The Perils of French Fries
I’m not talking about the ongoing threat to one’s waistline from eating crispy post-drenching-in hot-oil -puds, though that’s certainly a major problem. I’m talking about the ubiquity of those artery-clogging strips in many a restaurant (especially if it’s a “family” restaurant), packaged in huge bags filling a goodly portion of the freezer case and, of course, signaled by those golden arches.
After putting Charlie on the gluten-free casein-free diet 9 years ago in June of 1999, French fries have been the one readily available kid-friendly treat. With bread, pizza, most sweets, and much more “forbidden,” fries became a steady part of our lives, as did visits to McDonald’s. Sure, it’s not healthy; but what parent doesn’t want at least occasionally to indulge their child with something that just tastes good? And especially when their child has asked for said fries spontaneously?
“I wish I could knock down every McDonald’s, every one of them!” Another mother said that to me this afternoon. We were at the bowling alley and Charlie had asked for fries and, as he hadn’t had much to eat all day, I’d gotten them for them and he’d started to pick up the ball and carry it carefully to his lane. We were bowling with a family we’ve known for some time; their son is a bit older than Charlie. One look at Charlie’s fries and he had to have some, and I instantly realized his parents were hoping to wait till after getting in a few rolls of the bowling ball. Not because they wanted to deny him food, but because, as the mother explained, getting the fries and eating them made him so excited that bowling was out of the question.
I felt bad. It’s been the same with Charlie and eating. I don’t know if it’s because of suspected trace ingredients of XY and Z in fast food, but something about eating a highly desired food—Charlie can certainly inhale a medium-sized box of fries in less than 5 minutes—that still leaves you hungry hasn’t always been the best for Charlie. He’s now able to go back and forth from eating a few fries to bowling a round and back and forth again and sometimes, of late, he’s even said “no” to fries and to McDonalds.
We’ve been, as I’ve noted, expanding Charlie’s diet beyond gluten-free casein-free options. A bagel here, a hamburger bun, a bit of pizza. No obvious or immediate side-effects of a messy or other nature have ensued and Charlie often seems less frantic as he’s not hearing us repeat “no, you can’t have that.” I’ve also noticed that some of the gluten-free breads and products have a not-so-good effect on his stomach and have suspected that the thickeners added to hold the rice and other flours together, have given Charlie a bloated stomach and a feeling of great internal discomfort (manifested by an unhappy boy). It’s all things in moderation: No boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts lying around here; Charlie loves his sushi as much as ever and so far prefers rice noodles to the wheat kind.
Food is for nourishment, food is for comfort, and food is a part of being social: It means a lot to Charlie to have a cookie from the box another mother sent in and not be handed the same old dried out rice cracker. You can be sure, Charlie knows the difference. (Need I even say that.)
Charlie and the other boy bowled several rounds, with me trying to hide the fries while not making it seem to Charlie that I was making them disappear. (An impossible task; am a poor magician.) Finally it became clear that fries were called for and we said our good-byes; Charlie bowled a few more rounds, and I, and the other boy’s mother (her husband had taken their son out for the fries) each took a turn.
She got a strike and I almost did; Charlie took down nine pins and then the spare, too. As she and I talked, he paced with his plate and didn’t finish the last fry until we were almost home.
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, bowling, disabilities blog, disability, Family, family blog, fast food, fries, gluten-free, Health, mcdonalds, Parenting, pdd-nos, special dietRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Family, Food and Diet, Parenting
15 opinions for The Perils of French Fries
Robin
Jul 16, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Is it possible the ‘leaky gut’ is slowly healing for Charlie?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 16, 2008 at 10:27 pm
I’m wondering if he’s outgrowing his food intolerances? It’s been many years on the diet—–
Shawn3k
Jul 16, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Reading others stories of food intolerances, really makes me think we’ve dodged a bullet on this one. I’ve been a bit dubious about leaky gut…but I do think there is a strong link in some cases, when it comes to gluten. That said…your comment on comfort foods got me thinking - how funny it is, what are comfort foods to me and what are to my son: yogurt, Sun Chips (garden salsa to be exact), mac n cheese (sadly, the box version…not my own, far superior homemade recipe), grapes and cheeseburgers.
Bonnie Sayers
Jul 17, 2008 at 12:38 am
Nicholas is going bowling with camp on Monday. I would like to find a league for him since he enjoys it so much.
They went swimming yesterday and now he realizes he needs lessons as he has never really been except with camp.
Maddy
Jul 17, 2008 at 12:55 am
There’s a strict [ish] healthy food policy at our school - but they all know the difference.
The little one is beginning to look like something out of Bels……can count his ribs.
I’m sure we’ve had our chips on this one.
