The Sourdough School

BALM – Proven as one of the healthiest approaches to bread in the world.

Discover how Baking as Lifestyle Medicine can transform your gut and mental health—through bread. Based in the walled gardens of Dr. Vanessa Kimbell’s beautiful Victorian home in rural Northamptonshire, UK, we teach individuals, bakers, and healthcare professionals to bake Proven Bread. Developed by Dr. Kimbell—widely recognised as a global authority on bread and health—this functional nutrition approach uses nutrigenetics to personalise each loaf for optimal health.

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638 - ‘Gluten and Autism Spectrum Disorder’. Nutrients. 13, 572

Reference Number: 638

Year: 2021

Authors: Iain D. Croall, Nigel Hoggard, Marios Hadjivassiliou

Link: Link to original paper

Health: ASD | Inflammation | Mental Health

Nutrition: Gluten>Gluten Free | Proteins

Intolerance & Sensitivity: Coeliac

Summary

An expanding body of literature is examining connections between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and dietary interventions. While a number of specialist diets have been suggested as beneficial in ASD, gluten has received particularly close attention as a potentially exacerbating factor. Reports exist suggesting a beneficial effect of the gluten-free diet (GFD) in ameliorating behavioural and intellectual problems associated with ASD, while epidemiological research has also shown a comorbidity between ASD and coeliac disease. However, both caregivers and clinicians have expressed an uncertainty of the value of people with ASD going gluten-free, and as the GFD otherwise receives considerable public attention a discussion which focuses specifically on the interaction between ASD and gluten is warranted. In this review we discuss the historical context of ASD and gluten-related studies, and expand this to include an overview of epidemiological links, hypotheses of shared pathological mechanisms, and ultimately the evidence around the use and adoption of the GFD in people with ASD.

 

Significance of the study:

This review highlights modest comorbidity between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Coeliac Disease. Moreover, after reviewing the existing research exploring a Gluten-Free diet in the treatment of ASD, the paper concludes that a negative effect of gluten ingestion in ASD has not been proved. In short, trials that have sought to demonstrate this are variable in their findings and suffer from issues with experimental design and execution which means that an overall interpretation cannot yet be made.

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All reasonable care is taken when advising about health aspects of bread, but the information that we share is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

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