Autism and Vaccines and Diet, Oh My . . . .

Here in the San Diego area there has been a recent outbreak of measles. It started elsewhere and has spread elsewhere, but several children came down with measles here because they had not been vaccinated. Some were too young and some had parents who chose not to vaccinate.

Many parents who choose not to vaccinate their children make that choice because they have read that the rise in vaccinations and the rise in autism diagnoses came at around the same time and don't want to put their children at risk in case there is a connection.

Trust me, I totally understand that fear.

But what if vaccines are not the cause of the rise in autism. What if it's something else? Like diet? What we eat today is so far removed from what people ate 50 or 75 or 100 years ago. Vegetables are less nutritious because the ground has been stripped, meats are loaded with hormones and antibiotics. Processed foods full of preservatives and unpronounceable chemicals are everywhere.

You are what you eat, whether you like that idea or not. Yor body functions - well or poorly - because of what you feed it.

Wheat has been bred to maximize its gluten content. ACK!

What if the rise in autism has to do with increased exposure to fluorescent lighting? Within a couple of years it will be mandatory to use fluorescent bulbs - no matter how dangerous they might be, and no matter how many people cannot tolerate them.

What if?

Maybe just maybe a lot of kids get things like measles for no good reason at all.