FAILSAFE #43
Newsletter of the Food Intolerance Network
September - December 2004
|
FAILSAFE supports people worldwide 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. |
For those who want to see
this FAILSAFE Newsletter in colour on the web, with photos: http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/newsletters/FAILsaf43.htm
The FAILSAFE Newsletter is
available free by email. Just send your email address to failsafe_newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
THIS MONTH
Australian
schools join low additive trend
New enrolments needed at low
chemical school
Research: RPAH autism study, Probiotics and eczema,
Depression and illness linked to air fresheners and aerosols
In brief: New version
of RPAH book, Sulphite test strips, Oats in a gluten free diet, Gas heating and
asthma, Antidepressant warning, Free Medication Effectiveness Tests, Education
of doctors
Lobbying: Thanks to FSANZ for action on labelling of
flavours, Consumers’ Association: additives need clearer labeling.
Readers'
stories: [345] - [356]
Product
updates: detailed help and information.
Questions:
detailed help and information.
Cooks
Corner: Beanz meanz health, Hints, Darani’s
hearty chicken noodle soup, Howard’s bean spread, Dominic's Pop-Rocks, Ethan’s
Menu
Hi everyone
It’s now eleven years since
the
Happy
failsafe eating - Sue Dengate (sdengate@ozemail.com.au)
Australian
schools join low additive trend
Numerous schools in the
Full stories:
New enrolments needed at low chemical
school
A low chemical
environment for children put tiny Numulgi Public School in the news recently.
With only six students, the school held a public talk with Sue Dengate which was attended by more than 350 people and
raised $1200 for the school. Pesticides and toxic chemicals are banned,
teachers use eco-friendly cleaning products, the children drink fresh rainwater
and even the air in the classrooms is filtered. Kim Patch says the difference
in her son Jesse’s attitude and schoolwork is nothing short of miraculous since
he started at the school, which is ten minutes from Lismore, NSW. Jesse has
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and even the slightest chemical residue to his
food, water or air can affect his behaviour and learning ability. “There’s been
a 100 per cent improvement in all aspects of his life”, Kim said. But the
school faces closure unless enrolments increase. For information or enrolment,
phone the school on 02 6628 2264 or Kim on 02 6622 5799. From Northern Rivers
Echo,
|
Research |
RPAH autism
study
We hear that the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy
Clinic’s study of diet and Autistic Spectrum Disorder is achieving great
success. Darani Cooper from
After five months on his new diet, Ethan’s frequent tantrums
have disappeared, he makes good eye contact and best of all, his language is
now age appropriate. ‘It was much easier than I expected,’ said Darani, ‘and the improvements in Ethan have been huge. He’s
a completely different child’.
Darani was particularly pleased with a
nutritional analysis of her son’s new diet. It showed that Ethan’s daily
intakes of calcium, iron, A, B and C vitamins and other nutrients were all
above the recommended intake, especially his folate intake which was more than
four times the recommended level (see what Ethan ate in Cooks’ Corner below).
Darani is a new failsafe contact in
Probiotics and eczema
At
Depression
and illness linked to air fresheners and aerosols
Mothers are more likely to experience headaches and
depression in homes where air fresheners and aerosols such as deodorants,
hairsprays or polishes are used daily, according to a new study. Babies in high
use homes are at significantly higher risk of earache and stomach ache,
diarrhoea and vomiting. Researchers led by Dr Alexandra Farrow from the
Diet not working as
well as you'd hoped?
One tiny mistake can make a
huge difference. For fine-tuning, see the Checklist of common mistakes. Readers tell us
this list is very useful.
|
In brief |
* New version of RPAH
book - A new version
of RPAH’s Friendly Food with many revisions to
recipes and food tables – for example, pumpkin has been upgraded to high in
salicylates except for butternut – is now in the bookstores, published by
Murdoch books. A good Christmas present for any failsafer. For more details,
see www.cs.nsw.gov.au/rpa/allergy.
