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GF/CF - Is it enough?
I believe that parents of autistic children should take the GF/CF diet to another level. We should focus on re-establishing their inner ecosystem deep within the intestines by healing their gut dysbiosis and correcting their nutritional deficiencies besides being just GF/CF.
The following paragraphs are excerpts from an article called “Gut And Psychology Syndrome: The GAPS in our Medical Knowledge” by Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, Wise Tradtions, Winter, 2007.
"Gluteomorphins and casomorphins are partially digested proteins. Gluteomorphins come from gluten in grains and casomorphins come from casein found in dairy foods. Gluten and casein are largely hard for even normal people to digest. In children with damaged, porous and leaky wall, these proteins do not get digested properly but are are partially broken down into peptide chains whose structure is very similar to heroin, morphine and other opiates. These substances are absorbed in that form and have a similar effect on the brain as heroin and morphine would have.
Autistic children are often put on a gluten-free/casein-free (GFCF) diet. It is a tragedy that this diet has been pronounced as "the" diet for autism and schizophrenia because removing grains and dairy foods only removes two toxic substances from the body - gluteomorphins and casomorphins. The GFCF diet doesn't deal with all the other toxins, it doesn't heal the gut and it doesn't change the gut flora. In my clinic about 30 percent of children show initial improvement with a gluten- and casein-free diet. The majority do not show any improvement at all and those who show some improvement then plateau and the parents end up in a nightmare situation where if the child gets hold of even a crumb of bread or steals a cracker there is a huge regression. This happens because the gut is still damaged, the gut flora is still abnormal, and the gut wall is still leaky and porous. All the toxins are still flowing into the body. The gluten-free/casein-free diet is inappropriate for GAPS patients. It is not enough. (For an effective dietary plan for autistic and ADD children, see Gut and Psychology Syndrome.)"
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