More than food for thought

I know this subject is a little off on a tangent, I feel that it is interesting nonetheless and offers a further dimension to what we are trying to achieve here.

Whilst thinking more about the impact of food on mood I began to think about food and medicine. Many medical practitioners realise there is a strong link between mood and food and it made me think about my nephew who has Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).

AS is high functioning Autism, he also had Attention Deficient Disorder (ADD) and Celiac Disease (where one must eat gluten free products). Though my nephew does need to eat a gluten free diet, it is it is often recommended, mainly on the Internet and occasionally by their doctors, that the child with AS and ADD, should eat a gluten free diet. The effect of this can be profound, with many accounts by parents citing that the change in diet has led to massive improvements in their child and in some cases, some even talk of ‘miracles’.

Of course one can be sceptical of this, but I feel that there must be some truth in this, especially as the incidence of celiac disease is much higher in those with autism. Further to this, the charity mind (www.mind.org.uk), also state that they have found links between mood and food and thus mental health.

The following link leads to an interesting article that explores this further:
www.mind.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/2F510AB1-E714-483A-9E49-6D2AE7C148D8/0/TheMindGuidetofood.pdf

It has a brief and interesting section discussing why food affects mood on page 3...

Kristy