Dragonfly News

The Official Monthly Newsletter of Song of Health
June, 2008

NEW! Click here to download
a printable version of this newsletter.

Welcome Subscribers, to Dragonfly News. We are excited about the opportunity to share interesting and helpful information with you in our monthly newsletter, which is available to subscribers only, on the website and automatically sent to you by email. We send it to you in both .doc and .pdf forms.

If you did not receive this issue at your email address, please notify us immediately. We may need you to update your current email address with us.

Important notice: a food resource update, dated May. 08, was emailed to everyone recently. It is also included at the bottom of this newsletter and will be added to the list on the website soon.

THE FOOD RESOURCE LIST IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINTABLE VERSION. JUST GO TO THE FOOD RESOURCE LIST, GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AND CLICK ON "SOH RESOURCE LIST PART 1 AND PART 2 FOR THE LATEST VERSION IN .PDF FORM.
Just a reminder: Per your request, we added the column "TESTED FOR" to Food Resource List updates. We agree that the resource will be more helpful knowing what the foods were actually tested for as well as the results. This way you will know if a food was tested for potato, for example, and the RESULTS column will verify whether potato is a hidden ingredient. Also…Some of the updates that are directly emailed to you list where the products may be purchased. We are not able to include this column on the website edition due to lack of column space.

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2007 ISSUES OF DRAGONFLY NEWS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON CD.

Subscribers’ cost is only $14.95, non-subscribers, $49.95 plus shipping. This CD is a valuable compilation of articles by our renowned doctors, whose work in their field is highly regarded among their colleagues, patients, and professionals in other circles. Along with all the other information offered, this collection is a great opportunity for students and others seeking reliable research resources in our field.

WHAT INFORMATION WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER?
Our goal is to serve you. Please help us by sharing what you would like to see in the Dragonfly News. We also invite you to share your favorite recipes with us.

You may contact us at: newsletter@songofhealth.com

SUBSCRIBERS SPOTLIGHT
STORIES, COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
share your story with others.

SUBSCRIBERS, please. . . help others by sharing your story with us and allow us to publish it in the next issue of Dragonfly News and Subscribers’ Testimonials, now on the Song of Health website. We have this opportunity to help those who still suffer but are not confident that our dietary lifestyle will work for them. By hearing and reading about how our lives were dramatically changed we can help them to step through the door toward wellness. WE WOULD BE HONORED TO INCLUDE YOUR STORY about how you came to follow the Dr. Carroll Food Intolerance way of life. We reserve the right to edit for grammar and spelling correctness, however we will not change your story content.

IF YOU PREFER US TO HELP YOU WRITE YOUR STORY, WE WILL BE HAPPY TO. JUST ASK!

Please email your contribution to webmaster@songofhealth.com. Thank you for helping us to achieve our goal of reaching out to as many people as possible in order to offer them hope.

A note of encouragement: A subscriber was concerned that her story was uninteresting. There is no such thing as a boring, uninteresting story! We are here to support each other and every contribution helps, no matter how small or large the content. Please don't let that stop you!

QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED:
The following questions were emailed to us in the past month.

PAT S. emailed:
Would Stephanie R. who dehydrated all her meals for a camping trip last fall be willing to recommend a cookbook or tell us how she learned how to dehydrate her food and make meals out of it?

Are there any meat/mine salt intolerants who would be willing to share their meal lists, what they do when they travel, or try to go out to eat?

(Editor’s note: See the November 2007 issue of Dragonfly News for Stephenie’s story of how she prepared meals for her family and herself, in order to accommodate all their food intolerances, on their summer camping trip last year.)

Stephenie R. replies: I used the book Backpack Gourmet, by Linda Frederick Yaffe as my inspiration (most of it anyway) for dehydrating all of our food. I just changed the recipes according to our dietary needs.

I bought a dehydrator, the circle kind by Nesco, at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I bought an extra set (2) of trays and enough Fruit Roll tray liners to fit in all of my trays. 
I also have a vacuum sealer that I purchased at Costco 3 or 4 years ago. 
 
Stuff I figured out in the process:
 
1. The book suggests that you can also use parchment paper to line your dehydrator trays. This keeps soups and thick stuff from falling through the cracks. I found this to be very tedious, lots of circles to cut out, and parchment paper is not cheap. So I switched to the Fruit Roll tray liners and am very happy with that.

2. I believe you can over dehydrate your food. Sometimes my food would almost be dry before bed but not quite, so I'd leave them going overnight. The food became really dry and hard as a rock, which is fine, but I could tell the quality of food was different than if I had just stopped dehydrating when the food was dry, and not processed beyond that.  So with that said, make sure you do your meal in the morning, so by bedtime it is done.