* Sulphite test strips
– the Food Intolerance Network has been distributing these at cost within
Oats in a gluten free
diet - Oats are now
considered to be gluten free and members of the Coeliac Society in Finland have
been encouraged to eat oats since 1997. A five-year follow up found that 70 per
cent of coeliacs studied and 55 per cent of patients
with Dermatitis Herpetiformis (an intensely itchy blistery rash associated with
gluten) were eating oats. Those who had stopped were afraid of contamination by
wheat. Peraaho M and others, J Am Diet
Assoc, 2004.
Gas heating and asthma
- A study of
schoolchildren aged 8-11 in Belmont NSW found that having been exposed to fume
emitting heaters during the first year of life was associated with an increased
risk of having airway hyperresponsiveness. There was
no association between current use of such heaters and asthma outcomes. Phoa LL and others, Thorax. 2004;59(9):741-5.
Antidepressant warning
- All
antidepressants sold in the US will soon be required to carry a ‘black box’
warning on the packet, as well as a reader-friendly insert, alerting people to
the increased risk of suicidal tendencies in young patients, the FDA announced
last week. Evidence shows that children taking antidepressants are twice as
likely to have suicidal tendencies as those on a placebo, and that for children,
antidepressants are barely more effective than a placebo. New Scientist,
‘Heed the Label’,
Free Medication
Effectiveness Tests - Many children with ADHD are receiving no benefit from their medication
and may be better off using alternative treatments, according to a recent
Education of doctors - “The
|
Lobbying |
Flavour labelling: thank you
to FSANZ
Consumers’
Association: additives need clearer labeling
According to a recent article in Which? Magazine
(
|
Readers' stories |
[356] One-liners (Nov
2004)
I didn't even think that my son's behaviour and symptoms
could be caused by food and now I've been eliminating, I can see why - most of
his reactions (eg to colours) are delayed by at least a day, if not two.- by
email.
When I was little I was told to take antihistamines every
day for the rest of my life for a persistent itchy throat, but after months of
failsafe I have finally worked out that even minute amounts of salicylates are
the problem. - WA
The possibility of missing out on the wonderful information
I receive through your newsletter is just unthinkable - it has saved my life
... not just my sanity! – by email
Logan Farm Guilt Free (oven) Fries are such a great
item ... my take-away ... LOL - Vic
I have just read your book
"Fed Up" after it was recommended by my son's childcare teacher - I
was in tears after reading the first page of your first chapter, as it was like
looking in to a mirror.- SA
The closest restaurant to our hotel in LA was a
Denny’s, but we had to stop eating there when I developed a rash all over my
body half an hour after our meal – and they actually provide children with
artificial colour sachets to change the colour of their lemonade … WHAT THE ???
- Failsafer visiting the
Discovering the failsafe diet has changed our lives:
we have read Fed Up and the Failsafe Cookbook, most, if not all, of the
newsletters, and we are on the Failsafe USA list and Failsafe 3 - we have had
our mistakes and struggles, but we have had so much success with our very
difficult 4 year old son that we continually strive to get it right. -
Thank you for coming to our
town and pointing us in the right direction - we now have a dairy-free happy
child who has not seen a doctor in about month except the paediatrician
- it was the best he had ever seen her, even her speech has improved. – NSW
First let me tell you how
impressed and grateful I am: I work with children with autism, ADD and learning
difficulties and the best way to tell people about the effects of what their
children eat is to lend them one of your books. – WA
We're on day 2 of the elimination diet today, and all is
going well - your Failsafe Cookbook is fantastic with bits of info all through
which seem to answer questions as they come into your mind. – NZ
Our son is such a fussy eater that we didn’t give him
enough salicylates during the salicylate challenge – we concluded he could
tolerate moderate to high salicylates and it has taken us months to recognise that he is noticeably better on low salicylates -
Vic
My dreadful rash has almost cleared up as long as I avoid
‘the 600 numbers’
Our yellow colouring (102) challenge was like going back to
the dark ages – my daughter was moody, angry, cried for nothing eg. being told
to move, stop screaming etc, she was aggressive, confrontational, "raaahed" at me and her sister, spat and threw things
