More than a hundred years ago, the Autism Society initiated a nationwide effort to help promote autism awareness, involvement for everyone, and assurance that each person with autism is provided the opportunity to achieve the highest possible quality of life.
In honor of National Autism Awareness Month, we thought we would participate by sharing some of the ways nutrition can help give children and adults a leg up on achieving the highest possible quality of life with autism. These are some tips to make sure that you have well rounded nutrition:
Avoid Sugar
Sugar, specifically processed sugars, can damage our mental health as well as our physical health. Studies have shown that having a low-glucose diet can improve mood, brain development, and allows good flora in your gut to flourish. Although no direct studies have been made with autistic children, a study done with mice showing autistic tendencies, such as repetitive behaviors and social avoidance, improved those tendencies on a low-glucose diet. Consequently, parents who have attempted a low-sugar diet with their kids did see an improvement in their child’s autistic tendencies.
What about fruit? Believe it or not, some fruit contains a lot of sugar, and too much fruit can be damaging to your diet. With that being said, a healthy portion of fruit can contain many vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that can help the immune system.
Bring on the Protein
Not only can lowering sugar improve the quality of life, but filling in those gaps with protein can reinforce you or your child’s development. A high protein diet helps muscle function and the body develop.
Lean proteins such as skinless chicken, turkey, or beans (lentils, black beans, pinto beans) support the development of the brain as well as the bones, muscles and skin.
The omega-3’s found in fish help improve brain development and has proven to improve language development in children with autism.
Supplements and Vitamins
We understand that with a wide spectrum of autism, tantrums or pickiness during meal times can affect the nutritional development of a person living with autism. This is were a good multivitamin could fill in the gaps. Be sure to look for vitamins that do not have a high sugar content as most chewable vitamins do.
Also, a good probiotic can help reinforce and develop good gut bacteria that in turn helps with mood, digestion, and overall health.
Although there are no defining studies that show that nutrition directly affects the symptoms of autism, parents of children with autism have seen a large improvement in the symptoms after enforcing these small nutritional benefits within their child’s diet.
If you have a loved one or you’re an adult living with autism and are looking for
a diet solution, check out www.superfitfoods.co for healthy well balanced meals made right and delivered right to your door at your convenience, ready to eat.