The supporting data is compelling. For more complete information, please refer to our scientific publications and our literature describing the results of our research study. The following statement by our founder, Karen M. Slimak, MS, is a summary of the results of twenty years of study, and the reason we can so confidently state that substances in food and the environment are the underlying cause of autism.

'I am a scientist and researcher with expertise in analytical methods, environmental chemistry, biochemistry and physiology. I did not begin with an emphasis on autism; my work began 20 years ago with an emphasis on severe food allergies and chemical sensitivities. My career interest is in understanding the interplay between environmental contaminants and human health. I have developed a methodology whereby the effects of chemical exposures on humans can be studied. My work in this area, over many years, has brought me increasingly into contact with the autistic community as I began working with increasingly more seriously affected individuals. I have found that autistic children as well as children suffering from severe seizure disorders are the most strongly affected groups to date.

As an environmental chemist, for over 30 years I have had a career goal of studying the effects on humans of years of exposure to the complex milieu of substances in our environment. Although I knew there would be effects, initially I expected that they would be mild and relatively inconsequential.

In the beginning it was impossible to directly study human subjects. Severe neurological and other physical effects of volatile organics and plastics have been documented for many years in animal subjects, but always at high levels, and only one chemical at a time. No one knew how to accurately extrapolate to human subjects other than to consider epidemiological studies of industrial exposure. No one could tell for sure that any group of individuals was experiencing severe neurological effects associated with any chronic exposure.

For the first 15 years I could only choose activities as closely related as possible to my career interest. These included: 1) serving as director of a trace organics analysis lab, 2) conducting an assessment of environment fate and effects for the National Research Council and Congress, 3) managing a study for the Environmental Protection Agency, in which over 100 volatile compounds were traced through their full cycles of production and use, and rates of release to air, water, soil and waste were estimated at all steps and in all materials.

Toward the end of this time, I faced a severe personal crisis with the near death of my infant son from extraordinarily severe and extensive food allergies and sensitivities and early onset autism. I was forced to find a way to save his life on my own, as he was severely allergic to virtually every food. As a result of the impressive recovery of my son due to the dietary intervention approach I developed, I began to receive referrals of severely allergic individuals from physicians.

I approached my work with each person with the scientific rigor I have always used. Each person I studied as a scientific experiment of one subject. Even though my emphasis was on foods, I wanted to be sure that my observations could only be related to foods, nothing else. To control for as many other variables as possible, each person was required to drink distilled water in glass, avoid plastics, avoid cooking with gas heat, avoid perfumes, and test organic foods only. When a set of well-tolerated foods was found, the dietary intervention was completed.

To maintain scientific credibility and what I would call idle scientific curiosity, I instructed the clients to add back the other variables one at a time. The clients and I were shocked to find an array of severe, completely unanticipated symptoms. One client wrapped her well-tolerated food in plastic wrap for 20 minutes, then unwrapped and ate it. She was bedridden for three days as a result. One young father, sat at his table, drank his first glass of tap water in 6 weeks and reported being overwhelmed with intense, barely controllable rage. He said, 'I was just sitting there! I had no reason to be filled with rage; nothing had happened. All I did was drink the tap water. That's when I realized the only time in my life I didn't experience this barely controllable rage was when I was on your program!' Person after person reported similar experiences; all were different reactions. There were different systems of the body affected, no two people reacted in the same way to anything, but the reported of effects of these materials were consistent and surprisingly severe.

I realized that I had stumbled on a way to pursue my life long goal: studying the effects on humans of long-term exposure to the complex milieu of substances in our environment. Instead of taking well people and trying to make them sick with one chemical at a time; I could study people who were ill, eliminate foods as a factor with my highly effective diets, and through a process of selective removal, see how various substances were effecting each person by observing which symptoms would disappear. I realized I could reasonably adopt the view that everybody was unintentionally playing a part in a grand experiment, since everyone was living in a world virtually swimming in a sea of new substances.

