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74 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ready, set,...huh?, March 27, 2004
This review is from: The Food Allergy Cure: A New Solution to Food Cravings, Obesity, Depression, Headaches, Arthritis, and Fatigue (Paperback)
The Food Allergy Cure convinced me that allergies may indeed be behind my ailments, but it did not provide me with enough information on how to treat myself without buying more expensive products. After reading the entire book and attempting to start my own treatment, I concluded that The Food Allergy Cure is effectively an extended advertisement for Dr. Cutler's BioSET techniques, where you are expected to buy her home testing products or visit a clinic, and for the enzyme vendor she recommends. Below I will describe how I came to this conclusion. I slogged through the first half of the book, which is devoted to selling Dr. Cutler's BioSET treatment techniques without discussing in depth what they are and how they work. I was happy when finally on page 153, Cutler gets to actual diagnosis and treatment techniques. I tried the muscle testing on myself with milk, a known allergen, but my muscles did not weaken when I held a vial of milk. Determined to heal myself, I continued to Chapter 8, where you are told that before you actually test for foods, it's best to first test Level 1, where you "balance the body," testing for "blood, organs, glands, immune system, and enzymes" and then Level 2, where you "clear foods," listing "amino acids, phenolics and biochemicals, minerals, Vitamin C, [etc.]" (p. 170). On p. 171, Cutler instructs the reader to begin by testing the blood vial. Fair enough, anyone can prepare a blood vial at home. But how on earth do you get a vial for the rest of Level 1, your "organs, glands, immune system, and enzymes"? I suppose a resourceful person could figure out how to find Level 2 substances "amino acids, phenolics and biochemicals, minerals, Vitamin C, [etc.]" at home. I strongly suspect that Cutler expects the reader to order the Food Allergy Kit of vials, described in Appendix 1. Appendix 1 states that the kit contains Level 1 and 2 allergy vials (p. 287). How can a universal kit contain a substance representing the organs, glands, etc. for all human beings, when so many marrow or organ transplants fail due to patients' immune responses? People are all the same under the skin, but in terms of medicine there are limits. If you forgo buying Dr. Cutler's vials and test for foods only, Cutler's anecdotes on patients who went through the full treatment leave you with question of whether or not your treatment would be more successful if you bought the vials, or better yet, actually visited a certified BioSET clinic. Chapter 9 suggests credible detoxification techniques that do not necessarily require further purchases, but Chapter 10 describes enzyme therapy, which involves--guess what--another purchase. Cutler's recommendations dovetail conveniently with the offerings of Wellzyme, which interestingly also sells this book prominently on the website. And a visit to the website shows that a modest regimen of enzymes would quickly add up to the same amount as a modest regimen of prescription drugs on an HMO plan. In this sense, the book's back-cover promises that you can treat yourself with the information in this book without drugs or expensive procedures, are not entirely true. I imagine visits to BioSET clinics are not cheap (I tried to inquire, but no person answers the 800 number on the BioSET website, nor do they return calls), and while enzymes are not technically drugs, they do cost as much as drugs. Chapter 11 outlines diet plans that look remarkably similar to one another (three of four prescribe liberal quantities of vegetables, for example). They also look difficult to follow. It's very well to restrict yourself to two of some fruits per day, but there are other fruits and vegetables that you can eat only 3-4 times per week. If you're a dieter, you can take weekly meal planning in stride, but most of us can't be bothered figuring out which fruits to have daily and which to have only a few times a week. I do believe that these theories have some validity, but the procedures described require a certain suspension of belief. I recommend you borrow this book from the library, read it carefully, and proceed sensibly.
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51 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Effective Method to Get Rid of Allergies and Autoimmunity, May 21, 2002
I had fifteen allergies to things like eggs, wheat, soy, rice, strawberries, etc. and my diet had shrunk to very few foods. But this method got rid of all of them! Also, I have had an autoimmune disease since I was 21 (long time ago) and this method got rid of that permanently. I have not taken a single pain pill or anti-inflammatory drug for that condition since. Because there are over 80 auto-immune diseases, including things like endometriosis, Chron's disease, fibromyalgia, ankylozing spondalitis, etc., the ability to get rid of the "short circuit" in your system that causes part of your system to regard and attack another as the "enemy" is fantastic! I first learned the basic technique in a workshop. We were all given vials of "mosquito" to work with. I know of few people who do not react to a mosquito bite. Shortly after that we went to our son's cabin in the deep woods on a lake in Northern Wisconsin, where mosquitoes are the "state bird." I never put on any mosquito repellant and I did not get bitten one single time even though all the others did. I heard some and I even saw a mosquito come down, fly back and forth about a half inch above my hand and fly away! Two words of caution: the food allergy method works right away, but there are some foods like wheat which are so inherantly allergenic, that even after the treatment, it is wise to stay away from that food; also, taking away autoimmunity simply gets rid of the principal cause, but it takes quite a while for all the symptoms to subside. But they do!
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61 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't be fooled, April 20, 2002
Having suffered from multiple food allergies for over thirty years, I began seeking alternative treatments, such as the one promoted in this book. Yet, after answering negatively to most of the 34-questions in the "Self-Assessment Questionnaire" in chapter 1 (samples: "Was your birth difficult or complicated?" "Have you been told you have bad breath?"p.19-20), I didn't even qualify as someone likely to be suffering from food allergies using Ellen Cutler's own criteria. In the next chapter, dubious statements like: "manufacturers of mayonnaise and ice cream are not obliged to list any ingredients at all,"(p.34) increased my skepticism, especially in light of the lack of references to support her claims, which became a recurring problem throughout the book. The case studies of Cutler's treatments are merely testimonials written by the author herself, who uses the word "miraculous" more times than should be allowed even in a quasi-medical text. Phrases such as: "Her brilliant smile brought tears to my eyes," are provided in lieu of actual data to support her findings, suggesting that more creative writing than fact-gathering went into The Food Allergy Cure. Moreover, when describing her own clinical procedures, Cutler admits that the allergens she employs to test patients "do not contain the actual substances but instead are energetic carriers of substance signatures...." She prefers these instead of actual allergens because they're "easier to use...and reusable, making them more practical in my busy practice."(p.148) Not surprisingly, the skimpy bibliography has been padded by two of the author's own books (making up almost 12% of all works cited), and even includes a book by Robert Pritikin, of the diet fame. Like a fad diet, this book seems to operate under a motive of profit, not proof. Do not waste your money or your hopes on this one.
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