Autism Diets Article Part 3: Peptide Opioid Response

Laura Schmitt NE

If you missed the Autism Diets Article part 2, click here.

The Peptide Opioid Response is a phrase that tosses about among autism diet articles and books. While the wording is familiar, the understanding of the underlying intention seems clouded. It’s hard to understand just what that implies for children on the autism spectrum. To explain, in very simplified fashion, it boils down to an inability to digest properly and a bit of chaos with that digestive process. In simple terms, it is theorized that the proteins called gluten and casein are not properly passed through the digestive system by those individuals who have difficulty digesting it. The proteins are not broken down into amino acids as fully as they should be, and it is said by some that they free flow in the blood stream of an individual who has difficulty digesting these proteins. Once flowing in the bloodstream, they are said to lodge into areas of the brain where they can release false neurotransmitters.

This theory suggests that these proteins create addictive behaviors and a dulling of pain sensation for some individuals, among other side effects. The process is compared to being drugged. There is a strong differing of opinion in literature about this theory. I have not read enough evidence to fully support this, but I have seen the addictive and extreme self limited diets of children on the spectrum. Often, it is the case, that a child will eat only gluten and dairy based foods and they refuse to eat vegetables and meat. Regardless of the peptide opioid theory, a self limited diet that excludes so many important nutrients through foods is a cry for change. By removing the seemingly addictive foods and replacing them with like foods made from low allergen ingredients, many children are able to expand their diets and many parents report great improvements in behavior with the changes.

This leads us directly into the first of the 7 main autism diets, gluten free and casein free. As reported in Jepson’s Changing a Course for Autism and Matthew’s book, Nourishing Hope For Autism, the Gluten Free Casein Free Diet is the first stop on the journey to dietary healing. Some biomedical treatments will not begin until the GF/CF diet has been implemented, as the success rate reported is so high among those families who implement the program.

In the next issue we will delve further into the GF/CF diet, who it can help, and how to implement the diet in a healthy manner.

To read more about the science behind the Opioid Response and the difference in protein between cow milk and goat milk, read Julie Matthews article toward the bottom of the newsletter at this link, title Udderly New Insight About Milk and Autism

Autism Diets Article Part 2: Leaky Gut Defined

Laura Schmitt NE

As contributed to the ECI newsletter - sign up with Cindy through www.eciautismsociety.org

Autism Diets Overview – Part 2

If you missed part 1, review it first over here


When discussing Leaky Gut, some big words like “permeability” and “dysbiosis” are often tossed around. These words, on their own, can be very confusing. To simplify, we are talking about imbalance. What is the imbalance in the gut? It can vary with the individual, but it is usually an imbalance of good bacteria to bad bacteria, or an imbalance of mucous (too much mucous production, for example), or an imbalance of yeast (yeast over growth). Further imbalance is caused from any one of these when the resulting overgrowth of bad bacteria or over production of mucous creates an environment where the intestine is not properly absorbing nutrients. Without proper nutrient absorption, malnutrition can ensue.

The “leaky gut” refers to a faltering in the tight junctions of the intestinal membrane. This can be caused by any of the above imbalances as well as other offenders such as stress, genetic disorder, NSAID medication, alcohol consumption and more (look to understand this better by reading Elizabeth Lipski’s Digestive Wellness). When a leaky gut is present, food particles can pass through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream. When the gut is healthy and doing it’s job with good balance, the food we digest will pass through with a systematic approach to it’s breakdown. At certain points, nutrients will be absorbed, liquid will be absorbed, foods will be broken down further and more. When the leaky gut allows food particles to exit into the blood stream where they are not intended to, it can create a cascade of problems.

For starters, the immune response system will notice these food particles and flag them as “antigens”, or bad guys. The immune system determines that they will attack these food particle invaders whenever they see them from that point onward. Now, let’s just imagine that this food we are identifying as an “invader” is one of your child’s favorite foods, and a healthy food at that! Well, that IS a problem indeed because now we are opening up the can of worms called food sensitivities. It is because of the leaky gut that many people develop a wide variety of food intolerances or sensitivities. These are not true allergies, and once the intestinal system has had a chance to heal and recover, many (in some cases all) of these foods can be rotated back into the diet without their previous negative symptoms.

