FAILSAFE #30
Newsletter of the Food Intolerance Network
December - January 2001/2002
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FAILSAFE supports families using the low-chemical elimination diet recommended by the Australian Royal Prince Alfred Hospital - free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers - for health, behaviour and learning problems. |
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THIS MONTH
* Please help to ban food colours
* Research: eye muscle
disorders and IQ
* In brief: Salicylates in GM wheat and rice; "Dr Dust"
* Cook's corner: failsafe
equivalent of sticky date pudding, American casserole, Bombe
Hi everyone
This is a challenging time
of year for us failsafers. Christmas treats lead to
reactions and we remember why we started our diet. Like most
- cheers,
Sue Dengate (sdengate@ozemail.com.au)
PLEASE HELP TO BAN ARTIFICIAL
FOOD COLOURS
If you want more failsafe
foods in supermarkets, you can make it happen. This is our chance to get rid of
artificial food colours. The deadline for a petition
to ban the worst artificial colour (see failsafe #28)
has been extended.
Here is what artificial colour in a chocolate-coated biscuit did to a failsafe 5
year old child a few weeks ago: "calling out, disturbing others, note sent
home from school, rudeness to teachers, foul language, playing on equipment
after the bell had gone, refusing to go to class and hurting other children.
After school he refused to line up in bus lines and ran out onto the middle of
the road in front of the school. The next day he was back to doing well
again."
If you want to know what colours do to you or your child, while failsafe try 10
drops of yellow, red or green food colouring in a
glass of water or magic cordial 3 times a day for 3 days.
Stop when you see a reaction. Artificial colours are
not necessary in chocolate biscuits or any other food. If you aren't affected
directly, then you are by the actions of others in our society
Please help to ban these
additives. The deadline for the petition to ban yellow food colour
(tartrazine 102, Yellow #5) has been extended
indefinitely. Only 700 entries have been received and the FDA wants several
thousand. Please send an email. Here's what to say:
Send your email to: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket #01P-0345, Delist Yellow #5
Message: I vote to ban Yellow #5.
Give
your name, address and phone number.
Optional: You can give a reason if
you want. e.g. artificial colours
are unnecessary, artificial colours affect me/my
children/grandchildren/students in my class/the kid next door. Or tell a story
of a reaction like the one above. This additive has been shown to cause
irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance such as
difficulty falling asleep and frequent night waking (Rowe and Rowe study in
Melbourne, Journal of Pediatrics, 1994). It is also implicated in a wide range
of problems like irritable bowel, migraines, skin rashes, asthma, epilepsy,
arthritis, restless legs etc.
If my work has helped you,
please do this for me. Children can write too. Everyone in my household has
sent a message. Ask supportive friends, teachers and relatives who have seen
what food does to you or your child. If you have already sent an email, many
thanks!
|
Research |
THE EYES HAVE IT
Eye muscle disorders which
contribute to reading difficulties can be improved by dietary management,
according to a much overlooked research paper. Nystagmus
involves rapid involuntary movements of the eyes that may be from side to side,
or up and down, or rotatory. I once described a child
as "so hyperactive he couldn't even keep his eyes still". A milder
form of nystagmus can involve jerking eye movements
while trying to concentrate on reading. Prediet, my
daughter was assessed with nystagmus, although I
hadn't noticed anything.
Strabismus is commonly
known as squint, or 'lazy eye'. It involves any abnormal alignment of the two
eyes. Oculomuscular disturbances are much more common
in ADD children than non-ADD children.
An example of severe nystagmus is described in the paper. The patient was
diagnosed at the age of 8 months because of "drifting eyes".
Medication for the condition was ineffective. At six the child's near vision
was assessed at 20/100 and books of large type were ordered for him at school.
Although he was not considered hyperactive, intermittent tantrums were a
problem. At 10 he was started on the elimination diet. Six months later his
near vision had improved to 20/25 which could be corrected with glasses. After
three days on challenges the eye movements returned and his vision dropped to
20/80. After three weeks on diet it was back to normal again.
Further reading: Feingold BF. Dietary
management of nystagmus. J Neural Transmission,1979; 45: 107-115
Epilepsy, Tourette's,
autism, Down's behaviour and learning disabilities
As well as eye muscle
disturbances, other conditions such as petit mal and grand mal epilepsy, Tourette syndrome, autism, the behavioural
component of Down syndrome and retardation can result from the effect of even a
single food chemical, according to Dr Feingold in the above paper - and
observed by this network.
