Autism

[Sony]

This is kind of a weird question but does anyone here have any thoughts or experiences about how CR could perhaps help symptoms of autism or similar disorders? Also I see that most posts here are from men but I’d love to hear any stories from any ladies in this group about how CR has affected their health and life. Thank you 🙏🏽.

[mccoy]

Autism: that's a pretty wide spectrum so the question should be more detailed, are we dealing with a low-functioning individual, with behavioral problems, or with a high-functioning one, with marginal sensorial and socialization problems? The former may not just accept to eat little and if compelled it may constitute an environmental factor that may contribute to mood instability and worsen the situation.

The latter may be convinced perhaps, but I strongly doubt that the signals triggered by CR could counteract the hefty genetic combinations that are believed to cause this disorder.

[drewab]

Hi Sony,

First off - welcome to the board! I am not a male, so I realize that my response is not from the population you were looking for. If I were to make a generalization, I would say that CR impacts nearly every aspect of our biology and usually in a very positive way. Please note that most people here would CR as CRON, which is calorie restriction with optimal nutrition. The ON part of this equation is very important and perhaps even more important than the CR aspect. It is actually debatable as to what longevity benefit (if any) that a person on CR will gain over someone who maintains a healthy lifestyle without the reduce energy intake (or increased expenditure) side of the equation. 

For women, CR does impact biology slightly different in terms of it's impact on reproductive health/menstruation, bone mineral density, etc. The equivalent effects in men tend to come in the form of either reduced testosterone (or less free/bioavalible testosterone) and reduced bone mineral density but perhaps to a slightly lesser extent. 

Despite the fact that living a CR lifestyle means reduced energy intake, I find that I have the most energy I have ever had - it is an extremely even and well balanced form of energy too that doesn't involve the ups and downs that come with eating a "normal diet". My productivity is at an all time high, I enjoy my time with family and friends more than ever, and I have more cognitive clarity ever before. I should also note that I am about 13.5 years into my CR journey, so it is a familiar landscape at this point. 

NutritionFacts.Org has quite a few videos on autism that may be of interest and I would strongly recommend checking them out: https://nutritionfacts.org/?s=autism I personally go so far as reading the original sources of most documents when they pique my interest, though this is just a matter of personal curiosity... 

[Sony]

Hi Drew thanks for your response. I’m sorry but I’m confused are you female? If so that’s what I was looking for, I’m female too so I was just interested in how CR affected women specifically. Maybe I wasn’t clear in my first post, sorry about that 🤣. And thank you Mc Coy for your response too. I agree with you that I’m not sure CR would be very practical for low functioning people with autism. I guess i just was interested to see if anyone felt like in theory it could help. I ask because I know I’ve read that there’s a lot of evidence that autism is at least in part a metabolical disorder. I’m around people with autism/intellectual disability a lot and it really seems to me that this could be true. They’re almost always overweight and many are diabetic  so it seems to me that CR could help if you could get them to comply to eating that way? I’m also on the autism spectrum myself (mildly though) and I know for myself I feel much better in general once I started to take my diet seriously. I’ve always been a light eater but once I got rid of junk food and made sure the food I was eating was nutritionally complete it’s been a huge change. 

[mccoy]

Just now, Sony said:

They’re almost always overweight and many are diabetic  so it seems to me that CR could help if you could get them to comply to eating that way?

The low functioning ones are overweight on average since they have narrow interests and little satisfaction from things which deviate from sensorial stimuli, like taste and texture-feeling. Consequently, they enjoy eating and tend to gain weight. An additional reason they're usually overweight is that their condition is associated with problematic behaviors treated with antipsychotics or mood stabilizers, which almost invariably (especially the second-generation antipsychotics) increase hunger for little-known reasons. Drugs also tend to be detrimental to metabolism and cause diabetes or dyslipidemia. So, metabolic issues are often a consequence rather than a cause of autism.

My son is a low-functioning autistic boy who eats hugely and is overweight but displays no metabolic issues, maybe because his diet is pretty healthy, with an incredible amount of fiber: pounds of vegetables each day, fruit, nuts, beans, moderate carbs, and much protein to satisfy hunger.

[mccoy]

17 minutes ago, Sony said:

I’m also on the autism spectrum myself (mildly though) and I know for myself I feel much better in general once I started to take my diet seriously. I’ve always been a light eater but once I got rid of junk food and made sure the food I was eating was nutritionally complete it’s been a huge change. 

I am sure that in your case you would benefit considerably from a healthy diet. Caloric restriction on top of a healthy dietary regime would be ideal if you are overweight yourself; There is ample material in this forum to decide wether to give it a try.

[Sony]

Thank you for both of your responses McCoy 🙏🏽. I actually already do CR, I’ve always been a light eater and always been thin so the only real change for me has been instead of eating 1200 calories of junk food a day I now eat 1200 calories or so of nutritionally complete food. I came across CR on Reddit and thought I would give it a try just to help with feeling better physically and it’s definitely done that. The way it helped me mentally though wasn’t something I was expecting and it was a very happy surprise. At this point even if diet didn’t help me at all physically I would keep eating this way for the feeling of emotional peace it gives me. It certainly isn’t a cure but it helps a lot. There’s nothing about eating “normally” that’s worth how bad it makes me feel, eating garbage makes you feel like garbage, or at least that’s been my experience. If you don’t mind sharing, why do you do CR and what benefits have you noticed? Thank you again for your thoughtful replies.

[mccoy]

Sony, presently I don't do rigorous CR, since I tend to become too skinny if I cut calories. I just adjust the amount by instinct (neurological signals) but I do select the food which is healthiest according to literature, experience and my own tolerances. The bulk of my diet is vegetables, nuts and fermented dairy products. The main benefit of eating just the necessary amount to me is not having a full stomach, which makes me restless and uneasily body-conscious. It is good to hear that eating properly improved your mental well-being, many factors may have caused that, such as adequate nutrients, and the development of a proper ensemble of gut bacteria.

 

[Sony]

I understand completely what you mean about not having an overly full stomach. I really dislike that feeling too which I think is why I naturally eat at a minimum. Since you seem to know a whole lot about CR do you think 1200 calories is where I should be for the benefits of CR? I’m 5’ 3” and 105lbs for reference. I picked 1200 because that’s always what they say the minimum is for women and that seems to be naturally the amount I like to eat anyway. I’m definitely thin but I don’t think I’m underweight exactly. I  have enough energy to get through the day and I have a physical job and I walk a lot so to me that seems like I must be getting enough? 

[mccoy]

6 hours ago, Sony said:

Since you seem to know a whole lot about CR do you think 1200 calories is where I should be for the benefits of CR?...

Not exactly, the other guys have been practicing CRON for years or decades, whereas I only did it intermittently and often just CR without the ON, back in the days when there was little info or no info at all on this topic.

What I can tell you, waiting for other members to chime in on this issue, is that your BMI would seem to be slightly on the low side of the optimal, but some people just thrive on that. If you feel good and if you check your health status by blood analyses and they turn out to be all right and if you are all right with your physical appearance then I suppose that's just all right, but, again, I'll leave further considerations to more qualified users here.