In recent years, we have seen more parents implementing a carbohydrate-free diet.
They are overcoming myths and prejudices to get their child back into the standard developmental range as soon as possible. It must not be easy: they’re fighting a huge battle. They’ve turned away children crying and begging for sweets. They’ve had grandmothers accuse them of trying to starve their children. I genuinely applaud the courage and determination of parents who have gone through all of this to go carb-free.
It took me a long time to fully embrace a carbohydrate-free diet as part of my treatment.
It was already 15-16 years ago that I sincerely appreciated the ketogenic diet’s usefulness in treating CNS diseases. While treating severe epilepsy, I experienced several children who improved and became more cognizant of the ketogenic diet. So naturally, I assumed that it would also help children with autism. However, I was not convinced of the effectiveness of my assumptions and did not dare to implement them. Then, in recent years, some studies began to show that the ketogenic diet could be helpful for autism. But still, it was not easy to implement as I was concerned about safety.
I couldn’t answer, “Is this nutritionally sound for a growing child?”. We already knew that rice and bread, which everyone commonly eats, should be banned, that fruits, which are so nutritious that they are essential, should be avoided, and that sugars and grains are a problem. But how can it be possible to have a nutritionally sound diet? Even if it did, I thought, it wouldn’t be feasible if it was nutritionally lethal. So I couldn’t apply it to my patients because I wasn’t sure of its safety.
However, in recent years, I have had the opportunity to study and understand nutritional therapies. This allowed me to know that the ketogenic diet is nutritionally safe. Furthermore, seeing carnivores raising their children as carnivores and living healthy lives gave him confidence in its safety.
However, there was still hesitation in deciding to realistically implement this as a treatment. That’s when brave parents became my teachers.
I met several parents who wanted to implement a ketogenic diet for their children and combine it with my Korean herbal treatments. The children were very healthy, even on a prolonged carbohydrate-restricted diet. Despite their severe condition and advanced age, the rate of improvement was rapid, with much higher outcomes than with Herbal medicine alone.
After 15 years of hesitation, it wasn’t the papers or the nutritional science that convinced me to pursue a carbohydrate-restricted diet aggressively. The parents didn’t hesitate to take a risk for their children. Now, whenever I treat intractable autism, I don’t stop with the GFCF with a carbohydrate-restricted diet.
As a result, the rate of improvement into the normal developmental category has increased dramatically. The Dr. Tomato protocol for autism treatment is now almost complete with parents. I am grateful to all those parents who taught me and trusted me.
Not everyone can outgrow autism with diet. However, most of the children who succeed in outgrowing their autism are those who combine diet with other therapy.