3. I then vacuum sealed individual portions in quart sized sealer bags, double portions for "the man". I left enough room for boiling water and enough bag to fold down to seal the food while it was hydrating. It seemed like a lot of bag material was wasted but it wasn't. Don't suck all of the air out of the pouch. The hard dehydrated food pierces the bag sometimes and you'll loose your air lock. 

4. We brought large office clips to hold the bag edge down tight while the food was hydrating. When the bag had boiling water in it, it was hard to hold. But we didn't want to put it down because it was either cold outside or the bag wouldn't stay upright. I had the idea during our last trip to sew two pot holders together, creating a pocket, and slip the bag of food into it to solve all of those problems. This year, at the Craft Show at the Fairgrounds, we found and bought "bags" designed to cook potatoes in the microwave. They were exactly what I had envisioned so we bought them, one for each person.

5. We have Jet Boil backpacking cooking units and that is what we used to boil water.

6. There is only one recipe we didn't like from the ones we tried. It was a scramble of sorts, with potatoes, eggs and sausage. It tasted fine but the texture was off. We could never get it to "puff" up again. It was still kind of "crunchy." One kid had eggs and sausage that didn't turn out either. Bummer....we still had to eat it because it was the food for that meal. I think the key thing to remember is that it's not bad (going to hurt you), it just might not have the mouth feel you want. 
Note: this is one of those meals I really dehydrated so that might be part of the problem.  Meat seems to be hard to deal with so we pretty much went vegan on the trip and used meat more as a flavoring in a recipe instead of the whole meal. That's why you bring your fishing pole!

7. Test a recipe first and eat it for dinner after you have dehydrated, then you'll know what to expect.

8.  Yes, you can dehydrate soups!

9.  Look to your own recipes for inspiration too. 

10.  For a snack I made a huge bag of mixed nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, etc. (of course, stuff we could eat), high energy and not too heavy to carry.

11.  Our favorites (so far) from the cookbook:
      Moroccan Stew
      Black Bean Stew
      Canyon Country Chili
      Legume-Salami Soup
I also made spaghetti with marinara and oatmeal. 

12. One last thought:  I also made sure that we had 2 extra meals for each person.  When you’re in the back country, you just never know.  Better to be safe than sorry.

13. OH...one more last thought! I also brought dehydrated food with me to Disneyland last fall.  When I couldn't be 100% sure of the ingredients of something to buy, I'd just pull out my food. It was kind of funny to see people's expressions when I just ordered hot water, but who wants to be sick on vacation?!  NOT ME!
 
Have FUN & Enjoy!
Stephenie

SEE STEPHENIE’S RECIPE FOR HER “YUMMY IN YOUR TUMMY OATMEAL” IN THE RECIPE SECTION OF THIS NEWSLETTER. 

MAKE YOURSELVES HEARD!

Example of Recent additions to the Forum:

Posted by Pat 6th May, 2008
Regarding taking local bee pollen for help with allergies: Within how many miles would it still be local? Many thanks for sharing all your knowledge. Pat

Posted by Dr. Jared Zeff 6th May, 2008
Pat,
The thing about bee pollen is that it contains the pollens one might be reactive to, so it is not so much the radius from your home, it is more that the bees are servicing plants that are like those in your area. So that might be a 20 mile radius or a 300 mile radius, depending upon your terrain and the fauna in your vicinity. Jared Zeff, N.D.

We are repeating Pat’s question from April, in case anyone missed her question in The Forum.

Posted by Pat S., 22nd April, 2008
Are there any meat/mine salt intolerants who would be willing to share their meal lists, what they do when they travel, or try to go out to eat? Many thanks, Pat S

Posted by Traci, 14th April, 2008
Ok, I have some questions concerning making bread, biscuits etc. First of all, what is the sourdough starter and when and how do you use it? Is it like a yeast? HA! (No, I really don’t know.) And second, in the recipes under breads and biscuits, there is info on cinnamon rolls and says to let dough rise before sprinkling with almonds. How long does this take and how do you know when it is done rising? And do you need to let it rise with the other recipes? I know it is necessary when baking bread. Anyway, I feel like a little dum dum (just kidding). When you don’t know, you don’t know. I wish my grandmother was still here; she was a wonderful baker. Thank goodness I have you guys and gals. Thanks so much for your patience with me. Embarrassed, T

Posted by Manager, Song of Health 26th May, 2008

Dear Traci,
Apologies for not answering sooner. This slipped through the cracks! Sourdough starter is used when making sourdough bread. It is great as a leavening instead of using yeast once you have the "mother" started. The original starter may or may not have yeast, depending on the recipe. Always save some from the sourdough batch to continue the starter, which is what the "mother" is. The cool thing about sourdough starter is that it may be continued indefinitely and you then do not have to use yeast.

