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INSIDE PERSPECTIVES of AS & Neurodiversity |
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EATING
Eating disorders, food problems and atypical eating habits seem to be very common among Aspies and sensitive people. Being a ‘picky eater’ and having a very narrow diet, usually has good reasons, e.g.:
· Gustatory hypo- & hypersensitivity. Sensitivity to certain tastes may come with being a Highly Sensitive Person in general, and a ‘supertaster’ in particular. Which taste type one belongs to is determined by genes.
Supertasters have lots of papillae that are closely packed together and small. · Perceive all tastes as more intense than other taster types, particularly bitter tastes. · Tend to be fussy about their food and have strong food likes and dislikes. · Usually don't like coffee, grapefruit, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and spinach. · Around 25% of people are said to be super-tasters.
Normal tasters have an average number of medium-sized papillae. · Like a large variety of foods but care about how their food is prepared. · Around 50% of people are said to be normal tasters.
Nontasters have few papillae (the tiny bumps on the tongue that contain taste buds). · Perceive all tastes as less intense than other taster types. · Are particularly insensitive to bitter tastes. · Are happy with most foods, irrespective of the type of food or its preparation. · Around 25% of people are said to be non-tasters.” - From Are you a supertaster?
“I was a very picky eater when I was younger. I have a very sensitive sense of taste. Lemon juice on fish would literally burn my tongue like caustic acid. I can taste rotting meat and milk going bad. At the table, sometimes I will guzzle milk like crazy, and sometimes I refuse to even taste it and won't have any until the next gallon is opened. My mom can't figure out why. When I tell her that the milk smells, and sometimes tastes different, she (and my dad, and my sister, if she is visiting) cannot tell the difference.” - Tom, adult Aspie from USA
“Food has always been another huge problem. There are very few things I can eat, without getting sick. I can't handle anything spicy, even regular black pepper is too much for me.” - Tracy, adult HSP from USA
A Study of Gustatational Sensitivity in young ASD and Non-ASD individuals found the ASD group to be hypo-sensitive to salt & sweet tastes but hypersensitive to acrid, bitter and ‘neutral’/water.
My comment: This to me only indicates that they and may be used to using plenty of salt & sugar in their food; such habituation happens when one gets addicted to something or eats a lot of it. It is the bitter taste-sensitivity that is the real indicator of whether one is a supertaster or not. Many of us are naturally sugar-sensitive and crave salt. The latter I don’t see as a problem but the former may lead to all sorts of physical and mental health issues (see more below).
· It can also be the smell, texture, colour, temperature, the way it is served or made, or other sensory characteristic that makes the food repulsive to a sensitive person.
When I was a kid, I found most foods so repulsive that I’d gag just at the thought of having to put them in my mouth - and when forced to, it often came right back up. Only very slowly have I learned to like more foods than I initially thought I would. But that had to be at my own pace. Being forced to eat things that one is appalled by only creates trauma and stronger resistance. - Inger, site-author
“About food choices, well I’m better than I was when I was younger, but that still isn’t great. I’m extremely picky. So are my kids. My son only eats one thing for lunch and dinner and sometimes breakfast. Sometimes for breakfast he has crackers or cinnamon toast crunch. He does eat a few fruits. That is it.
“When I was [younger] I only ate a few things. Dinner was mostly chicken cutlets or pizza or spaghetti and that was it. My mom used to cook many pounds of chicken cutlets at a time and freeze them into individual portions so the rest of the family could eat different meals and I would actually eat something. Some people say about my son to stop feeding him what he wants and he’ll eventually be hungry enough to eat what the others are eating. I know that isn’t so. My mom tried that with me and I went hungry – period. There was no way I was eating what they were eating, it was too disgusting to me – whether it be smell or look or texture... it made me want to vomit. My kids all gag on smells or texture, or sometimes just the look of things too. Some people will only eat things that are of one color.” - Wendi, adult Aspie from USA
· Food mixing is something that many spectrumites are appalled by.
I’ve always loved ‘clean,’ basic food, where each food item is separated from the rest and easily identifiable. If I had a burger, I would not want anything on it (since it already tasted so much in itself) and would eat the meat first and the bread after. Mixing bread and meat at the same time was unthinkable to me since I could only process one taste and type of texture at a time. Now I’ve relaxed a bit on that point and may mix certain things. Though not just anything, of course! - Inger, site-author
“I only wanted to eat what I liked, everything else felt ’wrong’. I only ate one thing at a time and could’t get down mixed tastes.” - Missbutterfly, adult Aspie from Sweden
· Repetition. Many Aspies prefer to eat the same thing every day. Although unusual in our modern Western culture, historically many people have lived on a few staple foods with little variation and still flourished. Though perhaps the food was more nutritious back then...
“I've been eating Ramen noodles for lunch almost every day for at least 10 years. For dinner I like different things.” - Kitty, adult Aspie
I personally find it stressful to eat different things every day. For me, the need to eat the same food every day is due to:
· There being very few foods I can tolerate (taste-, texture- & allergy-wise).
