This article presents guidelines for avoiding
dietary amines
and
free glutamates.
In fact you may want to consult these web sites before continuing with this article.
I deal with both topics simultaneously,
because there is considerable overlap.
Foods that are fermented, aged, processed, or overcooked, often contain both amines and glutamates.
In fact, you may have trouble determining which chemical you are reacting to.
But you should make the effort, because there are important differences.
Glutamate responders can eat tuna fish,
and amine responders can eat jello.
And so on.
As you will see below,
it isn't just a matter of avoiding certain foods
or food additives,
although that is part of the protocol.
A long list of rules governs the storage and cooking of meats and grains.
You'd think you were reading the Talmud!
Indeed, this protocol becomes part of your religion,
because the slightest mistake might lead to violent insanity
or a savage migraine.
DO ascertain, if possible, time elapsed since meat was killed.
The fresher the better!
No more than three days in the fridge and one week on ice.
DO regard all beef as suspect as carcasses are usually "hung" for
a time to increase tenderness and taste.
DO be suspicious of tender and tasty meat - it has probably been
"hung" for a time after being slaughtered.
Do be careful of ground turkey -- some butchers grind the skin in with the meat,
and poultry skin is high in amines.
Ask whether the skin is removed before the meat is ground.
Remember that gravy, stock, broth, and drippings are often high in amines and MSG.
DON'T store uncooked meat in the refrigerator for longer than a day.
DON'T store uncooked meat in the freezer for longer than two weeks.
DO cool cooked meat as rapidly as possible, if it is to be
stored in any way for any length of time.
DON'T store cooked meat in the refrigerator for longer than a few hours.
DON'T store cooked meat in the freezer for longer than a few days.
Cooked meat does not (intrinsically) generate amines faster than raw meat,
but it is never packaged as well.
Water and ice get in and hasten the production of amines.
This is sometimes called freezer burn.
DON'T carry hot soup or stew in a thermos, as this will form
amines quickly.
Don't put a meal containing meat in the oven to "keep it warm" for
more than a few minutes.
Put it in the fridge and
re-warm it in the microwave.
DO choose fish carefully -fish must be very fresh - no
dullness/cloudiness in the eyes. Because of the difficulty in obtaining
sufficiently fresh fish, all fish should be considered suspect.
Don't buy any fish with dark flesh, such as salmon or tuna.
Do make sure fish has been frozen (or served to you) within 24 hours of catch.
Twelve would be better.
Do eat fresh-from-the-tank mussels or lobsters, available at certain
markets and restaurants.
Red Lobster (chain) always offers fresh lobster, though it's not cheap.
Don't store uncooked fish in the freezer for more than one week.
Don't store cooked fish at all.
Let someone else eat the leftovers.
DO defrost meat rapidly, in hot water or in the microwave.
DO rinse all meat and chicken thoroughly before cooking - amines are most
likely to form on the surface of the meat as this is the part
that is most subject to warming during transport.
Do remove poultry skin and organs before cooking.
You can't eat it anyways, so why have it in contact with your meat at all?
DO cook meat/fish as quickly as possible - prolonged, slow cooking
increases amines.
DO Avoid browning meat while cooking - if this happens cut off brown bits.
DO use a pressure cooker to cook meat rapidly without browning.
DO steam meat (works particularly well with chicken and fish).
Do keep a thin layer of water in the pan/grittle when cooking meat on the stove.
This helps keep the meat below the boiling point,
which avoids the production of amines.
Do eat white meat (poultry), rather than dark meat, it's a bit safer.
Skinless breasts are ideal.
Do avoid the fat, and the drippings that collect during cooking.
Lean meat is your best bet.
Do cook meat and vegetables separately.
When making a stir fry, or stew, or soup,
the vegetables can simmer for up to two hours,
but the meat should be cooked quickly, in a separate pan.
Add meat to each bowl as it is being served.
Freeze any leftover meat, and put the vegetable stock in the fridge.
(My freezer doesn't have room for the entire pot of stew,
and it's a royal pain to thaw it all out the next day anyways.)
