In this week’s episode of The Autism Mums Podcast, we’re exploring the powerful connection between nutrition and wellbeing with the incredibly insightful Lisa Katz, mum, nutritional practitioner, and passionate advocate for holistic autism support.

Biography

Lisa Katz is a passionate advocate, devoted mum, and inspirational voice for families navigating the unique journey of severe Autism. As the mother of triplet boys, Lisa draws strength from her personal experiences.

Lisa has embraced a path of purpose championing healthy eating, clean living, and holistic wellness as essential tools for empowering both her family and other families.

She is focused on helping others make simple changes that will help not only the child with special needs but will truly benefit the entire family.

Key Takeaways

• The gut-brain connection and its significance in autism.
• Overview of the GAPS Diet and its focus on healing the gut.
• The importance of eliminating gluten and dairy for some children.
• Practical tips for becoming an informed consumer and reading food labels.
• Strategies for integrating dietary changes into family life.
• Signs that may indicate dietary issues affecting a child with autism.
• The idea that food is medicine and its implications for health.
• Tips for navigating social situations and dining out.
• The importance of community support for parents of neurodivergent children.

Mentioned in this Episode

The GAPS Diet – Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)

Connect with Lisa Katz

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lisa.sobelkatz.5

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lisasobelkatz

Lisa's Kitchen Reset Package discount offer

Contact Lisa through Facebook or Instagram (links above) to take up her generous offer of $50 off her Kitchen Reset Package. Simply let her know you heard about the offer here.

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Transcript

[00:00:00 ] Hello and welcome to

the Autism Mums podcast. I'm Victoria. And I'm Natalie. We are two sisters

raising autistic children who know the joy, the challenges, and the everyday

moments. This is a supportive space for honest conversations, practical tips,

shared strength and expert advice. Whether you are celebrating a win, surviving

a meltdown, or just trying to make it through the day, we are right here with

you.

Join us as we share the ups, the downs, and everything in

between parenting autistic children.

Natalie Tealdi: Hi,

it's Natalie. Although you won't hear me in today's interview, I really wanted

to jump on at the start just to say hello and share a few thoughts with you

before we begin.

Victoria Bennion:

That's right. This episode is a conversation I had with Lisa Katz, who's a

nutritional practitioner who has supported her autistic son through quite

significant dietary changes. Lisa shares her experience of using the [00:01:00 ] GAPS diet and making big shifts in food

choices to support her son's health and behavior.

Natalie Tealdi: Now

before we start, we do want to give a little heads up because if your child has

ARFID or ARFID behaviors, this episode might not feel entirely relevant to your

journey.

Victoria Bennion:

Exactly. So one of my children has ARFID behaviors and as wonderful as it is,

what's worked for Lisa, I know that it wouldn't work for my child. And that's

okay because as you know, every child is different and no one size fits all

advice exists, especially when it comes to food

Natalie Tealdi: but

we also know there are families out there for whom this episode will resonate.

Lisa shares helpful tips about label reading, gut health, and empowering

parents to feel confident making small changes. If you are in a place where you

are considering how food might play a role in your child's wellbeing, you might

find this really inspiring.

Victoria Bennion: So

take what works for your family and leave the rest

Natalie Tealdi: all

right, let's hand over to [00:02:00 ] Lisa and

Victoria and as always, we are sending love to you wherever you are on your

journey. Okay.

Victoria Bennion:

hello Lisa, and welcome to the podcast.

Lisa Katz: Hi. It's

so nice to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Victoria Bennion: It

is great to have the chance to talk to you and explore more about your journey

and talk to you about diets and food and everything. I'm looking forward to it.

Lisa Katz: I am too.

Thank you so much.

Victoria Bennion:

Could you start by talking a bit about your journey with autism?

Lisa Katz: My journey

with autism is different than I think a lot of people because. For my son, our

first diagnosis was actually mitochondrial disorder and we got that diagnosis

when he was very young. I should start by saying my son is 21 years old at the

time when he was diagnosed 21 years ago, we had had never heard about

mitochondrial disorder but that was his first diagnosis. Now, if you fast

forward to today, what we know now is that mitochondrial disorder and autism

are, are linked, and if you [00:03:00 ] go to

somebody that is gonna help you with autism and, your child's symptoms, very

often they're gonna bring up the mitochondria because if you remember in

science class, the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cells.

Lisa Katz: So pretty

much anything that any of us do in our body, our mitochondria are involved and.

In fact, mitochondria is linked with lots of things these days. Autism and

Parkinson's. And Alzheimer's. And just about anything that you talk about in

terms of health, you're gonna be talking about the mitochondria because they're

the, powerhouse.

Lisa Katz: So that

was his first diagnosis, and we didn't even get the autism diagnosis until

years later. And it was such a blip that. I don't remember. .

Lisa Katz: , For me

it was so long ago and autism was also such a rare diagnosis at the point that

I didn't even remember because we were so involved with the mitochondrial

disorder. wasn't until my son Brandon was about [00:04:00 ]

11 years old that um, started on going down a different road and that's when I

learned that.

Lisa Katz: There are

really things that can be helpful outside of therapy. , It wasn't until he was

11 that I realized that as his mom and the primary caretaker of him, that there

was just more that I could be doing to help him function well. So that is when

I started learning more about health and nutrition and the nutrition side of.

Autism, and that's when I really dove into that when he was about 11.

Victoria Bennion:

Okay, so what dietary. Changes did you need to make at that point?

Lisa Katz: The first

thing that I had heard about was something called the GAPS Diet. GAPS and it's,

uh, Dr. Natasha Campbell wrote a book in it's gut and psychology syndrome, and

it's basically healing the [00:05:00 ] gut. So

at the time, which was 11 years ago I read the book and , I decided to do this

for him.

Lisa Katz: I decided

to, to implement this, , help heal us get because. If, your listeners aren't

familiar with this or don't know this about autism autism is very much

connected. Like we're very much connected with the gut and the brain, so it's

really important to look at the gut and to work on what we can do to best set

our children up for success.

Lisa Katz: I did the

gap site, which basically , you can get the book, you can, you know, look it

up. It's really easy to access, but , start off, back with the basics. You boil

a chicken. And you boil some vegetables.

Lisa Katz: It's very

nourishing. Good old chicken and vegetables and you start with that. And so it

was getting rid of. The Cheez-Its, getting rid of the junk That I was feeding

him and really nourishing his body.

Lisa Katz: I like to

use the word nourish [00