Customer Reviews

Eating for Autism: The 10-Step Nutrition Plan to Help Treat Your Child's Autism, Asperger's, or ADHD

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Before striking out on my own in this review, I'd like to correct the misconception by D. Prince that there was "...NOTHING about problems with protein intolerance" in this book. First of all, gluten IS (or rather ARE) proteins... two of them, in fact; glutenin and gliadin. Both of these special proteins make up what we call "gluten."

The elasticity we see in bread dough is due to these proteins. There are two amino acid sequences in glutenin; HMW (high molecular weight) 10 and HMW 12. Their differences are in their repeating arrays of hexamer and nonamer amino acids. Their structure is responsible in large part for the increase in elasticity when the dough is kneaded.

While the author of EATING FOR AUTISM may not have gone into great detail about this process, I think one gets a clue about the book by its title, EATING for Autism. The book is about EATING, and it's written for the layman, not the scientist, albeit some people with these diseases and/or with gluten intolerance and other food intolerances and allergies have become experts in the field.

As far as the comment on speculation, "...a lot of un-referanced and speculation babble about autism," I think even scientists and medical experts have not nailed everything down about autism yet. There is a lot of speculation in this field for that very reason. Someone with protein intolerance or other food intolerances or allergies must rely on "speculation" coupled with their own experiences until such a time in the future when all can be known about this subject.

Having read the book, I must agree that it suffers a bit from the lack of detail about protein intolerances and food allergies. However, having tried many of the recipes myself, I must also agree with D. Prince that the recipes are excellent... and THAT'S the thrust of this book; EATING for autism, Asperger's and ADHD. Most people I've come across with these diseases have a common complaint... "I miss bread and many of the foods I can't eat on my intolerance diet. It's so hard to find anything I can eat."

It seems to me that a good cookbook addressing this problem is a godsend to most people with this problem. As a cookbook alone, EATING FOR AUTISM should help to solve some big problems for people with food intolerance issues.

I'm of the opinion that this book will help a lot of people since it is for the layman. I can't give it five stars because I believe that people who are highly informed on this subject will need to read further in order to satisfy their need for more informative and/or scientific material. All in all, however, I do think this is a very good book.

For those who want more information on the protein gluten and its subunits, glutenin and gliadin, see the REFERENCES list at: www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v7/n12/abs/nbt1289-1281.html

My review is partly in response to another's eval that states that this author purports foods that are not nutritious and that the author must not have reviewed the literature etc.
I believe this book makes a great approach at addressing the nutrition issues most often found in those with Autism, ADHD, Asperger.
As a practitioner, eating issues are prevalent. This author cannot suggest salads,a litany of fruits, legumes if the child won't even go near those food types! Most often the parents states that this is the case. The parent comes in desperate because they have spent weeks, months preparing broccoli 10 different ways, or have pureed every legume in the book to try to get their child to eat healthy, and nothing works, because they have not started with the steps she outlines. The vegetables, fruits, legumes are the ideal end in mind. But it is reasonable to start at a place where the child is at and make changes towards the goal. Hence, the "recipes" for alternative chick nuggets, jello, etc. Start with the food that looks like what they would even allow to come near their mouth, basically. The resources provided in the back, the support literature is very appropriate. Getting a child to follow all of these steps and take every vit and min desired on a daily consistent basis, is NOT easy and can be difficult. It is not unacceptable to say so. Any child that can do this on a daily basis, therefore would not appear to have an eating problem! Simultaneously, the title does not say nutrition encyclopedia. Instead the author gives resources for one to look up the nutritional content of food and if I know a dietitian when I see one, likely would give you nutrition and food group intake and analysis/suggestions for free if you asked. Excellent, helpful, recommend it!

I love the title and cover of this book. I opened it with great anticipation and optimism. An apple, carrot, strawberry and broccoli...it doesn't get any healthier than that! I was SO disappointed to find no reference to any of these foods in the book or index. The closest it comes is applesauce muffins and carrot cake. The recipe section on "Vegetables" does not include any fresh or green vegetables, only frozen vegetables. Where are the broccoli, chard, green beans, avocado, kale, zucchini and winter squash? The dessert section has fruit jello and pudding. No fresh fruits.

There is, in fact, no true NUTRITION in the book! The recipes are for "junk foods," not REAL food. Chicken nuggets (2 ways even!), fish sticks and spaghetti and meatballs? What about broiled fish, lamb chops, turkey burgers, lentil patties, buffalo burgers, hummos, burritos? Microwaving food! I cannot believe that the authors would support microwaved food when it is so dangerous. What an opportunity they missed to help people eat more healthy food!