When you're ready for leftovers,
reheat the pot of vegetables,
thaw out some of the meat,
and assemble bowls of stew as needed.
Keep in mind, some people
are so sensitive that they can't eat reheated meat at all, even if it's only been frozen for a couple days.
This is quite rare, but I've talked to two families in this situation,
so I wanted to let you know.
Some amine responders
react to yeast/mold, even in trace amounts.
This may include the B vitamins routinely added to breads and cereals here in the States.
Yeast is involved in the production of these vitamins.
As of this writing,
Austrailia does not add B vitamins to its rice,
so nobody from RPAH is watching for this type of reaction.
Another problem with fortified grains is the conveyance.
Some companies use corn starch to spread the vitamins through the wheat or rice,
and corn starch often contains MSG.
You may not have candida,
but yeasts and molds could still be a concern.
We must borrow several ideas from the candida diet.
All food must be fresh, not just the meats.
When a can of pairs is opened, it should be eaten that day.
Apples and melons are not good choices for the salicylate challenge,
because they harbor natural yeast.
Try zucchini and onions and waterchestnuts first.
If you tolerate yeast,
and most of us do,
you must still avoid yeast extract, yeast nutrients,
and autolyzed yeast.
These are very high in amines and MSG.
Do avoid all fruits and vegetables that contain amines,
as outlined in Fed Up.
If you don't already have this book,
you can order it through the
Failsafe web site,
though the folks in North America might find
this site more convenient.
Some glutamate responders, including my kids,
can eat almost anything that grows out of the ground, or is freshly killed.
We only need avoid processed foods, or foods that have not been cooked properly.
However, others must avoid items such as citrus fruits, grapes, pork, etc,
as outlined in Fed Up.
Eliminate them at the start, then run a controlled challenge.
Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones.
Do avoid fruits that harbor natural yeast, especially cantaloupe.
Don't eat long-boiled or overcooked fruits,
even if the base fruit is amine-free.
Currant jam, for instance, contains some amines,
while currants do not.
Pectin, found in commercial jams, always contains glutamates.
You might want to try bananas.
They contain a different mix of amines, not like overcooked meats,
and you just might tolerate them.
Every little bit helps.
Same comments for chocolate, in moderation of course.
Wash all fruits and vegetables carefully.
Peel potatoes, even if you can handle the salicylates.
Farmers are using Auxigro with increasing frequency,
and Auxigro is 29% MSG.
It should be banned!
Click here to learn more about this important issue,
and be sure to write your congressmen, and vote accordingly.
Do make sure bean sprouts are very fresh.
They ferment quickly; you'll be able to tell by the smell.
Don't overdo soy, especially you dairy free folks.
Soy contains traces of tyramine, ten parts per million.
Concentrated soy products are even worse.
Journal of Clinical Phsychopharmacology,
vol. 16, pages 383-388:
soy sauce = 0.9 mg/ml.
tofu = 0.8 mg per 100 g.
soy milk = 0.5 mg per 250 ml.
speaking of tofu, don't eat it.
It's fermented soy, and contains glutamates.
Don't eat soybean extract.
This is often fermented, and quite high in amines and glutamates.
The same is true for any vegetable extract, and especially yeast extract.
Don't eat hydrolyzed or autolyzed soy,
or even soy protein, which is often newspeak for hydrolyzed soy.
Hydrolyzed protein always contains glutamates.
This should not be confused with hydrogenated soy oil,
or other hydrogenated oils, which are generally well tolerated.
Soy lecithin is also well tolerated,
but some do have trouble with it, as it contains
traces of
phosphatidylethanolamine.
Do avoid green peas.
These are listed as amine free, but recent studies suggest traces of MSG.
In fact this is the only natural food with MSG, and without amines.
Try them on a challenge basis.
Note that split peas, green or yellow, are free of MSG, and make a wonderful soup.
Do be careful of canned legumes that sit around at room temperature
for long periods of time.
Legumes contain protein, like meat and fish,
and we all know what happens to canned fish!
As the last four items suggest, legumes can cause trouble.
