my best friend is autistic & her mom is forcing her to go on a gluten-free diet and take a ~magic pill~ (falsely advertised probiotic) called the All Star Probiotic to cure her autism. what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck
i can drop the link to the site if anyone wants to see how fucked up it is but basically the site claims that gut health is directly related to brain health and because people on the spectrum generally have gut problems (not mentioned: the fact that those gut problems are usually due to sensory issues with food affecting their diet) and this pill will fix the gut problems. it never directly claims it’ll cure autism but it’s pretty heavily implied, and all the reviews make me physically ill.
here’s a couple screenshots from the site i still have on my phone
there’s no links to or even mentions of research studies anywhere on the site as far as i’ve found. i am on the spectrum and have been offered these by my best friend’s mom several times. please please spread that a gluten free diet is not going to cure autism (it’s been shown there’s a correlation with GLUTEN SENSITIVE autistic kids not having EXTREME meltdowns but that’s all, and it hasn’t even been proven) and there is no magic pill cure, nor does there need to be.
this makes me so unbelievably upset. normally i like to see a mix of opinions on my posts because it exposes me to other beliefs and helps me develop my own ideas on things, but if you in any way think that any part of this- “this” being trying to cure a child’s autism by forcing them to take internet pills or making them keep a diet that’s causing them physical stomach pains and other discomfort they weren’t experiencing to any degree before- is fine or acceptable behavior as a parent or other legal guardian, don’t ever interact with my blog again.
basic science: if we’re not in pain from our gluten sensitivity or intolerance, WE WILL HAVE LESS ISSUES
but if we are NOT celiac or gluten sensitive
THIS WILL DO NOTHING
YOU CANT CURE AUTISM, IT IS HOW YOUR BRAIN HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY WIRED
THAT’S LIKE TRYING TO TURN A CAT INTO A DOG
IT DOESN’T WORK
you can abuse it and dress it up as a dog, and train it to mimick a dog
BUT IT IS STILL A CAT
so ABA, and pulling shit like this to try to ‘normalize’ and ‘cure’ your child?
YOUR KID IS STILL AUTISTIC
YOU’RE JUST A SHITTY PARENT
Pretty much.
I am one of the autistic people with adult-diagnosed celiac. This quack stuff is extra disturbing, the way it manages to harm both autistics and people with actual autoimmune conditions at the same time.
This is crazy talk. I would never let my friend know “hey, I have celiac, clean your ENTIRE house, check every ingredient, clean your grill grates, and make me safe food.” Girl, bring your own food, or work WITH the host, and help out to make safe food. I’ve never demanded safe food of friends and family, especially during the holidays. Most hosts WANT to help, but it’s about the APPROACH, and clearly this isn’t the way.
How fun: I think I may have lost last night’s round of Takeout Roulette 😧
(I was low enough on spoons to risk going for delivery, but probably should have stuck with a known good place. Suspecting they weren’t as careful with handling/cross-contamination as they could have been. But, some variety.)
@autisticnightfury not all people with celiac will react to wheat containing products on the skin, but some do, which is why gf skincare exists.
I have a friend who does not have a wheat allergy (like I do), they are purely celiac disease, but even just handling wheat or wheat containing products will cover their hands in lesions. So they don’t quite get the “fngh glutened” feeling/pain but they do still get a reaction which according to their skin prick test (boy those are fun) they shouldn’t be having.
It really depends on your individual sensitivities, and also maybe if you have a compromised skin barrier (as a lot of people with autoimmune problems can develop due to
inflammation) which will make you more prone to topical reactions to irritants anyway.
So it’s not a hard and fast rule for everyone, health and reactions are always going to be dependent on your own unique issues. But it’s something to be aware of if you do have celiac and are perhaps using a soap or a cleanser that might contain it, and if maybe you put your hands to your mouth without realizing, and then spend the rest of the day wondering how you could have possibly gotten glutened when you’ve eaten nothing with wheat in it.
Cause that took me a long ass time to realize our hand soap had wheat byproduct in it, so I was contaminating my food every time I washed my hands. So that was fun.
“Omg look at this fucking shit, gluten free mascara, ahaha, people need to be fucking stopped.”
Yes, I’m sure the person with a wheat allergy wanting to avoid putting wheat containing things near their eyeballs is truly the reason society is failing.