I found the book's negativity very disturbing. The authors convince the reader that following their instructions will be difficult. Examples abound: page 9- One of the biggest mistakes parents make...page 15 - preparing home-cooked meals can be difficult...page 73- there's little research on effective therapy to treat feeding problems in children with autism (not true)... page 75 - it's going to take time to assemble a team...page 105 - there's little research supporting a GF/CF diet in autism (not true)...page 121 - Unfortunately, there's no clear cut dosage. Haven't the authors seen the parent checklist from the Autism Research Institute? Two-thirds say their kids got better on the diet, and almost no one got worse!

Calling an ELISA allergy test "controversial" in autism is simply wrong. It is one of the most valuable tools we have for helping our kids.

Where did the authors learn the material they put in the book? Not a single footnote attributes material to its proper source! One of the first things I learned is to show some gratitude to my teachers. Other than the few folks they thanked in their acknowledgements, they mentioned no one!

I cannot recommend this book to the autism community. Please look at Special-Needs Kids Eat Right: Strategies to Help Kids on the Autism Spectrum Focus, Learn, and Thrive by Judy Converse and The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook, Updated and Revised: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet.

If you want to learn more about the science behind diets and nutrition for autism go to Envisioning a Bright Future: Interventions That Work for Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. It has references and other therapies that work even better once the child is well-nourished!

I have three kids and one (7 yrs old) with a metabolic disorder who is currently in the GFCF diet. I purchased this book because it included recipes for my child. Since I was experiencing the same side effects of the disorder (bad temper, angry, no tolerance etc) with my first boy (9 yrs), I decided to test him and the results came positive for the same disorder. I agree with the author of the book that many of our kids are not getting the essential nutrients and minerals they need for proper nutrition. My second child was diagnosed by one psychologist and one psychiatrist with ADHD and they were ready to medicate him but I decided to explore other options like providing him with proper nutrition and going to the geneticist. I can say that after two years in the proper diet my son is a 4.0 student doing great and with no medications at all. He was just missing the right amount of nutrients required for proper functioning. It is just plain and simple we are not eating right. We need to be very careful of what we feed our children because sometimes their behavior might be due to just an allergy or bad nutrition. This book was really an eye opening for me and believe me, I already recommend it to all of my girlfriends with children.

I checked this book out of our library. I am buying a copy because the recipes are delicious. Most of the baked goods call for a mix of brown rice flour and sorghum flour, and they are every bit as good as recipes made with regular flour. The information regarding the 10 steps is quite overwhelming. I found a more succinct resource for modifying the diet in The Autism-ADHD Diet by Barrie Silberberg, so if you haven't yet read up on changing diet, I'd suggest you start there first. However, once you adopt a gluten-free, casein-free diet, this book has amazing recipes.

My daughter has a chromo disorder, apraxia and epilepsy with some features similar to ASD. We have been looking at nutritional approaches to improve symptoms including low glycemic index, omega-3's etc and vitamin/mineral supplements. Our physicians have stated there is not solid research evidence through sound clinical trials to support nutritional therapy and parental anecdotes are not enough, not all bodies are equal in amts/types needed. The book explains this situation pretty accurately. Docs/dieticians so far are okay with us giving supplements at RDA preventive levels as this will not hurt, but beyond that there is not much support. This book helps in that it puts together in one place all the vitamin, mineral, omega, etc information out there on RDA amounts and upper tolerable amounts for parents to use as a guide pending clinical trials (which the author points out as being difficult and costly to achieve, and may be years out yet). I haven't evaluated the recipes much as more in need of the supplement information, but glad to have them as a start.

Before this book, I felt like I was finding my way in the dark through the nutitional maze. I found this book very helpful by giving me specific steps to follow. I liked having the correct dosage for supplements. As a parent of a child with Down syndrome and Autism, it was important to me to first have good health and then second to know when to seek help from a professional on the more specific interventions.

Good book, it has great recipes and information about 10 or so basic vitamin supplements. But, the book fails to mention problems with protein intolerance and it's relation to autism. Some of these proven to be linked to autism are creatine deficiency, urea cycle disorders, lysinuric intolerance and peroxisomal disorders. There is alot about dietary intolerance to gluten but NOTHING about problems with protein intolerance. There is also an article about how aspartame is composed of aspartic acid and phenylaline and is thought to cause problems because your brain is receiving sugar and two amino acids in your brain and may cause problems. I thought that was really ridiculous and uninformed reason for that. Aspartame can be toxic if you have Canavan's disease, and phenylaline can be toxic if you have phenylketonuria both which can can autism and mental problems. In all, good recipes and limited info on basic vitamins, a lot of un-referanced and speculation babble about autism. Nothing about disorders than can contribute to autism. I did like how she had a couple of personal stories though.