According to the Associated Press, the January issue of the journal Pediatrics released yesterday includes a study by a panel of experts, which concludes that "there's no rigorous evidence that digestive problems are more common in children with autism compared to other children, or that special diets work, contrary to claims by celebrities and vaccine naysayers."
"I'm surprised that it took a panel of experts to say that evidence is lacking to support the claim that placing children on special diets can somehow relieve autism," says ACSH's Jeff Stier. "The idea itself suggests that diet is somehow responsible for autism, and there's no evidence for that either."
"Autism is a devastating disease of unknown etiology, and there are all kinds of strange treatments that have been proposed," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "The search for some kind of magic cure or control agent is something that is naturally going to happen, and a possible dietary approach was a subject worthy of discussion. Now it has been discussed and should be dismissed."
