04. Getting Started with Nutrition for Autism
We start off this podcast by answering one of the most common questions: "I feel so overwhelmed. Where do I even begin?" So if you've ever felt overwhelmed or intimidated by nutrition for autism, you are not alone, and this episode is for you!
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IN THIS EPISODE
Reducing overwhelm when getting started with nutrition for autism
The basics to prioritize when starting with dietary changes
An exercise for you to prioritize the changes you’d like to make for your child
LINKS
Join the Autism Nutrition Library
Follow @AutismDietitian on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast where you take a deep dive into the research on autism and dietary changes, nutrition supplements, and lifestyle modifications. Every week, we break down nutrition topics and an easy-to-understand way for you to feel less overwhelmed and feel confident on your nutrition journey with autism.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast. I'm your host, Brittyn Coleman autism dietician. And i'm excited to dive into this week's topic which is getting started with nutrition
First of all, I'd just like to thank everybody who celebrated with me this past week with the podcast launch and who rated my podcast or left a review. It meant so much to me. And I truly, truly appreciate you. the podcast actually ranked number three in the us for nutrition. And I'm so excited and so grateful because you all made that happen. So just sending a quick, thank you for everybody who celebrated in the launch of the podcast with me, he was listened and shared. I am so appreciative of you and I would love for you to continue to share. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
So we're going to start off this podcast by answering one of the most common questions that I get, which is "I feel so overwhelmed. Where do I even begin?" So if you've ever felt overwhelmed or intimidated by nutrition for autism, you are not alone. What's confusing is that everybody on the internet has their own opinion of what's right or wrong for autism. And there are plenty of people online with large followings who have no scientific backing to their method and no credentials, which is kind of scary.
There's also social media culture judgment, the pressure to be perfect. All of these things that are influencing you. And making you feel judged, overwhelmed, and adequate all of the above. So we're really going to set out to address that and start with the basics before we dive into the really advanced topic of nutrition and help you feel less overwhelmed and ready to get started.
So the internet makes nutrition seen easy. One size fits all and very black and white. And if you ask me, what is nutrition not? I would say all of those things, nutrition should be research-based individualized, realistic, and most importantly, sustainable.
So online, you're going to hear people tossing around some really complex topics when it comes to nutrition for autism like yeast overgrowth growth or dysbiosis, MTHFR, gene mutation, removing glutamates, salicylates oxalates, you name it. And there's all these really overwhelming topics that maybe you had never heard of before that can just make it really frustrating. So while these things could be helpful, it might be one of the pieces to your child's nutrition. You do not have to dive into the deep end in all of these different topics to see progress. We really want to start off with the basics. So I often recommend that families that get started with me get started with those basics before going into those advanced topics.
So basically waiting into the shallow end and learning to swim and then comfortably swimming into the deep end before you actually jump in, we want to master the basics before going into those really advanced topics. And this is going to be something that helps you reduce your overwhelm. And start with something more manageable and really build the groundwork for your child and for your family.
So while you're listening to this episode or any episode for that matter, go ahead and get out a piece of paper and draw a big line down the middle of it vertically. So you can pause this podcast and go grab and get a piece of paper and a pen, if you would like and do this exercise together. So, if you are doing this in real time on the left, you're going to begin by writing down all of the things that you want to try, that sound interesting, things that you want to get to one day. After you make this big list, we will start by moving things over to the right. So the things that you have the capacity to change now, or this week, so on the left, everything that you want to try on the right, the things that you have the capacity to change right now or soon.
So we're working on progress, not perfection, these small changes add up. It doesn't have to be black and white. You don't have to do everything all at once. In fact, doing it this way, where you make these small changes over time is going to make this so much more sustainable longterm, which is what we want.
You know, I don't want you to just make this huge overhaul and then completely burnout a week from now and toss in the towel and say, oh, it didn't work nutrition isn't for me. I tried it. Didn't see any progress. A week is not enough time for you to see progress. Nutrition takes time. We want these changes to be sustainable and manageable for you longterm. You're balancing a lot of things as a parent who has a child on the spectrum. You're in different therapies. You're managing IEP. You're juggling all these pieces. Nutrition can be really overwhelming. So just starting off with that small piece and building on top of it, it's going to help you keep the sustainable and manageable. It's going to be different for everybody too. Everybody is going to be able to handle different things depending on their current situation.
There may be certain things that hold you back from making all the progress that you want to have short-term that might be that your child is selective eater, it could be financial. It could be that you don't have the time. So this really will look different for everybody. And keep in mind that everybody on the autism spectrum on and off the spectrum. We're so uniquely different. There's no one size fits all approach. There's no one exact method or timeline. So this is going to be what works well for your child, what works for your family and how we're going to do this? Long-term we're working on progress, not perfection. And that is a really important lesson that I recommend everybody learn and repeat back to themselves.
So let's get started with the basics. The most important thing that we want to do for nutrition for autism is to support the gut. So if you haven't heard of it, there's something called the gut- brain connection, which is basically the bi-directional connection between the gut and the brain. The gut affecting the brain and the brain affecting the gut. It's such an important topic to cover and it's huge for autism, but it can also relate to many other conditions like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, you know, the gut brain connection is just so incredibly interesting and so important for kids with autism.
Our diet is so fundamental in gut health. And there are many other variables like stress levels, your environment, your age, if you are born via C-section or breastfed or formula fed, there's so many different pieces that can affect your gut bacteria and diet is a huge, huge piece of that.
We all have good bacteria and bad bacteria living in our gut. It's actually estimated that we have over a hundred trillion total bacteria living in our gut, which is insane. So, what we want to do is grow the good bacteria and starve out the bad bacteria.
