement a gluten reduced diet then I would have thought they’d have experienced violent withdrawal symptoms. Someone I know tried it and he ended in an Accident and Emergency department with severe pains in his bowel.

Also you need to be very disciplined and organized to go on a GF diet. I would have thought a lot of people on the Autistic Spectrum would find this difficult. I found it easy because I was already very careful about what I eat, having an extremely healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables and unrefined carbohydrates with hardly any junk food.

I always had it in the back of my mind to try introducing a GF diet very gradually in the hope that this would avoid the withdrawal symptoms and in the summer, 2007, I started to implement it.

I gradually reduced my gluten intake: first I rand down my stocks of gluten breakfast cereals like muesli and porridge oats; I then stopped eating biscuits and ate rice cakes instead; I then gradually reduced my gluten bread intake first to 2 slices and then to just 1 slice. I have also started baking my own gluten free bread using Doves Farm GF bread flour which is quite easy to make if you follow their instructions but it is very time consuming and rather expensive.

By going on the GF diet I did not hope to “cure” my Aspergers, I just wanted to ameliorate some of its symptoms such as chronic sleeping problems, lack of energy and sensory problems.
So far on this gradual diet I don’t seem to have had hardly any withdrawal symptoms apart from a week or so of no sleep, and the results this time are surpassing all my expectations.