Jane Casey's Kitchen

Happy New Year!

Just a short post to let you all know that I am truly getting my cooking business in Portland up and running! It would be awesome if you could go to my Facebook page, Jane Casey’s Kitchen, click on that “LIKE” button and sign up as a friend.

Please share those great testimonials and ideas.  Comment on other’s breakthroughs and become a source of encouragement to each other!

So what’s happening in January?

First, I will be doing a radio interview with Julie Matthews on Thursday, January 12th. We will be discussing my book: Eat It And Beat It: Getting Over Autism, which is available for purchase now and the amazing healing properties of food!

Second on the agenda is my first cooking class in Portland! This will be on  Saturday, January 28, from 1-4 pm at Salt, Fire & Time. Check out the details for the class on the website calendar this week. Don’t miss this opportunity!

An inspiring quote I’d like to share with you, directly from the Salt, Fire & Time: Portland’s Traditional Healing Foods Grocery & Classroom website:

“To those who consider life something other than a monstrous belly with a golden navel for all to worship;
To those who have tasted and preferred renunciation, simplicity and freedom;
To those who make an art of living;
To those who cultivate poverty as a spiritual exercise whatever their religion;
To those who find in each moment a life to live for;
To the unwilling poor, victims of society, property, climate, injustice, ignorance, overpopulation, stupidity, evil or dumb pride;
Because it is clear that peoples kitchens all over the world have learned to adapt to what’s available and from the nearly nothing at their disposal make more than just enough to live on, make sturdy, simple pleasures and elemental feasts.”
-The People’s Cook Book, by James Kardon

Research on Dietary Interventions in ASD    – Get out your study caps!

I’ve located some very interesting research abstracts on TACA  – Talk About Curing Autism!

As you know, TACA is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to educating, empowering and supporting families affected by autism.

For families who have received the autism diagnosis, TACA aims to speed up the cycle time from initial diagnosis to effective treatments. Finding those effective treatments is a big part of the adjustment period, as much as the healing process. TACA also helps to strengthen the autism community by connecting families and the professionals who can help them, allowing them to share stories and information to help improve the quality of life for people with autism.

Here’s one example of the abstracts of research done on the link between dietary issues and autism found, from July 7, 2010.

“Gastrointestinal disturbances are commonly reported in children with autism, complicate clinical management, and may contribute to behavioral impairment. Reports of deficiencies in disaccharidase enzymatic activity and of beneficial responses to probiotic and dietary therapies led us to survey gene expression and the mucoepithelial microbiota in intestinal biopsies from children with autism and gastrointestinal disease and children with gastrointestinal disease alone. Ileal transcripts encoding disaccharidases and hexose transporters were deficient in children with autism, indicating impairment of the primary pathway for carbohydrate digestion and transport in enterocytes. Deficient expression of these enzymes and transporters was associated with expression of the intestinal transcription factor, CDX2. Metagenomic analysis of intestinal bacteria revealed compositional dysbiosis manifest as decreases in Bacteroidetes, increases in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes, and increases in Betaproteobacteria. Expression levels of disaccharidases and transporters were associated with the abundance of affected bacterial phylotypes. These results indicate a relationship between human intestinal gene expression and bacterial community structure and may provide insights into the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal disturbances in children with autism.”

Food Allergy and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Is There a Link? Current Allergy and Asthma Reports 2009;9:194–201 

For a full set of abstracts and resources, go here!