at us, cut off her 2 year old sister’s hair and woke next morning still in a
bad mood. - WA
My 18 month old son is generally a quiet little guy, until
the last two afternoons when I gave him chicken in a biscuit – both days his behaviour
changed after about half an hour, he was running around the house yelling
loudly, his breathing was very intense and he was a totally different child
- I am amazed that it is legal to use
additives that can do this to children.- by email
We gave our 5 year old failsafe daughter a mandarin as a
treat – there were no behavioural changes, but the next day she was unable do
read properly and all her numbers were written back to front – it really makes
you appreciate what some of these kids go through on a daily basis. - NSW
Our three and a half year old son is a lovely child with a
few difficulties when on failsafe food but before diet, he had enough symptoms
to class him as autistic: little or no eye contact, spent hours alone fixated
with various objects ie string, sand, wouldn't accept
hugs or show affection, constant tantrums, his development regressed a lot from
about 18 months or 2 years with regard to loss of speech, and for quite a while
he said only one word repetitively, as well as severe reflux, diarrhoea, eczema
and sleep disturbance. - Qld
I have often thought that my children’s academic success
Our Beagle dog’s seizures are related to ribonucleotides
(flavour enhancer 635). – SA
My four year old autistic son’s pain threshold seems to have
decreased on the diet – he used to be barely aware of pain if he injured
himself, but now responds as any "normal" child would. - NSW
I just wish I had done this YEARS ago! It is a delight to
see my two kids cooperating and playing nicely with each other as long as they
are eating properly! – by email
[355] Six slices of
bread a day (Nov 2004)
I removed the bread preservative 282 from my 7 year old
son's diet after coming across your website and recognising many of the
behavioural problems we were experiencing with him. He was extremely defiant,
flatly refusing to do the simplest thing asked of him - homework was torture
for all involved. He was loud, argumentative, talked non-stop, very anxious,
had frequent bad dreams and was prone to angry outbursts. Much of this we had
grown to live with since he was identified as a preschooler as being highly
gifted but I was increasingly concerned about our family dynamics as we spent
most of our time yelling at him and wondering how much longer we could survive,
and how he was going to cope as he grew older - and therefore stronger and
possibly dangerously violent.
He has always loved bread and, being a vegetarian, eats a
lot of it, averaging six slices a day. The difference once we started making
our own bread was astounding. He immediately became so much calmer and quieter
that my husband asked if he was still in the house while he was getting ready
for school in the mornings. He became much less defiant and argumentative, was
able to stay still while I put his school tie on, much more polite and
affectionate.
It was a lovely change to have him come home from school and
give me a spontaneous hug, which is a very rare event as he is so sensitive to
touch. He also seems to be able to think more clearly. I removed 282 a few days
before the end of term 3 so was able to monitor changes over the holidays,
which were the most pleasant we've ever had. In the first week of the new term
he came home with a merit award for “staying cool, calm and collected"
when faced with a situation which usually would have had him in tears. That
same week he gained a further stamp towards a different award, and the
following week another one for his homework!
As a visual-spatial learner with a central auditory
processing disorder and an IQ in the top 2% he was probably always going to
have trouble fitting into a mainstream school, however the difference the
removal of 282 has made is so marked we are all going to attempt the failsafe
diet.- reader, NSW
[354] Argument from
160b and a history of headbanging (Nov 2004)
After only one week (and this was my getting ready to start the
diet week) I noticed a definite calmness about my 7 year old son. Then he
finished off some icecream and within an hour we had a horrible argument which
was like his behaviour from the previous week. I sat and cried this morning as
I read the failsafers’ stories and the annatto 160b factsheet
on the website. My son used to head bang since about 2 years of age – and we
still have dents in the walls! I have tried for 5/6 years to track his' diet
reactions but they had no rhyme or reason. I just had a psychopath in training.
