Flavour enhancers, E620-E635. The most important of these is monosodium glutamate, or MSG, and its relatives, E620-623. Eating large amounts of MSG is said to produce a set of symptoms known as ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’

- the symptoms described for this condition vary considerably: ‘tightness, pain and tingling in the front of the chest, radiating to the arms, often associated with palpitations and faintness’ according to one authority, but ‘flushing, sweating, loss of coordination, headache and hypotension [low blood pressure]‘

according to another. Some studies have failed to confirm the existence of a reaction, but it has been suggested that the source from which the MSG is manufactured is important. There are reports of MSG triggering attacks in some asthmatics.

Flavourings. These do not have to be listed on food labels, unlike the other additives. There are over 3,000 of these, they do not have E-numbers, and most have never been properly tested for safety. However, they are used in extremely small quantities, and are assumed to be non-harmful for this reason. Although this may be true for the majority, there are doubts over some flavourings, particularly a group known as the ally! alcohols which are potent toxins. The average person only receives small amounts of these, but anyone eating large amounts of sweets, crisps and soft drinks would get a much higher dose.

*408\180\8*

Feeling much better, but with one or two lingering symptoms It looks as if you have cut out your main offending foods, but are still eating something that is a problem. If the lingering symptoms are fairly minor, then you can proceed to the reintroduction phase. Test the major foods: milk, eggs, wheat, rice etc, and continue eating those diat cause no problems. This will help to broaden your diet. Having done this, look through the food diary you kept before the diet and try to identify possible causes for your lingering symptoms – is there anything you used to eat quite frequently and have continued eating throughout the diet? Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, shellfish and fish are likely suspects. Cut all these out and then test them.

If your lingering symptoms are fairly troublesome, or very variable from day to day, then it will not be possible to get clear results from the reintroduction phase. In this case, look back through the food diary you kept before the diet for potential culprits. Cut these out immediately. Should your symptoms clear, then go on to the reintroduction phase immediately. If they don’t, then go on to the Stage 3 diet, preferably a rare-food diet.

Before deciding which course of action to take, consider the possibility that

it might be something other than food causing the residual symptoms. If you have candidiasis, for example, the sugar-free, yeast-free diet could have helped considerably but not removed all your symptoms. Or it could be that food was your main problem, but something else is causing the residual symptoms – an airborne allergen or environmental chemical perhaps. If you have not checked out these possibilities, then think about them now.

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These measures can help to prevent allergies developing in babies born into atopic (allergic) families.

Plan the timing of birth for September-February; avoid March or April. Don’t eat too much of any one food while pregnant. It may also be worthwhile avoiding foods that are potent allergens (listed below), but there is no firm evidence that this is of benefit during pregnancy. Give up smoking before becoming pregnant. Once the child is born, make

sure that no-one smokes in the house. Breast-feed for the first year if possible. Give nothing but breast milk for

the first 4-6 months. If breast-feeding is not possible, discuss with your doctor the possible

alternatives, such as hydrolysate formulas. While breast-feeding, avoid eating foods that are likely to cause allergic reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, fish, citrus fruits (oranges, lemons etc), wheat, beef and chicken. To this list, add any food to which a previous child is allergic.

After 4-6 months, introduce some solid foods, but withhold those listed

above until 9-12 months. Introduce these foods gradually, one at a time, so that reactions can be

noted. Do not give new foods when the child is ill. For the first year, have no furred pets, keep dust to a minimum and keep the house free of moulds (see p67 for details). If the child has an infection, take special care to keep allergens to a minimum. Where possible, avoid exposing the baby to air pollution. Avoid unnecessary surgery, during the first year of life. As far as possible, avoid exposure to people with throat and chest infections during the first three years of life.

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Claire’s eight-week-old baby, Jamie, was apparently healthy but cried a lot of the time, and seemed to be in pain. As Claire was breastfeeding, her doctor asked about her diet and found that she was a vegetarian. She explained that she had been eating more cheese and drinking an extra pint of milk a day to make sure she got enough protein during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The doctor suggested that she might avoid milk, cheese and butter for a while, to see if this had any effect, and prescribed some tablets to give her extra calcium. He persuaded her to eat a little fish to make up for the missing protein. A couple of days after starting this diet, Jamie’s crying was noticeably less and it became easier to get him to sleep each evening. Claire was delighted at the improvement. She tried drinking a glass of milk, to see what would happen, and 24 hours later Jamie, following a feed, suffered, a severe attack of colic. After that, Claire stayed on a milk-free diet for six weeks. She then introduced a little milk and butter into her diet and found that Jamie could now tolerate this.

