The short answer is YES absolutely by healing the leaky gut and establishing a healthy protective layer of beneficial bacteria. Let food be thy medicine. Autism is best described as a digestive disorder. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) was invented by Pediatrician, Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas over 60 years ago. Dr. Valentine and his colleagues found that patients with digestive disorders could tolerate proteins and fats well. But the complex carbohydrates from grains and starchy vegetables were problematic. They also excluded sugar, lactose and other double sugars had to be excluded. Certain fruits and vegetables improved the health of his patients. (1)
This diet is the basis of the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet used by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to cure hundreds of children including her own son of autism.
The Introduction Diet
The Introduction Diet is designed to heal and seal the gut lining quickly. It achieves this aim by providing three factors:
-Large amounts of nourishing substances for the gut lining with easy-to-digest substances
-Removing fiber and inflammatory agents that are irritating to the gut lining and may interfere with the healing process
-Probiotics (beneficial bacteria) to repopulate and diversify the microbiome
The introduction stage of the diet is the most challenging but also the most essential part of the GAPS diet. The introduction stages are designed to repair all the damage that has been wreaked on the gut for years and the repair process is tough.
It helps to have a good supply of homemade meat/bone broth on supply ahead of time. Bone broth will provide your patient with strong digestive and immune benefits. Consume the meat around the joints of the bones you have used to make the broth.
Phase one is the most restrictive. It consists of the bone broth with meat such as beef, lamb, chicken, turkey or fish and non-fibrous vegetables cooked in it. If the patient has diarrhea, exclude the vegetables till the diarrhea subsides. Fermented yogurt & dairy, only include a small amount each day. Some people start with a drop while others start with a teaspoon. However, there are many people who are not able to progress quickly, so progress as your patient’s body allows. Homemade fermented foods are best, and you can find a recipe in The Gaps Introduction Diet Cookbook. By Andre Parker. (2)
You can add other fermented foods into the diet. The juice from your homemade sauerkraut or fermented vegetables are good choices and help relieve constipation.
Once the introduction phase of this diet begins, you can move through the diet as fast as your body permits.
Introduction Diet: Phase 1
Start every day with a cup of warm mineral or filtered water. Give your patient the probiotic. Make sure that the water is warm or room temperature, not cold, as cold will aggravate his or her condition.
Homemade meat stock
Meats & fish cooked into the stock such as: Beef; Lamb; Chicken; Turkey Fish;
Non-fibrous vegetables cooked in the stock; these can include Collard greens; Bok choy; Kale; Spinach; Zucchini; Pumpkin; Summer squash; Onion; Garlic; Carrots; Broccoli; Cauliflower; Fermented vegetable juice; Turnips
Phase Two
Enjoy the soups boiled with meats, vegetables, and probiotic-rich foods. You can probably gradually add some raw pasture raised organic egg yolks, with the whites removed, into the soups at this point. Start with one egg yolk per day and then gradually increase it until you are eating an egg in each bowl of soup.
You can increase the amount of homemade whey, sour cream, yogurt, or kefir in the diet as well as the juice from your homemade sauerkraut and fermented vegetables. You can also add in one small piece of fermented non predator fish per day. Homemade ghee can be introduced here at one teaspoon per day and then gradually increased.
Phase Three
Continue with the foods from the previous phases. Add a ripe avocado mashed into your patient’s soups and egg whites after egg yolks are tolerated. Start with about 1–3 teaspoons of avocado per day. You can now even make GAPS-approved pancakes at this stage, made from nut butter, eggs and summer squash like zucchini! You can find a recipe in the recipes section to get started. You may also start making scrambled eggs, cooked in ghee or pork fat, and served with avocado and even some cooked onion. Lastly, your patient can eat some of the fermented vegetables and sauerkraut instead of only enjoying the juice. Start small and work your way up to having 1–4 teaspoons at each meal.
Phase Four.
You can gradually increase your patient’s consumption of cooked meats by roasting and grilling them in the oven along with the meat soups. Enjoy cooked meats with cooked vegetables as well as sauerkraut. Your patient can now also enjoy freshly pressed juice by starting with a small amount of carrot juice. Once they are comfortable having a full cup of fresh carrot juice per day, you can branch out to celery, cabbage, lettuce, and mint juices as well. You can add in cold-pressed olive oil, working your way up to 1–2 tablespoons for each meal. You can start making almond bread or bread with any other nuts and seeds ground into flour.
Phase Five
Add cooked apple puree. Start adding raw vegetables, starting with the softer parts of lettuce and cucumber. Increase the raw vegetable intake until well tolerated and, if diarrhea comes back, you know that the body is not quite ready so reduce the raw vegetables.
Phase Six
If all the other foods have been well tolerated, try some peeled raw apple and slowly introduce raw fruits, with a little bit more honey in the diet as well. You can also introduce baked goodies to your patients that are GAPS approved. (4)
You are now ready for the full GAPS Diet which is conveniently on this website:
https://www.gapsdiet.com/
Here’s a partial list to avoid when treating an autistic child: wheat, Milk from any animal, soy, rice, canned coconut milk, powdered milk, all grains, sugar, potatoes, parsnips, yams and sweet potatoes, and processed foods. The full lists of do’s and don’ts go to the gaps diet website listed below.
https://www.gapsdiet.com/
This article is a brief outline of the GAPS introduction diet. I hope this article has given you hope. This diet will reverse Autism if you have the perseverance and patience to treat your Autistic child. It could take up to two years. The earlier you start the better. You have two choices here. One, you could do nothing and condemn your child and you to a lifetime of drugs and suffering; Or two you can educate yourself, commit and start with phase one. I’ve seen this work. It does if you commit to the struggle and never ever give up.
And finally, I am always here to help. Just reply here or email me at one of these addresses: Sloomis56@outlook.com or sloomis@hotmail.com
Any questions or concerns, let me know.
The Truth is Out There,
Shawn
RESOURCES:
(1) https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/gastroenterology/documents/IBD/CarbDiet%20PDF%20final.pdf.
(2) Parker, Andre. GAPS Introduction Diet Cookbook: 100 Delicious & Nourishing Recipes for Stages 1 to 6 (Gaps Diet - Heal Your Gut, Change Your Life) (p. 4). Kindle Edition
(3) https://www.gapsdiet.com/
(4) Campbell-McBride, M.D., Natasha. Gut and Psychology Syndrome . Medinform Publishing. Kindle Edition
YES!!!!!
I thought that was the thing a few years ago, but I never did the research for it, not much, anyway...
Good job, Shawn, you are so amazingly on the ball. ^_^
I will share.
Yes.