Bread dough rises differently depending on the weather, elevation, type of flour being used, etc. The rule of thumb is to let rise until double the size of the original dough ball you started with, and when gently pressed with your finger the indentation comes back up. If dough is left to rise too long it may fall when baking. If not long enough, the bread will be heavy.
Please post your replies to our other subscribers at THE FORUM. Thank you.

Please post your replies to our other subscribers at THE FORUM.
Thank you.

Food is What Sustains Us,
But it Can Also Harm Us
By Dr. Letitia Watrous, N.D.

Meats, eggs, fish, nuts and beans give us proteins, the building blocks of our DNA that build and repair everything we are. Wheat, rice, corn, millet, barley, etc., are the grains that give us carbohydrates and vitamins to fuel our cell metabolism. Vegetables and fruits give us vitamins and minerals to make the cell communication pathways function. Much like having a power plant hooked up with electrical lines, the vitamins in the vegetables are necessary to keep the electrical charge in the lines working…to every part of your body, every cell, every toe nail, every hair. Dr. Dick would say, “The proteins are your builders and the vegetables are your healers.” He would also say that we should all avoid the “white death,” which he considered to be ALL WHITE FLOUR AND WHITE SUGAR.

In researching for the Foundation of Naturopathic Medicine textbook that I have been asked to contribute to, I found an old book which contained only the uses of different ratios or recipes of vegetable broths listed to treat different conditions such as measles, gout, kidney stones and diabetes. I sometimes wonder how such well-used and wondrously simple recipes for food cures can be forgotten. These have been suspiciously replaced by $400/month prescriptions to Lipitor and Pravastatin.

Well, we all know how critical it is to eat right to stay fit and healthy. But, somehow we seem to feel or think that whatever we eat somehow cannot hurt us. After all, food is food. This is far from the truth. It is obvious that to a diabetic person a chocolate covered DOVE bar would most likely land them in the emergency room with a blood sugar crisis. It may not be as obvious that a fruit intolerant person who continually eats apples develops rheumatoid arthritis or breast cancer.

The food intolerance test, first discovered, developed and used by Dr. Otis G. Carroll in the 1920’s, determines what foods are a pure toxin to a person’s metabolism. It is like ingesting cyanide. No one would eat a poison such as cyanide or perhaps, arsenic. We all know this leads to death, very quick deaths. The reason these poisons act so quickly is because they cannot be cleared out of the body by the purification of blood through the liver fast enough to sustain life.

This is the same reaction the food intolerance instills in our bodies. Like the cyanide, the apple to a fruit intolerant person is a poison. It cannot be digested fully due to the lack of DNA in a person’s genetics to make the enzymes - not enough of the co-factors to send out the correct electrical signals from the power plant to get the combustion of the engine to make the bite of apple into packets of nutrition for each and every cell. Instead, the fruit ferments in the stomach, requiring more reaction from the stomach’s cells to further attempt to digest a poison. This causes an increase in blood pressure and heart rate to boost aid in moving the apple into the intestines, past the gallbladder. The “leaky gut” that occurs is a result of the poisonous, putrefying apple irritating the mucus membranes of the intestines, causing toxic, unprocessed wastes to enter the blood stream. If the heart can pump the blood hard enough and the liver can get to this poison and eliminate it quickly enough, the person may not feel all that poorly. If the liver fails at its critical life saving job, then the poison circulates in the blood. The blood, which is so pure and perfectly balanced with oxygen, iron, vitamins, minerals, proteins and hormones, now becomes a sewer.

We all know that any infectious bacteria, parasite or virus can live in a sewer. That is why they are there…to eat up the waste. Suddenly, the fruit intolerant person who ate the apple has become the perfect host for meningitis, influenza, antibiotic-resistant Staph infections, pneumonia - the list goes on.

Besides providing the perfect toxic culture for the infectious diseases, the poison will damage healthy cells along the way. Suddenly, the fruit intolerant person who has eaten apples all her life develops a chronic degenerative disease such as Lupus or, perhaps, Multiple Sclerosis. The poison generated by the indigestible apple in this person will affect whichever tissue is not strong enough to resist it.

You suddenly discover what the weakest link in your metabolism is. Is it your nervous system as Multiple Sclerosis or Myasthenia Gravis? It is your skin as Psoriasis or Cystic Acne? Is it your lungs as Asthma or Emphysema? Is it your eyes as Glaucoma?

