Why a casein and gluten free diet? - Ing. Bioq. Cecilia Fernández A.

Why a casein and
gluten free diet?

         Ing. Bioq. Cecilia Fernández A.

Why a casein and gluten free diet (GFCF)?
Some research results show that putting your son on a diet without these
proteins, found in the milk and wheat, can be the best choice that you can take to fight
development disorders.

The reason is that an important subgroup of people with autism or attention deficit disorder
(TDA/H), have problems to digest these proteins present in wheat, lactose, rye, barley, and oats.

These proteins partialy digested, become peptides (opium peptides) that binds the same
receptor than morphine. These pectides goes through the bowel wall and get into the brain
interfering with the nerve impulses, affecting the behavior, development, and learning.

How to know if my son needs this diet?
There are various ways to know if your son is a candidate for this diet.

• One is by laboratory analysis that measures the quantity of opioid peptides in the urine
or blood serum sample. Check his allergies IgG to casein and gluten.

• Another way is to observe if he/she has preferences for certain foods like bread and milk.
Additionally these children present gastrointestinal and cutaneous problems. In addition,
they have high resistance to pain, this happen for the presence of opium pepetides
(“morphine like”) in the body.

• Another affecct can be, they take off the socks all the time, the clothe labels bother the
for example on the neck, they are sentitive to cut nails and hair, they are hypersensitive to
smell and sounds.

Step by step a gluten and casein free diet
will help them to reduce these symptoms
Initial steps toward a GFCF diet
1. Become an expert on a gluten and casein free diet, soy free as well, you can sing in
to www.linca.org
• Learn which cereals contain gluten, which foods contain milk and its derivates, soy as
well.
• Search for foods without gluten, casein or soya.

Gluten
• A glycoprotein that is found in the seed of many cereals combined with starch represents
about 80% of wheat protein.
• The gluten is responsible for the elasticity of flour dough, allowing the bread with the
fermentation to obtain volume, such as, elastic consistency, spongy of breads and baked
dough.

Casein and lactose
• Casein (from Latin Caseus, “cheese”) is a phosphoprotein present in the milk and some of
their derivates (fermented products like yogurt and cheese).
• In the milk, it´s found in the soluble phase associated to calcium (calcium phosphate), in
a complex denominated it caseinogen.
• Milk contains between 3 and 4% of casein, depending of the cow breed.
• The lactose is the “sugar” of milk and is present in 5% of it, it´s responsible to give the
taste to the milk.

2. Explore and discover which are the food options that children like and accept
more
• Identify your options BEFORE eliminating any food of your diet.
• Change your pantry: flours, seasonings, breading, etc.
• Cook the new recipes and see which are more accepted by children. “Be creative”.
• When possible, involve the children in the preparation of foods.

3. Create a eating plan
• Develop a menu list of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack.
• First enlist foods that children like and are naturally gluten and casein free like fruits, vegetable,
meat, eggs, beans, lentils, corn and rice.
• Add versions of casein and gluten free of bread, cookies, breading, vegetable “creams”
and gelatin without dye.

4. Shopping
• Use your menus list for viewing the new ingredients and products that
you need.
• If it is not at home, it won´t be eaten, do NOT buy temptations, avoid
accidents!
• Identify the stores that offer the products that you need.

5. Start
• Set a start day to the diet and begin without fear, go for it.
• Start a binnacle to help you maintain a register of all day foods, also evacuations, aller-
gies or sensibilities, sleep habits and behavior.

Cereals which contain gluten:
• Wheat
• Barley
• Rye
• Spelt
• Oats (except certified without gluten)

There are hidden sources of gluten:
• “Potato” bread, “oats” cookies, “multigrain” bread ( read the ingredients on the label.)
• Soups semolina pasta (of wheat).
• Fries, sometimes sprinkle it with wheat flour for make it more crunchy (fast food).
• Salads dressing, thickeners.
• Soya sauce, teriyaki ( unless the label indicate does not contain gluten) Worcestershire
sauce.
• Conventional baking powder, MSG (monosodium glutamate).

Sugars – dyes
There are processed foods which are gluten and casein free, but with high content of
refined sugars, specially the sweet cookies, candies, crackers (salty cookies). Avoid artificial
dyes, artificial conservatives, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and sodium benzoate.

Casein
The principal sources of casein are:
• Cow and goat milk
• All kind of cheese
• Butter (it can be clarify for obtain the ghee and eliminate the casein)
• Light mayonnaise
• Foods which said on the label caseinate

Grains and flours without gluten
• Rice             • Buckwheat
• Corn             • Tapioca
• Nut flour        • Coconut flour
• Amaranth         • Bean flour
• Quinoa           • Sorghum
• Chickpea flour   • Yuca

Thickeners
• Agar
• Guar gum
• Unflavored gelatin
• Tapioca
• Xanthana gum

Remember
• The nutritional intervention it’s a marathon not a race.
• Needs perseverance, resistance, consistency to reach the goal. And see the desired
changes, that’s our award.