Approach them all, even the freshest, with some suspicion.
Green/wax/string beans seem to be safe for everyone.
Do check cashews are fresh, and store your (raw) cashews in the fridge.
Don't cook cashew bits in anything,
such as stir fries -
sprinkle them on just before serving.
Cooked or roasted nuts produce amines quickly.
Don't use a deep fryer,
e.g. for homemade french fries etc.
After several uses, the oil accumulates amines,
and other exotic maillard compounds.
Baked potatoes are best.
Slice potatoes baked in the oven with a little oil are pretty safe.
Sweet potatoes are especially good this way, if you can handle the salicylates.
Don't eat any restaurant items that are cooked in oil.
This is an immediate consequence of the above.
One day you may tolerate a batch of fast-food fries, because they just changed the oil.
The next day you might react violently, because the oil has been sitting for several hours,
accumulating all sorts of amines and glutamates.
Through first-hand knowledge, I know that some fast-food restaurants only change the oil once a day.
As a corollary,
don't use fast-food fries as your antioxident challenge,
as recommended in Fed Up.
You might be reacting to the superheated oils.
Some people can tolerate Wendy's fries (despite their antioxidents), but not McDonalds fries,
at least here in the U.S.
That's because McDonalds fries have beef fat, and Wendy's fries don't.
Beef is failsafe, but the beef fat/flavoring is high in glutamates,
and the beef protein breaks down at high heat to form amines.
Some commercial potato chips also include beef fat.
They may be free of artificials,
but the beef fat contains glutamates - don't eat them.
As of this writing, McDonalds is about to change its recipe for french fries -
so we'll see what happens.
I hope they get rid of the "beef flavoring".
Don't eat malted anything, especially malted barley [flour].
This has usually undergone some fermentation to produce the malt.
It is often high in glutamates.
Malt flavoring is an extract of malted barley, and is also high in glutamates.
If you react to malt flavoring,
it often indicates a problem with glutamates, rather than amines.
In fact several failsafe items, such as cariageenan, gelatin, and corn starch,
are
hidden sources of MSG.
If you can tolerate moderate amines, e.g. an occasional banana or grilled steak,
but you react to gelatin and malt flavoring,
then MSG is the primary culprit.
If you react to fresh pork chops, but not gelatin, amines are the primary culprit.
Do be wary of sprouted grains.
Most of the breads in the healthfood store are made with sprouted wheat etc.
But how did they get that wheat to sprout?
I don't know,
but I'm afraid "sprouted", another word for germination, is halfway to malted,
and I'm not going to take any chances.
Don't eat brown breads, and consider cutting the crust off of white bread.
This leaves the maillard amines on the cutting room floor.
Croissants are definitely out.
Don't eat toast, bagels, or other browned baked goods.
If you are in the elimination phase,
or running a particular challenge,
don't eat any grains that have been heated beyond the boiling point.
This means no fried snacks and no baked goods.
You can always bring in breads and rice cakes later.
Do try various brands of baked goods, but only as a careful challenge.
You might stumble upon a bread or breakfast cereal that you can tolerate.
Don't eat commercial yeast-free breads!
I can't tell you how much frustration and heart-ache we went through
in order to find this particular piece of the amine/glutamate puzzle.
It doesn't matter if the ingredients are as simple as rice, water, salt; don't eat it.
If the bread is thicker than matza, and yeast isn't the rising agent,
something else is.
But what?
My son reacts to French Meadow bread, among others, so I checked their web site
and found an interesting page on
slow-leavening.
It reads in part:
When the natural airborne population of microbes come into contact with
the warm dough and its moist surroundings,
a slow process of fermentation begins, ...
Without the use of baker's yeast,
dough may take eight or ten times as long to rise. ...
The end result is a delicious loaf, naturally sour, naturally sweet, ...
The keyword here is "fermentation", which is synonymous with amines and glutamates.
The word "sour" also sounds alarm bells.
The moral of the story is, don't eat yeast-free bread,
and if you don't tolerate yeast, don't eat bread at all.
Other breads employ a "salt-rising" reaction.