If we ignore the leaky gut process, or simply treat the symptoms as they appear by taking medications to diminish the GI response without getting to the root of the problem, this allows the immune system to continue it’s attack on those flagged antigens in our daily foods. Imagine, now, your immune system at battle every day, every meal. Over time, this can compromise the effectiveness and response of the immune system. It can also cause tissue and cell damage to the area of the immune response. These immune responses create inflammation and we all know what that can cause…pain! Inflammation in the body does not stay isolated to one area, either. Ongoing inflammation can even be found in the brain. Some of the factors that can lead to increased inflammation include toxins in our foods and environment, deregulated immune function, food sensitivities, candida, and faulty sulfation. Julie Matthews delves into the importance of faulty sulfation as it relates to detoxification in her book, Nourishing Hope for Autism.

For some individuals, this ongoing inflammation can lead to immune response and for some, auto immune response. What is the difference, you may ask? Auto immune response is when your body begins attacking itself. We see this in Celiac disease when the microvilli of the intestine are destroyed as a result of eating the offending protein, gluten. For many others who struggle with ongoing leaky gut issues and intestinal impermeability, auto immune disorders are far from uncommon. With my own experience, we witnessed my daughter’s body respond to ongoing food sensitivity and gut dysbiosis with continued increase in immune and then autoimmune reaction. Toward the end of her reactions, as we neared the discovery of autism diets and her own specific food sensitivities, her body was responding with all over petechia rash, which her doctor described to me as her body’s immune system being confused and attacking it’s own cells. This was only one of many reactions for her, and it serves as one example of many symptoms that can flourish when an intestinal system is left unhealed. Some other common examples are rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, celiac disease, a long list of GI disorders, skin disorders, and more. With the group of individuals who fall under the umbrella of ASD, they are more likely to have difficulty with proper sulfation and proper GI regulation than their non ASD peers.

The good news here is that many parents are finding great success and healing that surpassed their expectations by implementing Autism Diets and Clean Eating practices into the lives of their loved ones. These successes are often combined with supplementation as needed, such as probiotics, and ongoing efforts from the family support network, but all of these steps work together to help heal what is a full body disorder.

In future newsletters, I will delve further into the individual diets and their successes, criteria, and benefits. Next time we’ll cover the Peptide Opioid response before delving into the most popular of the Autism Diets, GF/CF.

Autism Diets Article Part 1: Why Food Does So Much

Laura Schmitt NE

As contributed to the ECI newsletter - sign up with Cindy through www.eciautismsociety.org

Autism Diets Overview – Part 1

How can dietary changes help with autism spectrum disorders? You may have heard that an autism diet can be helpful, you may have even witnessed, first hand, positive changes after implementing dietary change, but perhaps there are still questions. In the coming newsletters, I will help explain some core principles of leaky gut and the ASD diets that are geared toward healing. I will also overview the main diet choices and explain why they are used and what they do to help a child or adult on the Autism Spectrum. In days to come, I will cover the essentials of eating for wellness, as it relates to optimal health and true success in healing.

To start, let’s get an overview of why a diet change could be helpful to someone who falls under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). As noted in Jepson’s book, Changing the Course of Autism, dietary changes increase neurological functioning as well as GI functioning. With an increase in the GI functioning, a damaged gut may begin healing and it will then be better able to absorb nutrients. In addition, that healing gut will be experiencing less inflammation, which means there will be less immune activation as a result of leaky gut and food intolerances. This decrease in inflammation will help reduce pain and improve sleep for many. Better GI working also leads to bowel improvement which also helps reduce pain and discomfort and improve mood. This is a domino effect that illustrates one example of how the choice of what food we put in our mouth can directly affect our ability to feel better, listen better, sleep better, and more.

Another key component to the success of any autism diet is knowing the individual and their unique biochemical makeup and needs. While one person may do dramatically well on a gluten free / casein free diet, the next may do better with a modified specific carbohydrate plan. The inner workings and needs of each person will vary as the response to foods and environment vary from person to person. To find the right combination for each individual will require trial and error, to some extent, but there are clues we can look for to help us along the way. Our goal will be to remove what is causing harm, replace what is missing from the diet, and break the vicious cycle of intestinal and immune mediated inflammation.

In the next ECI newsletter I will help to define and explain the leaky gut. Click Here to go to part 2.