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Jane could fairly be described as a ‘typical’ case of food allergy. But Susan is not a typical case of food intolerance because there is no such thing. Food intolerance cannot lay claim to any single set of symptoms. Every patient is different, both in the cluster of symptoms they show and in the foods that affect them. Nor is there a single, clear-cut mechanism underlying the symptoms, as there is with food allergy. The available evidence indicates that there may be half-a-dozen or more different factors that contribute to the illness. In other words, food intolerance is a complex subject, and few generalizations can be made.

Nevertheless there are certain features that characterize this type of food sensitivity, and distinguish it from food allergy. Whereas food allergy reactions are usually immediate, food intolerance reactions tend to be much slower. The culprits in food intolerance are foods that are eaten very regularly, especially items such as wheat and milk that are consumed at almost every meal. The slowness of the reaction, combined with the fact that the foods are eaten so often, contributes to the ‘masking’ effect observed by the first doctors to study these reactions – the link between food and symptoms is unlikely to be made when the body is subjected to a constant bombardment with the food.

*15\180\8*

Players: Husband and wife.

Activists: Both.

Setting: Home or hotel.

Aim: Get couple in touch with unconscious narcissism.

Game Plan: This game is best if the couple can put a mirror somewhere near their bed, on the headboard, on the ceiling, at the foot of the bed; or they can check into a hotel that features such mirrors.

The man and woman get undressed and lie across the bed, their arms around each other, and look at themselves in the mirror. Then they ask:

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest couple of them all?”

They begin foreplay, fondling one another, and again turn to the mirror.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest couple of them all?”

They begin making love, and in the midst of it turn to the mirror again.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest couple of them all?”

*120/196/1*

They proceed according to the husband’s fantasies. Having been paid for her services, the wife will give herself to the experience with a new zest, and the husband will in turn respond similarly.

If the game goes well, it should not only enliven their relationship, but also serve to play out each of their deeper repressed fantasies. By giving vent to these fantasies, they break through the block that has kept their sexual relationship at a stalemate. These fantasies are attached to repressed feelings of anger having to do with early-childhood sexual traumas, and may therefore include “rough” talk or action. After the sexual part of the game is finished, the couple should talk about how it felt to play the game, and what that says about the way they had related up to that point. They may repeat the game as often as they like—or even try a reversal of the game in which the husband plays the prostitute and stripper.

*95/196/1*

After undressing his wife, the husband takes her by hand into the bathroom and helps her into a hot bath and bathes her (slowly and lovingly) with a sponge. He then helps her out and dries her (again, slowly and lovingly), then leads her to the bed. She lies face down, and he begins the massage.

He lifts one leg and holds the foot up to his mouth and sucks on each toe, one at a time. He asks, “Is that all right?” If the answer is yes, he continues. (Should she say no, he will skip the rest of this part.) If he continues, he licks the arch of the foot. Then he lightly bites the heel. Then he gently lays that leg down, lifts the other, and sucks on each toe of that foot. Then he licks that arch, lightly bites the heel, and gently lays the leg down.

Next he lifts the right arm and holds the hand up to his mouth. He sucks the fingers and thumb of the right hand. He asks, “Is that all right?” (If the answer is yes, he continues; if no, he skips this part.) If he continues, he licks the palm of the hand and bites the heel. Then he gently lays that arm down and lifts the left hand, sucking each of the fingers and thumb. He then licks the palm, bites the heel and gently lays the hand down.

*70/196/1*

Players: Master (passive husband) and maid (aggressive wife).

Activist: Wife. Setting: Home.

Aim: The wife seduces the husband in a deliberately provocative way designed to provoke both his sexuality and his active, rather than passive, aggression.

Game Plan: The husband comes home from work (or from wherever he has been during the day) to find his wife wearing a maid’s uniform with a short black skirt and white apron.

“What’s with the uniform?” he may ask.

“It’s a maid’s uniform,” she replies, mysteriously.

He goes into the bedroom to change into something more comfortable and then sits in his easy chair to watch the evening news. As he does so, his wife crosses in front of him and stoops down, with her rear toward him, to open the bottom drawer of a desk and straighten out its contents. Lo and behold, she is not wearing any panties!

*45/196/1*

Having said that, let me add that this book is not a sexual panacea. If you use it according to instructions, and are willing to persevere even when it seems as if nothing is happening (even when, in the beginning, it seems silly, pointless, hopeless, upsetting, or disgusting to continue), then you may well achieve results. These are sure to be gradual, even though there may be an initial upsurge of fascination and joy—as happens in the beginning of most any endeavor.

Finally, these games presume the practice of “safe sex”— sex in which the couples have an exclusive relationship or are using proper precautions to avoid sexual diseases.

Bon voyage!

*20/196/1*