Here is an exerpt from a
glossary of cooking terms.
Salt rising bread is a bread that originated in the 1830s and 1840s.
This was before yeast leavening was readily available.
It relies on the fermentation of warm milk or water, flour, cornmeal, sugar,
and salt to give it rising power. It has a very smooth texture with a tangy
flavor and aroma.
Quick breads use the acid + carbonate = CO2 reaction,
and should be ok.
This is what happens whenever baking powder is involved.
However, commercial baking powder is half phosphates,
and that causes trouble for some people.
In this case you might try baking soda and an alternate acid,
but it's hard to get the mix just right.
With issues of gluten, yeast, induced or natural fermentation, amines, glutamates,
and phosphates,
baked goods are very tricky.
Postpone them as long as you can.
Do eat boiled cereal such as cream of rice, buckwheat, oat meal,
and other hot cereals.
As long as the grain stays below the boiling point,
and doesn't ferment, you're ok.
Do use potato flour when baking, or in pancakes.
It has less protein than the cereal grains, and will produce less amines.
It also adds texture, and tastes good, especially as a gf replacement.
Use about 50% potatoe flour and 50% rice flour,
plus a safe thickener such as arrowroot.
Do use white refined flour, rather than whole wheat flour.
Do use white rice and white rice flour, rather than brown rice.
It has fewer amines; we're not sure why.
DO Avoid ALL cheeses including cottage cheese etc,
even though these are listed failsafe.
Also avoid yoghurt.
If your sensitivity decreases, you may be able to handle cream cheese,
and even a Kraft Extra Lite slice on occasion,
as these are made from cottage cheese.
Keep butter in the fridge or freezer.
Soften a small section just before the meal.
Do use fresh milk.
Past-date milk contains amines.
Watch out for low-fat or non-fat milk products.
Some of these contain milk solids, which contain glutamates.
Don't eat sodium or calcium caseinate,
it is high in glutamates.
Do keep your fridge at a low setting (without freezing the contents).
Don't overcook hard boiled eggs,
or store them for more than a couple days.
When you cook scrambled eggs, make sure the egg doesn't stick to the pan and brown.
Poached eggs are your best bet.
This is a recurring theme:
keep your food at or below the boiling point.
Some have found yellow dyes in eggs,
courtesy of the chickens, courtesy of the brightly colored chicken feed.
Contact the farm and ask what they are feeding their chickens.
Don't soak anything overnight.
Dried beans are failsafe,
but if you soak them overnight before cooking,
(a common practice),
the result is fermentation, and amines/glutamates!
Don't eat corn starch.
I know, it's failsafe, but sometimes it isn't!
Depending on processing, it can contain free glutamates.
If you're gluten free,
You've probably discovered the
gluten free pantry.
Their products are excellent,
especially the Old Fashion Cake and Cooky Mix
and the Muffin and Scones Mix.
I read the ingredients; failsafe right down the line.
But they have a lot of corn starch,as thickener.
This makes up for the lack of gluten.
So be careful.
Other starches are just as unpredictable.
Might be safe; might contain glutamates.
Be especially wary of "modified food starch",
that always contains MSG.
Don't eat gelatine.
This is high in glutamates.
Note that many tablets use gelatine as a base.
And if they don't use gelatin, they probably use corn starch.
Do avoid fish oils, especially in supplements.
Don't drink ice tea.
It's listed as Amine free in Fed Up, but it contains caffiene, an amine.
Herbal teas may be ok, depending on the flavoring
and your tolerance for salicylates.
Don't eat anything that is processed with enzymes.
The enzymes can convert protein into amines or glutamates,
and those same enzymes, which are themselves proteins,
often break down and produce more amines.
This rule holds even if the enzymes are natural.
Bees use enzymes to make honey,
hence honey contains a trace amount of amines,
enough to bother the super-sensitive.
Golden syrup is also produced via enzymes, and contains some amines.
Sometimes enzymes are deliberately used to promote the maillard reaction.
So if you see "enzymes" on the ingredient list, best to back away.
