The gluten-free, casein-free diet is designed to exclude all foodstuffs containing gluten and casein from the body. According to Christison and Ivany (2006), there are four overlapping theories as to why gluten and/or casein may be harmful to some individuals.
There have been numerous claims for the gluten-free, casein-free diet as a treatment for autistic people. For example, according to Zhang et al (2013), researchers have reported using “… GFCF diets to increase communication skills (e.g., eye contact, vocalization, echolalia, nonverbal communication social interaction, motor abilities, or cognitive abilities, or to decrease challenging behaviors (e.g., tantrums, pica, self-injury, physical aggression, property destruction, stereotypy, play, food consumption, food rejection, gagging, escape) “.
Antibodies (protective proteins); antigens (toxic substances); autoimmune (disease caused by antibodies); CNS (central nervous system); GI (gastro-intestinal); mucosa (mucous membrane); metabolites (small molecules produced by metabolic processes); opioid (substance resembling opium); pathogenic (capable of causing disease); peptides (substance containing two or more amino acids); peptidase (enzyme which breaks down peptides into amino acid).