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Lutein-free diet for autism
A possible association of egg yolk as a source of lutein with my toddler's egg allergy brought me to this diet that supposedly helps with autism: http://www.saras-autism-diet.freeservers.com/Diet/Saras_Diet_II.html
That diet resonated with me because I have some autistic traits and my toddler seems to have some too.
A free research paper linking vision impairments and autism that implicates carotenoids: https://trans4mind.com/nutrition/autism-lutein.pdf
From my limited experience, it seems to be carotenoids that are the main problem. This diet poses lutein as the main culprit with possibly beta carotene.
The book I bought about the diet mentions that poultry/beef fat contains lutein while lamb and pork fat do not.
Thanks for posting - very interesting. I have 3 autistic nephews so am always interested in diets for autism. This does seem to correlate with the vitamin A/carotenoids story. The diet does add supplemental cod liver oil though - probs not a good idea with the new knowledge. I'm fascinated with the idea that beta carotene is worse than vitamin A.
Sorry that should read carotenoids are worse than vitamin A (I don't think just beta carotene!)
Quote from somuch4food on December 5, 2018, 10:32 amA possible association of egg yolk as a source of lutein with my toddler's egg allergy brought me to this diet that supposedly helps with autism: http://www.saras-autism-diet.freeservers.com/Diet/Saras_Diet_II.html
That diet resonated with me because I have some autistic traits and my toddler seems to have some too.
A free research paper linking vision impairments and autism that implicates carotenoids: https://trans4mind.com/nutrition/autism-lutein.pdf
Very interesting, thanks for posting this. When I consume carotenoids or retinol my vision gets blurry very quickly, and cod liver oil has the worst effect of all the foods I've tried. I haven't yet looked at the lutein content of foods but it is a carotenoid.
I think my lack of social skills stems from a vision impairment. Since my health declined, I got prescription glasses with a diagnosis of hypermetropia which is a condition linked to autism in the paper in my original post.
What I am discovering is that when my vision gets blurry, I have to actively focus my vision and I lose the ability to focus both on listening and looking at social cues.
I think that I have suffered from this since childhood. I have a clear memory of watching my mother play hockey, I was upstairs in the heated area being a glass and a net. I would play with my eyes, I would unfocus and everything got blurry, then I would focus on the ice and be able to see clearly.
Being intelligent got me through most situations, but I never got social cues.
If you want to check some more about your eyes I suggest https://endmyopia.org/
On their Facebook board and https://community.endmyopia.org/ many people share interesting data how they are fixing they eyes.
You will get link to registration on https://community.endmyopia.org/ when you open last mail from 7 days guide.
Today, I'm a mess not too different from a few months ago, but I was getting used to feeling better.
While I'm still doing low A, I had laxed my focus, especially on getting lutein low. I was consuming some cashews, pistachios as part of a nuts mix. Last week, I also ate a lot more pasta than I had in the last few months. Interestingly, durum, spelt and semolina wheat are to be avoided on the lutein-free diet. Refined flour is fine since the outer layers of the grain that have been removed contain the most lutein.
I'm giving this another serious go in the hopes of recovering the health I had acquired.
Also, I see the diet mentions to avoid flaxseed oil. There might be a link between lutein and my bad experimentation with flax seeds that resulted in really dry hands.
Just checked the lutein content of flax seeds (244mcg/200cal).
Pistachios are also really high (424mcg/200cal). I thought I was safe with one or two from the mix, I guess that explains how I worsened this much in the last two weeks.
https://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-012138000000000000000-1.html
One week update since I realized my mistake.
I'm feeling much less depressed and I have lost some fat I was putting on my flanks. My mental clarity is not on par yet, but I have also been cheating on getting to bed early.
Funny how when you start to feel unwell, many habits just go out the window and you enter a downward spiral.