Nutritional Insights for Autism with Lisa Katz

In this week’s episode of The Autism Mums Podcast, we’re exploring the powerful connection between nutrition and wellbeing with the incredibly insightful Lisa Katz, mum, nutritional practitioner, and passionate advocate for holistic autism support.

Biography

Lisa Katz is a passionate advocate, devoted mum, and inspirational voice for families navigating the unique journey of severe Autism. As the mother of triplet boys, Lisa draws strength from her personal experiences.

Lisa has embraced a path of purpose championing healthy eating, clean living, and holistic wellness as essential tools for empowering both her family and other families.

She is focused on helping others make simple changes that will help not only the child with special needs but will truly benefit the entire family.

Key Takeaways

• The gut-brain connection and its significance in autism.
• Overview of the GAPS Diet and its focus on healing the gut.
• The importance of eliminating gluten and dairy for some children.
• Practical tips for becoming an informed consumer and reading food labels.
• Strategies for integrating dietary changes into family life.
• Signs that may indicate dietary issues affecting a child with autism.
• The idea that food is medicine and its implications for health.
• Tips for navigating social situations and dining out.
• The importance of community support for parents of neurodivergent children.

Mentioned in this Episode

The GAPS Diet – Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)

Connect with Lisa Katz

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lisa.sobelkatz.5

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lisasobelkatz

Lisa's Kitchen Reset Package discount offer

Contact Lisa through Facebook or Instagram (links above) to take up her generous offer of $50 off her Kitchen Reset Package. Simply let her know you heard about the offer here.

Connect with The Autism Mums

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to

the Autism Mums podcast. I'm Victoria. And I'm Natalie. We are two sisters

raising autistic children who know the joy, the challenges, and the everyday

moments. This is a supportive space for honest conversations, practical tips,

shared strength and expert advice. Whether you are celebrating a win, surviving

a meltdown, or just trying to make it through the day, we are right here with

you.

Join us as we share the ups, the downs, and everything in

between parenting autistic children.

Natalie Tealdi: Hi,

it's Natalie. Although you won't hear me in today's interview, I really wanted

to jump on at the start just to say hello and share a few thoughts with you

before we begin.

Victoria Bennion:

That's right. This episode is a conversation I had with Lisa Katz, who's a

nutritional practitioner who has supported her autistic son through quite

significant dietary changes. Lisa shares her experience of using the [00:01:00] GAPS diet and making big shifts in food

choices to support her son's health and behavior.

Natalie Tealdi: Now

before we start, we do want to give a little heads up because if your child has

ARFID or ARFID behaviors, this episode might not feel entirely relevant to your

journey.

Victoria Bennion:

Exactly. So one of my children has ARFID behaviors and as wonderful as it is,

what's worked for Lisa, I know that it wouldn't work for my child. And that's

okay because as you know, every child is different and no one size fits all

advice exists, especially when it comes to food

Natalie Tealdi: but

we also know there are families out there for whom this episode will resonate.

Lisa shares helpful tips about label reading, gut health, and empowering

parents to feel confident making small changes. If you are in a place where you

are considering how food might play a role in your child's wellbeing, you might

find this really inspiring.

Victoria Bennion: So

take what works for your family and leave the rest

Natalie Tealdi: all

right, let's hand over to [00:02:00] Lisa and

Victoria and as always, we are sending love to you wherever you are on your

journey. Okay.

Victoria Bennion:

hello Lisa, and welcome to the podcast.

Lisa Katz: Hi. It's

so nice to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Victoria Bennion: It

is great to have the chance to talk to you and explore more about your journey

and talk to you about diets and food and everything. I'm looking forward to it.

Lisa Katz: I am too.

Thank you so much.

Victoria Bennion:

Could you start by talking a bit about your journey with autism?

Lisa Katz: My journey

with autism is different than I think a lot of people because. For my son, our

first diagnosis was actually mitochondrial disorder and we got that diagnosis

when he was very young. I should start by saying my son is 21 years old at the

time when he was diagnosed 21 years ago, we had had never heard about

mitochondrial disorder but that was his first diagnosis. Now, if you fast

forward to today, what we know now is that mitochondrial disorder and autism

are, are linked, and if you [00:03:00] go to

somebody that is gonna help you with autism and, your child's symptoms, very

often they're gonna bring up the mitochondria because if you remember in

science class, the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cells.

Lisa Katz: So pretty

much anything that any of us do in our body, our mitochondria are involved and.

In fact, mitochondria is linked with lots of things these days. Autism and

Parkinson's. And Alzheimer's. And just about anything that you talk about in

terms of health, you're gonna be talking about the mitochondria because they're

the, powerhouse.