· Continuity. Getting to love a few tastes/textures and wanting those every time. Also, my sensitive digestion gets disrupted if I feed it something it’s not used to.
· Relative disinterest in food. Don’t want to waste precious time figuring out new things to eat every day, so having only about three favourite dishes to alternate between, frees time to focus on more interesting things. - Inger, site-author
· Addiction. In some cases the tendency to eat the same thing every day may be an addiction (a so-called ‘masked allergy’) to something one is really hypersensitive to and would be best off avoiding. Sugar sensitivity for example, often turns into sugar addiction.
· Blood sugar problems. Some have diabetes, hypoglycaemia or are extra sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations and need to eat more often than others to function properly. May also be the reason why many children in general and ASD children in particular crave sugar and refuse to eat anything else - though that only gives a quick fix and makes it worse in the long run. Better to stabilise blood-sugar with a balanced mix of protein, low-GI carbohydrates and healthy fat and allow small, frequent meals.
· Food intolerance. Sensitive/atypical people often have multiple allergies , including intolerance to many foods. It is therefore always a good idea to check which foods one may be sensitive too. Gluten, casein and lactose intolerance has gotten a lot of attention and for some it may be a problem.
“I don't know if it's the casein, or the lactose or the lactase, but when I have dairy products, my asthma flares up. Also it makes my joints hurt more.”
“For myself I find that [casein] affects my cognition. My ability to think clearly and recollect needed information. It also makes me somewhat weird in mind and makes me sleepy.” - Nathan, adult Aspie from USA
However, it may not be the culprit in every case. No use going through the rather extensive hassle & cost of restrictive CFGF diets without being sure what the problem is. There are many other allergies/hypersensitivities/environmental triggers that may cause similar problems. Some of which don’t show up on standard allergy tests but have to be figured out by systematic elimination/reintroduction trials. I’d try eliminating known irritants like MSG, Aspartame, ‘hydrolised vegetable protein’, artificial colouring, corn starch, sugar etc. first.
“We also figured out this way Jerry can not have donuts for breakfast. They make him hyper and he can't concentrate the rest of the day. I was able to show him the pages with the proof and he doesn't give me a hard time about this anymore. With Jerry if you can prove to him one way is better than another he is more compliant. (I am the same way).” - Beth, adult Aspie parent from USA
“Some artificial sweetners give me really bad stomach cramps. I bought some flavoured water a bit back (a brand I'd not bought before - it just looked nice) and I could not drink it all because I was in quite a bit of pain and I'd not even drunk 1/2 the bottle (small bottle). I checked the label - sure enough there was some artificial sweetner in it - even though it didn't say it was a diet drink. I had to chuck it away - it'll teach me to read labels anyway.” - Julie, adult Aspie from England
“Nutra sweet does that to me, I can't digest it, If I have a little I get cramps and diarreha, If a lot of it, I'm throwing up, Neither of which is any fun. I tend to avoid most artificial sweeteners or things with them in it.”
· Digestion. Many have extra sensitive digestion and get stomach upset by the slightest pressure or change in diet. Irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis, Crohn's or other gut/digestive diseases are not uncommon. Sometimes from stress, sometimes from certain foods or additives one is sensitive to.
· Dysphagia. Some autistics may have problems swallowing and therefore refuse solid foods. (This should be respected, of course!) Some have problems chewing and either swallow the food whole or take a very long time eating.
I’ve had swallowing problems for years on end so that anything non-liquid would cause severe pain. Now it’s better but I still eat incredibly slowly. Getting even a small meal down can literally take hours. - Inger, site-author
· Vegetarianism. Some are vegetarians or vegans, for ethical and/or physical reasons (e.g. finding meat revolting, hard to chew or hard to digest). A poll in a Swedish AS forum showed 15% to be vegetarians and 20% former vegetarians.
“Was a vegetarian for almost twenty years out of ethical reasons. Don’t think animals should have to die for my sake when I can live without... Unfortuantely I’m not good at cooking real meals regularly so I developed various deficiencies. Now I eat a little meat and fish now and then to get enough protein and B12 etc. But I still feel bad about it and would like to go back to lacto-vegetarian. It is mainly the large-scale farming that disturbs me. That animals are bred as products and don’t have a dignified life.” - ‘Pointblank’, female Aspie from Sweden
· Hunger signals. Some people on the spectrum lack or miss hunger signals and don’t realise when they are hungry. Some just forget to eat because they are too uninterested, or too absorbed by other things. They may need reminding, e.g. an alarm that goes off when it’s time to eat.