We all have a weakest link in our metabolism and we all have a food intolerance. How the intolerance poison affects each person is individualized and determined by the strength of the detoxification and eliminatory system in the body. Some of us are better at this than others. Some of us also exercise more, stimulating our lymphatic chain to move the toxins into the liver faster. It is clear though, that it all catches up with us as we age. With age our metabolic rate declines, and so toxins persist longer, causing more cell damage and increasing the risk of diseases.

It is not well known that 90% or more of all cancers and tumors are viral based. That is, viruses are infecting the mutated cancerous cells and leading to a faster growth rate of a specific type of cell that becomes a squamous* cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma or leukemia. This is clear in the connection to women with cervical cancer and the presence of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which account for nearly 95% of this disease. This virus is highly contagious and is the #1 sexually transmitted disease in the world. Yet, men are rarely screened for it. We detect it and treat it with PAP smears and the cut and burn method of conization, cone biopsy, or LEEP (loop electrosurgical excision procedure) of the cervix, hopefully killing the virus before it infects too many cells.

The problem with viruses is that they change form, mutate or adapt so quickly that an accurate vaccine or therapy for them is not very effective. The only shot the medical oncologist has at killing the virus is to poison the patient further with chemotherapy or radiation in order to make the environment intolerable to the virus. The drawback to this method of cut, poison or burn to eradicate the viral infected cancer cells is that this often also eradicates the patient. Oncologists have a lot of courage to get up and say they have a cancer “cure rate” of ____ %. They really should say they have an increasing cancer death rate that is out of control. The body can heal all infections as long as the disease is not fed. It truly all starts with the diet and food that is compatible for each individual person. This is why the food intolerance diet is so very important.

Now back to the food topic. (I could go on about cancer, but that is not what I set out to write about in this issue of the newsletter.) It is clear now, after over 90 years of the Carroll Food Intolerance testing being utilized to diagnose food problems for people, that this method is accurate and curative. It has been said, “One man’s food is another man’s poison.” This is exactly true.

To follow your food intolerance diet is the best preventive medicine you could invest in. It will save you medical expenses, hospital and doctor visits and medication costs. It will also give you longevity and vitality.

Now, new to the food scene are more problems. Since World War II we have had synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides in our diets. These are carbon compounds unknown to this earth and certainly unknown to our livers. But now, we also have genetically altered foods - “Franken Foods” our metabolic enzymes have never seen before. 90% of the corn and 95% of the soy in the food Agri-business is genetically altered with brand new human made DNA. How will our livers handle this? We are just discovering.

To learn more about our nation’s and our world’s food problems, the control the food industry and Agri-business has upon our well being, I suggest the following books:
(Hey, it is not Oprah’s book list, but it is “Dr. Tish’s Best Read List.” I have read them all, some more than once, and think it is worth the time.)

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. Houghton Mufflin Company, N.Y., 1962.
An all-time classic for environmentalists to read. Rachel died of breast cancer, ironically.

Living Downstream, by Sandra Stiengraber. Vintage Books, 1998.
An update on Rachel Carson’s work and written by a woman scientist personally affected by carcinogens.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hoop and Camille Kingsolver. HarperCollins Publishers, N.Y., 2007.
A true story of a family committed to raising their own foods or only eating locally raised foods for a year. Recipes are included. Family challenges and dialogue we can all relate to when it comes to changing our teenager’s diet!

Atomic Farmgirl, by Teri Hein. Houghton Mifflin Company, N.Y., 2003.
A non-fiction dialogue regarding life on the farms outside Hanford nuclear reservation and the effects the radiation releases have had on our health in the Pacific Northwest. I believe I treat people like these folks everyday – Unfortunately, we are all “down winders” here in Spokane and the prairies around us.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. (On the New York Times 10 Best Books of The Year list.) Penguin Group, N.Y., 2007.
The introduction is titled, “Our National Eating Disorder.” That was enough to spark my interest. This book lays out the reality of our diets and how the Agri-business controls our food chain and web of life. I am not finished with this book yet, but can’t put it down. I will probably read this one a few times and quote it in my lectures.

Seeds of Deception, by Jeffery M. Smith. Chelsea Green Publisher, 2003.
Great insight on the history of genetically modified foods and the impact on health and our environment.

*flat and scaly

In Health,
Dr. Watrous

SHARING EXPERIENCES
By Sandra Strom, CEO

“ACT NORMAL”

What is normal? If we figure it out, do we really want to be it? Attempting to be what we think is normal takes us out of who we really are and what gifts we have to offer, which will ultimately cause us pain, suffering…and illness.

