Restrictive Diets and Autism, do they work? Researchers say, "No!"

A story ran this morning in the New York Daily News that reports for years, parents of autistic children have promoted restrictive diets as a way to manage behavioral problems, but a new controversial report by an expert panel says there is no evidence to support that claim. The most famous parent to claim that early intervention and treatment along with a restrictive diet brought her back to communicate like a "typical" child is Jenny McCarthy. Many people know that I love Jenny McCarthy and respect her tremendously for all of her work that she has done to bring attention to Autism. Jenny found the ammunition she needed in the form of a strict dairy free and wheat free diet, an anti-fungal medication, and in various forms of behavioral therapy. She also enlisted the help of a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) Doctor. So, if this worked for Jenny's son Evan along with other parents, then why would reports claim otherwise?

The answer is simply the kind of anecdotal evidence that parents report of the "diet" curing their child doesn’t fly with doctors and scientists. Until they can find more concrete results, experts recommend sticking to traditional forms of care, like hyperbaric chamber treatments, which have shown promise in some cases. The wide array of behavioral issues seen with autism cases only compounds the problem of figuring out what diets (if any) could help a patient. With my brother's case, in the 80's and 90's autism was rarely spoken so, we never knew much about the disease let alone many treatment options. However, I still wonder if we were to put him on the restricted diet if he would have been different or better yet, been cured from Autism?