Company letters for legal products

[Guest guest]

Dear Ms. Conrad,

As a member of the BTVC yahoo group listserve, which contains members of the old LI listserve as well, I am trying to gather as many letters from companies about the legality of their products. We as a group, are trying to offer some convenience to our members after they have been on SCD and have been symptom free for a year or more.

It was mentioned by a member that you may possibly have one or two letters. One possibly for Trader Joe's light coconut milk and one possibly for Pacific vegetable stock. If you could find the time to scan and forward those letters ( or any others) to our moderator, Ms. Marilyn Alm, Wizop Marilyn L. Alm I would be very grateful.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Terry Rumas, DMD

[Guest guest]

> Hi Terry,

>

> I think this is great but again.. this stuff needs to be

> periodically checked. When was her book published?

>

> Anyway, if years have gone by that's a bit much.

12/26/06

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Well-Feel-Carbohydrate-Compliant/dp/0307339947/ref=sr_\

1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253412610&sr=8-1

Less than 3 years - that's way less than the research Elaine

did on various products that we use - tomato juice, grape

juices, orange juice, some other stuff.

Mara

[Guest guest]

> Hi Terry,

>

> I think this is great but again.. this stuff needs to be

> periodically checked. When was her book published?

>

> Anyway, if years have gone by that's a bit much.

12/26/06

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Well-Feel-Carbohydrate-Compliant/dp/0307339947/ref=sr_\

1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253412610&sr=8-1

Less than 3 years - that's way less than the research Elaine

did on various products that we use - tomato juice, grape

juices, orange juice, some other stuff.

Mara

[Guest guest]

Alyssa..

You may be totally right! Good point!

But I wonder what Elaine would think of this process that just any numb nut rep

could reverify. I guess we would need a protocol like a new letterhead..

Jodi

> Good point, but if we got the original letters, we could just send

> them to the company along with another letter asking them to re-verify

> their previous letter. It might be a little easier than starting from

> scratch..

[Guest guest]

Moreover, as has been noted multiple times, people get well, and then, for the most part, they bail out of the "newbie" community. They get ON with their lives, lives in which IBD is no longer the ruling event. Some of us, myself included, are just nuts enough to stick around and try to help others carry on, and learn about the miracle we've been handed, to keep it from disappearing, the way Dr. Haas' legacy would have disappeared had Elaine not picked up the list.This is a very good point. As a newbie (I'm not still a newbie, am I?) I was a little discouraged to find not many posts from healed people as encouragement. But now that I think about it, healed people don't have any reason to post!Do you think it would be possible to have a 'success stories' file for this group? That way, maybe we could encourage people to just write a quick paragraph about their experience on SCD before they leave the group altogether, and put that in the file. I think that would be a really great resource for people to look at, and it would be sort of proof that the diet works. There is always someone telling you as a newbie that "oh yeah, hundreds, THOUSANDS of people have been helped by this diet!" but you never actually see real proof, unless you know someone. This way, I think people would be a bit more encouraged, and see that over the years there ARE people who leave this group because they are healed. Pour Dieu, pour terre,Alyssa 15UC April 2008, diagnosed Sept 2008SCD June 2009 (restarted)No meds except for the stupid iron pill I have to take that is SO illegal

[Guest guest]

Jodi wrote:

I would also love to have Digestive Wellness's letterheads. I would love to use bagged tea. <<

May I ask why do we need to do twice the work? Do we assume that Esther wouldn't put anything in her store that wasn't legal? Isn't there an assumption that all her products contain no legal additives?

>> You are right this is ambitious. Let's start at what we have now and recheck Elaine's list. I would dedeciate doing a product every month or so, so I don't have burn out. <<

Agreed. I am also very busy in my life. I have no problem writing a letter, but I find I do well talking to people --as long as the final result is the same and there is a physical letter from the company, it shouldn't matter. It's easy to ignore a letter, but not so easy to ignore an insistent and persistent phone caller.

Consensus is impossible to reach with too many people that is why the SCD decision makers should come up with a direction for this!

Who ARE the SCD decision makers?

Marilyn wrote:

My personal preference is that the letter confirmno illegal sugars, no starches, no natural or artificial flavors, no soy, and no illegal "manufacturing aids."

I agree, and then this should be the basis for any letter or phone call. We need to keep it very simple. In addition, how anal are we going to be, because the letter from Penzey's does not satisfy your preference; it states that the granulated garlic is 100% garlic and the granulated onion is 100% onion. Personally that's good enough for me, but in reality, and I know I'm reaching ( just to make a point) how do we know they didn't put starch on the tray or sprayed it with canola oil that they used to dry the garlic to keep it from sticking? In their mind, they used only 100% garlic, no additives, but the lack of processing or manufacturing aids was not addressed in their letter to us. Perhaps someone (Cheryl, to whom the letter is addressed) spoke to them and straightened this out verbally, but that should be noted by the SCD'er who did the contacting.

