{"id":301284,"date":"2025-12-06T00:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T00:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/301284\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T00:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T00:10:07","slug":"pitching-in-for-this-family-a-special-diet-is-key-to-managing-a-neurological-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/301284\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching in: For this family, a special diet is key to managing a neurological condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

France Gauthier, left, and Louis Trudelle are Emma’s grandparents and supporters of the fundraiser.Supplied<\/p>\n

The organizers: Sarah Trudelle <\/p>\n

The pitch: Raising $10,000 and climbing<\/p>\n

The cause: Support a special diet for people with neurological conditions<\/p>\n

Shortly after Sarah Trudelle\u2019s daughter Emma was born last year, she began having seizures. <\/p>\n

At first, Ms. Trudelle and doctors thought Emma had epilepsy, and for a while, medication helped ease the episodes. But Ms. Trudelle still felt her daughter\u2019s condition was something else. <\/p>\n

\u201cBetween four and about nine months we were back and forth, in and out of the hospital trying to get answers,\u201d she recalled from her home in Burlington, Ont. \u201cAt nine months we were able to control her seizures, but that\u2019s when as a parent I was like, \u2018There\u2019s more. It\u2019s not just seizures.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Emma was a year old, last March, that she was diagnosed with Glut1 deficiency, a rare genetic mutation that causes insufficient production of a protein called Glut1, which carries glucose to the brain to use for energy. <\/p>\n

There is no treatment or cure. It can be managed through a special medical ketogenic diet that allows Emma\u2019s body to use ketones as fuel instead of glucose. But following the diet is painstaking and involves measuring every gram of food. <\/p>\n

The diet consists almost entirely of fat, which means Emma eats things such as butter cubes, as well as avocado and coconut oils. She has some protein and a minimal amount of carbohydrates. But the portions are small and Emma\u2019s body burns off the calories instead of storing them. <\/p>\n

To Ms. Trudelle\u2019s relief, researchers in Canada and New Zealand have developed a website with recipes and services that help families manage portions and plan meals. Ms. Trudelle said she can enter a list of ingredients and the site, called Ketosuite, will calculate how many grams of each item she should prepare. \u201cI\u2019ve realized I can\u2019t live without it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Her family has started raising money to support the researchers running the site and raise awareness about how the diet could benefit people with other neurological disorders, including epilepsy. \u201cOur hope is to develop a keto recipe book for families as a starting point linked to that software,\u201d she said, adding that so far they have raised $10,000. <\/p>\n

Emma hasn\u2019t had seizures in more than a year and, thanks to the diet, \u201cshe\u2019s developing really well,\u201d Ms. Trudelle said. \u201cAnd thankfully she likes the diet. Not all of us would love to eat butter cubes, but she loves it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: France Gauthier, left, and Louis Trudelle are Emma’s grandparents and supporters of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[102,14367,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-301284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-noastack","10":"tag-nutrition","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}