Understanding Autism, obesity and toxic sugar, 'Hispanic autism deficit', how do we pass Go?

April was autism awareness month. Autism awareness month existed for decades, but became much more visible this year. I’ll briefly discuss PBS autism coverage, part of the increased media attention to autism, and review our autism information problem. Much of what we hear and read is unbalanced, about autism or about health in general. American public “health literacy” is low.  Even “good” or “balanced” health information is often misunderstood or ignored. I discuss the Taubes/Lustig toxic sugar theory as a simplistic half-truth, a bad example for understanding complex disorders such as autism. I’ll discuss the details of the Taubes/Lustig theory in a second diary – those interested only in ASD may skip it.
I’ll include a few words about autistic persons reaching adulthood in the USA today, something that was well handled in the PBS Autism Now series, see aravir’s recent diary,The Looming crisis... when we're 22.