Also if anyone does actually need gluten free mascara, Zuzu Luxe is one of the best I’ve been able to find. Hardly clumps and doesn’t flake off like a lot of the others. Their other products can be a little hit or miss texture wise, but the mascara is great.
I once saw a person point out that common allergens are in so many things, and it even has to do with “this facility uses it in another product but it’s still the same facility” and I stopped laughing. And then I felt bad. I was ignorant, but I didn’t think about like. My corn tortillas better not have gluten! They’re corn! And then I realized….same facility. Airborne particulates. Someone working on one line, accidentally dropping particulates in another line just by walking past.
Cause there are people who are *that* sensitive. And they deserve to be protected and have safe products.
I specifically do not take issue with people just not knowing things. Cause why the heck would anyone know things like that unless they ever had to? Why would you know wheat is a common ingredient in things like mascara or shampoo? I sure as shit didn’t till I started to piece together why my body went into meltdown every time I washed my hair.
What does get to me is how inherently shitty some people are about it. Like why is the first go to for things like this mockery? Why? I mean I know the answer is “society is inherently abelist even if people don’t realize they are doing it” but I’m still allowed to be frustrated by it. (It’s the same with infomercials. Those products are not lazy or worthless, they are designed for people with disabilities!)
And I know this seems like such an over reaction to something like someone in Walgreens being shitty over gluten free mascara haha. But it’s so much more than that.
So much of my daily life is emotional and mental labor just trying to spoon feed people how not to be unthinkingly meanall the time. And
it’s not like I can ever stop because this is my life. I am living in a
world not designed or meant to include me, so constant emotional and
mental labor is required to justify both myself and the things that make
my life easier.
And I wish people would just think with a little more kindness sometimes. That’s all.
Hey uh so, full disclosure here, my dad is gluten intolerant/has celiac disease, and I didn’t know that having non-food gluten-free products was important too… I thought it only affected you if you ate the thing.
So then I think the problem is that people don’t know enough about gluten-free and think it’s some fad, because if you’re not gluten intolerant/cursed with celiac disease, then going gluten-free has no benefits, right? (not knowing these things still doesn’t excuse people mocking others’ needs, though.)
The thing is neither do a lot of people with celiac disease. It’s not something all doctors mention to their patients as a possible source for issue or contamination (why? usually because the doctor diagnosing it will be a GI doctor and not always an immunologist, and that’s a problem cause celiac is an auto-immune disease), so a lot of us wind up wondering why we are still presenting with flare ups and other issues when our diet is so strict and we do everything we can to control symptoms through diet.
The latest trend of using wheat by-product to make compostable paper plates and cups has me on edge too, cause I’ve been handed a cup of water in one of those cups at a venue before and not realized until I’ve drank most of it and felt my throat start to constrict and realized that I am in Danger. And I’d have never known Why if the person hadn’t started talking about their cool hippy biodegradable cups which I thought were paper, but were paper spliced with wheat-by-product.
And the thing is, those things are marketed as “allergen safe” cause in theory the protein has been processed to death, but as anyone with severe allergies or celiac will tell you, even the smallest, tiniest amount can be enough to trigger a reaction.
So you’re right, not enough people understand what it is, or how severe it can be. And you could argue that part of this is because people treat it like a fad diet and a thing to be mocked vs say, a peanut allergy where people (though not everyone) respects the severity of what that can entail. But honestly, given how prevalent wheat allergy has become in the last couple of decades, it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of people, even those without actual celiac, have found some sort of relief through cutting out wheat products (ie their issue is not necessarily gluten but wheat) so in all honesty, who gives a shit. Allergies, diseases and yes, even food preferences need to be fucking respected. Which they currently are not.
“Why would you know wheat is a common ingredient in things like mascara or shampoo?”
Well fuck me sideways, I never would have guessed and I have a wheat allergy.
