My Autism Insights

Due to a weird confluence of factors, we decided to try eating vegetarian for a week.  We started on Saturday.  I got curious to see if a vegetarian diet might help my extra-low energy level (and seasonal depression), but I was concerned how Gus would handle it.  Usually when he doesn’t have the ‘heaviness’ of meat in his diet, he gets even more energetic than normal (often this manifests in the middle of the night).  But we figured he’d be all right for a week.  MM was the one who really cinched the deal - she said she wanted to “get used to eating vegetables.”  I couldn’t argue with that.  She’s also feeling the ethical effects of killing animals.  I can’t really argue with that either, although I’ve made peace with it.

I did some research on different nutritional requirements for kids - mostly protein and iron.   For school aged children, the number of grams of protein is almost the same as the number of kilograms of body weight.  A simple conversion tool online can get you the correct numbers.  I used to be very skeptical about vegetarianism for children, but it seems that their nutritional requirements can be met quite easily.  Good to know!

It was going better than expected.  I’ve figured out that as long as Gus’s carbs in the evening are whole grains (i.e. NOT white pasta) they seem a bit more stable in his system.  The only time he woke in the middle of the night was Saturday when we had an awesome veggie pizza for dinner.  I think if I had made a whole wheat crust instead of using the white Boboli crusts, he might have fared better.  Even MM is eating with less complaints, at least she was until last night.  Which leads to why I said it WAS going better than expected.

I decided to try making a veggie meat(less) loaf.  Holy cow!  Gus almost never complains about my cooking - he leaves that to his sister.  But after the first bite his comment was, “What did you make?!?!?!”  (You know it’s awful when I resort to multiple punctuation.)  It was so bad, I actually apologized to my kids and promised never to make it again.  Taste wasn’t the problem.  It just had the consistency and texture of a congealed Stage 3 baby food.  It was so bad that even MM, who never has a problem insulting my cooking, forced a smile and insisted, “I like it!”  She couldn’t keep a straight face though.  I appreciated the effort nonetheless.  Hubby was conspicuously quiet during the meal.

I haven’t noticed any change in my energy level yet, but from what I remember the last time I went vegetarian, it took a couple of months for me to really notice.

I doubt that we’ll ever be a completely vegetarian family, but if nothing else, if the rest of the week goes well, I’ll know that we can swap in some vegetarian meals a few times a week without a negative impact on Gus.  Actually, I wonder if this diet did change his energy level (just not in a way that he’d be up at night), if it might actually improve his focusing ability.  Who knows - just speculating there.  It would certainly force me to  get some of the simple carbs out of his diet, which in itself would be a good thing since he never has processed them all that well.

We’re going to try something safer tonight - pasta with a portabella and black olive marinara.  Later in the week I’m going to try a spinach and cheese lasagna made with whole wheat pasta - that’ll be interesting.

I’ll post again at the end of the week about the outcome of our experiment.  Wish us luck and let’s hope I don’t have any more disasters like last night!

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