My approach was to directly study human exposure in the 'negative'; that is by selective elimination of exposures and studying the improvements. By working with referred individuals who were already ill, I could study the role of removal of foods and environmental exposures and learn to what extent foods and environmental substances were contributing to their condition, and help my clients regain their health in the process.

My first step was to eliminate all of the food-related symptoms. If I could start people on a diet of only well-tolerated foods, food related symptoms would be eliminated immediately. This would make it much easier, essentially possible, to determine the causes of the remaining symptoms. I sought a starting diet that was essentially universally well-tolerated, which could be expanded later.

Over a ten year period, I observed the food choices of approximately 5,000 individuals with severe, extensive food allergies and sensitivities. These individuals chose from a wide array of unusual carbohydrate choices, and made their choices based on what worked best for them without direction and without discussion with each other. I observed their final choices after, by whatever method, they selected the carbohydrates that they tolerated best. Each person found the foods that they tolerated best independently, but each person ended up choosing essentially the same set of foods. Each individual independently chose tropical root crops, and essentially only tropical roots. This was not a previously predicted or intended outcome; however, I had to accept that just as there are the most poorly tolerated foods in the world, there are foods that are the most well tolerated. My data clearly showed that tropical root crops were the most well tolerated carbohydrates.

I developed the Special Foods Diet, which incorporates tropical root crops as the sole carbohydrate source into a well-balanced seven day rotation diet of unusual foods, as a result of these years of observation. In part, there was a second reason for this. If these were the foods that subjects were eventually going to need to eat, the whole process could be shortened by beginning with these foods.

The Special Foods Diet proved to be a highly effective diet, especially when combined with reduction of chemical exposures. One highly important benefit was that when combined with reduced chemical exposures, the problems encountered in other programs of developing sensitivities to new foods was found to not occur. Further the small number of foods each day, all extraordinarily well tolerated, each not repeated for a full week; made it possible to know for sure that each food was well tolerated and make any necessary adjustments. When all problem foods are not eliminated, no matter what else one does, increases in symptoms and severity, and worsening of condition will ultimately occur. With the Special Foods Diet it was possible to fully eliminate this problem.

In the past 20 years I have worked with over a thousand individuals. Because I have been able to reduce food-related symptoms of each individual I studied to 'zero', i.e., complete elimination, I have been able to clearly study causes and effects of exposures to foods and environmental chemicals, particularly volatile organics, plastics, and molds, and to detail and record the associated symptoms for each person.

A. Food: Experience With The Special Foods Diet:
In the early years it took much longer to fully eliminate all problem foods, and each starting diet was unique. With the development of the Special Foods Diet about 5 years ago, it became possible to have a common set of foods that each person could begin with and essentially be sure that the diet would be well tolerated from the outset.

The seven carbohydrates of the Special Foods Diet are unusually well tolerated apparently for the following reasons: 1) they are from the parts of the world where the human race emerged and it appears the immune system is well adapted to these foods, 2) they are unusually low in mold levels because of a unique peeling process used by Special Foods, 3) they are not commonly part of people's diets and so most individuals have not become sensitive to them.

For other dietary intervention approaches, many recommend dropping carbohydrate levels quite low and raising levels of protein. This is a common approach in 'anti yeast' diets. This is not an optimal diet, and children on this approach are definitely at risk for not achieving their potential height. We have found this approach is not useful nor necessary.

The surge in Candidiasis reported by others does not occur with the Special Foods Diet. No individual has reported this problem, as long as they maintain the diet and environmental protocol. Instead, individuals with intractable Candidiasis who have suffered sometimes for years have resolved this problem fully with the Special Foods Diet and the Special Environment Program of the SF Comprehensive Intervention Program.

The optimal combinations of carbohydrates, fats and proteins required by the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA), are maintained with the Special Foods Diet, to the great benefit of our clients.

B. Learning About The Symptoms Caused By Chemical Exposures
(After Fully Eliminating Food-Related Symptoms): excerpts are presented here. For the full text please see page 17 of the Special Environment Program booklet.

