One of the key claims of the "autism biomedical" movement is that something about autism derives from or is exacerbated by the gut; i.e., that there is some sort of link between GI problems, particularly inflammatory diseases of the GI tract, and autism. Although I may not be as versed in the history of this claim as I could be, as far as I can tell, even if this idea didn't originate with Andrew Wakefield, he certainly did a lot to popularize it. Indeed, a common misconception about his misbegotten 1998 Lancet paper that launched the anti-MMR anti-vaccine movement in the U.K. is that it claimed that there was a link between autism. In reality, its claim was that the MMR vaccine was somehow connected with what he considered to be a novel syndrome of bowel disease and autism associated with MMR vaccination that has been referred to as "autistic enterocolitis."
Of course, Wakefield's study showed nothing of the sort and has since been thoroughly discredited, but the idea lives on. Since then, science doesn't support the concept that there is some sort of unique GI syndrome associated with autism (indeed, "autistic enterocolitis" is a made up syndrome--made up by Wakefield), and it has been very controversial whether autistic children suffer from more GI complaints than neurotypical children. However, in the "autism biomed" world, regardless of whether there is an increased incidence of GI problems in autistic children, the concept of "autistic enterocolitis" is a concept that's launched a thousand quacks (at least) and continues to support a cottage industry of quackery involving supplements, special diets, and "detoxification" regimens. Indeed, Jenny McCarthy thoroughly embarrassed herself trying to explain the rationale for "biomed treatments" and gluten-free diets, so much so that the video is no longer on the Generation Rescue website after it became the subject of mockery throughout the blogosphere. Moreover, she's made some rather amazing claims for using diet to treat her son Evan, even going so far as to assert in one interview:
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