Lisa Katz: So that

was his first diagnosis, and we didn't even get the autism diagnosis until

years later. And it was such a blip that. I don't remember. .

Lisa Katz: , For me

it was so long ago and autism was also such a rare diagnosis at the point that

I didn't even remember because we were so involved with the mitochondrial

disorder. wasn't until my son Brandon was about [00:04:00]

11 years old that um, started on going down a different road and that's when I

learned that.

Lisa Katz: There are

really things that can be helpful outside of therapy. , It wasn't until he was

11 that I realized that as his mom and the primary caretaker of him, that there

was just more that I could be doing to help him function well. So that is when

I started learning more about health and nutrition and the nutrition side of.

Autism, and that's when I really dove into that when he was about 11.

Victoria Bennion:

Okay, so what dietary. Changes did you need to make at that point?

Lisa Katz: The first

thing that I had heard about was something called the GAPS Diet. GAPS and it's,

uh, Dr. Natasha Campbell wrote a book in it's gut and psychology syndrome, and

it's basically healing the [00:05:00] gut. So

at the time, which was 11 years ago I read the book and , I decided to do this

for him.

Lisa Katz: I decided

to, to implement this, , help heal us get because. If, your listeners aren't

familiar with this or don't know this about autism autism is very much

connected. Like we're very much connected with the gut and the brain, so it's

really important to look at the gut and to work on what we can do to best set

our children up for success.

Lisa Katz: I did the

gap site, which basically , you can get the book, you can, you know, look it

up. It's really easy to access, but , start off, back with the basics. You boil

a chicken. And you boil some vegetables.

Lisa Katz: It's very

nourishing. Good old chicken and vegetables and you start with that. And so it

was getting rid of. The Cheez-Its, getting rid of the junk That I was feeding

him and really nourishing his body.

Lisa Katz: I like to

use the word nourish [00:06:00] because that's

what was my focus and that is still my focus, 10 and a half years later, is how

do I nourish his body from the gut to the brain? All the way down because my

son is nonverbal, which I'm sure many of your listeners have children who are

nonverbal as well.

Lisa Katz: I wanna

make sure that no matter what, that he has the nutrition, he needs to be able

to show up as his best. And so that starts with diet. So I did the gas diet

with him and you slowly advance and you move on to other things as well. Let me

tell you. I was not perfect. I get overwhelmed like I'm sure many of you guys

do too.

Lisa Katz: I get

overwhelmed and I'm like, okay, I'm not doing this exactly right and it's okay.

It's totally okay. So I did that and at the same time that this was happening,

I had another son that was getting a diagnosis of pandas, which I'm not sure

how many [00:07:00] of your listeners have

heard about, but now, at least in the US I'm not sure about over there, but

it's one in 200 kids now getting diagnosed with pans and pandas. It's

inflammation of the brain. Oftentimes with autism, they can go hand in hand. So

I had another son that was getting diagnosed with pandas. I was getting

diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions, so it was like all of this stuff was

happening within a few years, and so I changed all of our diets.

Lisa Katz: We went

gluten-free. We went dairy-free because I knew like to bring down the

inflammation I needed to support our bodies better. that was a huge pivotal

point when I started doing that. And I will tell you When I made the dietary

changes for Brandon, my son with autism, and if you've ever read anything about

gluten and dairy free, there are a few people. Who will tell you, oh my gosh,

my kids started talking. That did not happen here. That did not [00:08:00] happen here. Because of the gluten and the

casing can be so toxic to their bodies that once they get rid of that, it can

happen. It does happen. It can happen. It's doesn't happen for everybody. But

what does usually happen, and what did, happen is that he was calmer.

Lisa Katz: He was

able to go to sleep easier. And he was able to settle his bodies down so much.

So it was enough that we just have never looked back. We have never looked

back. I still feed him that way. So it was a major breakthrough and I think

it's a piece that unfortunately a lot of parents miss.

Lisa Katz: And it's

unfortunate because , pediatrician's office isn't telling you about these

things 'cause they don't have the education on nutrition. So you really have to

see like a functional medicine specialist. To get the information or as a mom,

you seek it out and, find the information yourself.

Victoria Bennion: How

did your son react [00:09:00] to the dietary

changes at the beginning?

Lisa Katz: was a

little bit um, surprised that he wasn't getting his other foods, but overall he

did well for me. I just made sure he had enough to eat. I just, wanna make sure

he had enough to eat. So he did. Really well.