Dr Feingold had a much
broader view of the condition then known as Minimal Brain Dysfunction than our
current definition of ADHD. Back in 1978, he suggested that approximately 500
target deficits are involved, occurring in three categories: behaviour, muscular incoordination,
and disturbances of perception and cognition. Not every deficit is observed in
any individual child, rather each child has his or her
own mosaic of deficits. Some children may have only a single deficit such as
impaired visual perception. The child may not be hyperactive yet be included
within the syndrome. The deficits observed in any child may vary from day to
day and even from hour to hour. Dietary management will work for every deficit
in the syndrome - including learning disabilities - but may require a longer
period of observation, from 2 weeks to several years. However, with patience,
the deficits will improve.
In Different Kids I wrote
about how my daughter's IQ had gone up 26 points after we started the diet.
This month a reader reported: "we have just had our daughter's IQ tested
and the non-verbal learning disability has totally disappeared. She now has an
overall IQ of 129 with a 4 point difference between verbal to non-verbal
instead of a 40 point difference."
PRODUCTS
Sausages in NW
I have found a butcher in
North Rocks (north west Sydney) who will make sausages for my daughter -
natural skins, plain lamb mince filling, frozen for me in packs of four
sausages - I usually get 2kg at a time. It is Beef Bullion at Westfield North
Rocks - Terry . Most butchers I approached said
'impossible' when I asked for plain mince in a sausage casing, but he just said
'sure, thick or thin?'. He also offered to put
whatever spices I supplied into the sausage, but as I am catering for a
3-year-old, I keep it plain. He would not know them as 'failsafe', but as 'Emma
Bradbury's Special Plain Lamb Sausages'!
Product
updates
Vitasoy calciplus
is no longer failsafe due to the addition of cold-pressed oil. So far,
Sanitarium So Good regular is still failsafe. Fresh So Good is not failsafe
because of linseed oil.
Good news for Tasmanians.
Banjo's plain white bread is failsafe. It seems to be the same as Brumbys on the mainland. Beware of Woolworths bread unless it is baked instore. Woolworths in Burnie was found to be selling preserved bread without
mentioning preservatives on the label.
If you are using the old
RPA booklets, check product updates on the website for some new inclusions.
Diet not
working as well as you'd hoped?
One tiny mistake can make a
huge difference. For fine-tuning, see the list on the
website Checklist
of common mistakes. With new
guidelines for extra sensitive salicylate responders,
thanks to Robin from the email discussion group.
Readers tell us this list
is very useful.
|
In brief |
Salicylates in GM wheat and rice
Salicylates are natural pesticides. Dutch
researchers at
"Dr
Dust"
Thorough vacuuming can
reduce the toxicity of your home. Our exposure to most toxic pollutants is
10-50 times higher indoors than outdoors. Carpets are the worst offender and
can contain well over the safe limit of lead; cadmium, mercury, polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, pesticides and PCBs. Children are most at risk. Three years olds
inhale 23 times as much air as their parents. Environmental engineer John (Dr
Dust) Roberts from
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Readers' comments |
Rheumatoid
arthritis
"After a few weeks on
failsafe I seem to be making some progress … I had beaten chronic fatigue and
MCS but rheumatoid arthritis is a tough nut to crack and I had almost given up
hope of further improvement. It turns out that I tolerate moderate salicylates but amines are a real problem. Thanks to you …"
In the
classroom
Having
studied your book Fed Up, and very little else, for the last week, we are
gritting our teeth and getting ready to begin the diet on Monday. I am greatly concerned by the
demise of concentration levels, self-control,
acceptable behaviour and motivation in primary
students even during my own career (15 years) and strongly believe the menu
offered by school tuckshops often works against the
very educational aims of the schools they are supposedly supporting. I see
students come into class for the afternoon session hyped-up, lacking energy,
'agro', argumentative, easily frustrated and unable to concentrate. Many
students are like this all day. - teacher, Qld
Frequent
urination
I have noticed now that I
can't have much tonic water or 7 UP - even a single glass. The symptom I get is
very noticeable diuretic effect. I would go to the toilet (urinate) as much as
5 times per night (small quantities) instead of normally once, occasionally
never. I also get restless legs (drives my partner insane!!) This happens when
I keep all other diet the same. Now that I know that I can tolerate a small
dose of amines I find very dilute lime and soda much better for me. - long-term failsafe father NSW
Bread
preservative-induced ADHD
Our daughter,
Low energy,
headaches
Avoiding the bread
preservatives (280s) seems to be helping me with new energy levels and lack of
headaches. - reader, NSW
Breastfed baby
My sister is finding life
much easier with her baby thanks to modifying her diet. She removed very high salicylates and amines and it seemed to have an immediate
affect on his behaviour. They now have much more
settled nights. She found that every time she ate even a small amount of
tomato, wine, chocolate etc, that they had a difficult night and that it just
wasn't worth it! Thank you for your information and support. It was also very
helpful for me as a breastfeeding counsellor to be
involved with a particular case and to see that diet can have an effect. I feel
more able to suggest to mothers that this might be something to look into if
their baby continues to be unsettled. - reader, Qld
READERS' STORIES at www.ozemail.com.au/~sdengate
|
Your questions: |
Check out the Questions
and Answers
section in the website with detailed answers to your questions:
