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Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet and Autism Ranking: Insufficient/Mixed evidence

Audience

  • The gluten-free diet is usually recommended for individuals who have an allergy to or are sensitive to gluten, including people with coeliac disease (a digestive condition where the small intestine becomes inflamed and unable to absorb nutrients) or dermatitis herpetiformis (a type of skin rash linked to coeliac disease).
  • The casein-free diet is usually recommended for individuals who have an allergy to or are sensitive to casein.
  • The gluten-free, casein-free diet is usually recommended for individuals who have an allergy to or are sensitive to both.

A number of people have suggested that there are particular groups of  autistic individuals who might benefit from the gluten-free, casein-free diet. For example,

  • Knivsberg et al (2002) theorised that there is a group of autistic children whose “attention and social indifference was disrupted due to opioid effects caused by peptides from gluten and casein”. They suggested that “On a gluten and casein-free diet the children’s autistic traits would decrease, the children would be more attentive, and in a better position to use their abilities, which we hypothesised could be registered in all areas of development”.
  • Pennesi and Klein (2012) theorised that “the GFCF diet would be more effective for those children with digestive issues (namely, constipation and diarrhea), compared to those with no digestive symptoms, and for those children with food allergies, compared to those with no food allergies”.
  • Shattock (1995) has suggested that the diet is likely to be more successful in younger autistic children. “Experience also suggests that the results are more easily demonstrated in younger children. The effects in fully grown individuals appear less impressive”.
Updated
16 Jun 2022
Last Review
01 Aug 2017
Next Review
01 Nov 2023