A few people react to maple syrup.
The sap is boiled for at least ten hours,
and this creates traces of amines.
However, reactions are very rare.
My kids eat it almost every day, and are fine with it.
If maple is ok for you,
and it probably is,
maple candy
is a wonderful, safe treat.
Don't eat anything that looks, smells, or tastes off.
Trust your instincts.
Even the failsafe foods are suspect.
And I'm not just talking about gluten and dairy.
Some people react to potatoes, eggs, soy, and other failsafe items.
One Mom reported her child was "so much better" on the dairy challenge.
This is because he was reacting to the soy in soy milk,
which went away when they brought dairy back in.
eating foods in rotation can sometimes help you spot this form of "friendly fire" from your "friendly foods."
After all, if you eat white potatoes every day,
and you react to them,
you'll never be well, not even for a day, and you won't know why.
Don't blame the last meal.
Sometimes my son is a perfect angel when he sits down to dinner,
and is demon possessed as he leaves the table.
Don't be fooled by this sudden transformation;
he is probably reacting to something he ate yesterday.
Amines can take 24 hours to provoke symptoms,
less if all the hours are spent awake.
For some reason, food compounds are flushed out of the intestines and into the blood stream
when a new meal is eaten and the digestive system becomes active.
I documented the same phenomenon when dealing with my wife's IBS,
which is completely unrelated to this story.
She ate a meal, and symptoms appeared immediately,
so naturally I blamed that meal.
It took me a long time to get past this somewhat reasonable bias.
Do run the salicylate challenge as soon as it is safe to do so.
You have so many restrictions,
you'll need all the help you can get!
If you find soy/legumes are a problem,
and you're not sure about eggs, dairy, or gluten,
and you don't want to risk any baked goods,
and you can't eat any fried snacks,
some carrots and asparagus and yams would sure help round out your menu.
There are plenty of amine/MSG responders,
my kids included, who can handle salicylates.
Tap water contains chloramine,
NCl3,
which is often (mistakenly) referred to as simply "chlorine".
An occasional glass of tap water is ok,
but you should drink distilled water most of the time.
Boiled tap water, e.g. for cooking, is fine,
since chloramine is a volatile compound.
I have read reports that claim the opposite,
that chloramine remains in boiled or long standing water,
but if it weren't volatile, then why would baths or showers be a problem?
(See below.)
I guess you'll have to experiment for yourself.
Showers and baths can be a problem due to the chloramines described above.
If you already have amines in your system,
the chloramine vapors from the hot water can trigger a headache or asthma attack.
My son's asthma flared up, simply from drawing a hot bath - even before he stepped in.
The risk is mitigated if the curtain and bathroom door are left open.
Privacy must yield when a person's health is at stake.
Fast showers are generally safer than baths.
Less water is used (hence less chloramine is released),
the falling water keeps the air moving,
and you can learn to get in and out quickly.
You may want to turn off the water while washing hair etc.
Some can't handle a shower at all,
and have switched to shallow sponge baths.
Regular Coldgate toothpaste seems to be ok.
Many other brands are also acceptable,
but some contain amines, so be careful.
Lightly scented soaps and shampoos shouldn't cause too much trouble,
unless you are already loaded down with amines.
Any drug that is an amine should be considered unsafe.
This includes all decongestants and cough suppressants.
Contac 12-hour, for instance, contains two amines,
and will send an amine responder up the wall.
Before taking any drug,
check the last five letters of the chemical name of the active ingredient,
e.g. dextroamphetamine.
If it ends in amine, you're probably, but not always, in trouble.
Dextromethorafan is also unsafe, even though it doesn't end in amine.
Similarly for psuedoephedrine.
As you can see, the chemical name is only an approximate indicator.
Some amines are locked up, internal to the molecule,
and other non-amines produce amine metabolites in the body.
As a more reliable indicator, any drug that interacts with MAO inhibiters is unsafe.
After all, the A in MAO stands for amine.
Check drug interactions in your drug guide, or ask your pharmacist.
Tylenol and Benadryl are ok for mild aches and allergies respectively.