Q. What is it about Weetbix that affects children?
A. I wish I knew. I used to think it
was salicylates in the raw sugar, but my daughter
reacts even worse to VitaBrits which are sugar free.
RPA suggested it could be the wholegrain wheat. A few people report that LiteBix are better.
Q. When our son went to
university, he started eating several packets of Burger Rings a day and
drinking lots of Diet Coke. He developed a facial tic and failed all subjects.
We've never had those kinds of foods at home. Could they have anything to do
with his problems?
A. Burger Rings contain the following
unsafe additives: colours (102,110,155), antioxidant
(319) and MSG (621). Diet Coke contains preservative (211) and artificial
sweetener (951). All of the additives above have been associated with adverse
reactions by RPA except 951 which has not been tested
but is not recommended. Common reactions to food additives include restlessness
and inattention which can obviously result in student failure. Tics are less
common reactions to food chemicals.
Q. I've just spent more
than $200 on a psychiatrist. I told him my son had gone ballistic after eating
Chinese takeaway (we ate the meal one day and the leftovers the next day). He
told me there was no evidence that food affects children's behaviour,
and mentioned a study at the
A. Your psychiatrist was referring a
study which tested only food colouring and found that
parents could not distinguish the effects of colours
from placebo. Excluding food additives alone is not helpful for the majority of
ADHD children, so challenges must be carried out during a comprehensive
elimination diet. There are many highly successful studies, including two at
|
Around the groups: |
Lunchbox
suggestion
"My daughter is
learning English in School. I put a couple of quotes in her lunchbox. The
English teacher has her read them and they try to find out what the meaning is.
They liked best "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". I also
make figures out of failsafe veggies and use philly
cheese for hair. It's amazing how the kids react to them. The best thing is
that the lunchboxes come home empty every day. Before we started on the diet,
they only ate half and brought the rest home." - Sabine from
Group news
Our phone contacts and
support groups all operate in different ways. They range from people who have
just got through their elimination and challenges to experts who have been
doing it for years. Most people can recommend the name of a supportive
dietitian or provide support themselves. They can usually tell you where to buy
failsafe sausages and bread.
The Darwin Failsafe
Playgroup now meets weekly at the Toy Library, phone Denny 8927 7138. The
Darwin network is holding a failsafe BBQ/picnic at Parap
Pool, Sat 12th Jan, 1-6pm, phone Deb 08 8932 1520
Support
contacts
There are now over 40 support contacts in
|
Cooks' corner |
Hint
"Better
than sticky date pudding". Make Andra's
"honey" roll (FS cookbook p134) as the sandwich option. Serve
with icecream. - Erica's husband
American
Casserole
An easy dish to take to a
Christmas get-together
2 cups spiral pasta
½ small leek
500 g mince
Cook pasta and place in
bottom of casserole dish. Cook leek and mince and spread on top of noodles.
Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes. - Margie Turner
Bombe
An
entertaining failsafe substitute for hot puddings, suitable for an Australian
Christmas.
1 packet of broken biscuits
(eg Nice, or homemade)
4 tbsp of magic cordial
drink which has been diluted to taste
5 egg whites
155 g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 litre
block of failsafe vanilla icecream
pure icing sugar for dusting
Cover the base of an
ovenproof serving dish with broken biscuits or stale cake. Drizzle with magic
cordial. Beat egg whites with sugar and salt until stiff. Arrange icecream on broken biscuits. These are to insulate the icecream from the heat. Using a large knife, quickly spread
meringue mixture all over the icecream. Dust with
pure icing sugar. Bake for 3-4 minutes, no longer, in a very hot oven (250°C)
and serve immediately. This dish can be prepared a few hours in advance and
stored in the freezer. Dust with icing sugar immediately before baking.
The FAILSAFE Discussion Group : On-going support is the key to success with FAILSAFE eating. Access the
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© Sue Dengate (text)