Cheers
Victor Xie
Jul 17, 2008 at 1:39 am
My son Steve likes Shushi, French Fries and Chinese noodles very very much and never eat dumpling or spring rolls of traditional Chinese food. He never attempts food with inside but not transparent.
farmwifetwo
Jul 17, 2008 at 8:32 am
Ours is dairy. Eldest had nightmares/terrors, nasty diahhrea and horrible rashes daily, constantly. So after reading Serrousi’s book I thought… what have we got to lose, except he might sleep more at night. 48hrs it was ALL gone. 7 days later we put a tiny bit of butter on a freezer pancakes - and long story short - we had a 24hr nightmare (screaming, headslamming, diahhrea, nightmares/terrors). Needless to say that was the end of the butter. About 3mths later we weaned him off of gluten, and 6mths later weaned him back on… nothing. My family has a history of IBS, so.. maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that one child has it too.
Little boy is lactose intolerant since as soon as we knew older bro couldn’t have dairy, he went on soy. It has done NOTHING for him, NOTHING at all and I don’t see any point in weaning gluten b/c he is happy, no diahhrea, no sleeping issues, no head banging etc…. So I think it only works on some.
We’ve been giving eldest a little dairy here, a little there, with no isses. And he knows he has pizza without cheese and soy milk to drink. I suspect he too is lactose intolerant if we gave him a full glass of milk.
But why bother. We’ve been doing this for 6yrs now, and both are thriving… and it’s habit so it’s easy for me to do.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/09/27/autism-study.html
I can recommend the institutions that did the study as being the best there is.
Sheri
Rebecca
Jul 17, 2008 at 10:52 am
Pretty sure on this, had to double check on McD’s site, but both french fries and hash browns from McD’s have both Gluten and Milk/Casein ingredients. So no go if you do the gf or cf or gf/cf thing. Both L and K had bad times with milk as babies they went to soy formula by 8 wks old and I kept them dairy free for almost 2 years, gradually adding yogurt, cheese, then milk. Now they do ok, but baby #3, coming very soon, will also be soy only for a while. Being celiac myself, I did the gf diet with L and K and didn’t really see a difference, except that L’s extremely self-limited diet got so small he barely ate anything! So gluten is in for them. For us they seem to be most bothered by excess sugar, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives that you see in over processed foods, not to mention the sodium is through the roof! So we try to keep processed foods to a minimum and buy “healthier” junk food for those times you just need FF’s, as L calls them.
Leila
Jul 17, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Kristina, I hope he’s outgrown the allergies! That will make your lives so much easier.
Regan
Jul 17, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I’ve eaten so many french fries in my life that I’d be in a tricky position coming down on them now. There’s something about that combo of fat+potato+salt+shape that just seems to grab some kind of human food factor…chips, frites, french fries, patatas…as a kid I recall many a sad day perked up by a cheap bag of fries at the Doggie Diner.
Eleanor was a minor league fry hound when she was younger, but never really picky about type/franchise brand or obsessed with them. I think like Shawn3k, except for the lactose intolerance (which I also have), our family, and Eleanor individually, seems to have dodged most of the dietary bullets, with nothing standing out as “stay away” foods. Most of the time we keep close to source/scratch on food, but it’s not unheard of to buy a cake or sample a Krispy Kreme. Right now Eleanor’s favorite dishes are green salad with homemade vinagrette, sauteed Vidalia onions, and pickled spiced mung sprouts. (Go figure).
Last time we bowled, we got fries from the snack bar but drew the line at the nachos (ick). Eleanor was interested as usual, but seemed equally, if not more interested in the bowling.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 17, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I think it was revealed a few years ago that McD’s fries had gluten, though the company had said for awhile that they did not. At that point, we weren’t worrying about “trace amounts.”
Charlie likes relish and pickles and always gobbles up the pickled ginger that comes with sushi.
Moi
Jul 17, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Any kind of white starchy carbohydrate does not stick with you - bread, potatoes, etc. They also make you crave more food, especially more of the same.
Try not eating white carbs for a week. You will find that after even 3-4 days, you have no real craving for them.
I think that the way that these things are processed is the culprit.
Moi
Jul 17, 2008 at 8:00 pm
BTW that includes the coating on chicken fingers. ;) Those are Banned from our house!
Patience
Jul 18, 2008 at 3:41 am
I see some truth to what you’re saying, Moi. I was on a diet for a couple of weeks of fresh fruit and veggies only (both cooked and raw). I like most (nothing tropical and I don’t care much for gourds), so that was easy enough. After giving plasma one day, I was so hungry I caved in and got french fries–cheap and easy on the drive home. I found myself craving them like nothing else lately. I’m slowly going back onto my diet (though I have to admit the comfort of dumplings was what I needed today), and fries are officially on the “totally banned” list (unlike, say, whole grain bread, which is now a “sometimes” food).
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