The intermediate level:  Biochemical testing

The GFCF diet will not, unfortunately, help everybody.  It will help you correct a peptide problem, if you have one, but it is unlikely to correct other problems.

The best thing to do before you start, is to find out if you have a peptide problem and - if you have - how serious it is.  At present, there are four laboratories who do this:

Great Plains laboratory (commercial)

University of Florida (Dr. Robert Cade, research)

University of Sunderland (Dr. Paul Shattock, research)

University of Oslo, “Rikshospitalet” (Dr. Karl Ludvig Reichelt, research)

If possible, you should run the test several times: 

*  Before starting the diet

*  Later on at intervals, to see if and how fast the peptides are disappearing

*  These later tests should be sampled variously from good periods, when the patient is performing at his/her level best, and from bad periods to see if behavioural improvement and regression are somehow related to the rise and fall in peptide levels.

Comments on the peptide tests

People say that the peptide test is "not accurate" after a time on the diet.  That is inaccurate. 

*  It MIGHT give you a "false negative" (a false impression that there is no problem) if you have been 100% successful with the diet for a sufficient length of time.

*  But as far as our experience goes,  the child would by then also show remarkable changes in behaviour, sleeping pattern, sensitivity to pain, pupil size and all the other markers that can be used for judging results.  If there have been no changes in these areas, and the peptide test is normal, then the chances that this is a "false negative" are slim indeed.  We've run the tests several times, some times with rather short intervals, and there is no mistaking what test is from a difficult period and which is from a good period.

*  We know people who have had their child "GFCF" for a year, and the peptide diagrams still show no change.   Then, of course, there is no wonder why the behaviour has not changed.  12.1

The top level:  Behavioral testing

Please read what we’ve written about this on the “how sure” page.  The ATEC test is freely available on the net.  The tests should, from time to time, be performed by “outsiders” to make sure of the objectivity.

Please share your test results with the GFCF support group through their survey website !