I had always cooked and used behaviour management but there are always those
telling stares from other parents and friends - I wasn't tough enough, he was
out of control, obviously a single mother working full time produces this "type'
of child etc. I didn’t make the food intolerance connection until I read your
book. - reader, NSW
[353] Sensitivity to
perfumes, jasmine and basmati rice (Nov 2004)
Have just discovered your website and it's a great relief to
find out that I am not the only adult in the world to have sensitivities
(specifically fumes and especially perfumes - solved by getting off buses,
changing carriages or seats in trains, changing seats in cinemas and theatres;
food additives – and the ubiquitous jasmine and basmati rice - solved by
avoiding all Thai/Indian and some other Asian eateries and even some coffee
shops and restaurants.) It's been too long a time whereby non-sufferers usually
laugh at my "discomfort" and disbelieve: "you're making it up -
it's your imagination!" Thank you. - by email
[352] ‘So much calmer’
(Nov 2004)
First of all let me tell you how wonderful it was to find
your website and help our 4 1/2 year old son (and the rest of us) lead a much
more ‘normal’ life. He's had horrible symptoms of terrible mood swings, off and
on stuttering, biting, spitting, banging his head against the wall, excessive
bedwetting, an extremely loud voice that he couldn't control, big ‘saucer’ eyes
with clenched teeth while running at me to kick and bite me, would go into
hysterics when I would ask him to do the simplest of tasks such as dressing
himself, pulling his hair hard enough to yank it out of head (and his 14 month
old sister's), screaming every name at me he knew, running behind me from
across the room gaining momentum to head butt me as hard as he could in the
back and spine and as we give him a much needed nap during the day he can't
fall asleep until 11:00 pm or midnight!
I’ve ordered your book but until it arrives I've been making
some really wonderful meals and snacks for my son just from the info on your
website… Since introducing the new diet, he's been basically a new, happier
little boy and the mood around the house is SO MUCH CALMER. -
[351] ‘I cried the
whole way through’ (Nov 2004)
I’d like to thank you for sharing your life and family with
the rest of us. I sat and read the book Fed Up with ADHD from beginning to end
and cried the whole way through it. All I kept thinking was that this was a
book about my child (although I didn't have the baby or sleeping problems) and
how I was feeling. It was a relief to know that it's all normal - for ADHD
sufferers. Thanks to you, I can finally feel free. - SA
[350]
Hearing loss and tinnitus from salicylates (Nov 2004)
I've
known for 30 years that I am salicylate sensitive since suffering temporary hearing
loss - and the top of my head felt numb - after taking one regular full day’s
dosage of aspirin (8 tablets in 24 hours) prescribed by my doctor. My symptoms
cleared up in several days after I stopped the aspirin. But it is only recently
that I put two and two together and got four - food salicylates may have played
a big role in my steady hearing loss and increasing tinnitus over the
years. I discovered this when I started
taking noni this year and my hearing loss
accelerated, I got terrible tinnitus, and my head felt "funny". Then I discovered noni
may be high in salicylates. - by email
[349] Sneaky poos (Nov
2004)
Last night I was "surfing the web" looking for
information on sneaky poos (my 6 year old daughter has had a lifetime of tummy
upsets, with sneaky poos being just one symptom). I typed in sneaky poos into the search engine
and found some pages. As I opened up a few pages, I found they were all about
our family, from the behavior problems my 7 year old
son has, to the physical problems the rest of us have ... and there was another
common link with the pages ... they were ALL
from your website!! I spent the
next few hours reading reading reading! I know it will be difficult to change our way
of eating so drastically, but you have convinced me it's worth a shot. - Tas
[348] Hated every day
of kindy (Nov 2004)
My son Luke went to kindy for five terms and hated every
day. He escaped quite a few times by jumping the gates and fences. He wouldn't
interact with other children, had a small attention span and if his teachers
said day he would say night. His kindy teachers asked me to have him assessed
so that they could get to have someone to work with him one. I went along to a
paediatrician but I didn't really get a lot of help. Luke acted like a quiet
little angel, so the paediatrician probably thought I was just some
over-reacting mother. My own doctor had said there was no need to feed Luke bad
foods to show the paediatrician what he becomes like or how bad his skin gets
(he has chronic eczema) as the paediatrician would believe me, but I didn't
feel that at all.
