Family Foodies

The past couple days I have spent talking about both sides of the spectrum when it comes down to linking food intolerance and autism. Today I want to share with you something I found on the lack of food variety putting kids with autism at risk for poor nutrition.

Kids with autism have certain foods they may eat over and over again that places them at a risk for nutritional deficiencies because their diet lacks sufficient variety. I will use my son as an example here. DJ doesn’t really care for meat, loves crunchy foods, cheese, fruit, and raw veggies. Not exactly sure if its the texture of some of the meats or not. Occasionally if I am lucky I can get him to eat hamburger meat in casseroles. Oh yeah and he LOVES spaghetti and other pasta.

The first study said while screening children for the amount of variety of food in their diets may be a good clinical marker to predict which children might be at risk for nutritional problems. During this study kids low variety food scores posed a risk and were referred to dietitians or therapists to help them expand food choices and improve nutrition.

Another study which I find interesting was the red blood cells of children with autism had low levels of fatty acid linked to cognitive function. They are going to do further research into how low fatty acid levels may trigger biochemical changes in the brain linked to autism.

When researching the red blood cells the researchers found levels of docosahexanoic acid and total omega-3 fatty acids were significantly lower in the red blood cells of autistic children than in normally developing children. Omega-3 fatty acids are nutritionally important substances and are considered vital to the normal development in children.

Another interesting fact I found was that the fatty acid docosahexanic is linked to other mental health issues, and puts up red flags about whether there are functional issues in neural cells involving a deficiency of essential fatty acids. The main point of the research was that they cannot rule out fatty acids are port of what is going on with autistic kids.

Increasing foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids in the diets of autistic children has been a suggestion of some researchers. Although increasing these foods it would not have a negative impact on the child. Until these studies are done we won’t know what affect, if any, it might have.

This concludes my four part series!

• Autistic Kids and Food: Does Food Affect Kids, Really
• Autistic Kids and Food: A Link To Food Intolerance
• Autistic Kids and Food: No Link Between Autism and Food, Come On!