This morning I was listening to a guest speaker on a radio talk show, briefly telling his story: As a child he was labeled “not normal.” He was diagnosed with having a mental disorder of some sort - either ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) or Dyslexia. The doctors and schools treated him as a student with special needs, including fitting him with a prescription of “purple glasses,” designed to help relieve the confusion caused by Dyslexia. After struggling through his school years, with the rallying help of his mother, Jonathan Mooney was admitted to Brown University, where he graduated with degrees and honors. Jonathan has since written books and toured around the country in a “short bus,” the small-sized bus often used to transport “special ed.” students to school, reaching out to children and young adults who have been afflicted with society’s misunderstandings of what life is like for those who are “different.”

I was brought to tears as I listened to him and focused on the impact words and actions have on a young person when he or she is told to “act normal.” Immediately, that comment denotes, “not good enough, less than, different from others who are accepted just as they are, not loved, nothing to offer, stupid.” What standard is used to connote “normal?” And how is a child, any child, supposed to understand what that means? The entire concept is questionable! Some of our greatest contributors in music, the arts, literature and science have been considered odd by their peers. Why? Because they were different; they dared to act in courage; they stepped out from the waves of other humans and offered their special gifts.

Per the “Free Dictionary on Line” the partial definition of “normal” is:
Adjective:1. Conforming with, adhering to, or constituting a norm, standard, pattern, level, or type; typical: normal room temperature; one's normal weight; normal diplomatic relations. 2. Biology. Functioning or occurring in a natural way; lacking observable abnormalities or deficiencies.
Noun: The usual or expected state, form, amount, or degree.

If you are reading this, in some way you are not normal! You have chosen to walk a different path from the “normies” in the world of medicine. The “normal” path, the expected or usual standard, is allopathic medicine. Please don’t misunderstand: Allopathic medical practitioners and scientists have their gifts and their place. What they do not specialize in is individual testing for food intolerances, nor is their path to teach about eating naturally, as Creator and Mother Earth intended for us. So, when we veer off the path that stresses pharmaceutical drugs and/or surgery as the only curative methods of healing, then we are no longer following “the norm.”

Dare to be different! We walk with our heads up, confident of our choices for ourselves and our families. We exude the willingness to share our knowledge when asked, no longer afraid that someone may think us crazy for the choices we have made. We are no longer embarrassed for ourselves, our family members or friends who may be different. Instead, we are aware of the wonderful gifts and unexpected blessings we all have.

If you have a child who is hyperactive, attention deficit or otherwise diagnosed as “not normal,” you may be amazed at the results of removing certain foods from their diets. I highly recommend that you discuss potential natural alternatives with your naturopathic physician.

References: Jonathan Mooney’s website: www.jonathanmooney.com
The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney

In Health,
Sandra Strom

NEW RECIPES

HOT CEREALS

YUMMY IN YOUR TUMMY OATMEAL
(Submitted by Stephenie R., Subscriber)

8 cups quick oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
1 cup almond slices
1 cup wheat germ (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
¾ cup brown sugar or maple sugar (a little bit of molasses may be used as substitute)
¾ cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Gently heat sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla extract until sugar is dissolved. Place other ingredients in a large bowl and pour warmed syrup over the top. Stir until oats are covered. Divide in half on two baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until dry. (This is most important. The oats need to be dry.) It is helpful to rotate trays in the oven while baking.
Note: Other ingredients may be added, according to personal taste.

FOOD RESOURCE LIST UPDATES

Use the codes below to translate the Results Column

HOW TO READ THE FOOD RESOURCE LIST AND USE THE KEY:

As items are submitted and tested by Doctors Watrous and Zeff, they are then added to the Food Resource List on the Song of Health website. We compile the updated lists to email to our subscribers as well.

The items are listed per category. By listing the date tested, you can be assured of the most recent updates. Under the “Tested For” column, “All” signifies that the product has been tested for all food categories included in the Carroll Food Intolerance Testing method. In some cases, you will see ingredients listed in the “Results” column that are not included in “Tested For.” This is because the ingredient has been listed on the packaging, or it is obviously in the stated category. We will furnish where to purchase a product when the person submitting it has stated from where they purchased.

If you have any questions, please contact us at: manager@songofhealth.com

Dedicated to Heilping You Achieve. . .
GREAT HEALTH - GREAT LIFE!

FOOD RESOURCE LIST UPDATES
JUNE, 2008

*Note: Que Pasa White Corn Tortilla Chips have previously tested free of fruit. The most recent test resulted positive for fruit.

*Note: Que Pasa White Corn Tortilla Chips have previously tested free of fruit. The most recent test resulted positive for fruit.

Together, we strive for. . .
GREAT HEALTH - GREAT LIFE!

Song of Health Webmaster