Years ago, I listened to this episode of this podcast (a link to the transcript if you find Ms. Ward a little too energetic)

What I learned from this episode changed the fate of my whole family for the better. The first, and most important piece of knowledge I took away is that the Vagus Nerve is the only nerve in the entire human body that has BIDIRECTIONAL communication with the brain and is therefore responsible for at least a portion of human behavior

What I learned here helped me to develop a (fairly expensive but worth it) diet for my daughter (who is 7 years old and on the ASD spectrum) that (anecdotally) has had incredibly positive effects on her behavior, hypersensitivity, ability to focus on a task, and learning ability.

Just to make sure I wasn't seeing confirmation bias, I DNA sequenced the before and after of her gut biome after 4 years of strictly eating like this and saw a dramatic rise in the biodiversity.

Here’s how I help my daughter to avoid (and recover from) the poison in American food that was laying waste to her gut biome and increasing the severity of her ASD symptoms (like hypersensitivity and self-harm):

• don’t eat wheat because 99.99999% of it in the U.S. has been sprayed with roundup in a process called desiccation... IMO, THIS is probably why we see such a high occurance of celiac in the US...and IMHO it is often not the gluten... it's the roundup!
• don’t drink milk (unless it is raw milk from a Jersey cow or a goat: both of which produce A2 type milk)
• don’t eat corn because it contains glyphosate (glyphosate's effects on human microbiota) and other harmful chemicals
• don’t eat anything unless it is officially labeled USDA Organic (though this one isn’t a silver bullet because the USDA is a corrupt organization too...I mainly just stay away from foods that are made by big agriculture like Nabisco/General Mills/etc because they own the entire chain of production and use TONS of chemicals to achieve their yield)
• don’t consume concentrated sugars and hyper-refined chemicals like HFCS
• vitamin D (a vital ingredient for the body's macrophage production)
• eat yogurt with macrophage activation properties (gcMAF) to kickstart the production of macrophage in your gut. This one is SUPER important for reversing the effects since in my experience, it is the macrophage production that people on the ASD spectrum are severely lacking, causing bad bacteria to proliferate in the gut, unchecked.
• consume lots of different species of probiotics to repopulate your gut bacteria that has been decimated by these chemicals which act like antibiotics inside your fragile gut (the more different species of bacteria, the better)
• drink kombucha and other probiotic sodas/drinks (another probiotic that I swear by)
• consume nopale powder to fight gut inflammation /leaky gut. I learned this one from a trip to mexico where I mixed fresh nopale into the smoothie and saw massive improvements
• consume mushrooms like Organic Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) mycelial biomass & fruit body Organic Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mycelial biomass & fruit body, Organic Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris) mycelial biomass & fruit body, Organic Turkey Tail (Trametes veriscolor) mycelial biomass & primordia, Organic King Trumpet (Pleurotus eryngii) mycelial biomass & fruit body, Organic Maitake (Grifola frondosa) mycelial biomass & primordia, Organic Antrodia (Antrodia camphorata) mycelial biomass, Organic Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mycelial biomass & fruit body and Organic Himemeatsutake (Agaricus blazer) mycelial biomass & primordia because the ideal, healthy gut is actually lined with a substrate of healthy bacteria, fungus, and viruses)...there's a powder out there but I am going to avoid linking it
• eat prebiotics (foods that good gut bacteria like to consume) while starving the bad gut bacteria that thrives in a gut environment rich in artificial sugars and over-enriched foods

I realized that the best course of action would be to give her a super healthy smoothie each day that would contain most of the elements of this diet in one dose (not the dairy parts of course). Since she is also VERY picky, I knew she wouldn't drink it because it tasted like a salad (it even contains kimchi for their unique bacterial fingerprint!) So, I started out adding lots of honey to the smoothie and making it tasty. Over time, I progressively decreased the sweetness (eventually eliminated the honey altogether) but since it is so ingrained in her routine, she still voraciously drinks the entire smoothie...and even asks for it specifically even though it tastes horrible to any outside observer. Psychological studies (Pavlov's dogs!?!?) helped pave the way for this. ;)

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this life-changing crash-course I took in improving my daughter's gut biome. If this advice helps even one of you, I am honored.

ps. I have been gaslighted by other unwitting dupes in the form of American citizens when I mention it. So, please if you disagree or have some contrary information, try to be constructive instead of just attacking me.