With his family’s help, he had managed to pull out of this nosedive and had become a founding member of the Alcoholics Anonymous group in his area. But after ten years “on the wagon,” he had begun to backslide. Another interval of alcoholism ensued, followed by a period of abstinence. This time, however, he recovered his sobriety but not his health. When he was not drinking, he suffered from extreme fatigue and almost constant headaches.

In preparing to perform food-ingestion tests with corn and wheat (which from an allergy point of view is virtually identical to barley and malt), he avoided these foods for four days. His fatigue was greatly accentuated for two days as a withdrawal reaction, following which he felt much better. During the test with wheat porridge, he developed progressive nasal obstruction and fatigue, as well as tautness of the nape of his neck and delayed dizziness. Reactions persisted for several days.

Some nasal symptoms and fatigue were still present prior to Parsons’ corn test four days later. The trial ingestion of corn porridge and com sugar was also followed by a progressive increase in fatigue and some staggering upon leaving the office. Fearing that he might head for the nearest bar on the way home, I placed him in a taxi, paid the driver to take him home directly, and called his wife to tell her what I had done. His fatigue increased during the night.

Parsons called me the next morning and commented, “It is funny to have a hangover twenty-one months after having stopped drinking. There is no difference between the fatigue this morning and a bad alcoholic hangover.” He went on to describe how he had to crawl to the bathroom because he was too weak and dizzy to walk, but that his lassitude, dizziness, and uneasiness could be relieved just like that (as if by a snap of the fingers) with a drink.

When he asked, “What is wrong with me?” I explained that he was having a true hangover—not from bourbon, but from corn, its principal ingredient. He had apparently been allergic to wheat (barley malt) and corn, as well as certain other foods, for years without realizing it. His addiction to bourbon had been an attempt to get a high level of cereal grains into his system as rapidly as possible and to maintain that level of stimulation. His more recent headache and fatigue could be explained by the perpetuation of his corn and wheat (barley malt) addictions, but at a much lower, unsatisfactory level, by the use of more slowly absorbed wheat- and corn-containing foods.

By the avoidance of wheat, com, and a few other incriminated foods, Parsons’ headache and fatigue not only subsided, but what is more, his craving for alcohol disappeared.

This craving is, of course, the bane of many ex-alcoholics’ existence. One can, with extraordinary willpower, stop drinking, but it is far harder to conquer the desire to drink. Parsons’ case suggested a possible reason for this. The consumption of other grain-containing foods would perpetuate the underlying problem—food addiction/allergy. Thus, in a sense, the alcoholic is never completely free of his “alcoholism” as long as he is consuming the foods which constitute his addictant.

Parsons, for instance, carried around with him a pocket full of candies containing corn sugar, which he sucked whenever he had the urge to drink. This was, in fact, the standard operating procedure of his Alcoholics Anonymous unit. Through practice, these individuals had found that they could relieve their craving for grain-containing alcoholic beverages by sucking on another rapidly absorbed form of grain. They had, in effect, transferred food addiction in its highest form—alcoholism—to food addiction in a less severe (and from the addict’s point of view, less satisfactory) form, corn sugar addiction. When Parsons realized that he was actually perpetuating his problem by eating this candy, he stopped immediately and avoided all contact with wheat, corn, and related foods which had been implicated.

It was through Parsons that I became acquainted with the members of Alcoholics Anonymous in the Chicago area. In the late 1940s, I carried out a study of forty-four members of this organization. I attended meetings, but instead of participating in discussions (which was forbidden to outsiders, under the organization’s rules), I stayed in the kitchen and interviewed members. Their histories, at least, suggested a strong correlation between alcoholism and susceptibility to the various food components of alcoholic beverages.

What are these food components? It soon became apparent that the study of alcoholism from the point of view of clinical ecology was hampered by the lack of information on the manufacture of liquor. Through much detective work, it was possible to track down the components of various drinks, though some of this information was guarded as trade secrets. Government regulation in this respect was lax, and alcohol was not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration but by the less food-conscious Treasury Department.

Gradually it was possible to put together a comprehensive theory of alcoholism as the apex of food allergy (the term “food addiction” did not come into use until 1952). According to this view, alcoholism is the acme of the food-allergy problem because alcohol is rapidly absorbed all along the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the stomach to the intestines. Food, on the other hand, is mainly absorbed in the intestines, and more slowly at that.

There were four facts about alcohol which did not seem to fit into the theory. Their existence threw doubt on the entire concept. Wanting to obtain pure samples of corn mash whiskey, and other pure items for testing, I called a meeting with the research and technical directors of a major Illinois distillery. 1 presented my theory to them and pointed out the four existing discrepancies:

Why did corn-sensitive patients react to Scotch whiskey? Scotch comes from the British Isles but no corn (maize) grows there.

