Toronto Star Article

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Here is an article from The Toronto Star about Elaine.

Elaine Gottschall, 84: Linked health with diet

Book eased suffering of thousands

Gottschall began by helping daughter

CATHERINE DUNPHY

OBITUARY WRITER

She became a hero to hundreds of thousands of people around the world,

a best-selling author of Breaking The Vicious Cycle, a book that first

connected intestinal health with diet, because she was first and always

a mom who couldn't and wouldn't allow her youngest child to suffer any

more.Elaine Gottschall always said her defining moment was when a

doctor pointed a finger at her — when she was then a New Jersey

housewife — and said: " What are you crying about? You have done this to

her! " For three years she had taken her daughter to every specialist,

allergist, psychiatrist in New York City, none of whom could help the

7-year-old whose intestinal pain was so severe she was bleeding all day

and suffering from delirium at night.Gottschall had given up and was

about to authorize the colostomy that would mean the child would live

with a bag for her fluids for the rest of her life, when a chance

encounter with an acquaintance in a grocery store led her to the New

York City office of 92-year-old Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas. " She was a

mom. She had to cure me, " said daughter Judy Herod. And she did, using

a diet devised by Dr. Haas. Within 10 days, the girl's neurological

symptoms were gone and after two years, her intestinal problems healed.

Gottschall had found her calling: There were many other people out

there suffering from Crohn's disease, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome

and celiac disease who needed to know about SCD, the specific

carbohydrate diet.But first she needed to understand how it worked. At

47, Gottschall went back to school, earning a bachelor's degree and

eventually a master's degree in biology, nutritional biochemistry and

cellular biology. She continued her research up until her death at 84

of cancer in Cobourg on Sept. 5. " She wanted the science, " said Herod,

now 53 and symptom-free for more than four decades. " And she kept

figuring it out because she was fascinated by the gut and brain

connection. " She also wanted the acceptance from — if not approval of —

the medical mainstream, which she never got. She was told stories by

mothers who said their doctors would refuse to treat their children if

they followed her diet, which eschews flour and sugars, complex

carbohydrates, additives and sweeteners, and recommends almond paste

flour and home-made yogurt. " The medical community continues not to

embrace it, " said Herod. " There are no double-blind studies. It would

be wonderful if there could be. She didn't achieve that acceptance and

that is a defeat. Not that she needed to be glorified, but you just

have to have a sick kid to know how important this information is. " If

the medical community didn't embrace her, everybody else did. Or so it

seems. Since the book was published in 1987 (under the name Food and

the Gut Reaction), it has sold more than a million copies, run in 10

editions, and been translated into seven languages. Thousands have

contacted Gottschall to tell her she saved their — or their children's

— lives, including parents of autistic children. " She did save my life.

It is not an overstatement, " said Jodi Bager, who was diagnosed with

ulcerative colitis after the birth of her second son in 2000. The

Toronto mother said the SCD was " the magic bullet " that turned around

her life a year later. In 2002, she met Gottschall when she went to a

Mother's Day lunch hosted by Gottschall at her Grafton, Ont., home.

" There was no generation gap with Elaine, " she said. " She was exciting

and daring, and so much fun, a woman who flew by her pants. " Bager, a

co-author of The Grain-Free Gourmet cookbook, now runs J. Gourmet, a

company that ships SCD baked goods throughout Canada and the U.S.

" Because of Elaine, I have my health, my business and a wonderful

friendship for 12 years, " said Lucy Rossett of Bellingham, Wa., who

runs Lucy's Kitchen, which sells Rossett's SCD-based cookbook, almond

flour and yogurt makers.Rossett had been suffering from ulcerative

colitis for 13 years when she saw Gottschall being interviewed on a

Vancouver television show. " I tried the diet and, bang, it turned my

life around and suddenly everything worked the way it was supposed to

do, " she said. She and Gottschall became close friends, holidaying

together and travelling in both Canada and the U.S. where Gottschall

would just as happily talk to a group of five as 500. " I've seen people

coming up to Elaine, crying, to thank her, " said Rossett.That happened

at the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) conference in Washington, D.C., in May

2004, where Gottschall was introduced to about 2,000 parents and

professionals as a saviour. " Elaine was like an icon to us, a rock

star, " said Laurie Mawlam, a Chatham, Ont., mother of an autistic son

who " lost his autistic diagnosis " after being on the diet. " She stole

the show. " Gottschall, born Elaine Reichbaum, grew up in a poor family

that moved from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn to Baltimore and back in an

unsuccessful attempt to survive the depression. Any dream of going to

university ended when her invalid mother, , died and she had to

move in with Brooklyn relatives and go out to work as a secretary. She

met her husband, Herb Gottschall, when both were working on the

Manhattan Project, the U.S. nuclear weapons program. A chemical

engineer, his work later took the family to Canada where they settled

on a farm near Exeter. It was Herb who encouraged his wife to go back

to school for a post-graduate degree at the University of Western

Ontario and who started Kirkton Press to publish her book. " He

understood there was an urgency to get the message out, " said their

daughter, whose husband, Stew, now runs the operation in Roseneath,

Ont.But the book hadn't sold even 1,000 copies when Gottschall was

invited onto the Dini Petty television show to talk about it. Petty

said her producer read the book, phoned Gottschall and " fell in love

with her. " She made three appearances on the show. " Her daughter always

said I was the light her mother couldn't find, " said Petty, who spoke

at Gottschall's funeral. " I take full credit for the fact the Dini

Petty show opened the door for Elaine, but she strode through it and

onto the international stage and never stopped. "

Dunphy can be reached at cdunphy@...