Obesity

by

Maureen McDonnell,RN… (my favorite gluten free cookie recipe at end)

Let’s start by identifying exactly what gluten is:  According to Lisa Lewis, PhD, author of Special Diets for Special Kids and coauthor of The Encyclopedia of Dietary interventions for Autism and Related Disorders, gluten is a protein found in members of the grass family including wheat, spelt, barley, rye and triticale.  In their pure form oats do not contain gluten, but commercial oats are almost always contaminated with wheat.  Gluten can also be found in products derived from these grains such as malt, soy sauce, grain alcohol and some fillers found in vitamins and medications.

Like most of the information I’ve learned about health over the years, my understanding of the significance of removing gluten from ones diet was not acquired during my education, training or career as a registered nurse working in hospitals.   It all started when I began interacting with children with autism and listening to parent’s reports of the remarkable improvement in their child’s behavior, attention and speech when they eliminated gluten from their diets.  Actually, it was Lisa Lewis the author mentioned above (and parent of a child with autism) who first told me about these parent testimonials  as well as the studies coming out of  Europe  supporting the theory (1) and frankly….. I thought she was nuts! How could something so fundamental to our diet like wheat be a culprit in causing autistic-like behaviors? But seeing positive changes in these kids, made a believer out of me. [click to continue…]

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