The early years were ones of discovery. I carefully recorded each person's reactions -- the foods and substances they reacted to and the symptoms that were associated with each exposure. I found that symptoms could be caused by foods, and they could be caused by volatile organic compounds, plastics, resins, molds, and even pollens. I found that symptoms directly and obviously associated with foods and volatile organic compounds, plastics, resins, molds, and pollens included all possible neurological symptoms and all possible physical symptoms.

I found that avoiding foods was important, but not more so than avoiding chemical exposures.

Figure 2

Problem foods in the diet accounted for 24% of the symptoms in children who were already gluten-free and casein-free. Problem foods in the diet accounted for 34% of the symptoms in children who were not previously gluten-free and casein-free. Although there is great variation among children, in most children we found approximately one third of the symptoms were food related and two thirds of the symptoms were related to the environmental factors: volatile organics, plastics, resins, and molds.

In terms of the types of symptoms, again there was great variation; however most children responded as follows:

Three methods for environmental intervention were studied and they show the importance of making diet and environmental changes completely and simultaneously. In the 3 approaches studied Figure 3 shows the results for food-related symptoms; Figure 4, for environment-related symptoms.

In Figure 3 there are three lines, the brown line represents the results obtained when individuals were placed on the Special Foods Diet, and essentially followed the diet only without environmental changes. The orange line represents the individuals who made moderate environmental changes and then made additional changes as indicated by the responses and seeking behaviors of the child. The green line represents the individuals who simultaneously followed the Special Foods Diet and implemented rigorous environmental cleanup simultaneously.

The brown line of figure 3 shows that when diet alone was changed, new food reactions occurred (brown line), shown in the increasing symptom levels after week 5. An additional 10 weeks on average were required to make the necessary adjustments to a series of new food reactions. The sudden drop in food-related symptoms shown at week twelve, is due to the fact that by that time, a final diet change was made and the subjects were required to make immediate environmental changes. This stopped the continued development of new food-related symptoms. with the final diet change, augmented by the environmental changes, food-related symptoms were eliminated and this was then sustained.

The second group, orange line, who made moderate environmental changes continually experienced fewer food-related reactions and all food-related symptoms had cleared at about week twelve.

The group that achieved the best results was the group that made extensive concurrent environmental changes at the time they began the Special Foods Diet(yellow-green line). The drop in food related symptoms was rapid, the healing of gastrointestinal tract symptoms was quick, and no reactions to any of the new foods in the diet occurred.

Figure 3

Figure 4

This indicates that for children with autism and related disorders, the immune system is essentially overwhelmed. Removal of foods alone is insufficient to remove enough of the burden on the immune system, and the immune system remained essentially overwhelmed, and over reactive. Thus in spite of the diet and its benefits, the underlying problems with the immune system continued to become more severe.

Although great and very important, food alone was not enough. This may be largely due to the seeking behaviors of autistic children in which they are able to fully compensate for the loss of one type of exposure by substituting another exposure until it is equivalent or stronger. Until the environment is completely controlled, the child will be able to compensate for the elimination of food-related reactions by increasing exposures to volatile organic compounds in other substances. Thus to the body there has been essentially no change. The immune system continues to become increasingly more sensitive as if nothing was changed; and indeed, biochemically, for these children, nothing has!

The data also show that environment alone is not sufficient either. Reactions to food allergens are too strong. They cannot be compensated for by reductions to volatile organic compound exposure.

When the three approaches to environmental intervention were compared, Figure 4, there was relatively little difference between the effect of few and moderate environmental approaches on symptom levels. This was probably due to the fact that in both cases, seeking behaviors occurred relatively early and parents in both categories found themselves, following after seeking children and making environmental changes in a less than systematic way. Parents who were directed into the clean room approach, achieved symptom reductions to '0' levels in less than 20 weeks, in comparison to the near 50 weeks required by the group following a moderate environmental approach. The approach that combines rapid dietary intervention and simultaneous rapid environmental changes, achieved the best overall results.