So, these things need to be ironed out.

Terry

[Guest guest]

Jodi wrote:

I would also love to have Digestive Wellness's letterheads. I would love to use bagged tea. <<

May I ask why do we need to do twice the work? Do we assume that Esther wouldn't put anything in her store that wasn't legal? Isn't there an assumption that all her products contain no legal additives?

>> You are right this is ambitious. Let's start at what we have now and recheck Elaine's list. I would dedeciate doing a product every month or so, so I don't have burn out. <<

Agreed. I am also very busy in my life. I have no problem writing a letter, but I find I do well talking to people --as long as the final result is the same and there is a physical letter from the company, it shouldn't matter. It's easy to ignore a letter, but not so easy to ignore an insistent and persistent phone caller.

Consensus is impossible to reach with too many people that is why the SCD decision makers should come up with a direction for this!

Who ARE the SCD decision makers?

Marilyn wrote:

My personal preference is that the letter confirmno illegal sugars, no starches, no natural or artificial flavors, no soy, and no illegal "manufacturing aids."

I agree, and then this should be the basis for any letter or phone call. We need to keep it very simple. In addition, how anal are we going to be, because the letter from Penzey's does not satisfy your preference; it states that the granulated garlic is 100% garlic and the granulated onion is 100% onion. Personally that's good enough for me, but in reality, and I know I'm reaching ( just to make a point) how do we know they didn't put starch on the tray or sprayed it with canola oil that they used to dry the garlic to keep it from sticking? In their mind, they used only 100% garlic, no additives, but the lack of processing or manufacturing aids was not addressed in their letter to us. Perhaps someone (Cheryl, to whom the letter is addressed) spoke to them and straightened this out verbally, but that should be noted by the SCD'er who did the contacting.

So, these things need to be ironed out.

Terry

[Guest guest]

At 07:33 PM 9/20/2009, you wrote:

Right now I have several cans of

Dole pineapple that I haven't eaten yet. I assumed they were legal. Do I

need to get another letter?

Have you tried them yet? Do you tolerate them? If so, it's kind of a moot

point.

—

Marilyn

New

Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

[Guest guest]

At 07:33 PM 9/20/2009, you wrote:

Right now I have several cans of

Dole pineapple that I haven't eaten yet. I assumed they were legal. Do I

need to get another letter?

Have you tried them yet? Do you tolerate them? If so, it's kind of a moot

point.

—

Marilyn

New

Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

[Guest guest]

> Mara,

>

> I am not even talking about Elaine's products. I have a problem

> with them.. I think the info is completely dated and I have been

> flamed for bringing this up..

>

> I think 3 years is way too much.

>

> Things need to be checked yearly!

>

> Companies bought, manufacturing locations change to over seas etc..

>

> 3 years is a massive amount of time.

LOL!

Jodi is clearly feeling better - you can tell by the

oodles of energy she suddenly has.

Good for you, Jodi.

Mara

[Guest guest]

Re: DigestiveWellness.com letterheads: As all of their products are strictly Kosher, the manufacturers must publicly post the Kosher certification... so you can google the products for those letterheads.

For example this product http://www.digestivewellness.com/itempage-1852-24-2-1727.html is a Nut Bar by a company "sweet valley". A search on Google for "Sweet valley kosher" gave me this contact: Sweet Valley Foods

Digestive's site says the product is MK Certified Kosher and sure enough, it's listed here: http://www.mk.ca/companies.html

MK would *never* give a product kosher PARVE certification if there was cross contamination of milk, meat, etc. Also, the product must be labeled with anything, even if it's less than 2% of say, nut flours.

Hope this takes a load of worry off your shoulders, at least for the kosher products found in many retailers.

[Guest guest]

Hi Marilyn,

> If the original letterheads still exist, probably

> one of Elaine's daughters have them. BTVC was

> around LONG before it had an Internet presence --

> I think the Long Island List was started in 1998

> or thereabouts. I came to it in late summer of

> 2001. Pecanbread (Elaine's Children was the

> original list) came a couple of years later.

Ok, so we need to start from scratch on this one.

> One of the best ways to get them to take use

> seriously is to write PHYSICAL letters requesting

> the information. At smaller companies, you may

> get someone who knows their product if you

> telephone or email, or you might not. At large

> companies, as I have discovered, you are more

> likely to get some minimum wage flunky who will

> tell you whatever they think you want to hear in

> order to get rid of your call and get on to the next one.

