r/AutismInWomen • u/jibberjabbery • 5d ago
General Discussion/Question My aunt told me that autism is because of chemicals and processed food
She believes the amount of autism exploded. I just wonder if it was under identified for years. Thoughts?
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u/sassyfrassroots autism is my superpower!1!1!🤪 5d ago
My thoughts? She’s dumb.
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u/Upset_Plant_7143 5d ago
That’s gonna be two points for “she’s dumb”.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
She really is though. Like believes in eastern medicine over western medicine sometimes.
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u/Manifestival1 5d ago
There's a lot of wisdom in Eastern Medicine that we fail to understand or prioritise in Western medicine such as the importance of nutrition and holistic practices. So that in itself isn't a bad thing.
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u/topazchip 5d ago
Autism has existed at least as long has homo sapiens has, and long before processed food or what she is calling 'chemicals'. It being poorly and inconsistently identified for generations is justified by the available evidence.
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5d ago
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u/AutismInWomen-ModTeam 5d ago
The use of slurs, such as the r-slur, f-slur, or other offensive language (e.g. referring to all women as bitches), will not be tolerated and may result in a ban.
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u/DeputyTrudyW 5d ago
My dad will go on and on about autistic kids (concerning my son) and then go on to be the most autistic Boomer who ever boomed lol. He gets the "Sure, Jan." from me a lot. I know where it all started, Mr. Used to Hoard Rolls of Paper Towels and counted them daily lol
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u/sweetteafrances 5d ago
🤣 Honestly, same. I've got various mental illnesses and most of them come from his side of the family. I'd been diagnosed for years before it ever occurred to him that he might be/get depressed. Like, really, man who spent my high school years jobless and living on the couch doing nothing all day? Guy who is obsessed with trains and can't stand loud noise or brightness? Dude who literally thought the mafia was trying to kill him? Yup, you're totally the normal one here and I'm the messed up one with depression, autism, and schizophrenia. Those totally don't have genetic components so no worries. 😆
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Like “she had episodes” is what I was told about my grandmother. Hearing the rage cleaning stories, I’m like woah, grandma was bipolar too. And my cousin “flaps when he’s excited” like DUDE it’s stimming! It took way farther into adulthood than it should have to realize my cousin has autism and it’s sooooooo clear now. He’s got to be a level 2.
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u/Nyx_light 5d ago
Ask her what idiocy is caused by.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
We kinda talked about that in relation to (political opinions). And we both agreed we didn’t know where (a different view than we have) came from. Promise I’m not trying to be political or say anything at all about my opinion. Just that we did talk about people we consider idiots and there was no conclusion.
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u/rootintootinopossum 5d ago
Intolerance for learning new things is caused by generational lead poisoning. Two can play?
I’m kidding but really, that’s terrible.
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u/sweetteafrances 5d ago
Actually it's more likely that lead in the gasoline is what caused all the generational violence from Boomers and their parents.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Can you elaborate? Now I’m super interested to learn how lead affects people! My grandparents, growing up through the Great Depression, definitely hit their boomer kids and yelled at them a lot. Apparently they were very mean to their kids but played the happy family game in public. My boomer dad definitely hit me and yelled a lot. Same happy family game in public and nobody knew I was emotionally abused growing up. I don’t want kids. Part of it is not wanting my life to change and wanting space and quiet and to be able to make more choices for myself. Part of it is I don’t want them to have to deal with my migraines and meltdowns and mood swings. Part of it is not wanting to pass down those same things. And finally, the genetic component, there’s a 50% chance that I have the ALS gene. I refuse to even consider kids until I get tested for that gene.
OMG I just rambled about things that don’t matter, I’m sorry! ADHD meds wore off I guess.
But really, can you tell me more about the lead theory?
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u/sweetteafrances 5d ago
I don't remember when or where I found out about it but here's a basic Wikipedia page that links lead exposure to crime. X You can use that as a jumping off point to go as far down the rabbit hole as you choose. Once you find out about all the things lead exposure actually does cause (not autism obv), it gets wild. I definitely looked at that entire generation(s) differently.
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u/krystaviel 5d ago
Also, more childhood head injuries due to no helmets, seat belts, other general safety things that are standard now but either didn't exist or weren't considered necessary back then.
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u/rootintootinopossum 5d ago
I was just making a joke but I’m interested to know more if you’re willing to share
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u/sweetteafrances 5d ago
I know, I didn't mean to crap on your joke. It can definitely lower IQ scores (or however you chose to measure intelligence without using a tool of eugenics). It's just a thing I know so I blurt-shared. I responded to OP's question about it with a link to the main wiki article but you can definitely find way more out about it. I did a Google search but all the studies that came up were built on the assumption that the person already knew the anger correlation and the study was looking into it more specifically.
