Perfil nutricional e alimentar de crianças com transtorno do espectro autista no Brasil: uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is an association of neurological development disorders early in life, characterized by impaired social and communication skills, in addition to repetitive behaviors. Research shows that autistic children are more likely to become obese than those who do not have the disorder. This research aims to identify through a literature review the nutritional and food profile of children with autism spectrum disorder in Brazil. The search was carried out through the scientific databases Virtual Health Library (Bireme), Capes, Pubmed and Scielo journals. For search strategies, the following terms and keywords were used: “food”, “nutritional status”, “autism”, “children”, “Brazil”. Through data searches, 496 articles were found, soon after, duplicates were excluded (93), 403 articles were selected to read the title, after applying the exclusion criteria and reading the titles and abstracts, 7 articles were selected for reading the full text and 3 articles were selected for the present study. Through the findings, it is evident that children with autism spectrum disorder, have specific food choices, giving preference to ultra-processed foods, which are hypercaloric and nutritionally unbalanced, making daily consumption higher than recommended, and relating directly with weight gain. However, the importance of new studies investigating such conclusions is highlighted, in order to contemplate a work with greater evidence.