Report of a Meeting: Food, Nutrition, and Autism: From Soil to Fork

Melissa Maitin-Shepard; Perrie O'Tierney-Ginn; Aletta D Kraneveld; Kristen Lyall; Daniele Fallin; Manish Arora; Alessio Fasano; Noel T Mueller; Xiaobin Wang; Laura E Caulfield; Aisha S Dickerson; Rochellys Diaz Heijtz; Tomo Tarui; Jeffrey B Blumberg; Calliope Holingue; Rebecca J Schmidt; Johan Garssen; Katherine Almendinger; Pi-I Debby Lin; Dariush Mozaffarian

doi:10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.04.020

Report of a Meeting: Food, Nutrition, and Autism: From Soil to Fork

Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 Apr 25:S0002-9165(24)00443-X. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.04.020. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Melissa Maitin-Shepard¹, Perrie O'Tierney-Ginn², Aletta D Kraneveld³, Kristen Lyall⁴, Daniele Fallin⁵, Manish Arora⁶, Alessio Fasano⁷, Noel T Mueller⁸, Xiaobin Wang⁹, Laura E Caulfield¹⁰, Aisha S Dickerson⁸, Rochellys Diaz Heijtz¹¹, Tomo Tarui¹², Jeffrey B Blumberg¹³, Calliope Holingue¹⁴, Rebecca J Schmidt¹⁵, Johan Garssen¹⁶, Katherine Almendinger¹⁷, Pi-I Debby Lin¹⁸, Dariush Mozaffarian¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ MMS Health Strategies, LLC, Alexandria, VA.
² Mother Infant Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA.
³ Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁴ AJ Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.
⁵ Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
⁶ Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
⁷ Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
⁹ Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
¹⁰ Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
¹¹ Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹² Department of Pediatrics, Hasbro Children's Hospital, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI.
¹³ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston MA.
¹⁴ Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
¹⁵ Department of Public Health Sciences, the MIND Institute, University of California Davis, Davis, CA.
¹⁶ Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
¹⁷ Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
¹⁸ Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA.
¹⁹ Food is Medicine Institute, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA. Electronic address: Dariush.Mozaffarian@tufts.edu.

PMID: 38677518
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.04.020

Abstract

Food and nutrition-related factors have the potential to impact development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and quality of life for people with ASD, but gaps in evidence exist. On November 10, 2022, Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute hosted a one-day meeting to explore the evidence and evidence gaps regarding the relationships of food and nutrition with ASD. This meeting report summarizes the presentations and deliberations from the meeting. Topics addressed included prenatal and child dietary intake, the microbiome, obesity, food-related environmental exposures, mechanisms and biological processes linking these factors and ASD, food-related social factors, and data sources for future research. Presentations highlighted evidence for protective associations with prenatal folic acid supplementation and ASD development, increases in risk of ASD with maternal gestational obesity, and the potential for exposure to environmental contaminants in foods and food packaging to influence ASD development. The importance of the maternal and child microbiome in ASD development or ASD-related behaviors in the child was reviewed, as was the role of discrimination in leading to disparities in environmental exposures and psychosocial factors that may influence ASD. The role of child diet and high prevalence of food selectivity in children with ASD and its association with adverse outcomes were also discussed. Priority evidence gaps identified by participants include further clarifying ASD development, including biomarkers and key mechanisms; interactions among psychosocial, social, and biological determinants; interventions addressing diet, supplementation, and the microbiome to prevent and improve quality of life for people with ASD; and mechanisms of action of diet-related factors associated with ASD. Participants developed research proposals to address the priority evidence gaps. The workshop findings serve as a foundation for future prioritization of scientific research to address evidence gaps related to food, nutrition, and ASD.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Environmental exposures; Folic acid; Food selectivity; Microbiome; Nutrition; Obesity; Special, Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).