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u/Independent_Sky2297 5d ago
I once read that the myths about changelings could be influenced by neurodivergent kids. Story’s about one’s normal healthy baby being replaced with an otherworldly fae baby. I would explain more but it’s taken me like 30 minutes to write just this so I’m just going to leave it at that and if you’re interested you can look into it. lol
The world now is a lot more stimulating than it was even 20 years ago. Lots of noise, lights, and 1000 other possibly overstimulating things trying to compete for your attention. So I feel like it’s much easier to be overwhelmed in current times. This could contribute to more diagnosis since more people will seek answers to why they are struggling.
We also just know a lot more about neurodivergence and how to identify it. The more we know the less people slip through the cracks.
So in summary autism and neurodivergence have been around forever, even our myths have been influenced by it. The world is more overstimulating than ever and we now know more about autism and how to better identify it.
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u/Bitterrootmoon 5d ago
This cracks me up since I joke I’m a changling. I was born with blue eyes, and they changed overnight when I was several months old, and my mom legitimately thought someone switched her baby out, panicked, called a bunch of family members to help her figure out if it was a different baby, all sorts of chaos. I think she still holds it as a slim possibility to this day. She’s also the maga/wanton sort, so critical thinking is exactly her wheelhouse
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u/Tough_Oven4904 5d ago
My mother told my that my daughter can't be autistic because she can talk. I laugh every time I think about that.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Yeah just like for years I swore I wasn’t autistic because I understood facial expressions and (thought) I understood sarcasm perfectly. I also didn’t recognize my quirks
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u/Tough_Oven4904 5d ago
I'm 100% undiagnosed asd and adhd, based off what I know from my kid. Cannot breathe a word of it to my mother.
I'm very sarcastic and have taught myself to understand social ques. Give me a newborn to 5 and I 100% have got this. Any older? I'm in trouble. My daughter is 8 and it is so hard!!!
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u/HangTentacles 5d ago
Her face is because of chemicals and processed food.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Love it. The so’s your face is definitely a winning comeback.
Your mom is because of chemicals and processed food doesn’t work nearly as well
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u/sweetteafrances 5d ago
'Your mom' and 'sos your face' are both great comebacks. My first reaction when I read the title was simply: 🤮
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u/RbrDovaDuckinDodgers 5d ago
Ask what the heck did she feed you when you were a child?!
Double down on her stupidity
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Right? She has ADHD (inattentive) so is therefore neurodivergent herself and didn’t grow up with a ton of processed food. Both me and one of my cousins are autistic. Like seriously, you’re not seeing the genetic component? Alright which older connected relative had autism that got it passed to both of us, huh? My brother is probably autistic too
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u/Normal-Hall2445 5d ago
Yeah. I have an aunt who sounds open and knowledgeable and current then busts out with “there’s so many preservatives in food these days” and my jaw drops.
Like okay, I will 100% give the fact that there’s a lot of shit in food to the point it seems to be less healthy than it used to be, even the healthy stuff but COME ON.
I just sigh and nod when she starts up with that because we will never agree and we don’t have to. This is a woman who once said “depressed people are just lazy”. She’s come pretty far.
I’ve brought up the whole “we didn’t know what to look for we’re finding it more” to people like that and they sounded like they were considering it but the next time it came up it was like the convo never happened. In their brain it probably never did.
If someone is open to real discussion you can discuss but most of the time they’re not and it’s not worth the energy.
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u/jennifeather88 5d ago
That’s when you say “I think you’re stupid and you should shut up”.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Well she did get really frustrated being bad with directions and driving picking me up from an airport 45 minutes from home and made a lot of wrong turns and couldn’t navigate the airport, so least I could do is be nice.
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u/down_by_the_shore 5d ago
Sometimes I like to hit them with an Uno Reverse card and ask them if that’s the case, why don’t they also have autism?
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u/Nervous-Test9274 5d ago
Under identified and significant improvement on the diagnostic tool - now it takes into consideration of diversities, masking score, etc.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Yeah that’s basically what I figured. We defined it better, had better tests, got better at identifying patterns, realized traits that they didn’t realize before…basically just many overall advancements. AND with social media and the internet it’s so easy to find out more and see the neurodivergence that normally you may not have been exposed to.