Be sure these meds are plain, not supplemented with other cold medicines,
and not coated with dyes or flavors.
Note that Benadryl is intended to treat allergy symptoms,
but some say it helps with the runny nose of a cold.
Others say it doesn't.
It does make you sleepy however,
and if that's what you're aiming for (at night), then maybe it helps after all.
Use nasal sprays to relieve congestion.
Try a pure saline solution first.
If this doesn't help,
ask for Spray-Tish, or any spray
with active ingredient Tramazoline Hydrochloride.
Be sure the nose is clear of liquid before applying the medicine, or it won't help.
Applying the same purity disclaimer, antibiotics
and non-steroidal anti-inflamatories are ok.
Codeine, found in Tylenol III, seems to be an acceptable pain killer,
though there are questions regarding its use with children.
Codeine can also act as a cough suppressant,
and this is important, as all true cough suppressants are verboten.
For persistent coughs try nebulized Atrovent.
Atrovent is a synthetic atropine and is an asthma medication.
It often works very well for coughs of all
kinds, even coughs not related to asthma - no one knows why.
Do not treat asthma or croup with steam!
Hot showers, and even humidifiers, send chloramines into the air, and make the symptoms worse.
(A humidifier is ok if you use distilled water.)
When our child has asthma we place her in a sitting position in a chair or bed
and turn on the tv or radio, giving her something else to think about,
so she doesn't panic.
We wrap her in a blanket; warmth seems to help.
sometimes a heating pad can be applied directly to the chest.
If necessary, use inhalers,
as prescribed by your physician,
though I have yet to see a dramatic improvement from these asthma medications.
Benadryl can be a life saver - it literally kept our daughter out of the hospital during a severe asthma attack.
If you think there is random noise in your data,
noise that makes it nearly impossible to figure out which foods
are safe and which foods are not,
you're probably right.
Your child may be reacting to something in the air,
something you can't track at all.
The following is taken from various pages under www.claritin.com.
When a person is exposed to an allergen,
a complex chain of events begins in the body's immune system.
Several conditions must occur before allergy symptoms such as a runny nose or
sneezing arise. Playing a main role in the development of these conditions is a
substance called `histamine.'
What is histamine?
Histamine is a naturally occurring chemical found in several types of cells
throughout the body.
After it is released,
it helps to control many body functions by attaching to receptors located on
blood vessels, membranes, and glands.
Histamine is also stored in `specialized cells' called mast cells and basophils.
During an allergic reaction, these allergy cells release histamine.
The histamine then attaches itself to blood vessels, causing leakage of fluid,
which in turn leads to nasal congestion.
The histamine also attaches to mucus-secreting glands,
causing increased production of mucus.
When histamine attaches near nerve endings, it can cause itching and sneezing.
Ultimately, the release of histamine leads to `acute' allergy symptoms such as
itching, swelling, redness, watery eyes, and a runny nose.
Histamine can also allow the release of other chemicals that further fuel the
allergic reaction, worsening allergy symptoms hours after exposure to the allergen.
How do antihistamines work to relieve allergy symptoms?
`Antihistamines' are medications that block histamine from attaching to cells,
thereby reducing the itching, swelling, redness,
and change in mucus production that histamine may cause.
Once a day CLARITINŽ does not cause drowsiness when taken at the recommended
doses, which is common with all over-the-counter and some prescription
antihistamines.
Checking with
webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/,
histamine has a formula of C5H9N3.
(I can't convey the structural formula here.)
It's a very interesting molecule -
no oxygen, and hydrogen poor.
A nasty little amine to be sure.
If you don't suffer from amines, all this may not be very interesting,
but if you do, this is extremely relevant.
It means your body can manufacture its own amines
in response to allergens.
This is separate and apart from any amines you might ingest.
And a few milligrams of histamine might be enough to affect behavior, even
though it does not produce any overt allergy symptoms such as a runny nose.
With no reason to think otherwise,
you might decide that a challenge failed,
simply because the pollen count was high that day.
conversely, you might be tearing your hair out in frustration,
because you know you served entirely safe foods,
yet your child is having a reaction.
