3 ms·

The problems related to eating are likely because culture around eating is very "neurotypical."

• faeriechangling 5y ago
  That's a pretty vague assertion. I definitely I know autistic people who just eat nothing but macaroni and cheese or something with tons of choice available to them. I don't think culture is forcing people into these problems. One of the theories around autism and eating is that it's related to alexthymia, which also prevents you from feeling your own emotions, but also impairs non-emotional perception like hunger or digestive signals. I've heard theories such as that this could be caused by poor filtering autistic people have of information within their body and general information overload. I've also heard the theory that autistic people having sensory abnormalities can have unusual food preferences that can lead them to have poor diets and that can cause other health issues. I've even seen this happen indirectly where somebody avoided buying chicken breast because they can't handle the sliminess while preparing it. Not only have I seen this repeatedly both online and in life experience it's something I sometimes see openly defended on the grounds that an autistic person forcing down a balanced diet may be tortoruous depending on the nature of their issues. This is one of those "hmm, perhaps some of these people may have some problems and maybe not everything is a cultural construct" moments I had that really formed these experiences. Generally autism also correlates to low executive functioning which itself correlates to poor weight control and diet.