The Gluten Free Frenzy
The price of rice has skyrocketed, due to fears that an international shortage will affect the US. Given what the Chicago Tribune calls a “gluten-free diet frenzy—-and families of autistic children are “among the strongest advocates of gluten-free”—I guess this could be a bit of a problem…..
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, diet, Family, food, food blog, gluten-free, parents, pdd-nos, rice, rice shortage, wheat freeRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Family, Food and Diet
18 opinions for The Gluten Free Frenzy
liquid zeolite
May 7, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I donno, seems like the gluten free folks might be onto something:
http://www.autism.com/treatable/form34qr.htm
Gluten- /Casein-Free Diet
Got worse: 3%
No effect: 31%
Got better: 66%
Total respondents: 2561
Compare to the prescription drug PhenobarbitalD: given for behavior problems:
Got worse: 47%
No effect: 37%
Got better: 16%
Total respondents: 1109
This study of over 26,000 parents of autistic children shows that natural cures and diet have a much more positive impact on autistic children than prescription drugs. Moral of the story, don’t mess with mother nature!
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 7, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Actually, as I’ve written, prescription meds have been helpful for my son and, most of all, education.
Bonnie Sayers
May 7, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Many adults affected by Eczema and Rosacea also avoid gluten and follow gluten free diets. I tried it for two months a few years ago and saw no difference in my skin condition.
Regan
May 7, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Thanks Kristina.
I had made some note that food prices are going up, but not rice in particular (we eat a lot of rice and buy it at our local Asian market because we get a better selection).
I’ve got to go pick up some sundries there tonight anyway, so I might do a little “hoarding” myself. If nothing else, it’ll be interesting to see whether that situation is playing out all over.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 7, 2008 at 9:16 pm
We don’t buy a lot of rice — Jim doesn’t eat a lot of it and Charlie likes a variety of things besides “the old staple.” A big part of my girlhood memories is the white rice on my plate every night at dinner (my sister and I though having scalloped potatoes was a special, special treat), and watching my dad empty a 50-lb bag of rice into a plastic bin.
Beau
May 7, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Gah…
I do not advocate GFCF except when it’s absolutely needed, but I LOVE RICE.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 7, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Just had Portuguese food tonight—lots of “yellow rice.”
C. S. Wyatt
May 7, 2008 at 11:42 pm
The “autism.com” link is not to a “study” in any academic / research (controlled study) sense of the word. “Parent Ratings” don’t mean a thing, no matter how wonderful and even observant the parents are. Heck, mine will tell you that baseball helped “cure” many of my problems.
Surveys are not studies — they are surveys.
As for the real topic… you can get rice of any sort in MN. I just bought several bags ranging from dark-wild varieties to long-grain imported. Now, just try to buy corn here and you’ll pay an unusually high price. Odd, for a state next to Iowa and Nebraska.
** pounding my head against a metaphorical wall, screaming “The DAN! monsters are after me!” **
I bet my diet would shock and panic most of these supposed cure advocates. As my wife was joking yesterday, “Would you like breadsticks with that pizza and pasta?” If it has starch, I’m right there waiting to deep fry it, too.
(Let’s hear it for exercise equipment and bicycling, or I’d be overweight.)
Matt
May 8, 2008 at 12:51 am
Unfortunately, commodities are priced in the world market. The falling dollar is going to hurt, even for stuff produced in the US.
Also, I seem to recall India and somewhere else banning exports of rice, adding to the price increase.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 8, 2008 at 1:01 am
@C.S. Wyatt, you need fettucini alfredo pizza, or maybe the one with the manicotti….
Charlie loves his carbs. I still have an image of him sitting at a little table in daycare on Summit Avenue in St. Paul eating biscuit after biscuit and a mother saying “he’s carbo loading!”.
passionlessDrone
May 8, 2008 at 8:24 am
At least everyone SCD is protected! LOL!
Rebecca
May 8, 2008 at 9:26 am
As a Celiac myself, I can see why the GF CF rates are rising fast, Celiac disease is also very underdiagnosed in this country and so the number of new cases every year is on the rise. I’d put money on the idea that many of the autistic kids who do better after being taken off gluten might be celiac, or at least have a gluten sensitivity. My two sons, both on the spectrum, do somewhat better on the diet. They are not celiac, had them tested. I think its more the dairy for them. But GFCF diets in general have much fewer processed ingredients, artificial colors and flavors, etc. In that regard, they are better for you than a lot of that processed junk that is out there.
A lot of Down’s kids and those with ADD and ADHD also have had luck with reducing unwanted behaviors and increasing attention being on GFCF too!
Maybe its the gluten, maybe something else, but either way, a GFCF lifestyle isn’t all that hard once you get used to it, and it is completely safe to try,biomedically. No drugs, no chelation, just natural food. Lots of whole grains and home made meals without additives, and etc.
Now I have to go make GFCF pumpkin bars, my eldest requested “eat cake” and “want please” this morning and I am going to indulge his spontaneous talking!!
Thorton
May 8, 2008 at 9:31 am
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is just partnered with Defeat Autism Now (DAN) to “better understand the treatments and interventions”.
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/apr08autismday.htm
We can argue about why the AAP is doing this, but a lot of it is because DAN has success rates that AAP doesn’t. One treatment supported by DAN is a GFCF diet (which is now getting support from the AAP).
Calling it a frenzy doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 8, 2008 at 10:23 am
Gluten-free can be helpful and when we first put my son on the diet, the rashes on his cheeks and torso went away and he seemed a bit more alert. And, he started to eat a wider variety of foods (mostly because we had to to try harder to get him to eat new and different things). As a lot of my cooking is vaguely Asian, it wasn’t too big of a deal to find non-gluten foods.
Over time we’ve introduced more gluten into my son’s diet with no problems one way or another. It’s made it much easier for him to participate in some social activities; he doesn’t feel left out.
This was a post about the AAP looking into biomed.
Kassiane
May 8, 2008 at 11:19 am
This is just one of the many reasons they need to cure celiac already…they’re working on pills (no, really. They’re phase II).
When they succeed, I am eating a whole pizza. With chicken-fried bacon. mmmmmdelicious.
Leanne
May 8, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Gluten doesn’t effect my son one way or the other, but sugar and processed food does. I’d love to see controls in a study somewhere re: GFCF diet vs. simply feeding children a healthy diet with no junk/processed/artificial sugar foods.
Regan
May 10, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Hit the market today, and the selection was a bit picked over and the prices up a couple of bucks, but on a 15lb. bag, so I can see that it’s going up but not at complete sticker shock yet.
We picked up an extra bag just in case :-).
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 11, 2008 at 12:39 am
Charlie ate the rice last on his sushi tonight….
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: