I think we are seeing that effect with regards to mental health and autism. It seems to me that there is at least a greater understanding. Growing up, I was likely right on the bubble of being diagnosed. Unfortunately, instead I was just labeled a bad kid.

Now I have a child with an official diagnosis, and I see a lot of the traits from my childhood, and things that I struggled with and her, just magnified.

I think if I were to go through the school system now, someone probably would have at least suggested that I get tested. Rather than berating me day after day and labeling me a bad kid

The gluten intolerance thing is complicated by FODMAPs (certain carbs that tend to ferment in the gut and to which some people are especially sensitive for reasons that are poorly understood). In practice, a gluten-free diet is often also a low-FODMAP diet, but companies don't label their food as "low-FODMAP", so people might make the switch, get actual relief from actual symptoms, and assume that gluten was the issue because they've never even heard of FODMAP sensitivity.

In my experience, the biggest issue with autism isn't so much raw awareness or availability, but that almost none of the "autism industry" caters to autistic people themselves. I sometimes end up excluding phrases like "your child", "the child", "the student", "my son", "my daughter" etc. from searches for information about autism because there's just so much stuff that's laser-focused on the concerns of presumed-neurotypical people around an autistic person.

Yeah, I used to laugh at the gluten intolerance epidemic. Then as an experiment I cut it from my diet. I was not at all intolerant, I just wanted to try it.

I could not believe the difference. For example, I never realized that some foods made me tired. Now when I eat breads or pastas, I notice i am tired afterwards (not immediately but after a time).

Very strange.

Supposedly carbohydrates are a precursor to serotonin, so getting sleepy from carbs could be expected. The neuroscientist Andrew Huberman talks about this in his podcast, eating low carb during the day can maintain alertness, while eating carbs at night are useful to prepare for sleep.

A heavy portion of carbohydrates will raise and lower your blood sugar levels. The crash is the tiredness. I would nearly fall asleep at my desk after lunch if I had pasta, and it took some time to make the connection.

It does not do that for me. As in, I don't get tired after eating them.

So I think, it is quite likely that it does affect other people differently. And it makes sense for them to cut that stuff out while I don't have to.

There are different kinds of intolerance. Some people have mild allergies to gluten, which is very different from celiac disease.

Why do you think this has anything to do with gluten? Is there perhaps another substance in bread and pasta that is known to contribute to sleepiness after eating?

Good point. I don’t really know if it is gluten. I hadn’t thought of that!

Interesting, but I think it has gone the other direction. It seems to me that the autism diagnosis has been unilaterally bad for rational people, and something like a green light for exploitation by emotional people. I hear people calling others autistic all the time to diminish their rational points in an argument.

Autistic people are not more "rational" in the sense of having better arguments.

That wasn’t my implication. I was saying that the term is being abused rather than just over-used as in celiac.

I don’t claim to know what ‘autistic’ is, and I’ve never heard a clear definition.