Enjoying Gluten-Free Life

Helping Others Enjoy Life

A Licensed Nutritionist in Kensington, Maryland, Dana Laake of Dana Laake Nutrition co-authored “The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook.” She brings to it a background of nearly four decades in the health industry, more than 25 of that in medical nutrition, treating both children and adults.

While the main title of the book implies it’s just a cookbook, smaller print tells the story – “The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet.” About a third of the book is text detailing diagnostic tools and the gluten-free casein-free diet (GFCF) plus other dietary changes that might be helpful for ADHD and autistic children. For parents wondering how to start their child on the diet, one section is titled “Getting Started – Easy Does It!” (Dana prefers a gradual withdrawal of the foods.)

There are also sections of the book that could be used by anyone, child or adult, on an “allergy” diet including charts with foods containing soy, corn or nuts – surprising to me, dextrose and lecithin could have corn in them.

The rest of the book is filled with recipes and ideas that even I, an adult with no kids, found useful such as the lunch idea for chicken strips with a BBQ dipping sauce. (yum) If anyone has a child that’s a picky eater, suggestions for sneaking healthy foods into the diet (what they call the “Trojan Horse technique”) may be helpful – pureed vegetables can be added to foods such as brownies, meatballs or tomato sauce.

There are a large variety of recipes in the cookbook, sometimes with options such as six for pancakes and three for rice milk. While she and co-author Pamela J. Compart, M.D. have included some desserts, this isn’t a baking cookbook so much as a general allergy cookbook with the presence of gluten, milk, soy, egg, corn, and nuts clearly marked at the top of each recipe. See the recipe below which is free of all of those (except nuts if you include coconut in that category as they do).

Dana answers some questions:

I’ve seen quotes from doctors basically saying that a gluten-free/casein-free diet is unhealthy. They say the child would no longer have calcium from dairy, etc. Can you address these concerns?

Glutens are a grain choice – there are many others that can be selected and still be gluten free. Milk products are a protein choice – beans, nuts, seeds, meat and fish are also protein choices.

Glutens and milk products have not been part of our diet for long, just .005% of human history, .05% of modern history. There are cultures throughout the world that have no access to animal milk. It is not a mandatory food group, that’s why a pyramid that makes it important is not anthropologically correct.

An organic, healthy diet is best – grass-fed beef, local. That generally applies to a lot of people. 

Do all autistic children show improvement with a gluten-free/casein-diet or other dietary changes?

It is a very specific group that will respond. About 1/3 with autism show significant improvement and another 1/3 will respond but not totally from diet alone. For the other 1/3, the autism diet’s irrelevant and doesn’t work. The diet is not the only treatment.

The GFCF diet is going to work most likely with children who are addicted to and limit their choices to 85% of gluten and casein products. They characteristically reject vegetables and sometimes fruit.

This is the art of nutrition and medicine, art based on science. The biomedical has to be done. We can be cleaning up the diet as you get the supplements in.

The RDA applies only to healthy people within a given population. It’s not people with autism, not people with other problems; their needs are now higher because of those things. (A section in the book titled “Supplements Make the Difference” gives more detail on the subject.)

What happens when a parent lets the child eat foods they’ve been off of?

I love it when the parents do the cheat [give foods not on the diet] so we know it’s working.

To all of us:

It’s not the food you don’t eat that makes you sick, it’s the food you love and crave. It takes at least 2-4 days to get casein out of your system, and a lot longer with some foods. Gluten can take months; we don’t know why it takes so long.

RECIPE:

I tried the Coconut Sweet Rice from the cookbook and it’s quite good, sweet without sugar and rather exotic in flavor. Both my husband (a meat-and-potatoes guy) and I enjoyed it with dinner. My sweet tooth wanted to drizzle maple syrup on it and call it dessert. My creative side wondered how it would be with dates instead of raisins. (I also discovered leftovers are good the next day.)

Coconut Sweet Rice

1 cup water
1 cup short-grain brown rice
1/2 cup raisins or currants (I used raisins)
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 tsp turmeric*

Boil water. Add rice and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add raisins or currants, cinnamon stick, coconut milk, and turmeric. Cook an additional 20 minutes or until water has evaporated. (Recipe – and photo of Dana Laake – used with permission.)

My rice’s directions said to cook it 50 minutes so I began with 15 minutes instead of 10 then added the other ingredients and cooked it an additional 35 minutes. I also had to add about a cup more water but I often have to with rice – I don’t think I turn it as low as I should to simmer. (should have used the rice cooker) Do keep an eye on yours though. *I left out the turmeric because it isn’t something I would normally add to a sweet dish but will most likely add it next time. (I have to tell you that if you should buy this book through the link below, I will earn some money from the purchase.)