YIKES. i did not know this. i have no idea whether the bath products i buy for my family have wheat in them, because it never occurred to me that such a thing was possible, so i never checked. i hope i haven’t been making nick sick with shampoo!
i used to laugh at things being labeled gluten-free that i thought would be without wheat by default, and i assumed it meant the manufacturer was jumping on a fad diet bandwagon. i wasn’t being ableist, i just had no idea that celiac was more like a peanut allergy than like lactose intolerance. so when i saw ‘gluten free’ on an item that had never had wheat in it to begin with – gluten free cheese or whatever – i would kinda sneer at it and go “ugh, they’re making it into a fad so they can jack up the prices, like they did with ‘organic’ ten years ago.”
there IS a fad, though, and it sucks. because it means things are getting called gluten free that aren’t, on the assumption that the kale smoothie brigade won’t know the difference, since they don’t actually have celiac and all their Amazing Results are just placebo effect. then nick eats it and gets sick and the whole family has steam coming out of our ears because the idiot who put that label on there is too far away to hit with a frying pan.
“Omg look at this fucking shit, gluten free mascara, ahaha, people need to be fucking stopped.”
Yes, I’m sure the person with a wheat allergy wanting to avoid putting wheat containing things near their eyeballs is truly the reason society is failing.
Also if anyone does actually need gluten free mascara, Zuzu Luxe is one of the best I’ve been able to find. Hardly clumps and doesn’t flake off like a lot of the others. Their other products can be a little hit or miss texture wise, but the mascara is great.
I once saw a person point out that common allergens are in so many things, and it even has to do with “this facility uses it in another product but it’s still the same facility” and I stopped laughing. And then I felt bad. I was ignorant, but I didn’t think about like. My corn tortillas better not have gluten! They’re corn! And then I realized….same facility. Airborne particulates. Someone working on one line, accidentally dropping particulates in another line just by walking past.
Cause there are people who are *that* sensitive. And they deserve to be protected and have safe products.
I specifically do not take issue with people just not knowing things. Cause why the heck would anyone know things like that unless they ever had to? Why would you know wheat is a common ingredient in things like mascara or shampoo? I sure as shit didn’t till I started to piece together why my body went into meltdown every time I washed my hair.
What does get to me is how inherently shitty some people are about it. Like why is the first go to for things like this mockery? Why? I mean I know the answer is “society is inherently abelist even if people don’t realize they are doing it” but I’m still allowed to be frustrated by it. (It’s the same with infomercials. Those products are not lazy or worthless, they are designed for people with disabilities!)
And I know this seems like such an over reaction to something like someone in Walgreens being shitty over gluten free mascara haha. But it’s so much more than that.
So much of my daily life is emotional and mental labor just trying to spoon feed people how not to be unthinkingly meanall the time. And
it’s not like I can ever stop because this is my life. I am living in a
world not designed or meant to include me, so constant emotional and
mental labor is required to justify both myself and the things that make
my life easier.
And I wish people would just think with a little more kindness sometimes. That’s all.
Also people have a weird desire to catch you “lying” about an allergy? There’s a preservative used in a lot of artificial caramels that I’m allergic to, and my aunt used to get so mad because she was convinced my mom was lying about it. Once when I was a toddler she offered me a bowl of ice cream with this really smug look on her face while I ate it—a look that quickly died once I started projectile vomiting all over her brand new couch. Yup she hid the caramel in the ice cream.
Feeling miserably sick for a while aside, the look on my aunt’s face at the state of her couch was rewarding
HGSKL ALL THE TIME, PEOPLE DO THIS ALL THE TIME AND IT IS NOT OKAY
wait i’m sorry if this is a dumb question but why in the fuck is there gluten in mascara?
Wheat and wheat by products are common thickening ingredients in a lot of cosmetic products, but it is also used for other properties in cosmetics too. Hydrolyzed wheat protein for example, is often found in anti-ageing creams and some liquid face soaps because supposedly it can help to smooth out the appearance of wrinkles and refine skin texture.
(you’ll sometimes see it listed as wheatgrass or wheatgerm too)
So it’s not that unusual to find it in beauty products. Also even if it’s not being used directly in the product, if the product is made in a location that does use wheat for other things (like a face soap) there’s a chance of cross contamination somewhere along the production line. Which is why gluten free certified facilities are a thing for both food and non-food products. To avoid cross contamination.
For some people with celiac and gluten issues, topical application is not a problem. But in others who are more sensitive or have a straight up wheat allergy, it can appear as atopic dermatitis or present as lesions like dermatitis herpetiformis. Or it can be a more severe reaction like anaphylaxis. It all depends on the individual, and those of us with compromised immune systems (such as having an auto-immune disease like celiac disease) are at higher risk of either having or developing those kind of reactions through exposure.
