Children in a home are the jewel in the crown, they are an important part of every family. There is nothing we would not do for them. That is why to help them with any illness or any other health problem or, in the best of cases, to act preventively, we have to take into account their correct nutrition. This applies to neurotypical children as well as to children with Autism.

Today, in the context of the celebration of Autism Awareness Month, I would like to talk to you about the importance of a gluten and casein free diet.

90% of children with autism and hyperactivity have some kind of enzyme deficiency that prevents them from breaking down proteins properly, and it is specifically milk protein (casein) and wheat protein (gluten) that are indirectly responsible for much of our children's inappropriate behaviour; I will try to explain this to you.

Proteins are like a necklace of pearls, so that they can be useful to our organism we must "break them down" until they are loose pearls (amino acids), a person with autism or ADHD cannot do this, they can only "break down" the necklace into two or three parts. These incompletely broken parts are called peptides and if we remember that due to the effect of candida the intestine is permeable, these peptides escape through the holes, They get into the bloodstream and are distributed throughout the body, even to the brain, hence the very worrying disruptive behaviour in them or the movements that, consciously, they cannot control.

The peptides derived from casein and gliadorfins derived from gluten have such a chemical structure that they resemble an opioid like morphine itself, causing a similar effect on reaching the brain as our children would have when ingesting a drug! This will lead to addiction. This is the reason why many parents say that their children only want to eat milk, bread, pizza, biscuits, cheese, yoghurt, entre otros.

A good healthy diet is the only way to strengthen our body, and in the case of children with autism and other developmental problems, the gluten and casein free diet has proven to be an option to improve this condition. By eliminating these proteins, the damaged intestinal walls in many children, tend to improve progressively as well as the organism and of course the vitality of our children.

So, if you ask yourself as I did one day, what can't my child with Autism eat that will affect his health? Here are some of the foods that you should cut out of their diet.

Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley and oats, and casein in milk and all its derivatives. Contrary to what many believe, soy is not the ideal substitute to use in this diet, as a large number of children are allergic to it and peptide analyses in children without dairy and wheat still show high levels when they are using soy as a substitute, which leads us to believe that soy also forms undesirable peptides.

I'll leave the information up to here for now. I hope you find it useful and can act with a better direction in this respect.

Remember, don't deprive your child of outings or contact with other children. Don't deprive other children of learning the value of empathy from your children.