In addition to achieving results more quickly, with much less hassle for parents, the shorter time frame makes the SF Comprehensive Intervention Program much less expensive.

The above graphs, Figures 1-3, show the combined results for children with autism and children with PDD. Children with PDD typically responded more quickly to the program, and symptoms of children with PDD often disappeared as rapidly as shown above for the food (brown line).

Often the autistic child may have a list of 20 to 30 symptoms and complaints. Many of these are severe. Thumbnail graphics below show the results achieved for various symptom categories with the combined diet and strong VOC exposure reduction of the SF Comprehensive Intervention Program.

Self stimulating behaviors	OCD
Digestive system	Violence, aggression
Eczema	Leaky gut
Temperament/mood	Social interactions
Sensory sensitivities	Withdrawn/depressed

These graphs, while showing a steady decline, and showing that symptoms achieve the zero symptom level that is so important, do not still fully show the power of the SF Comprehensive Intervention Program. Some parents made their environmental changes quickly, others very slowly. In all cases symptoms dropped rapidly when parents changed the environment rapidly, and symptoms dropped slowly when parents made environmental changes slowly.

The environmental data is very important and is discussed in detail in the booklet describing the Special Environment Program portion of SF Comprehensive Intervention Program. Please refer to this booklet for greater details.

Figures 5 and 6 summarize the results of the environmental research. For Figure 5, linear regression of exposure levels and symptoms reveals a strong predictable correlation. For the dark blue line, autism, this relationship was especially significant (n=138; t=12.53; R2=0.536; P=<.000). For the light blue line, PDD, the data show a strong correlation (n=56; t=7.06; R2=0.480; P=<.000). The correlation between VOC exposure and symptoms is so strong that exposure levels alone are all one needs to know, to know the non-food symptom levels.

Figure 6 presents a typical pattern for families currently undergoing our program. We have found that once the clean room is ready and the child enters the room, adjustments to the room, addressing of seeking behaviors, redoing missed items, and addressing unforeseen situations has been taking about 5 weeks. The slower drop in symptoms during the first 5 weeks represents the period of mistakes, and intense seeking behaviors that often occurs.

Once all of these problems are addressed and the environment is maintained consistently, the remaining symptoms drop as shown in Figure 14. The two lines dropping to zero represent different reaction times we commonly see.

From experience we know that, in the case of the elimination of environmental exposures (VOC's) every autistic child will frantically seek out every way possible to maintain his exposure levels, including using his nose as a detector to lead him to any missed spots in the room, finding ways to loosen materials, and temporarily playing with bodily fluids, through which the VOC's are also being excreted.

The results of this study point clearly and convincingly to the truth about autism, and the reason why this condition has increased so rapidly in the last few years. No genetic condition can occur fast enough to account for the rapid increases. The speed with which we are able to eliminate and provoke the autistic symptoms, point to a very fast process, namely an immune system response to substances in the environment. This is consistent with the results of Singh et al and others.

The immune system is apparently triggered fully at very low levels. The most effective way to protect autistic children from exposures is to create a clean room for the child and have the child stay in the protection of the room while starting the diet. This is by far the best for the child, and by far the easiest and cheapest way for the parents.

Our Dietary Approach: Simultaneously Eliminating Food and Chemical Allergens

Goal:
Eating only foods that are completely well-tolerated (causing no symptoms) in optimally nourishing combinations while at the same time completely eliminating problem chemicals and triggers from the environment so that the immune system
is able to return to normal function.

With this new allergy avoidance goal clearly stated, the inappropriateness of many of the strategies becomes quickly apparent. Accomplishing this new goal relies on including only truly well tolerated foods in a diet, the ones that are as totally ‘good’ for the body as the previous foods were ‘bad’. It is widely accepted that the food allergy testing strategies are not as accurate as would be liked, so how does one find the well tolerated foods? The simplest strategy is to select foods from the foods that are the most likely to be well tolerated (these are exotic roots, the most hypoallergenic carbohydrates in the world, as well as meats and vegetables from unusual and uncommon sources), and then include them in a rotation diet of so many days that any foods that do happen to cause problems can be identified and eliminated. Simultaneously, these foods are eaten in the absolute best combinations so that all of the body requirements for calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins are met, thus providing the optimal nourishment of a lifetime. Finally waiting, and giving the body time to recover, while feeling great as you go.