Why did grape-sensitive patients react to Puerto Rican and Cuban rum but not to Jamaican rum?

Why did corn-sensitive patients also react to apple brandy? The public relations officer of the producer of the brand in question had assured me that no corn went into the manufacture of their product.

Why did corn-sensitive patients react adversely to a popular American brandy but not to French brandy?

The research and technical directors of this distillery had been polite but somewhat skeptical, when I first presented this possible interpretation of alcoholism. But as I explained apparent exceptions to the theory, they became increasingly interested. They not only knew some of the answers but began to fill in some of the holes in the theory themselves.

First, all-malt Scotch whiskey is made of dried, roasted barley or malt, which, from the allergy standpoint, is closely related to wheat, if not virtually identical with it. But blended Scotch whiskey manufactured for export to the United States is blended with cereal-grain whiskey made from corn which is shipped from the United States or Argentina. Thus, persons sensitive to corn could be expected to react to it.

Second, Jamaican rum, like other rums, is made from cane. However, the laws of Jamaica demand that rum manufactured there be bottled on the island, whereas Cuban and Puerto Rican rums are shipped from their home ports to the United States in big hogshead barrels. Most of these were then blended with up to two-and-one-half percent grape brandy before bottling. Hence, grape-sensitive patients could be expected to react to the Cuban and Puerto Rican rums.

The distillery experts were not sure why the patients sensitive to corn reacted to apple brandy, however, and the whole theory was put in doubt when the manufacturer told me that the product did not contain corn. But after testing a few more patients highly sensitive to corn and confirming my earlier impression, I wrote the president of the company manufacturing this brand of apple brandy and suggested that the person answering my earlier inquiry had misled me. In the meantime, I had learned about trade practices in the liquor industry and asked specifically what the source of the caramel was which was used to maintain uniformity of color in the brandy. No one knew, off-hand. But upon corresponding with the manufacturer of this product, they learned that it was made from half corn sugar (dextrose) and half cane sugar.

Fourth, the possible corn content of the popular brand of grape brandy which precipitated reactions in corn-sensitive patients could not be confirmed through correspondence with the manufacturer of the product. But upon visiting their California plant in the early 1950s, I learned that corn sugar was used in its production.

This interpretation of alcoholism has not been widely accepted, either by those responsible for the policies of Alcoholics Anonymous or by those who teach courses on alcoholism. One apparent reason is that many alcoholics were quick to grasp an implication of this theory: namely, that some reformed alcoholics could drink compatible alcoholic beverages as long as they avoided both drinks and foods prepared from those substances to which they were allergic. In other words, a corn-sensitive patient who was a confirmed bourbon alcoholic could drink some wines and rums, provided these alcoholic beverages were free of cereal grains and he was not susceptible to grape, cane, or yeast. The effects of alcohol per se on the body did not seem to be an appreciable cause of alcoholism.

It should be emphasized, however, that the prospect of social drinking of compatible alcoholic beverages is not for all alcoholics. Although such a program may be possible for an alcoholic having a very limited food allergy problem, it cannot be considered if one is yeast-sensitive, because yeast is present in all alcoholic beverages. Also, the person who already has a wide base of food allergy usually also has a tendency to develop new food allergies readily, even though he indulges in a compatible alcoholic beverage in moderate amounts and only once, or at the most, twice, weekly. Not only the foods used in manufacturing an alcoholic beverage but also the foods eaten while drinking must be taken into account, due to the extremely rapid absorption of food-alcohol mixtures. In order to minimize the chance of sensitivity spreading to other items of the diet, all compatible foods—including those entering food-alcohol mixtures—should be used according to the principles of the Rotary Diversified Diet.

The only way to know whether one is actually sensitive to corn, wheat (rye, barley, malt), or other grains, yeast, grape, potato, or other ingredients of alcoholic beverages is to undergo extensive food testing. And only in the presence of a food allergy problem of limited extent (a distinct minority of cases) should social drinking of compatible alcoholic beverages by reformed alcoholics be considered.

In the great bulk of addicted drinkers of alcoholic beverages, abstinence from drinking, according to the Alcoholics Anonymous approach, is still the most highly successful rehabilitation program. However, there are obstacles in the application of this program, because this concept of alcoholism is not widely known.

My interpretation of alcoholism was first published in various medical journals starting in 1950.1,2 This view has also been confirmed by several clinical ecologists, including Richard Mackarness of England and Marshall Mandell of this country.3,4 My list of the food sources entering the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages has been published recently.

*63\110\2*

One winter she took her vacation in Florida. Staying with relatives, she was given a big room, with the bed away from the walls of the room. She had no problem. But during the last two days of her stay, other relatives came to visit, and so she was moved into a smaller room with the bed wedged in one corner. The walls of this room, as well as the rest of the house, had been painted not long before, and Miss Miller began to react.

