The GFCF diet or gluten-free casein-free diet is one of the most popular diets in the autism community.

But did you know this diet can help with ADHD too?

As in the name of the diet, it is an elimination diet that eliminates gluten, a protein in wheat, and casein, one of many proteins in milk.

The gluten and casein free diet seems very simple to follow as you remove 2 ingredients from your child’s diet. But many of you know in your heart. This will be a big challenge because your child’s diet consists of mainly milk and wheat products.

You’ll also soon discovered that milk and milk derivatives are in almost every processed packaged food, and so is gluten derivatives. You will be surprised to find milk and wheat ingredients in many non-dairy and non-wheat products that you would not have thought of contains wheat and casein.

If this diet is such a hassle to implement, is it worth it to try?

In one large study, researchers looked at the effects of the gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diet on people with various autism spectrum disorders. They reported a positive effect on ADHD symptoms. The GFCF diet can also help with sleep problems, gastrointestinal issues, and issues and mood.

Anecdotally, parents of children with ADHD have reported significant improvements in behaviors,  such as hyperactivity, inattentiveness, and impulsiveness. They report their children to become calmer and more interactive socially. I’ve also heard stories about children with autism who started speaking full sentences for the first time after the implementation of this diet. Here is the reasons why the GFCF diet may help your child.

In one large study, researchers looked at the effects of the gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diet on people with various autism spectrum disorders. They reported a positive effect on ADHD symptoms. The GFCF diet can also help with sleep problems, gastrointestinal issues and issues and mood.

There are a few theories out there about the efficacy of the GFF diet. People who are on the autism spectrum and/or have ADHD may not be able to properly digest gluten (which is the protein part of wheat, barley and rye) and casein (which is a protein found in milk and milk products such as cheese, butter, yogurt and ice-cream) due to a lack of enzyme.

When these proteins are not properly digested, the results are casomorphin (from casein) and gliadorphin (from gluten). Both of these peptides act like opioids, such as heroine and cocaine, and, indeed, they can bind to the same opioid receptors in the brain. And these peptide morphine affects your child’s behavior, perceptions, and responses to the environment just like cocaine and heroine. Basically, your child is drugged by food.

Studies and research on the effectiveness of the GFCF diet is still very limited and inconclusive. But there are many reasons for that. One reason could be because the results are not immediate. Most studies only observed for behavioral changes up to 6 weeks. Unfortunately, you won’t start seeing significant improvement for at least 6 weeks time. And support for the GFCF diet comes mostly from self-reports from clinicians, parents, and educators.

One Italian studies reported significant improvement in ADHD symptoms in ADHD kids with Celiac disease on gluten-free diet for 6 months. The researchers tested 67 people with ADHD for celiac disease. Study participants ranged in age from 7 to 42. A total of 15 percent tested positive for celiac disease. That’s far higher than the incidence of celiac in the general population, which is about 1 percent.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation of the small intestine resulting from eating gluten in genetically susceptible individuals.

Intestine biopsy of patients with Celiac disease shows pronounced villus atrophy in a jejunum, which confirms a diagnosis of Celiac disease. The only treatment of celiac disease is a gluten-free diet, which allows for total healing of the intestinal mucosal lesion.

Once they started on a gluten-free diet, the patients or their parents reported significant improvements in their ADHD behavior and cognitive functioning, and these improvements were backed up by ratings on a checklist physicians use to monitor the severity of ADHD symptoms.

Another study investigated the incidence of ADHD symptoms in people with newly diagnosed celiac disease. It looked at 132 participants, ranging from toddlers to adults, and reported that “ADHD symptomatology is markedly overrepresented among untreated celiac disease patients.”

Again, a gluten-free diet improved ADHD symptoms substantially in about six months after starting the diet.

These results suggest that celiac disease should be included in the ADHD symptom checklist.

Not everyone who has a problem with gluten has celiac disease—recent research has identified markers for non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a poorly understood condition that seems to involve a reaction to gluten but not the intestinal damages that are seen in celiac disease.

Gluten sensitivity may affect up to 8 percent of the population by some estimates. For people with gluten sensitivity, studies show it’s possible that gluten plays a role in ADHD symptoms, but it’s less clear how large a role it plays.

Food allergy testing are frequently negative. Foods that your child reacts to frequently do not show up positive on standard RAST or skin-prick test.

Related: 5 Things You Need to Know about Food Allergy and ADHD

The short answer is anything that is not made with milk and/or wheat.

The long more practical answer is “it’s complicated” because there are milk and gluten derivatives in almost every processed packaged food, even in things that you would not have expected to have milk and wheat.

This can be the scariest diet for parents because milk and wheat products are a huge part of what many children with autism and ADHD eat every meal.

Fortunately, with more awareness of special dietary needs, there are many options out there to make following a special diet easy and cheap.

Going gluten free doesn’t mean you need to say farewell to pizza, pancakes, and other doughy delights. Real Plans is a gluten-free and diary-free meal planner app that creates custom weekly menus to make planning, shopping and cooking much easier.

Download the free 4-week meal plan to experience how easy it is to eat that way that fits your body.

Ok, there you have it…

I hope you find this information helpful. Let me know what you think and comment below.

Remember ADHD does not doom your child to a life of under-achievement. You know your child is bright, full of potential, and deserves the best. In fact, many of the world’s greatest discoveries and inventions were made by people with ADHD.

I helped my crazy wild child who could not read or write when she was little with the four pillars I laid out in the Eat to Focus book. She’s now a merit scholarship student studying premed at Loyola Chicago University.

So stay strong and keep believing in your child.

Check out the Eat to Focus book to learn about my story and the 4 steps that I used to transform my daughter and help her reach her full potential. This information may change your child’s future.

Download your free gift “15 Quick and Simple School Day Breakfast Ideas for Kids with ADHD” before you leave.