Luke has just started at school this term. A friend gave me
your book and it has been a godsend, my husband said that your book has helped
us more than any doctor ever has. Thankyou so very much for being there for all
us lost and desperate parents. - SA
[347] Beyond gluten
free/casein free (Nov 2004)
My entire family previously responded well to the Gluten
Free/Casein Free diet for about 3 weeks, and then began to backslide. I was
*so* frustrated until I read about amines and salicylates. Of course, when we
went GF/CF we loaded up on fruit, and all the other "bad foods"! No
wonder it seemed to have failed. – reader,
[346] Nearly failsafe in
I grew up on nearly "failsafe" food in
[345] Additives affect
dogs too (Nov 2004)
On a recent veterinary talkback radio program, a caller had tried
all kinds of prescribed medication for her dog’s constantly itchy skin. When it
didn't help she changed vets. The new vet suggested avoiding foods with
preservatives and colouring and to add fish to the diet. Within a month the
condition had improved and the dog had also lost three kilograms - it was a
breed that is prone to put on weight. - Tom Olthoff,
MORE READERS'
STORIES on the website
|
Product updates |
Bakers
Delight Finger Buns once again are free from Additives 320, 310 & 160b. Due
to individual bakery usage and delivery dates, you may want to confirm with
your bakery that they have received the new formula shortening prior to
purchase. The new ingredient content of this shortening is: vegetable
fats and oils, emulsifier(435), antioxidants [306, from Soy Bean, (200mg/kg)],
flavour and colour (160a). The flavour is not failsafe – you can order them in
advance, asking for the spicewash flavour to be left
off. Thanks to Jenny
Saal
*** WARNING*** Arnott’s French Fries - a failsafer reports: I
allowed my son to have the Arnott's French Fries
which claim to be additive free. Well, he was very hyper the next day. Other
failsafers have had similar problems and the Hotline gives conflicting reports
so they must contain antioxidants.- Karen H
***WARNING*** Nabsico mini Ritz contain
BHA (320) as well as good antioxidants 304 and 406 – not failsafe. Thanks to
Tania St Cannon.
* See new list of
* Due to consumer demand, Birdseye have
introduced an additive-free range of six products in
*
* Dried whole preservative-free bananas are ideal for
lunchboxes and snacks, but only if you have passed your amine challenge.
Available from Carobana along with additive-free
honeycomb, carob coated honeycomb, honeycomb chips (suitable for mixing with
icecream), carob coated whole dried bananas, carob coated banana pieces and raw
cashew nut brittle, on the highway north of
Coffs Harbour or by mail order from www.carobana.com.au.
* Dried pears from Bega Dried foods,
* Feedback: the persimmon wine mentioned in the last
newsletter has been very popular. The ‘extremely low residual amount of sulphur
dioxide’ mentioned on the label refers to sulphited
corks, currently being phased out in favour of plastic reusable stoppers. Our
testing shows no detectable sulphites at all (<10ppm). Failsafers say: ‘it’s
not like grape wine, but it’s nice to have a bottle of wine on the table –
whisky’s not the same’; ‘it doesn’t make me feel awful the next morning, like
wine normally does’; ‘great to make a stirfry more
tasty’; ‘I like it diluted with soda water’. Some stock left from the Good Food Shop in Bellingen or by mailorder from goodfood@optusnet.com.au, phone 02
6655 1714 (you have to pay for postage).
* Kiwifruit: NZ failsafers report that the new yellow
species ‘kiwifruit gold’ seem to be milder and lower (but not low) in
salicylates than the familiar green variety - thanks to Robin Fisher.
* Peaches: the low chill peaches grown around
* Doongara rice
cooks in 12 minutes and has a considerably lower Glycemic Index than other
brands, meaning it is filling for longer and assists with weight loss. An
unflavoured, unperfumed white rice, it also appears to be low in salicylates.