She hallucinated, seeing purple frogs hopping around her room. A lion sat on the foot of her bed and scared her out of her wits. In desperation, she decided to go home. On the Twentieth Century Limited to New York, she later said, she shared her bed with a gorilla. She was very upset, since every time she tried to get to sleep, the gorilla’s arms enfolded her!

Tests revealed that these strange symptoms were brought on by exposure to fresh paint, which was part of her overall susceptibility to many chemicals. By avoiding such exposure, she was able to maintain relatively good health.

*33\110\2*

The blame for acute urticaria can usually be pinned on a food that was eaten just before the attack began, although there are other causes of acute urticaria, including insect stings, drugs (notably penicillin), and, more rarely, something that was applied to the skin. Whatever the cause, the reaction is usually so prompt and unequivocal that the patient easily makes the correct diagnosis.

With chronic urticaria, things are not so simple. Only about 20 or 30 per cent of people with this distressing problem are likely to discover the underlying cause. Two-thirds of those afflicted do not have high IgE levels, nor any other allergic illness, and it is not at all certain what causes their symptoms. However, those that can identify the source of their problem very often find that there are several triggers, including food or food additives. Whether they are acting as allergens, or have a drug-like effect, is an open question.

The subject of urticaria will come up again in Chapter Five, because even when the rash is truly allergic it can be caused in more than one way.

*54\180\8*

The fatty acids in evening primrose oil are needed to maintain the structural integrity of the membranes of all the cells in the body. Cell membranes are subject to damage from the wear and tear of substances passing through them—bacterial, viral and fungal infections and histamine released during allergic reactions. If the cell is unable to repair its membranes, holes appear that allow the passage of foreign substances into the cell. Heavy metals, toxins from infections and the assorted flotsam and jetsam that accumulates in the body (from breathing polluted air, drinking tap water, eating processed food and the waste products of body metabolism) can float in and out of the cell. These unwanted foreign substances get themselves involved in normally occurring chemical reactions, altering their outcome, thus disrupting the cell’s metabolism. Not only that, enzymes essential to the cell’s function can float out further disrupting the cell’s metabolism.

The body prefers to make its cell membrane from the unsaturated oils. If there is a deficiency in them it’s forced to use the hard, saturated animal fats. These are not as good and the membrane becomes hard and less permeable to the admission of nutrients and the emission of waste products. The fatty acids in evening primrose oil and MaxEPA—the marine oil (lipid) concentrate—are necessary for the cell to make special chemicals called prostaglandins. These chemicals are imperative for keeping the metabolism balanced. Particularly the metabolism of the kidneys. Fluid retention (over-weight) is a major symptom of metabolic imbalance born of prostaglandin synthesis inhibition. The fatty acids are needed to make the stress and sex hormones, the latter being particularly important for maintaining metabolic balance.

*223\18\9*

The T-lymphocytes also rely on thyroxine to burn glucose for energy, therefore a thyroxine deficiency causes the T-lymphocytes to lack vitality and diminishes their capacity to kill cancer cells and resist allergies. To produce thyroxine the thyroid gland needs adequate supplies of vitamin A, B6, C, B12 and E as well as the minerals iodine, zinc, manganese and copper. The complex interaction between all of these nutrients enables the thyroid gland to manufacture thyroxine and if one of these nutrients is absent no thyroxine is produced. A vitamin B6 deficiency, caused by eating too much white bread and products containing white sugar, can in time, single-handedly cause an under-active thyroid gland.

*205\18\9*

As with the Metabolism-Balancing Program you may need to take a bottle of water to work and sip from it steadily through the day as you work. This is to reach your optimum fluid intake levels.

Now that you are well you must keep taking Formula Six for the rest of your life. The vitality of your white blood cells will fall otherwise and candida plants will slowly grow back on the gut wall. There arc not enough vitamins and minerals in our foods (even fresh fruits and vegetables) to maintain optimum candida-killing power of our white blood cells.

I have tried to get people well without supplementary vitamins and minerals only to find that fresh food alone is not enough to achieve a cure.

Note: As there is so much important data in this chapter to be remembered, I suggest you read it three or four times before getting started and several times more through the course.

*187\18\9*

In the first edition of this book I omitted to mention which brand of supplements to take and where to get them. This upset a few people because they didn’t know what to buy or where to buy it and some were not getting the results from the programs the book had led them to expect.

Many people became stressed-out trying to hunt down what they hoped were the appropriate supplements. Many complained by phone and letter that they had wasted a lot of time searching for suitable supplements and still didn’t have them. As a result of this a mail order service was born, as I felt obliged to procure the appropriate supplements and post them to those people.

