This podcast episode is relevant to every autism mom out there. It's also a survival story. She shares the nutritional imbalances (now regulated) and biochemical challenges with you and your child. How she dealt with compulsive OCD, self-harm, binge eating and eating disorders, food OCD, anxiety, depression and obsessions is how you need to address these issues.  It's a story about overcoming binge eating, diet OCD, anxiety, self-harm & suicidal thoughts. Experienced by someone who shares chemistry and nutritional imbalances with 90 % of autism moms and autistic children who learned how to regulate their biochemistry with food THE HARD WAY.  Samatha Gilbert is an incredible woman, colleague and autism nutritionist.  Dr Mensah saved her life after she's been considering ending it on Golden Gate Bridge several times after a long life of self-harm, anxiety, restrictive eating, binge eating, veganism (that made her feel worse) and depression.  When she learned what undermethylation, pyrrole disorder, copper toxicity and a superfood/vegetable-based GF/DF diet did to her mental health and how she could eat herself well - she dedicated her life to helping families with children/young people with similar problems with her Eat For Life strategy.  It wasn't that she wasn't health-focused or knowledgeable. Just like you - she was already an expert in functional medicine and holistic health. She was (like many autism moms who focus on recovery and Biomed) - from an outsider's perspective - extremely healthy.  The problem with healthy eating, dieting and holistic health today is that it's making a massive group of people (especially autism families) WORSE.  In this podcast, you'll learn: How body dysmorphia and binge eating on cupcakes started at age five for Samantha and why you need to understand the link to undermethylation and copper metabolism early and catch it. How untreated biochemical and nutritional imbalances escalated into starvation & binge eating, OCD, anxiety, extreme veganism and depression/suicidal thoughts and why it is something you MUST prevent for your child.  The link between disordered eating (including picky eating), undermethylation, serotonin and dopamine.  Non-purging extreme self-punishment (over-exercise and fasting and the consequences of that.  Treating mental health issues should have a nutritional approach instead of solely focusing on the brain/behaviour/cognition and emotional therapy. It doesn't work.  How Samantha lost her hearing at the well visit after getting the "you know what" at 15 months.  Why autism families NEED MEAT in their diet to heal and thrive.  Why getting healthy sometimes means gaining weight in the healing process. Especially if you've been dieting for years.  The problem with folate/folic acid.  How copper can drive someone to the edge and suicidal tendencies. Why "Root cause protocol" is a dangerous and harmful health trend in the autism recovery community.  And so much more...