If you are in North America,
you might want to sign up for the daily pollen report
from www.claritin.com.
That way you can track some (certainly not all) of the environmental allergens,
and correlate this data with your symptoms.
We administer Benadryl liquid,
dyphenhydramine hydrochloride,
when our kids are showing allergy symptoms.
That seems to keep the histamines at bay.
Benadryl improves our kids' nasal congestion and behavior simultaneously.
It's not a miracle cure, but it helps.
Does it block amines, or just make them sleepy?
Who knows.
Here's what a migraine sufferer has to say about antihistamines.
I am a migraine sufferer and have been since I was 6 years old.
I recently changed Doctors,
and she gave me an Antihistamin called Vomex[A],
a Suppository with working ingredient 150 mg
Dimenhydrinat.
I never get warnings with my migraines.
They just show up and within 10 minutes I am vomitting and crying from pain.
I stuff a Vomex[A] up and lay down for an hour then take paracetamol
and most of the time my migraine goes away within an hour.
Funny how an
antihistamin helps me so much but then again I am ultra-sensitive to
amines. A small piece of chocolate will put me in bed.
The Vomex[A] works within 10 minutes for me and also calms me down
so that I can get rid of the headache.
Only use the suppositories as the tablettes have junk in them.
When my son first went failsafe he got worse, much worse.
And I'm not talking about withdrawl symptoms;
it went on for weeks!
violent insanity, and a horrible alcohol smell on his breath and skin,
like stale beer.
So my experience with failsafe was not positive,
and I went off in other directions.
Good thing I did.
My kids have no trouble with amines or glutamates, and never did.
Thus I cannot vouch for anything on this web page, personally.
Others swear by it, and follow these guidelines to the letter.
I continue to host this page for their benefit,
but I rarely look at it any more.
The only section that held true for us was the bath.
John definitely reacted to the chloramine that escaped into the air.
Everything else on this page is compiled from other people's experiences.
So - what on Earth was wrong with my son, and why did it flare up on the failsafe diet,
which avoids everything artificial,
and promotes whole grains, vegetables, and gently cooked meats?
For a while we thought it was candida.
Close, but no cigar.
The culprit is a bacteria, which remains unidentified, and unconquered.
Either way, sugar and starch feed the microbial parasite,
and the colony thrives.
These nasty organisms ferment food
and dump their mysterious byproducts into the blood stream.
Some of these foreign compounds cross the blood brain barrier and produce insanity.
Others leak out through his pores
and produce that unusual smell,
which I have never smelled anywhere else before.
The failsafe diet is very high in carbs.
My son was reacting to every meal,
because the microbes were churning out toxins in response to everything he ate.
I kept looking for patterns, and there were none.
We tried low carb diets, as recommended by the candida books,
but that didn't work either.
That's because a bacteria is a different animal.
You need a brand new diet, which has yet to be documented in the literature.
As far as I know, we are breaking new ground.
You can read about our four-year investigation
here.
You can try all the diets in the world,
and write everything down,
and look for patterns using
modern statistical methods,
but if you have any unwelcome guests in your digestive tract,
you're going to react to everything,
in different ways and under different circumstances,
because the food is fermenting inside you.
If you can't find any patterns, look for a biological connection.
We use to think ulcers were a malady of diet.
We now know that diet plays only a minor role;
most ulcers are bacterial infections.
Other illnesses are being traced to bacteria and/or viruses even as I write.
So it is with John's ADHD.
One of the amine responders on the Failsafe discussion list
employs a commercial test kit to help her establish the amine
content of various foods.
It's not perfect, but it's better than testing everything invivo. :-)
Her explanation follows.
I use an Ammonia Test kit, intended for aquaria.
Not all ammonia test kits are of use for testing for the presence of amines in foods,
but some are.
To test for amines the kit must be one that detects both free and bound ammonia
(total ammonia).
Detecting bound ammonia causes "false positives"
when testing aquarium water, and so is not the best for that, but is
wonderfully useful for testing foods for amines.