This makes total sense.

I would call a company ask to speak to someone that could help my situation and

I would either send directly or fax to that rep to help me with the standard

letter.

> If we develop a standard form letter (and I can

> develop a letterhead for us to use) to send out,

> that can work in our favor, too.

Awesome. I think this will cut out a huge amount of time.

I have wasted quite a bit of time with companies. It would be nice to work

together, because many of us have experience with this to make this process more

efficient and less painful.

> What products do you see on Elaine's list?

Marilyn, when were these products originally spoken about?

Like when did Elaine actually choose to legalize these staple commercial

products?

> Welch's grape juice

> Tropicana no-pulp OJ

> Knudsen Just Juice line

> Hunt's and 's tomato juices

> Friendship Dairy DCCC

> Western Dairy DCCC (in Canada)

> Dole Pineapple in its own juice (this one I would

> check first, as they've changed the label to " in pineapple juice " )

I think there should also be some kind of method to scan labels and maybe list

varying labels so that people won't get confused. I bought illegal Welch's when

I first started.

Anyway, we could all pick a product and go from there!

> She mentions a lactose free sour cream, but no

> brand name, and I've never seen one.

You know someone in my doc's office just mentioned it the other day. He ate it

and got really sick. I should ask him what brand he used. just outta

curiosity..

> >> I would love to see the whole SCD community

> work together.. But if they don't want to.. I

> think we with IBD doing the SCD should. <<

>

> I'd like to see it done.

You rock!

> I'm not keen about h-llstorms. At the same time,

> I recognize the need to have an organized body of

> knowledge which reflects the issues we face --

> food manufacturing changes to follow the profits,

> and it's very difficult to keep up.

I agree %110!!

> I've tried my best to maintain a balance between

> rigid adherence to what Elaine wrote and

> practicality. Trust me: practical is high on my

> list these last few years, between Hurricane

> Katrina, cancer surgery, and now my Mom's dementia.

Well because of this your group is my favorite SCD group.

It is very open to discussion while mostly staying on Topic but you allow OT

things too which I think is important.

You also let people express themselves and you will correct them graciously

without a flaring attitude.

I think you run an awesome ship Marilyn!!

> >> I would also love to have Digestive

> Wellness's letterheads. I would love to use bagged tea. <<

>

> Well, then, getting scanned copies of their

> letters to post in our library would be a great place to start.

From what I understand DW is not very cooperative about this.

I have gotten a couple of off list inquiries about this and why DW doesn't

provide letterheads. I have not encountered this myself as when I started the

diet Carol F was here and she taught me basically not to use the commercial

products from DW (it worked for me! Boy would I of loved a fruit roll up! LOL)

Jodi

[Guest guest]

Hi all-- this is the letter below I received from Kendall Conrad.

Re: Company letters for legal products

Hi Terry,

I did have one from Pacific-have to look for it. I have all those files packed away in a storage unit. I will let you know if I find it. It might be a good idea to get more current letters though, as ingredients might have been added since 2005.

All the best,

Kendall

Dear Ms. Conrad,

As a member of the BTVC yahoo group listserve, which contains members of the old LI listserve as well, I am trying to gather as many letters from companies about the legality of their products. We as a group, are trying to offer some convenience to our members after they have been on SCD and have been symptom free for a year or more.

It was mentioned by a member that you may possibly have one or two letters. One possibly for Trader Joe's light coconut milk and one possibly for Pacific vegetable stock. If you could find the time to scan and forward those letters ( or any others) to our moderator, Ms. Marilyn Alm, Wizop Marilyn L. Alm I would be very grateful.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Terry Rumas, DMD

[Guest guest]

Hi all-- this is the letter below I received from Kendall Conrad.

Re: Company letters for legal products

Hi Terry,

I did have one from Pacific-have to look for it. I have all those files packed away in a storage unit. I will let you know if I find it. It might be a good idea to get more current letters though, as ingredients might have been added since 2005.

All the best,

Kendall

Dear Ms. Conrad,

As a member of the BTVC yahoo group listserve, which contains members of the old LI listserve as well, I am trying to gather as many letters from companies about the legality of their products. We as a group, are trying to offer some convenience to our members after they have been on SCD and have been symptom free for a year or more.

It was mentioned by a member that you may possibly have one or two letters. One possibly for Trader Joe's light coconut milk and one possibly for Pacific vegetable stock. If you could find the time to scan and forward those letters ( or any others) to our moderator, Ms. Marilyn Alm, Wizop Marilyn L. Alm I would be very grateful.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Terry Rumas, DMD