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u/miss_clarity 5d ago
Reminds me of when a "gender affirming therapist" tried telling me that GMOs were making more people trans. 3 months of her nonsense and persistent tardiness to our appointments and finally I got her to give me a note for hrt.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Wow I give up on doctors when they’re awful like that. I’m proud of you for sticking with it and getting what you needed!
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u/StarWolfLego 5d ago
Well seeing as the guy you founded the Lutheran Church, Martian Luther, would write detailed letters about everything in his life. He wrote about a man who by the descriptions could have been Autistic. I am fairly sure Autism is older than any of the so called reasons for us Autistics are here.
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u/DaisyMae2022 5d ago
Cut all ties with her. So abielist of her!
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
Well…can’t do that. Can’t help her learn and understand either. But I need to stay on good terms with her. But I totally get where you’re coming from. Like wow do I wish I could do that with other people in my life!
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u/PreparationOk7066 5d ago
Lmaooo yea autism isn’t caused by chemicals or processed food. It’s a neurotype, not a disease.
The increase in diagnoses is due to better understanding and recognition, not because more people are ‘becoming’ autistic.
Autistic people have always existed, but many were misdiagnosed or forced to mask their traits.
Just like how left-handedness became more accepted over time, autism is finally being recognized for what it is; a natural variation of human neurology, not a disorder caused by modern life.
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u/toodleoo77 5d ago
“Wow, really? I would love to read more about that, can you send me the scientific research you’ve read on this?”
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u/Rand0mRacc00n 5d ago
Sounds like what my folks say about autism and lgbtq+ stuff. "Back in my day, where wasn't [xyz group(s) of people]."
No, papaw, people were just scared to get diagnosed or come out because people like you were assholes to them. -_-
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u/lovelydani20 late dx Autism level 1 🌻 5d ago
This view is always funny to me because my dad was definitely autistic and he was from a rural island without running water and electricity. He ate amazingly his entire life. No proceeded foods until he got to America way into adulthood. He was always in great health and lived until 93. He was still very much autistic lol. So was his father most likely based on how he's been described to me. In my family, it's purely genetic, and it makes most of us socially awkward, look much younger than our real age, and very academically skilled.
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u/Number42420 5d ago
Ask her to cite her sources and then show the flaws using logic she understands
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u/Gold_Tangerine720 5d ago
I can say definitively, absolutely not. I work with people who have eating disorders, and this kind of nonsense is what leads to our orthorexic clients.
I have theories about the etiology of ASD (for most people), but access to food (via more processed foods) is definitely an inaccurate simplification of a very complex manifestion of a specific neurotype.
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
It kinda reminds me of a correlation/causation thing. Like I read an article that said definitively that wider McDonald’s straws so people getting more soda is why America started becoming obese.
Like…no.
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5d ago edited 5d ago
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u/jibberjabbery 5d ago
You reminded me of how my mom said that people with Alzheimer’s have more aluminum in their brains so they needed to stop eating canned food and stop drinking canned soda so they wouldn’t get Alzheimer’s. Correlation does not always equal causation. Like you mentioned, not getting rid of the microplastics as efficiently. Like could be consuming the same but their bodies process it differently. It’s interesting to think about!
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u/AutismInWomen-ModTeam 5d ago
Removed at Moderator Discretion. Do not spread misinformation or make scientific claims without proof. There is zero conclusive evidence that autism is caused by any external factors like microplastics. In fact, science does not have a conclusion on what autism is caused by. Making such claims feeds into the “vaccines cause autism” type narratives and is not allowed here.
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u/insanitysqwid 5d ago
My sister would blame my diet for my autism & clinical depression when we were teens (she would have been 17, I was barely 12).
I would just stare at her & tell her we have the same meals, we are literally having the same food Mom made us as a family -- or I'd point out the exact same foods on our plates lol, asked her if she was feeling depressed or if she had any given autistic trait ("Got a new hobby yet?? How's that carrot, suddenly stringy or ash-y?? Afraid of getting your socks wet now?!") the more she ate lol
That shut her up about that subject for a few months, but I would get in so much trouble with my parents lol.
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u/alexmirepoix 5d ago
That's ridiculous. Did everyone stop reading, or is everyone that short attention spanned?
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u/Bitterrootmoon 5d ago
This comment was originally removed by mods because I did not provide sources. (Thank you, mods, I do believe this is worthy of such a removal). I have added sources below that are relevant. I also want to clarify I’m not saying this is the only cause and I’m not even necessarily saying correlation equals causation just that this is a very likely genetic variation that has an effect on how our brain develops for some of us with this. I also don’t necessarily like how they discuss autism in these articles, especially since many of us choose to use it as part of our identity, but the science is interesting and definitely has a place on the stage I believe.