* Xylitol - A failsafer reports: ‘Just to let
you know my son is tolerating the Xylitol fine. I use
it instead of sugar to make the magic cordial. It's expensive though...’ PP
* Pure Harvest rice cakes - Pure Harvest assure us
that the vegetable oil used in these rice cakes is refined sunflower oil with
no antioxidants. – Louise R. Contact cassandra.rouget@pureharvest.com.au
for further enquiries.
* Preservative-free (not failsafe) wine - a failsafer
reports: there is a little winery in Cowangerup in
southern WA, called Settlers, selling preservative free wine. - Simone
Jenkins
* Omo sensitive now have
a liquid for top loading washing machines. Thanks to Jenny H.
* Gluten free flours: McKenzies
assure us that their rice flour is not contaminated with salicylates in jasmine
rice. Lotus Organic potato flour and Lotus Arrowroot that are supposedly
sulphite free - Lotus info: 03 9584 2245, email: prodinfo@kadac.com.au
* White cotton underwear for children with eczema is
available from Target stores, thanks to Llewellyn W.
* A butcher in WA will make biodynamic meat into sausages
in 5kg batches. He usually makes beef sausages containing meat, organic rice
flour, salt, pepper and spice mix (ingredients unknown) but was happy to
substitute failsafe spices or vegies. He now sells more of these sausages than
so-called normal ones. The price is $10.99 per kg. Adrian Shelley, Dalkeith
Village Butcher, Shop 7, 81 Waratah Ave, Dalkeith WA, Telephone and fax: 08
9386 2535 – Julie Pegrum
Gluten free
baking - In Adelaide,
Kylie of Kylie’s gluten free baking and specialty
cakes (at the Tea House at Goodwood) would love to
add some failsafe items to her list, phone/fax 08 8172 1166.
Lansinoh preservative-free moisturiser and
lip balm - Ingredients:
‘100% Lansinoh - hypoallergenic ultra pure anhydrous
lanolin (USP Modified Lonolin). No
preservatives.' Marketed for
breastfeeding mothers for the treatment of sore nipples, it is also recommended
for use on dry or cracked skin, on chapped lips etc. Available in pharmacies.
It is fairly expensive but a failsafer says a
56 gram tube has lasted her for over two years. - Thanks to Alison
White
Check out the updates page
on the website for latest information.
Q. How does the recent link between macular degeneration
(blindness) and certain fats affect the failsafe diet?
A. Trans fats are created when manufacturers make liquid oils into the more
solid partially hydrogenated oils used in margarines, shortening and thousands
of processed foods. Twenty years ago, scientist through that these trans fats
were safe but in the 1990s scientists found that trans fats raise LDL (bad
cholesterol) as much as saturated fat does. Now new evidence indicates that
trans fats also lower HDL (good cholesterol) and studies in the US - where
trans fat consumption is four times greater than in Australia - have associated
trans fats with macular degeneration. The makers of Nuttelex have advised us
that they are very close to production of a low (less than 1%) trans fat
Nuttelex and hope to have it in stores by Xmas. Since macular degeneration is
also linked with overweight and smoking, consumers are advised to maintain a
healthy weight, choose healthy fats in moderation (fish and nuts are
protective), stop smoking, and eat lots of vegetables and fruit. More details: http://www.csiro.au/ProprietaryDocuments/fat_and_macular_degeneration.pdf
Q. My son’s teacher and I had a verbal agreement that he
would not give my son any food or drink. Well, last Friday he gave my son a
piece of chocolate cake and said ‘don't tell your mum’ but my son told me, ‘I'm
not going to bother lying to you mum, because I know you can tell when I've had
something just by looking at my eyes’.
A. One failsafer achieved a high level of cooperation from her school by
telling her story in the school newsletter, see our
new factsheet “Please Don’t Feed My Child”. Perhaps
you could tell your own story in your newsletter in a similar way, or ask your
school to reprint our factsheet.
Q. Just wanted to know if you can eat Subway on
the failsafe diet?’
