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emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:54:58 CDT

FAILSAFE stands for Free of Additives, Low in Salicylates, Amines and Flavour Enhancers and is Sue Dengate’s term for the comprehensive low-chemical, low-reactive exclusion diet formulated by allergists at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia.

The failsafe diet is designed to treat intolerances or sensitivities to specific chemicals in foods. The diet is not designed to treat allergies. Reactions to food chemicals are pharmacological and dose-related rather than immune-system related, but they cause a number of symptoms that can appear to be allergy-like. It is important to understand the difference between food allergy and food chemical intolerance.

Though the failsafe diet has been around since the 1980’s, few people have heard of it outside of Australia. A forerunner to the failsafe diet is the Feingold diet, an incomplete salicylate exclusion diet that is now outdated. Food chemical intolerances are quite common, but a lack of knowledge about the syndrome means that symptoms are rarely understood by the layperson or the medical practitioner, and are usually dismissed as allergies, psychological, or idiosyncratic.

The failsafe diet:

Cuts out around fifty common food additives
Cuts out most fruit and many vegetables
Cuts out aged and fermented foods like cheese and hung beef
Sometimes cuts out gluten and casein, depending on the individual
Is based around bland, low reactive foods
Is personalised to the patient’s needs, based on food trial challenges
Requires blinded capsule challenges wherever possible

The failsafe diet:

Is scientific a diet developed by hospital doctors who are specialists in food allergy
Is NOT complementary, alternative medicine, or quackery

The failsafe diet has turned out to help a wide range of different genetic and idiosyncratic health problems. These include:

ADHD/ADD
Autism and asperger’s syndrome
Pervasive Developmental Disorders
GERD, IBS, and intractable coeliac disease (that does not respond to gluten removal alone)
ME, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
Pseudo-allergic rashes and skin problems
Asthma and eczema

Contamination Paranoia

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:49:24 CDT

Contamination paranoia occurs when individuals experience a reaction to an apparently safe food. It is encountered in individuals who are not educated on food chemical intolerance and have not clarified their food intolerance reactions. It is generally based on a false supposition that the individual reacts only to one or two foods. As a result they are paranoid of unknown "toxins" in foods (known as mysterious contaminant paranoia), or of the presence of trace amounts of an ingredient they know they react to, when they have a mysterious reaction to a food. This can result in false intolerance rules.

Examples of contamination paranoia:

People on gluten-free casein-free diets who regard all reactions to foods when eating out as being caused by trace amounts of gluten or casein. In reality individuals who have intolerances to gluten and casein react with a dose-related response and are not sensitive to hidden gluten or hidden casein, but to other artificial additives or food chemicals. One common variant of this is the "oats are always contaminated by wheat gluten" myth.
People who know they react to MSG, who blame all reactions to meat on brining procedures or the cattle having been fed MSG in their feed, because they do not understand that ageing and vacuum packing create natural glutamates and amines.
People who are on a low carbohydrate diet to manage hypoglycaemic symptoms who blame all food reactions including weight gain on the presence of small amounts of carbohydrates, rather than on the insulin release caused by salicylates, amines and glutamates.
People on an SCD or GAPS diet who blame digestive reactions on complex carbohydrates feeding dysbiosis when the cause of the digestive reactions is actually food chemical related.
People on a candida diet who blame adverse reactions on the presence of small amounts of carbohydrates or yeast in foods. In fact these individuals are food chemical intolerant, as candida does not cause food reactions.

Trans-fat paranoia. Though trans-fats have been implicated in the progression of chronic illnesses like heart disease, they in no way cause observable adverse reactions to foods.

Phytic acid paranoia. Phytic acid is a relatively harmless antinutrient, however food soaked and fermented to remove phytic acid tends to contain amines and glutamates.

Once on a full food chemical elimination program like failsafe, the true cause of these mysterious reactions will be resolved successfully.

Mysterious Contaminant Paranoia

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:47:17 CDT

Mysterious contaminant paranoia is a variety of contamination paranoia encountered in individuals who are not educated on food chemical intolerance and have not sorted out what they are reacting to and what they are not reacting to.They appear to have mysterious reactions that they cannot pin down. As a result they are paranoid of unknown and ill defined "toxins" in foods and the environment.

Examples of mysterious contaminant paranoia include fear and suspicion of adverse reactions to:

Mercury and heavy metals (throwing out household items)
Fluoride in the water supply (excessive filtering of water)
Organophosphates, pesticides and endocrine disruptors (excessive washing of vegetables)
Non-stick coatings on pans (throwing out household items)

Mysterious contaminant paranoia can result in a diagnosis of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. In fact the affected individual is not reacting to multiple mysterious chemicals, but to a few omnipresent chemicals in foods and the household environment.

Once on a full food chemical elimination program like failsafe, the true cause of these mysterious reactions will be resolved successfully.

False Intolerance Rules

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:45:38 CDT

When people note mysterious reactions to foods, this can cause individuals to create false intolerance rules that result in the individual unnecessarily avoiding or eating certain foods.

The individual will often think of many different theories why they may have had a reaction to the food. These theories are often wrong and can sometimes appear to be very strange and illogical to outsiders, though they may have apparent internal consistency to the sufferer.