Strategy:
Rotating only optimally nourishing, body friendly foods selected from unusual and uncommon sources in balanced food combinations in at least a 7-day rotation plan while avoiding all other environmental exposures to achieve total food and
environmentally-related symptom relief.

This strategy is simply not possible to achieve with a belief system based on compromises. Relief needed by the immune system is complete; it is extremely important to find ways to eliminate all triggers causing the immune system to over react; only when this is achieved can the immune system begin to respond more normally. It has to, because it does not have anything to react to!

Belief:
Expect to achieve total symptom relief from symptoms caused by foods and environmental exposures. Know that this is possible to achieve. Expect that if this is achieved consistently, for a long enough period of time, eventual recovery from sensitivities is a very real possibility.

IV.
A Personal Example of Trials and Triumph

The goals, strategies and beliefs that are fundamental to the approach and philosophies of the Comprehensive Intervention Program were developed during a desperate search for foods for the infant son of the founder of Special Foods when he was desperately ill, suffering from extensive, severe food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances. This story is told here because the baby suffered not only from severe physical symptoms but also neurological effects of early onset autism. Neurological symptoms included extreme hypersensitivity to sound, motion, light, and touch, extreme terror from even mild stimuli; active avoidance from stimuli such as trying to burrow beneath the arms of people holding him; disturbed sleep and wakeful patterns. It was if I was watching my son's brain being destroyed right in front of me!

Please view this story in several ways: as an illustration of the improvement possible with the right dietary intervention, as an example of how ill a person can be and still recover completely, and as a narrative telling how the underlying principles were developed, how they were and can be implemented, and how important they are in creating the opportunity for successful dietary intervention.

When my son was 5 months old, he was discharged from our local hospital, essentially to die from his extensive, severe food allergies and sensitivities. Knowing he had reacted severely to each food that had been offered, they tried to soothe my fears with the words, 'Somewhere in the world there are foods your son can tolerate, and we know you will find them.' I realized that the only one standing between my son and almost certain death was me!
I wished for the right foods in a hurry. Because there was very little time - literally - I wished for, not the familiar foods closely related to the foods that already made him so ill, I wished for the foods that would be absolutely the most hypoallergenic foods in the world! The foods the least likely to cause his problems, the foods that would agree with him so completely, that it would be like a sigh of relief to his body.

Where were my chances the best? What are the foods with the highest probability of being well tolerated? I reasoned, I now know correctly, that the best chances would be with foods that were totally unfamiliar and preferably from entirely new and well-tolerated food families. So I made a list of every food that had been fed to the baby, his reactions, and classified the foods into food families. Then I crossed each of those food families off of my list of possibilities, and did not consider that food family again. Next I made a list of the food families that were left. Then came innumerable trips to grocery stores, gourmet shops, and ethnic markets, simply looking for anything. I had my best results in ethnic markets where I would wander the isles, pick up strange things, and ask a customer to tell me the name of the food in their language and write it out for me. I then went to the library where I translated the words into English, and classified them into food families. I then selected the ones to try that came from new food families. If he reacted to any of these foods, I eliminated the entire food family.

