There have been rumors and anecdotal evidence that HFCS was not good for you but many argue back that HFCS cannot be any worse than common sugar. However, a Princeton study released this week indicates that there is much to be concerned about HFCS in your diet: increased weight gain per calorie eaten, increased circulating triglyceride levels, etc.

At Autistry Studios meals we try to avoid serving HFCS soft drinks and we are increasingly pushing water and home-made sparkling water + fruit juice drinks.

Shameless self-promotion follows:

Want some great exercise? Join us at our spin-a-thon fundraiser on Sunday April 25.

Ian and Michael Lopez

Please join us at the first Autistry Studios fundraiser – a Spin-a-Thon graciously hosted by Michael Lopez at his Body Image Personal Fitness Center.

Info: (see flyer for more information)

The funds raised will be used in our Opportunity Fund which allows us to offer services on a sliding scale to lower income families.

Sunday April 25, 2010
Five one-hour spin sessions: 10am – 3pm
Spin for one hour — or five!

Donate while you sweat:
Five 1-hour Spin Sessions beginning at 10am (Treadmills and ellipticals are also available!)

Donations:
Adults: $40/per hour
Kids (13 – 18): $20 per hour

Make payment to Autistry Studios, Inc.
A Federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

Space is limited – reservations are highly recommended!
To reserve your bike (or treadmill) call Janet: (415) 945-9788
Or email: Janet@AutistryStudios.com

And – check out the short film about Autistry Studios by Bay School senior Chelsea Mattoon: http://www.autistrystudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/a-small-movie-about-autistry-studios/

Let’s Spin!

Location:
Body Image Personal Fitness Center
23 Reed Blvd.
Mill Valley, CA 94941
View Larger Map

• improved energy which improved mood.
• clearer sinuses, better sleep.
• improved ability to withstand sensory input.

Over the next few months more benefits became apparent:

• For our son, we found his ability to attend to his schoolwork improved such that he made new rapid and impressive progress on speech and reading.
• Additionally, our son had needed medication for years to sleep through the night (Ambien and Valium) but we now found that he could go medication-free and we have been for all the years since.
• For our son’s Aspie dad (that would be me): huge welcome weight loss. Sixty-five pounds shed seemingly effortlessly — and still gone a decade later.

Looking back over the years we can see other benefits:

• Improved health. As a family we almost never get sick. Maybe one cold or flu a year.
• Our son knows that right food makes him feel good, bad food makes him feel bad and he acts on this independently. This is an important truth that most adults do not understand.

On countless occasions parents ask us about “doing the diet” and relate that they were not able to do the diet themselves because “it was too hard.”

I’m going to say something really bluntly:

Having an ASD child is HARD.

Planning your diet so it does not have wheat guten or dairy protein is TRIVIAL by comparison.

I do not think the GF-CF diet works for everybody or is needed by everybody. However, if you or your child need a GF-CF diet the benefits are such that it is simply negligent to never even seriously try it just because it feels like too much effort.

Additionally there is a growing body of research showing the serious health problems you risk if you or your children need a gluten free diet but do not get one.

Dr. Mark Hyman MD writes regularly at the Huffington Post and today posted a very good article with several great data points about the dangers of gluten if someone’s body is sensitive to it.

Mark Hyman, Huffington Post “Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You”

There is a very interesting article by Mark Hyman over on HuffPo about common food allergies like gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, yeast, and peanuts and sometimes soy and how there seems to be a relationship between weight gain (or difficulty losing weight) and eating foods you are somewhat allergic to.

Dan's Wheat Free & Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie Recipe

I know that I rapidly lost 65 pounds (a 25% weight reduction) when I went on a gluten-free dairy-free diet and I’ve only gained 10 pounds back in the last 12 years since.

Our son has been having serious acne lately and we’re going to experiment with eliminating peanuts for a couple weeks and see if that has any positive impact.

As the holidays are approaching I thought I’d share our favorite pie crust recipe. This is also available at my GFCF Pumpkin pie page.

Rice based piecrust

Makes two 10-inch pie shells

Blend the dry ingredients.

Cut in margarine and shortening until mixture resembles a course meal. Add egg yolk, water, and vinegar.
Blend.

Wrap dough in plastic and press into a ball. Chill for 1 hour.

Between two sheets of plastic wrap, roll dough out into a 12-inch circle (about 1/4-inch thick). Remove top sheet of plastic wrap and flip pastry onto a 10-inch pie plate. Keeping the plastic wrap over the top of the crust, pat it into the pan, piecing together any parts that separate when the crust lands in the pan. Remove the second sheet of plastic wrap. Crimp edges.

Here is my secret: I use Pamela’s Wheat Free, Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie Mix. There are several recipes on the package. I use the the Original Oil Recipe.

But, and here is the secret: I substitute 1/4 cup of applesauce for the 1/4 cup of water. Everything else I leave the same.

The other trick with these brownies is to not overcook them. In my small convection oven it takes 11 minutes to bake a 8″ square pan of brownies.

In the last few years this has changed dramatically. Pamela’s Products baking mixes have become staple at our house. One of the first places to offer GFCF items on their menu was Disneyland. For our family this truly became the Happiest Place on Earth.

This morning I found an email in my Inbox from Amazon announcing that Betty Crocker has a new line of Gluten Free dessert mixes. I haven’t tried them yet but I will order them and report back.

A section of Betty Crocker’s site is now devoted to their Gluten Free products.

Enjoy!

We have been on a Gluten Free Casein Free (GF-CF) diet for over ten years and have found it to be well worth the effort. GF-CF effectively means no wheat and no dairy and that pretty much eliminates 90% of the products found at a typical grocery store.

We have had many requests for details of how we do our diet and I’ll kick off that series soon.