Comments for Natalie Hanson, PhD

Comment on Wheat Belly by nataliehanson

nataliehanson — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:21:38 +0000

Thanks for the feedback (and the recommendations) Ezequiel! I am working on a follow up post, and your input has encouraged me to get that done.

Comment on Wheat Belly by Ezequiel

Ezequiel — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:02:35 +0000

What an interesting story! I remember hearing similar stories from parents way back in the day when I used to work at Whole Foods in Miami. In 2011 I read Hyman’s “The Ultra Mind Solution” and watched “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” soon after. I tried the juice/veggie fast and lost 14 lbs of grad-school fat really fast. Ever since I have been on a low-glycemic and low gluten diet. Lately I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit, but still keep a good degree of discipline and weight train 3 times a week. Like you reported, I am not hungry all the time, and my mood is much improved since blood-sugar dips made me real cranky.

I found that a great tool for low-gluten / -glycemic living is a good pressure cooker. It cooks up beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc., in under 10 minutes (pre-soaking recommended). Wheat, barley and rye is indeed found in many foods, but adapting to low-gluten living has not been as hard as I initially thought. Low-glycemic living has been a little harder and is an ongoing lifestyle experiment.

Keep experimenting and sharing! It is so good to encounter people who are doing these dietary changes and learning about their experiences.

Comment on Lean & User Experience, again by Putting people first » Lean and user experience, again

Putting people first » Lean and user experience, again — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:57:07 +0000

[...] As a sneak preview to the chapter, she shares (an earlier incarnation of) the methods part of the chapter. [...]

Comment on Wheat Belly by nataliehanson

nataliehanson — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:13:08 +0000

Hi Jane! Sorry to hear you’ve been contending with some of the same challenges with your boys. It is really hard to stay disciplined, but we’re starting to realize that the consequences are worse than just sticking with it. Plus there is a huge guilt factor if we have to discipline him for bad behavior when we know it’s because of what we fed him.

Yes, most things I’ve read recommend GFCF (gluten-free casein-free) for kids with autism, but they also acknowledge that every kid is different. Full GFCF seems very radical, but we want to do everything we can to help him be his best self. At our house we started with gluten-free because it felt overwhelming to change everything at the time. Now that we’ve gotten used to those changes, we’re tackling the casein-free (protein / dairy) too … mainly because we’re still seeing some inconsistent behavior.

The other scary area (that we’ve known for a long time now) is food dyes. Red dye is the worst, but blue, yellow, and others are bad too. All those things combined make for some real challenges in finding snacks that appeal to little ones – especially as kids on the Spectrum also tend to have texture issues. My three-year old is happy with fruit (apples, bananas, grapes, berries) and cheese, almonds or pistachios, dried cranberries or raisins. We used to do yogurt. We do Pirate’s Booty (which we’ll have to stop if we stop dairy completely). There are all kinds of gluten-free crackers and cookies but everything is empty carbs! The only other two things we do with some regularity is ‘squeezie fruit’ (those tubes of pureed fruit) and also freeze-dried fruit (look it up on Amazon). Crispy Green is our favorite brand.

Good to hear from you, and good luck!

Comment on On Lego by Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:13:35 +0000

Thank you for this! It is right on for me and my two children (boy and girl).

Comment on Wheat Belly by Jane Kim

Jane Kim — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:04:33 +0000

Hi, Nat! I had no idea your son had food sensitivity issues. I am a complete believer in everything you talked about in your blog entry. My twin sons have nut and egg allergies and through the process of dealing with food allergies, I have come to believe that inflamation caused by food sensitivities is the cause of all health ailments. Wheat Belly is one of the books on my list of books to read!
I applaud your efforts to change your family’s diet. I go in long spurts of discipline but it is soooo difficult to keep up!
I used to take my kids to an environnmental medicine doctor who swore that the elimination of casein from diet dramatically affected his patients with autism. Would be interested to know what your experience with that has been.

Would love to hear any practical tips & strategies you have found about how to maintain a truly gluten free/low carb diet with children – especially for packing snacks!

Comment on Neurotypical by Wheat Belly | Natalie Hanson, PhD

Wheat Belly | Natalie Hanson, PhD — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:32:37 +0000

[...] I mentioned in a blog post called Neurotypical last year, one of my boys was diagnosed on the autism spectrum when he was not yet three. Once [...]

Comment on Sehnsucht – addictive yearning by Rian

Rian — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:19:03 +0000

Hi Natalie,

Thank you so much for the kind words about Elezea. It’s great to hear that you enjoy the site – this is the kind of encouragement that keeps me going!

Rian

Comment on Digital hoarding by Sehnsucht | Natalie Hanson, PhD

Sehnsucht | Natalie Hanson, PhD — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:35:49 +0000

[...] seemed especially relevant in light of my post about Digital Hoarding a month or two [...]

Comment on The Daily Grommet by Cultivating moral jazz | Natalie Hanson, PhD

Cultivating moral jazz | Natalie Hanson, PhD — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:45:19 +0000

[...] couple of years ago I was a member of Creative Good’s UX Councils, and I had a chance to hear Barry Schwartz present a keynote based on the insights from his book [...]