“I didn’t want to eat and never felt hunger until I reached puberty.” - Missbutterfly, adult Aspie from Sweden
“Food is something I totally forget all the time. I dislike completely that it is necessary for a human to remember everything about food: buying it, preparing it, eating it. Because of my daughters I have 'programmed' myself to do all that, but as soon as I am without them I drop all the eating. I have one meal a day and when my daughters are not around, I can forget to eat for several days.” - Lida, adult Aspie from the Netherlands
“I often consider eating a waste of time and it’s also hard to change focus all the time.......” - Lotta, adult ADHD/Aspie from Sweden
“Eating is indeed boring. Other people talk about enjoying the taste and texture and all that but I don't see it. Some things do taste good, of course, but that is a help mainly in getting the food down in the first place. Just one of the annoying things one has to do to keep the body up. There are times I wouldn't mind going the Robocop route and having cyborg body or something since the upkeep would be so much less.” - William, adult Aspie from USA
“When I was 20 and had just moved from home I started thinking ‘if only there was something akin to dogfood but for people’ i.e. that you could mix with water and leave for a while, naturally more tasty than real dogfood.... I couldn’t decide what to eat, and wasn’t up for cooking.” - Ensamflickan, female Aspie from Sweden
Recommendation: With all the above in mind, I would strongly recommend that no person ever be forced to eat something against his or her will. As long as one makes sure to take supplements so as not to develop nutritional deficiencies from the unvaried diet, I cannot see what’s wrong with simplifying one’s life with a limited diet. Though I still think parents should make sure to restrict things that are known to be harmful and addictive (e.g. sugar, sodas, potato-chips, french-fries, alcohol etc). Reasonable limits, gentle reminders and friendly suggestions, but never force, is my advice.
ANOREXIA & BULIMIA
Seems to be more common among Aspies and Highly Sensitive People than in the general population. Possible reasons:
· Low stress-threshold. Many Aspies have such delicate nervous systems that they experience PTSD-like stress symptoms over what to others are just everyday things, e.g. overwhelming sensory impressions, social confusion, time pressure, demands at school, work, from family members and peers. I recently saw a documentary about an Anorexia clinic where they had found that some anorexics were indeed extra stress-sensitive and lived every day as if under acute threat - which will increase adrenalin & cortisol and turn off appetite temporarily as a fight-or-flight-mechanism, but in their case never got turned on again since their nervous systems never came out of the red alert.
· Personal Taste. Some people really think skinny is more attractive and nothing can change that. People in general and Aspies in particular seem to be very set in their tastes and opinions.
“My ideal since I was around three, was to be as skinny as possible. I thought that looked good (without dieting parents or media impressions). Since it came from within myself, it has been difficult to change my thinking. But now I know how weak you are when you’re that skinny, so I think of natural strength as an idea. This works, but progress is very slow.”
- Emma, adult Aspie from Sweden
· Low self-esteem & attempts to try and fit in by means of weight control. Often due to feeling different and/or not being accepted as one is.
“I have struggled with my appearance...had anorexia and stuff...because I thought if I could be really skinny and all that people would like me for that reason and forget about the AS/HFA and my other differences. For a bit it worked and that is how I sort of got stuck on focusing on my weight and appearance...plus it fit rather nicely into controlling [my] Aspie symptoms bc it allowed a focus upon numbers...my favourite thing in the world!!”
- Female adolescent Aspie from UK
“Another [reason besides always having wanted to be thin] was that I later heard that others would feel sorry for anorexics, treated them kindly, and looked up to them for being able to abstain from food (I overheard that exact type of discussion). I didn’t know how to make friends, so I thought that starving myself might be one way. A way of getting attention for a person who don’t know how to socialise? Sort of like some Aspies and/or ADHD-ers become the ‘class clown’?”
- Emma, adult Aspie from Sweden
· Misinformation. Many who still believe that eating even one teaspoon of butter or olive oil will make them fat as a walrus might benefit from newer scientific findings about how certain types of fat and regular eating actually helps metabolism. Aspies often respond well to logic and proven facts.
· Control. Realizing that one can control one's body may give great satisfaction to someone who would like to have control over all of one's environment but is unable to have any. Often the need for control is seen as something negative that should be worked against. But for an Aspie, it is often crucial to have some measure of control if one is to feel motivated to live at all. Allowing an Aspie family member more control (veto) over other things that may be painful to him/her, may be a way to compensate enough for the calorie-control to subside. · Hyper-focus & perseverance. Aspies often love making tables and diagrams, so counting calories can easily become a favourite hobby - for a very long time! Orthorexia (healthy eating- and exercise habits gone to extremes) can also become a special interest for some. links
A Study of Gustatational Sensitivity in ASD and Non-ASD individuals
Tongue test identifies ’supertasters’ article about the sense of taste
Sugar, diabetes and incurable diseases article about sugar addiction
Selection of studies supporting diet therapy by The Feingold Association
Collected net articles about diet and neuropsychiatric disorders by Kalle Reichelt, M.D.
Udo's Choice essential fatty acid oil blend Great EFA oil for those who can’t swallow capsules
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