So that’s why 🙂 And why it’s important that things like soaps, shampoos and make up brands etc list whether they are gluten free or not. Although it’s important to note that just because some products are gluten free, that does not make them wheat free, so if your concern is wheat allergy, gluten free brands are a safer bet for you, but it’s also still a good idea to thoroughly check the ingredients.
I want to clarify that if you are celiac you cannot ingest any gluten, a protein from wheat and other related cereal due to this cereals affects the vellosities from the guts destroying them so the nutrients can pass to the circulatory system.
You can put any product with gluten in your skin even you are celiac but not if you have an allergy to wheat because you could have an allergic reaction and a ride to the hospital if it is severe.
Always talk with your doctor and check the labels.
Except for some people with celiac, skin contact absolutely can be enough to trigger some form of reaction 🙂 Not the same kind of reaction they experience through ingesting it i.e. gut and intestinal problems, pain, fatigue, brain fog, etc but problems all the same, usually presenting as some sort of rash or skin problem that no one can figure out until they put two and two together, somehow come up with five, and realize it’s the stuff they’re applying to their skin topically.
It’s not generally how celiac works, and the research on it is limited (but lets face it, a lot of the medical criteria for diagnosing and treating celiac is poorly done to begin with. I know so many people who were diagnosed later in life after significant damage was done because they were told they didn’t have celiac cause their doctor only did the blood test and not the biospy) but it is not impossible either, and there’s quite a few people in the notes with celiac chiming in to talk about issues with skin sensitivity reactions—who do not have a wheat allergy.
It was my own immunologist who told me about gluten and skin sensitivities. And he’s not some crunchy hippy “I got my degree online” doctor either. Proper board certified fully licensed “seen a lot of weird cases so I keep an open mind and listen to my patients” doctor.
So, y’know, yes what you are saying is typically thought to be true, but it’s not the exclusive celiac experience either.
Maybe the weirdest and most frustrating thing I’ve found gluten in:
Yep, dishwashing detergent with “wheat protein”. Another scent didn’t have that listed, but whey instead. I’m not allergic to dairy, but I was wary of the other scent anyway, with the possibility of cross-contamination if nothing else.
Sure, you rinse it off. Not sure I would trust that enough of the proteins would come off your dishes, besides the issues of marinating your hands in the stuff and maybe splashing it all over the place .
Thankfully, I found that when I was doing an ingredient-reading sweep, trying to clear out the kitchen after I found out about the celiac. I liked the detergent, too. (And still use a number of their other products. Only found one so far with a scent that bothered me at all.)
The current ingredients list on their website doesn’t say anything about wheat protein or whey. Maybe they figured out that including major allergens wasn’t a great plan, and/or got enough complaints. I’m still hesitant, though.
Probably the most fun was when I got a bad outbreak on my lips and around my mouth, when I was 14 or 15 and about as self-conscious as you might expect.
That looked awful enough that I got a course of Zovirax, on the idea that it might be cold sores gone wild. (See also: “herpetiformis”. ) The dermatologist was surprised that it did nothing to help. It was there for weeks.
I’ve actually never had a cold sore, before or after that. And that hasn’t happened again, either. *crossing fingers*
The best description I’ve heard is this it’s like “rolling in stinging nettles naked with a severe sunburn, then wrapping yourself in a wool blanket filled with ants and fleas…” Which is so much more than “oh yea, you might get a bit itchy.”
“Omg look at this fucking shit, gluten free mascara, ahaha, people need to be fucking stopped.”
Yes, I’m sure the person with a wheat allergy wanting to avoid putting wheat containing things near their eyeballs is truly the reason society is failing.
Also, with celiac? A lot of people with dermatitis herpetiformis seem to be way more sensitive to skin exposure, and that’s plenty to set off a nasty autoimmune skin reaction easily mistaken for shingles.
Don’t think I’ve run into that myself (yet), but I’m careful about skin exposure because I do know enough other people who have.
I really don’t need to get started on wheat breads getting pushed hard as superior to and so much more “civilized” than corn, within the past 100 years or so.
Fine if you can digest it properly and it doesn’t set your immune system on the attack, but yeah.
) The dermatologist was surprised that it did nothing to help. It was there for weeks. 
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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