The good bacteria love fiber. They love foods that are rich in fiber. We're thinking whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. All of these foods are great to feed that beneficial bacteria. For kids who are selective and don't eat a lot of fiber. You can figure this out also by tracking what they're eating and telling us how many grams of fiber per day are they actually eating? And if they're not hitting the mark for their age, which I have the estimated amounts for each age and gender for fiber listed in the fiber note and the autism nutrition library. So you can go find that to figure out what your child needs per day. But if your child isn't meeting the mark, we can work on building in foods that do contain fiber that they like. But if they're not going to accept those foods so quickly, we could talk about adding in a fiber supplement, like a prebiotic to fill in the gap while we work on expanding the diet.
To support the gut. We also want to get in probiotics, which can be in the form of a supplement or from fermented foods. Many different fermented foods like kimchi Keifer. These options introduce good bacteria into the gut.
Keep in mind that probiotic supplements are not all created equal. So you want to make sure that you're getting a high quality probiotic and you can find more information on that as well in the autism nutrition library.
We want to take out artificial food additives, like sweeteners, preservatives colors, removing pesticides. So trying to choose organic as much as possible. Removing refined sugars, added sugars. I'm not talking fruit here. We're talking added sugars. Cane sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup. Some of those foods that are feeding the bacteria in our gut, that is not beneficial. And then also addressing any common food sensitivities. It's common to see kids with autism sensitive, to dairy, gluten, soy, and corn among other things. And so if you notice that your child has a certain trigger foods, you might want to consider some of those foods or taking a food journal to figure out what they are reacting to and how we can reduce or remove that food.
Keep in mind, if your child is already a really selective eater, we don't want to start pulling out big groups of food. You know, if they only eat five different foods and gluten and dairy are in all of those foods, we want to add before we subtract. So that's going to be a huge topic that we talk about in a later episode. Uh, but I do recommend working to add in foods, finding alternatives instead of just removing all of those foods right away, that can put you in a really sticky situation. If the child is not going to start eating new foods. Selective eating does not just resolve with hunger. It really implements sensory processing issues too. If you haven't listened to episode, number three, about picky eating and autism, I do advise you to go listen to that, to learn more about why kids with autism are likely to be selective
And then another piece that we want to integrate are brain healthy foods, which are going to be foods like healthy fats, like omega threes and omega nines, including fatty fish, flax, chia, walnuts, olive oil, avocado oil, some of these brain healthy fats that are going to support the brain. Lean proteins, organic grass fed beef, pastured, chicken, eggs, et cetera. And then antioxidant foods like berries, broccoli, green veggies, dark chocolate, even oranges, not seeds, turmeric, et cetera.
similar to supporting the gut, taking out artificial food additives. I added sugars. And then also thinking about MSG. so any foods that contain MSG or free glutamates and processed and fried foods. glutamates can cause a hyperactivity in kids that are sensitive or anxiety. So if you don't know what glutamates are, I'll have an episode on that too, but you can definitely go refer back to the autism nutrition library. And then like i said removing processed and fried foods can be great to avoid excess amounts of omega six fatty acids, which can be inflammatory and high amounts.
So now refer back to that piece of paper with the line down the middle. If you have the capacity to change some of these things, now let's do it. But if you don't, no matter the reason, whether it's picky eating, finances, a time restriction, et cetera, work on these things. Gradually continue to add things over to the other column and say, this is something that I can handle. Right now, this is something that I'm able to do this week. I have the capacity to move forward. After you've done it, cross it off your list and pull the next thing into the column that you're able to handle right now. It doesn't have to be black and white. You don't have to do everything at once. We're thinking progress over perfection.
And of course, this is just the basics, but I want you to start here before diving into really advanced topics. We want to get this nailed down. And then the next episode, we're going to talk about how to balance your child's plate. And that's going to be also one of the basics that I want you to get started before moving on to these really, really advanced topics.
So I basically built a membership to help parents get started and reduce overwhelm. It's called the autism nutrition library, and it's a membership for parents of kids on the spectrum wanting to use nutrition to help their kids feel great. So on top of all the information on supplements and diets, food, symptoms, conditions, you name it. I also have kid-friendly recipes to nourish kids on the spectrum and a members only community forum to support you. I would love to support you and connect with you there. You can also find me on Instagram at autism dietitian. Please share if you listened to this episode and it spoke to you. I'm just grateful that you joined me this week as we're taking the guesswork out of nourishing autism
Please click subscribe so you can be notified when new episodes are published. And if you've enjoyed this episode, I'd be so appreciative. If you left a five star rating and or review. Have a great week everybody and i will see you next week
This podcast is brought to you by the Autism Nutrition Library, a one-stop hub and community for all things autism nutrition created to help you explore evidence-based nutrition approaches that have proved to be effective to help individuals with autism feel their best, do their best, and be their best.
Join now by clicking Autism Nutrition Library or by stopping by my Instagram @AutismDietitian. See you next week.
Transcribed by Descript
ABOUT Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, CLT
I’m a Registered Dietitian, Autism Nutrition Expert, and the Creator of the Autism Nutrition Library.
I work with parents of children with autism to optimize their child’s diet, supplements, and lifestyle based on their unique needs. I help expand accepted foods for picky eaters, improve digestion and gut health, find the root causes of many symptoms, and ultimately help them feel their best so that they can do their best and be their best.
Not only do I relate to families on a professional level, but also on a personal level. I have been a part of the autism community for over 20 years, as my younger brother was diagnosed on the spectrum at a young age.
I look forward to working with you to uncover the root cause of your child’s symptoms and help your child be the best version of themselves!
