New hot cereal & autism

Creamy Truly Vanilla

Treat yourself to a bowl of warm, creamy, whole grain cereal touched with the natural sweetness of real vanilla.

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Ingredients: Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Evaporated Cane Juice, Chicory Root Fiber, Kashi Seven Whole Grains and Sesame® Blend (Whole: Hard Red Winter Wheat, Oats, Rye, Barley, Triticale, Long Grain Brown Rice, Buckwheat, Sesame Seeds), Soy Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Isolate, Whole Flax Seeds, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Molasses, Evaporated Salt, Cinnamon.

Allergen Statement: CONTAINS WHEAT, MILK AND SOY INGREDIENTS.

Diabetic Exchange: 1 1/2 Carbohydrates

Kosher Certification: OU-Diary

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 1 packet (40g)
Servings Per Container: About 8
Amount/Serving	%Daily Value**
Calories 150
Calories from Fat 20
Total Fat 2g *	3%
Saturated Fat 0g	0%
Trans Fat 0g	0%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 100mg	4%
Potassium 250mg	7%
Total Carbohydrate 25g	8%
Fiber 7g	29%
Soluble Fiber 5g
Insoluble Fiber 2g
Sugars 6g
Protein 9g	15%
Vitamin A	0%
Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%
Iron	6%

 

Pro:  It tastes OK. I mean, it isnt really creamy. How can it be with all of that fiber in it? It says truely vanilla but I can barely taste vanilla at all over the flax seed and chickory root.

Con: Of course, the whey isolate is going to kill me. I dont know how I missed that when I looked at the label. Oh well, I've cooked it up and will eat it.....maybe I wont react too severely, hehe....right.

6:30 pm

The Truly Vanilla didnt kill me. In fact, other than a few extra burps I was good until lunch.  I was in a rush so drove thru at Taco Bell and got 2 fresco soft tacos.  For dinner I had a lovely bowl of soup.

Found this little article and thought it was interesting.

Rare Gene Change Linked to Autism

By LINDA A. JOHNSON,

AP

Posted: 2008-01-10 13:47:14

Filed Under: Health News

(Jan. 9) -- A rare genetic variation dramatically raises the risk of developing autism, a large study showed, opening new research targets for better understanding the disorder and for treating it.

Research into the causes of autism has focused on genetic causes because so many families have multiple children with the disorder. Thus far, only about 10 percent of autism cases have a known genetic cause. Boston-area researchers estimate the gene glitch they've identified accounts for another 1 percent of cases.

 

They found a segment of a chromosome which has genes linked to brain development and various developmental disorders was either missing or duplicated far more often in autistic people. The defect was inherited in some cases, but more often the result of a random genetic accident.

The results from the Autism Consortium study, released online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, confirm those of smaller studies by U.S. and Canadian research groups in the past year. The consortium verified its findings by checking two other DNA databases.

"They really did nail it," said Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism & Related Disorders in Baltimore, who was not involved in the research.

He predicted children newly diagnosed with autism or other developmental disorders now will be tested for this defect on chromosome 16 and that studies of many more DNA samples may reveal other autism-related gene variations.

Already, the findings are starting to be used to give some parents long-sought answers to burning questions: What caused autism in their child and how likely is it that any future children also would have autism, long known to run in families?

"We've provided very compelling evidence that this particular small stretch of the genome provides an important clue to the biological roots of autism," said lead researcher Mark J. Daly, an assistant genetics professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator for the consortium, which includes researchers from 14 Boston-area universities and medical centers.

When the biological pathways involved are figured out, scientists can try to design drugs to target chemicals in the brain to treat autism, said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

"I think chromosome 16 is now going to be a hotbed for autism research," said Thomas Lehner, head of the genomic research branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. "It gives us a very important lead."

Another study researcher, Dr. David Miller of Children's Hospital Boston, said the chromosome 16 variations increased the risk of autism a hundredfold. But he said the disorder must be due to a combination of genetic variations since there were cases of people who had the defect but didn't have autism.

Autism, a complex, poorly understood disorder, is characterized by repetitive behaviors and poor social interaction and communication skills. Research has mainly centered on genetic causes, and on whether it could be caused by the mercury-based preservative once used in childhood vaccines, which has been repeatedly discounted.

The number of children diagnosed with autism has risen in recent years to as many as one in 150 American children, but experts are unsure whether its prevalence really is increasing or the trend is due to a broader definition of autism.

For their study, consortium researchers scanned all 46 chromosomes from DNA samples from 1,441 children with autism or related disorders. They also scanned DNA from most of their parents and 2,800 other people, none known to have autism.

The researchers found a 25-gene segment of chromosome 16 was missing in five children with autism; none of their parents had the deletion. That shows that in some cases the genetic glitch is not inherited from the parents, but instead due to a random accident while an egg or sperm is being formed.

Another seven autistic children had a chromosome 16 duplication, but all but one had parents with the same duplication.

The researchers confirmed their findings by looking at DNA databases from Children's Hospital Boston and Iceland. The same defect was found in 1 percent of those with autism or related disorders. It was found in just seven of about 19,000 Iceland samples from people without the disorder.

*** I'm wondering if it would make any difference to find out if Child #1 or Joe or I have this marker.  I mean, the damage is done right?  I wonder if Child #2 is a carrier. Hmmmmm.