Planning a Diet around Autism

“For most autistic people, safe foods will be foods that are always consistent in packaging, taste, smell, texture, and ideally have a long shelf life. Unfortunately, most foods that meet these qualifications are heavily processed packaged foods.”

You’ve probably heard the trope by now, autistic people can be exceptionally picky eaters. But it’s not just a nuisance if an autistic person’s safe food is not available. It can throw off their entire day, and can disrupt partners, roommates, and caregivers as well.

In fact, “picky eater” may not be the best phrase to describe what is actually happening. Autistic people tend to have a higher amount of sensory information entering their brain at any time than neurotypical people. Lights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, and all other senses are dialed up to the extreme. Personally, when I eat something that has a texture or taste or smell that is even slightly unpleasant to me, I am overwhelmed by the sensory input. There are certain things I just can’t eat because of this. Even a few experiences like this can cause an autistic person to avoid any food except food they have eaten before that they can tolerate.

These foods are called safe foods, and having them around is essential. Autistic people will tend to stockpile safe foods to the point they will skew local shopping metrics, an amusing side effect. The quality of these safe foods tends to be poor, depending on the person. For most autistic people, safe foods will be foods that are always consistent in packaging, taste, smell, texture, and ideally have a long shelf life. Unfortunately, most foods that meet these qualifications are heavily processed packaged foods. These foods also tend to be more expensive than buying and preparing fresh ingredients, which adds additional costs and stress.

Numbers vary by a lot, but some estimates show that as many as 90% of adults with autism do not have steady full-time employment. Benefits like Social Security Disability and low income programs are nowhere near sufficient, and many autistic people require a lot of support, which is also expensive and not always covered by insurance.

Autistic people who have family capable of supporting them may move in or stay with family members, but not every autistic person can depend on family. For someone like me, my family lives far away and I value my independence. I live with roommates, but I struggle with preparing my own meals even when I can get access to fresh ingredients.

Many autistic people struggle with things that neurotypical and allistic people can do without thinking like cooking and doing dishes. For me, I get stressed whenever there is anyone else in the kitchen while I am trying to cook. I also don’t always have the energy to do dishes, which causes me to consume a lot of prepared, packaged food.

Prepared meal services are expensive and don’t always have safe foods available. We lack a prepared meal program in the U.S. for people who struggle with executive functions. There are meal services for the elderly, and for people with certain conditions, but aside from being a high support needs autistic person who lives in a group home, there are no such programs for autistic people and others who have executive function issues.

I plan to look into what I can do to create a food for autism program, where I intend to discover or create better safe foods and make them easier to access for people difficulties preparing their own meals. But this is not something I can do alone, and I will need a lot of help.