A. As you can see from the
Subway ingredients list, most items contain non-failsafe additives. The safest
choice would be roast beef and lettuce on Italian bread, no pickles, no
dressing, although we are not sure about azodicarbamide (927) bread improver,
which has only recently been approved in Australia. Perhaps you could take your
own failsafe ketchup or mayonnaise. If you don’t care about salicylates and
amines you could also have fresh cucumbers, yellow mustard and tuna, see http://subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/Nutrition/frmUSIngredients.aspx
Q. Do sulfites mainly affect asthmatics or are
they mood altering?
A. Like other food chemicals,
sulfites (or sulphites) can be associated with any of the symptoms of food
intolerance including irritable bowel, headaches, itchy skin rashes and mood.
This is particularly concerning as sulfites are the most commonly used preservative,
present in nearly all processed foods.
Q. When my
ADHD son eats kiwi fruit, his behaviour doesn’t change. Since kiwi fruit is
very high in salicylates, does this mean he isn’t affected by salicylates?
A. Very few parents ever notice a
reaction to salicylates in foods because salicylates are eaten many
times a day, every day. Most children don’t react to a few serves of fruit, but
the effects build up slowly. You will only see the difference when you avoid
salicylates then do a challenge -note that failing to eat six good serves of
high salicylates per day during the challenge can cause confusing results. If
in doubt, it’s a good idea to repeat the challenge.
Q. I bought a black winter coat labelled ‘made in
A.
A failsafer with exactly the same problem reported that airing and drycleaning had no effect. Despite the ‘dryclean
only’ label, he achieved a wearable garment by soaking his coat in Lux flakes
for three days, running it through the washing machine at least six times, and
storing it in a drying room for months. Surprisingly, the coat did not shrink.
Q. Chic Nuts roasted chickpeas are so delicious, are you
sure they are failsafe?
A.
According to the manufacturer, Chic Nuts are made from locally grown chickpeas
soaked in pure spring water overnight before being roasted in Monola oil (a
more monounsaturated and therefore healthier version of Canola). Then they are
tossed in natural seasonings to give them various flavours – the ones we can
eat are pure garlic powder and sea salt. There are no anti-oxidants in the
Monola oil. The sodium is low compared with popular salty snacks (480mg per
100g) and the GI is 37. More information from www.partnerfoods.com.au Chic Nuts are available from Safeways and
Woolworths, in the Naytura aisle. Information about Monola oil: http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=mediaRelease&id=Prmonola&stylesheet=mediaRelease
Q. My husband’s gout has improved since our family went
failsafe. He’s not really on the diet but eats a lot of our failsafe food. Is
the failsafe diet for gout?
A.
People with gout are affected by food chemicals called purines. Many
high-purine foods such as wine, beer, tea, anchovies, gravy, meat extracts and
sardines are avoided on the failsafe diet because they are also high in
salicylates or amines. However, some failsafe foods such as dried beans and
lentils contain moderate amounts of purines. For more information, see http://dialadietitian.org/resources/handouts/goutdiet.html
Q. I bought normal white Panadol
tablets and the children’s chewable Panadol for my 5
year old son because the lady in the chemist’s thought it was ok. I’m confused
as it says on the packet 'no added colours or flavours' but also says pleasant
tasting.
A. I was unable to find the
inactive ingredients in chewable Panadol (unfortunately
they don’t have to be listed on medications), but pleasant tasting chewable
tablets obviously contain flavour. The dose recommended on the children’s
packet for 3 - 6 year olds is 2 tablets, which are 120mg paracetamol
each, so 240mg in total, in which case 1/2 plain white tablet is the same. You
can crush it and mix with golden syrup etc, see the Supplements Factsheet. Please, anyone whose child has reacted to
flavoured tablets, tell the AME hotline (Adverse Medications Event - 1300 134
237). It is only by complaining that we can get authorities to realize that
unlisted ingredients in medications can affect our children.
Check out the Questions and Answers section in the
website for many more details.
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