The good news is that I slowly began to find foods that worked, and I mean really worked well! As soon as I found a few well-tolerated foods, I based the baby's entire diet on them, and within four days, ALL of his symptoms disappeared. While my son was feeling well, no, wonderful, I began to work quickly to exploit these few food families by finding many foods, not just one from each of the new food families I had found. For example, I learned that sweet potato leaves are edible, and that the leaves of most exotic roots are edible. From sweet potatoes alone, your can have green, orange and white vegetables to eat. Similarly, virtually every part of the lotus water lily is edible. Although I worked hard to provide variety in a rotation diet, so many vitamins and minerals and enzymes would be included in the diet, I followed the accepted wisdom, that children should be allowed to follow their own instincts. I relied on what I was told, that children on their own would eat until satisfied, and would eat all they needed. Well, this was just not true. In frequent pediatrician checkups, the doctor became alarmed as the now toddler slipped farther and farther behind in the growth charts in both height and weight. He was happily satisfied with a few bites of food and was much more interested in playing with the other children. I realized that on rotation diets where few foods are available, it is very easy to eat far less than the body needs. Back in the library I worked with nutritional guidelines and translated them into daily quantities (pounds) of the basic macronutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins the child would have to eat every day to meet his basic needs for calories. I learned, first hand, that balanced quantities of carbohydrates, fats and proteins were essential. Too few calories result in stunted growth and being too thin; too much fat produces rotund children who are too short; too little protein may cause bruising.

So I learned that the right foods alone were not enough. The very best foods, from the very best food families had to be rotated and absolutely had to be eaten in well specified quantities and with an optimal balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. It was when I began achieving all of these simultaneously, that I watched with wonder the amazing blossoming of health in my son, that I realized that there just might be hope for recovery. I could tell that my son, in spite of being so horribly ill, had achieved a 'zero point'. He was truly experiencing no symptoms at all, and you could see the health and vitality returning and increasing.

I vowed that my goal for my son would be to see him leave home for college without having to consider diet or sensitivities at all. I reasoned that if I took him off of his diet too soon, or if I started introducing closely related foods, or if I juggled foods, for example, one meal every 6 weeks is okay, but two meals every six weeks gives him problems, that he would likely always be ill. So instead, I stayed with the good diet, and waited. I watched him grow up as a pillar of health in the community! Everyone else got the colds!

Once or twice a year, we would gingerly let him try something and would track the symptoms. At first the reactions were severe and prolonged, lasting over four days. Gradually over the years, the reactions got shorter and shorter and less and less severe. And the disturbing neurological problems? They disappeared four days after we changed the baby's diet, and never returned! The day did come when we could not tell a difference between his well-tolerated foods and his old foods that used to make him so ill. We waited two years after that, and then began slowly expanding the diet. As the foods were added, we watched for signs of viruses, infections, congestion, food cravings, anything. We saw absolutely nothing, and it quickly became clear that his immune system had become normal in virtually every way. No we did not have to wait his entire childhood, the process, although gradual, was actually much faster than expected.

Although rotation diets are not new, it is the combination of expanded rotation of only well tolerated food families simultaneously accomplished with the optimal nourishment obtained from the foods and allowing enough time for the body to heal, and corresponding intense environmental change that represents the important difference between long term gradual worsening of health and achieving the long term improvement and eventual complete recovery that so many have now achieved with this method.

Although the basic philosophy was devised from the urgent struggle to save the life of one severely ill child, it was used to fashion a protocol and framework that could be applied to others in many circumstances, and has now been successfully used by thousands of individuals over the last 20 years. The possibility of actual recovery is not commonly encountered elsewhere regarding allergies and sensitivities. We are proud that so many have gone on to careers in business, finance, theater, and the home without having to give a thought to their foods. And the children? Well, they just grow up!

I remember a frantic call from a mom who had worked so hard with her son. She called, worried about her son, who was eating standard 'teenage' foods away from home. When asked, she realized that absolutely no symptoms were occurring and absolutely no indications of possible symptoms were occurring nor had been occurring for months. I was pleased to remind her, that this was the moment she had been working toward since he was five years old, when he had been so severely ill with extensive allergies! What we learned, and have now shared with so many, is the fact that not compromising at all on eliminating allergens or the time necessary is almost always just what the body needs to relieve the burden on an overworked immune system, and to make possible the slow, steady and continual improvement in immune function as the immune system begins to return to normal, that makes complete recovery a virtual certainty.

V.
Reasons For Starting With The
Comprehensive Intervention Program