My test kit (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) uses a Modified Nessler Reagent (that's
what it says on the label) and therefore tests for both bound and free ammonia.
Amines have ammonia molecules bound up as part of their structure; the reagent
breaks the amine bond, freeing the ammonia and making it available to react as
ammonia in the water added to the food sample.
This gives me a rough idea as to
the presence or absence of amines in the food.
However, I suspect that the amount of fat in the food and the solubility /
suspendability of the food also affects the result.
Despite this limitation the results I have obtained using it do seem to tie in very
nicely with reactions from the various super amine responders (including me) in
the group.
If you're not sure which kit to buy,
I recommend the
AquariumPharm test kit.
The AP test kit is very simple to use.
I add a small piece of the food, preferably
ground or mashed up, to about 2.5 ml of distilled water and then shake
well in the test tube so that the food is mixed as well as possible with the water.
The water must be distilled water as tap water will usually contain cloramine or
other impurities which may result in a false positive on the food.
The neutral pH of the distilled water is also important
as an acid pH may result in the reagent not working.
I then add 4 drops of the reagent and
shake well and wait about 5 minutes for the results to develop.
Many foods show a result even as you are adding the reagent.
Because the reaction depends on colour - that is the sample turns yellow, orange
or brown if ammonia (from amines in the food) is present - some foods cannot be
tested easily. For instance I haven't tried to test beetroot. When I have tested
foods that are dark in colour such as carob (which contains some amines BTW) I
have set up two test tubes with the sample of the food and water and added
reagent to only one so that I can compare the sample I've tested to the control
sample. This can be the only way to be sure that a change in colour has in fact
occurred.
If you think you're doing something wrong,
because everything you test seems to have at least some amines,
you're probably doing everything right.
The amine-free foods can be counted on one hand:
white sugar, white rice, and very fresh chicken - that's about it.
Assuming you want more variety than that,
eat the foods that elicit only a modest color change,
several minutes after the reagent is added.
I have tried this test kit,
but I've found it difficult to use, and the results inconclusive.
As stated above, almost everything reacts, to some degree,
so it's hard to tell.
Oh well - there's the information.
I ran across an interesting article in the
07/21/2001 issue
of Science News.
The authors link some of our favorite amines, e.g. tyramine,
to serious mental illness.
Of course there is no mention of reducing dietary amines
to ameliorate the problem.
Remember, it's not always the food.
Amines and migraines go hand in hand,
yet some migraines can be caused by external forces.
Several people report that any physical pressure on the head can produce a migraine.
They avoid hats, helmets, headbands, even barrettes.
I guess that puts a damper on motorcycle riding
(helmets required by law) -
not that you could handle the exhaust fumes in any case.
Speaking of exhaust fumes,
be on the lookout for strange smells or other airborn chemicals.
Perfumes, solvents, tars, industrial chemicals,
new cars, new furniture, new carpetting -
they can all evoke symptoms.
The outgassing is worse on hot days.
If possible, leave new carpetting, curtains, furniture, etc, outdoors for a few days, to "vent".
Stick with pure cloth upholstery, rather than synthetics.
This is the world of multiple chemical sensitivity, MCS,
and I'm afraid it is beyond the scope of this article.
My kids don't have MCS, and I'm eternally grateful.
Actually that's not quite true.
My daughter always developed an asthma attack after she smelled strong perfume.
I could set my clock by it -
and I'm talking about a pretty serious attack.
We tried to keep her away from artificial fragrances,
but then exercise in cold weather brought it on.
So we kept her indoors on cold days,
but then she started having smaller asthma attacks for no apparent reason.
The list of triggers was getting longer and longer.
Fortunately this form of MCS disappeared completely when we changed her diet.
Her reaction to airborn chemicals was secondary;
her reaction to excess carbohydrates was primary.
She can now walk down the perfume aisle in the store and sniff all the samples
with no ill effects.
That's just one anecdote,
but others have also reported a drop in MCS when they cut back on amines and/or salicylates.
Of course some people will always be sensitive to these chemicals, no matter what they eat.