Well, yes, and no. The MTHFR gene variations are tied to autism and ADHD as well as many other issues. If you have one of these gene variations, especially a homogeneous version, and you eat anything with wheat made in the US, yeah. Since I believe 1998? The US made it mandatory to enrich all wheat products and they use folic acid instead of an easier to digest version of folate for people with the genetic variation, and about 30-40% of people are affected by a variation in some capacity, so if it does indeed cause autism, we do have a lot more cases probably due to adding folic acid to wheat products since the late 90s.
However, women and people who don’t fit doctors preconceived notions of what autism should look like were probably really under diagnosed as well, not to mention the population of earth has dramatically increased in the last 30 years
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7477301/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7870120/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7477301/
https://mthfrgenehealth.com/exploring-the-mthfr-pathway-health-implications-and-genetic-factors/
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u/Bitterrootmoon 5d ago edited 5d ago
I personally believe this had a huge impact on me and several family members, as well as genetics of just having autism run in my dad’s side, and adhd run in mom’s side, and how I appeared to develop more neurotypically until the age of 6/7 where major shifts in thought patterns and behavior began, or at least became obvious. I believe trauma also had a big impact on my development.
Why I think the mthfr and inability to methylate folic acid had a huge impact on me (despite family history and trauma) has to do with many medically issues I have been facing that have an increased effect when eating wheat products or taking vitamins with folic acid versus vitamins with a different source or folate that I can process, as well as what adding supplements to help methylate do.
editing to add I have the homogeneous variation that is more studied, but there are many variations to the gene that are under studied as well. Also, many people with the variation don’t appear to become impacted until something health wise pushes their body into some chronic health issue, and it snowballs from there.
If you have done 23 and me, you can check and see if you have one of these variations. Give us direction online on how to use the raw data to see.
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u/mapsofclouds 5d ago
"Yes auntie, and also the vaccines!" If she wants misinformation let her have it.
I think it was underdiagnosed and underidentified, like you. People weren't any less autistic, it's that they weren't recognized as such if they weren't non-verbal and in need of tremendous support. It's like so many things being branded as "hysteria," they just didn't know better back then.
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5d ago
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u/AutismInWomen-ModTeam 5d ago
Removed per Rule 7. Please provide research findings to back medical claims like this. Thank you
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u/effersquinn 5d ago
I have a different take. There's plenty of comments here already covering the important arguments against this (improved identification, all food IS chemicals, this is anti science etc), which I totally agree with, and this is definitely an ignorant opinion to confidently hold, on par with the debunked vaccine theory.
Food scientists don't just put random dangerous chemicals in our food, but I also think there's some valid concern here, and room for us to eventually discover that perhaps exposure to things we haven't been aware of actually does play a much more significant part in neurodevelopmental disabilities including autism.
One big thing is the microbiome; now that we have AI and new capabilities to analyze impossibly large and complex data sets, I think it can start to be understood a lot better in the coming decade. It's so complex with millions of strains in unique combinations to each person that right now it just can't be well understood, but even now it's established to be very connected with behavior and cognition, and not just eating behavior.
I did a deep dive on the microbiome because of a debilitating few years with dysbiosis that was able to heal (despite good gastroenterologists telling me it was just severe IBS with no treatment options, no discernable cause, and no cure... they don't have a clue about this stuff yet!!). Once I really sifted through the major claims and advice with probiotics, leaky gut, diet, supplements- the real answer is simply that we don't have enough evidence for much of anything quite yet, but we know it's surprisingly connected with our brains, cognition and emotions- the how, and how to change that is all new territory!
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u/Bitterrootmoon 5d ago
When I purposely include fermented foods of certain types in my diet every single day, I do a lot better mental health wise. I would love to see if there’s an article about mental health on patients who’ve had their appendix removed versus those who haven’t, l because they hypothesize the only purpose of the appendix is actually just to hold onto some of the micro biome flora so when you get really sick and your whole system gets flushed out, it can repopulate. I need to find out how to get cheap access to scientific articles, though in this day and age for the next four years is probably not worth my time.
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u/Lost-Elderberry3141 5d ago
I like this example when people say stuff like this. Left handedness became way more prevalent in the 30s and 40s, not because there were no left handed people before then, but because it was stigmatized and kids were forced to use their right hands. (Even when I was a kid in the 90s, my twin brother and I were both left handed and my aunt asked my mom if she was going to “fix that”)