Examples of false intolerance rules:

Hypoglycaemic reactions resulting in individuals avoiding all carbohydrates. Salicylates, amines and glutamates all disturb blood sugar levels and individuals are usually able to eat carbohydrates again when they are on the failsafe diet.
Reactions to cheese being blamed on casein intolerance, when in fact it is amine/glutamate intolerance.
Reactions to fermented foods resulting in individuals believing they are "yeast intolerant" or have Candida, when in fact they are reacting to amines/glutamates.
Reactions to chocolate or sweets/candy being blamed on sugar, when the problem is amines or additives.
Reactions to bread being blamed on gluten intolerance, when in fact it is intolerance of the common bread preservative, calcium propionate, E282.
Reactions to sourdough bread being blamed on gluten intolerance, when in fact it is intolerance ofamines/glutamates.
Reactions to wine, beer and alcopops, blamed on the alcohol content when the problem may be sulphites, salicylates and SLAs, or amines and glutamates.
Reactions to a wide variety of foods blamed on the vitamin or mineral content of the food, such as cravings for bread or oats being blamed on a "manganese deficiency" when the problem is addiction to opioid-like peptides, or reactions to fermented foods being blamed on "vitamin K deficiency" when the problem is amines/glutamates.
Reactions to fermented foods or vegetable juices being described as "detoxification" or "Herxheimer" reactions when the problem is amines/glutamates or salicylates and SLAs.

Mysterious Reactions

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:44:23 CDT

When a person is food chemical intolerant but does not know it, most of the time they will not notice specific reactions to foods unless the chemical content is particularly high. However sometimes mysterious reactions are noted.

Mysterious reactions can cause individuals to create false intolerance rules about foods.

Hidden Contaminant Hunt

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:14:36 CDT

A hidden contaminant hunt occurs when individuals experience a reaction to an apparently safe food. It is as a result of contamination paranoia encountered in individuals who are not educated on food chemical intolerance and have not clarified their food intolerance reactions. It is generally based on a false supposition that the individual reacts to only one or two foods.

Reactions to apparently safe foods result in confusion in the individual and an attempt to discover a possible source of the suspected contaminant in the food. For example, someone who knows they react to gluten will seek to find a source of hidden gluten in the food ingredients they have eaten (e.g. "perhaps it was in the sauce", or "perhaps it was in the mashed potato"). This is a form of confirmation bias, as the result confirms the individual's current theory about food reactions, rather than seeking out a new, more likely theory (reactions to additives or natural food chemicals).

Examples of hidden contaminant hunts:

Hidden gluten hunts
Hidden casein hunts
Hidden MSG hunts
Hidden additive hunts
Hidden carbohydrate hunts
Hidden yeast hunts

Hidden Casein Hunt

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:46:32 CDT

A hidden casein hunt occurs when individuals on a casein-free diet react to food that apparently does not contain casein. See hidden contaminant hunt.

Hidden Gluten Hunt

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:45:04 CDT

A hidden gluten hunt occurs when individuals on a gluten-free diet react to food that apparently does not contain gluten. See hidden contaminant hunt.

Phytic Acid

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:15:47 CDT

Phytic acid is a relatively harmless antinutrient found in some plant foods.

Phytic acid (known as inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6), or phytate when in salt form) is the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially bran and seeds.

Most phytic acid is bound to phosphorus and called phytate. Phytate is completely harmless and passes through the digestive tract without being absorbed.

When found in phytic acid form however, it can chelate minerals and prevent their absorption into the body. In a diet that is unusually low in minerals and high in phytic acid, such as those found in some developing countries, this can contribute to mineral deficiencies.

Cooking food thoroughly destroys phytic acid, as does soaking in an acid medium, fermenting, or sprouting.

Phytic acid is subject to contamination paranoia by some members of the Weston A. Price Foundation, who go to great lengths to remove it from foods by soaking or fermenting grains. Food that has been soaked or fermented tends to contain amines and glutamates to which individuals then react.

Oats Contaminated with Gluten

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:51:44 CDT

The oats are contaminated with gluten myth is popular amongst gluten-free casein-free dieters who appear to react to oats. It is not true.

Numerous certified gluten-free oat brands are available and these have been processed in factories that do not handle wheat, and these oats do not contain even trace amounts of hidden gluten.

Oats do not naturally contain gluten but contain a gluten-like protein called avenin to which some individuals react. Current scientific research on coeliacs is confused and contradictory, with some studies showing that coeliacs have a good tolerance of oats, whilst others suggest they do not. It is likely that a subset of coeliacs react to oats whilst others do not. Further, different varieties of oats seem to vary in avenin content and structure.

Oat and other grain reactions are common amongst individuals following a Weston A. Price Foundation diet, which requires the dieter to soak and/or ferment all grains before use in order to destroy a relatively harmless antinutrient, phytic acid. This creates amines and glutamates to which individuals react.

Hidden Gluten

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:42:27 CDT

Hidden Gluten is trace amounts of gluten which may or may not exist in processed food or food eaten in restaurants or cafes.

People on gluten-free or gluten-free casein-free diets tend to regard all mysterious reactions to foods as being caused by trace amounts of gluten or casein.

One common example of this belief is the notion that all oats are contaminated with trace amounts of gluten, which is not true.

In reality individuals who have intolerances to gluten and casein react with a dose-related response and are rarely sensitive enough to react to trace amounts of gluten, but are reacting to other artificial additives or natural food chemicals.

The exception to this rule is when a genuine IgE allergy exists to gluten or casein, as allergic responses are not dose-related.

Hidden Casein

emmadavies — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:40:12 CDT

Hidden Casein is trace amounts of casein which may or may not exist in processed food or food eaten in restaurants or cafes.

People on casein-free or gluten-free casein-free diets tend to regard all mysterious reactions to foods as being caused by trace amounts of casein or gluten.

In reality individuals who have intolerances to gluten and casein react with a dose-related response and are rarely sensitive enough to react to trace amounts of casein, but are reacting to other artificial additives or natural food chemicals.

The exception to this rule is when a genuine IgE allergy exists to casein or gluten, as allergic responses are not dose-related.