Lisa Katz: And I

think most kids will do really well. Those that are like the really sensory,

picky eaters, it's gonna be a little tougher road, and I think as parents we

have to also get our mindset right and that,, Is for the best. Like I don't

know how it is over there, but like in here in America like, you got good

grades, let's go get ice cream.

Lisa Katz: , Is not

good for our bodies, but, or it's, a special occasion, let's celebrate and

let's eat all the junk food. So

Lisa Katz: we have to

change our mindset on that, especially his parents and his moms. It, so hard

because I think there's that element of, oh, I don't wanna take away that food

that he loves, but actually it's more loving to provide him with food that

actually is gonna love his body back. Because, [00:10:00]

you know, like goldfish and Cheez-Its, and all of that stuff. There's no

nutritional value there, but we just have to, as moms, we have to have our

mindsets.

Lisa Katz: Like that.

This is good and this is good for everybody. This is good for the whole family.

This is eating back in the way that our ancestors ate. We've gotten so far away

from that

Victoria Bennion:

Yeah, we have.

Lisa Katz: It's

really important, especially if you have a spouse to get your spouse on board

hey, we're doing this as a family.

Victoria Bennion:

absolutely. So if someone is thinking about making some dietary changes for

their family, what are some easy swaps they can start making in the kitchen?

Lisa Katz: Well, one

of the best things that you can do is to start reading your labels, so become

an informed consumer. And the best thing you can do is to buy foods without any

labels. So think about when you go to the grocery store. And, know, the

vegetables don't have labels. The fruit doesn't have labels, the meat doesn't

have labels and, [00:11:00] and those kind of

things. But the things that do have labels, because most of us are gonna bring

some foods into our house that have labels. We just are. But start reading your

labels and start figuring out, okay, what is in here? I will give a little tip

to everybody here. Ingredient labels, they're listed in the order of what has

the highest concentration of what. So for instance, if you're buying something

that you would be packaged raw fruit is gonna be best, say you're on the go.

You want something healthy.

Lisa Katz: You wanna

make sure when you look at that label that it's really just the fruit you wanna

make sure, because a lot of times, especially let's take applesauce for

instance. you wanna buy applesauce, you want to make sure there's not sugar

with that applesauce. So you wanna read the label like, is it apples?

Lisa Katz: And then

maybe does some sort of like lemon juice or something like, just a little bit

of something that would be fine. But look at all those preservatives. that's

one way to, that's really [00:12:00] the first

I, I'd like to help people start, is start being an informed consumer. I do

help people one-on-one learn how to be a label reader. I was, I had a call

yesterday with a mom she wants to focus first on getting out the food d, which

guys I think is probably a great place to start. It's an easy place to start.

You wanna make sure that you, you don't have food, dies in your food.

Lisa Katz: And so we

were talking yesterday. so I wanna encourage everybody to, if you have mac and

cheese in your house, look at that label. Is there food coloring in there? If

you have chips in your house, she had Cheetos and she had no idea there was

food coloring in Cheetos. So become an an informed consumer. Start reading your

labels. Start with the stuff that's already in your home so you can do the

research now before you go to the store and it gets overwhelming, but start

figuring out food dies are a great place to start.

Lisa Katz: In Europe

you guys ban a lot more than we do here in America. We're kind of just starting

to ban, but what [00:13:00] you can do is ban

them in your house before they even come into your house. I also really

advocate for gluten and dairy free. That's something that everybody has to

decide individually and I work with people one-on-one to help decide, you know,

what's going on in the family, what do things look like? Sometimes your kids

can be addicted to like dairy or sugar, sugar's, another big one. if they like,

have to have it and be careful. I always say be careful with the fruits too.

has your child with autism had like laughter where it's just like maniacal

laughter where they just laugh at and you're like, what is

Lisa Katz: going on?

Victoria Bennion:

possibly not

Lisa Katz: okay. It

happens for a lot of people. It happens for a lot of people their child is just

laughing and, it could be a yeast issue, I usually limit my son with us.

Lisa Katz: We do two

fruits a day and we do, we'll do blueberries and we'll a pear each day. you

know, if he has a little bite of apple here, fine. it's fine. But I know if

he's just like laughing and it's kind of, [00:14:00]

it's this drunk laughter. I know some of you guys are gonna be watching and

he'll be like, oh my gosh, my son does this too.

Lisa Katz: Or my kid

does this too. I know I gotta. Pull back on the fruit. So even fruit, you know,

their little bodies are so sensitive, and so it's so important that we tune

into what is going on and am I feeding and allowing my child to have something

that is making this

Lisa Katz: situation

worse?

Victoria Bennion:

Okay, so I'm curious, at what point did you start helping others?

Lisa Katz: I...