The supplements described in this book should be available at your health store. However, experience has taught my readers, my patients and myself that some health store proprietors are not reliable at keeping stocks up and reordering when out of stock.

Do not start the programs without the supplements—their effects will be minimised and I don’t want you to be disheartened, especially if you have been let down by other treatment regimes in the past. The programs are not complete without the supplements as even fresh foods are vitamin and mineral deficient these days.

After you have completed the ninety-plus days on the Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program, and are feeling well again, you must return to the Metabolism-Balancing Program and stay on it for the rest of your life.

If you want to be assured of optimum results I personally recommend you stay on all the supplements listed in this program, for all time. However, I realise that tablet taking annoys some people and the cost of long term supplementation is prohibitive to others. Both of these factors can be stresses, which undermine the good effects of the program. If you fall into either of these categories reduce the oils, vitamin C powder and Lugol’s iodine by 50 per cent, but be prepared to raise them again if you feel your form dropping. Don’t reduce the Formula Six. I wish there was an easier way than dietary supplementation to get and stay well, but unfortunately there is not. The age of dietary supplements is upon us, whether we like it or not.

Remember: The two most important nutrients are water and oxygen. If you are deficient in either, results from the program and supplements will be mediocre. Fluid levels can drop quickly (within an hour or so) and cause a corresponding drop in physical energy and mental alertness. Don’t miss a drink. Consume the appropriate number of glasses every day. Consult the water consumption tables earlier in this chapter to make sure you are getting the right amount. These water tables are based on accurate scientific measurements of the fluid needs of body tissues (non-fat) and weight-to-water ratio. The amounts recommended are those needed to facilitate optimum metabolic function.

Try and do the deep-breathing exercises every day.

Because there is so much important data in this chapter that has to be remembered, I suggest you read it three or four times before getting started on the program.

*169\18\9*

1. Keep your energy levels up by eating well, getting adequate rest and taking in adequate fluid, oxygen, vitamins and minerals. It’s easier to think positively when your energy is up.

2. Promptly dispute all self-sabotaging thoughts whenever they arise, attacking them instantly before they grow in size and intensity.

3. Each day, write down on a card one of the self-enhancing attitudes and take time to read and memorise it several times through the day. Carry them in your wallet. Cellotape them to your mirror.

4. Practise daily the mental relaxation exercises. It. is far easier for new attitudes to filter down from the conscious mind to the subconscious when we’re relaxed. Changing ones attitudes is less of a chore when we’re relaxed. We tend to interpret people’s words and actions more positively when we’re relaxed and our reactions to them are more appropriate. Repetition is the key.

Keep repeating the self-enhancing attitude every day even if such an attitude feels unattainable. If you hear it often enough for long enough, you’ll start to believe it. That’s the way the subconscious works. Repetition is the powerful reprogrammer of the subconscious mind.

Remember: A willingness to accept change lowers stress levels. Those who enjoy high levels of well-being all have one thing in common—a willingness to risk change.

*151\18\9*

Be aware also that it can take time to get clear results. You need to leave a food out, wait for a while and then try it again. Even to test one food, it can take up to a few weeks to be absolutely sure about it, and if you are sensitive to a number of foods it can take longer. So be patient and do not be in too much of a hurry – it is better to get good results eventually, than to get confusing results straightaway.

If you are testing for an adult, do not worry overmuch about nutritional balance for the period of exclusion dieting, unless you continue with it for a period of more than a few weeks, or unless you are already in poor health. Providing you are eating a variety of different foods and are in generally good health, leaving out a few foods that are important to general nutrition will not do you permanent harm. Seek advice from a doctor if you are worried.

If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or thinking of conceiving within the next year, you should not go on an exclusion diet unless a doctor advises.

Working out a diet for a baby or young child should always be done with a doctor’s advice.

*99\117\8*

If this happens to you while in the process of sorting yourself out, take a deep breath and do not panic. Some of the things you are reacting to (especially foods and chemicals) may well be temporary intolerances and could go away with time. Concentrate on avoiding the things that upset you particularly badly – reduce your overall load of allergens and substances generally and do not assume that you will be hypersensitive for ever more. Many reactions will be just temporary. Multiple sensitivity is not an automatic life sentence and it is rarely crippling. Stay calm and you will come through. Never throw anything away until you are absolutely sure that you do not tolerate it permanently. It is common to find that you can use or wear something for a while and then become sensitive to it again. If you leave it off for a time and then try once more, often you can tolerate it after the break. Some people use this process to help them cope with multiple sensitivity – rotating the fibres of the clothes or bedding they use, or keeping curtains, rugs or pieces of furniture in a spare room and bringing them out for short periods. So, put things away in a spare room, outhouse or attic, and give them a rest before you test them again.

*30\117\8*