by wayne persky
Founder and President of the Microscopic Colitis Foundation
I wonder how many of us have ever heard of John Symes? He owned Beltline Animal Clinic in Mobile Alabama, where he specialized in providing veterinary services for pets, for several decades. He was known online as DogtorJ (his website was dogtorj.com), and years ago, many of us encountered his excellent articles on food intolerances, and associated health issues.
He had celiac disease, and some of us read his posts on celiac.com, from time to time. Many of his articles discussed food sensitivity issues that are related to both humans and animals.
DogtorJ was a pioneer regarding the sharing of food sensitivity information.
Up until at least 2020, he posted many authoritative articles discussing immune system issues on his website. And he began posting those articles way before most human doctors ever considered looking into food sensitivity issues (other than gluten sensitivity).
Doctor Symes advised pet owners to avoid feeding any rations that contained wheat, barley, rye, soy, corn, or dairy to pets that displayed digestive system problems, long before human doctors began to admit that gluten sensitivity (and sensitivity to other foods) was much more widespread than they realized. He advised pet owners to simply remove gluten from their pet's diet, and quickly resolve their digestive problems, while human doctors (gastroenterologists) were still insisting that no human patient should avoid gluten unless they had a verified medical diagnosis of celiac disease.
Doctor Symes advised pet owners to avoid feeding any rations that contained wheat, barley, rye, soy, corn, or dairy to pets that displayed digestive system problems, long before human doctors began to admit that gluten sensitivity (and sensitivity to other foods) was much more widespread than they realized. He advised pet owners to simply remove gluten from their pet's diet, and quickly resolve their digestive problems, while human doctors (gastroenterologists) were still insisting that no human patient should avoid gluten unless they had a verified medical diagnosis of celiac disease.
DogtorJ's work set the pet food manufacturing industry on its ear.
Up until Doctor Symes began to enlighten pet owners about the cause of their pets' digestive problems, and other veterinarians began to follow his guidelines, pet food manufacturers had been increasingly using cheaper ingredients in their products, as the pet food business became more competitive. Dogs and cats evolved from wild canines and felines, whose diet consisted almost exclusively of meat from prey animals.
Yet pet food manufacturers were increasingly using ingredients such as grains — ingredients that had never been part of the animals' evolution, as the primary source of protein in their products. The ingredients used in pet foods have changed dramatically over the last decade or so, as natural proteins (and in some cases, novel proteins) are being used to prevent adverse digestive system reactions by pets. Based on past history, there's a good chance that this trend has preceded a similar trend that may happen with human food, but of course that's pure speculation at this point.
Yet pet food manufacturers were increasingly using ingredients such as grains — ingredients that had never been part of the animals' evolution, as the primary source of protein in their products. The ingredients used in pet foods have changed dramatically over the last decade or so, as natural proteins (and in some cases, novel proteins) are being used to prevent adverse digestive system reactions by pets. Based on past history, there's a good chance that this trend has preceded a similar trend that may happen with human food, but of course that's pure speculation at this point.
Special anti-antigenic pet food products are available by prescription only.
This recent trend by pet food manufacturers to make certain products available by prescription only, has resulted in a class-action suit that's now being considered by the Supreme Court. The point of contention regarding these products is the fact that they do not contain any medications. Therefore, the plaintiffs contend that they should not be coerced into buying higher priced, prescription only pet food products in order to treat their pets' digestive problems, if those pet foods do not contain any medications. Note that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically regulates medical foods that are intended for human use, but they also point out that medical foods are not drugs, and therefore patients do not need a prescription in order to purchase them.
DogtorJ made gluten sensitive pets luckier than gluten sensitive humans.
In other words, thanks to Doctor Symes, pets (and pet owners) had a very simple solution available, while human patients continued to be punished by their gastroenterologists, who insisted that their patients should suffer through at least a 6 to 8 week gluten challenge before they were “officially permitted” to remove gluten from their diet (assuming that they then tested positive for a celiac diagnosis, which didn't always happen). And unfortunately, the celiac diagnostic criteria are so critically defined, that many celiacs continue to suffer needlessly, after failing to receive a celiac diagnosis, because of the poor sensitivity of the official celiac diagnostic proceduire.
And the medical community still has no way to officially diagnose non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Doctor Symes articles were a godsend for many of us, but alas, he passed away on March 16, 2020, and his websites, including his unique and valuable articles, went with him. A few of his older articles can still be found on tripod.com, which was where he started posting articles, but all of his main website articles, posted on dogtorj.com are no longer available.
Some of Doctor Symes early articles are still available on tripod.com., if you can coax your browser into finding them. For example, he wrote an interesting article about lectins in which he started out with:1
And the medical community still has no way to officially diagnose non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Doctor Symes articles were a godsend for many of us, but alas, he passed away on March 16, 2020, and his websites, including his unique and valuable articles, went with him. A few of his older articles can still be found on tripod.com, which was where he started posting articles, but all of his main website articles, posted on dogtorj.com are no longer available.
Some of Doctor Symes early articles are still available on tripod.com., if you can coax your browser into finding them. For example, he wrote an interesting article about lectins in which he started out with:1
In this section, I will be discussing the vital and fascinating topic of lectins, the term used to describe antibody-sized proteins (glycoproteins- part carbohydrate, part protein), the most pertinent of which are those derived from foods. And which foods do you think provide the most damaging "lectins"? Yep...the "big 4" again- gluten grains (wheat, barley, rye), dairy products (casein), soy (errrh), and corn. Surprise, surprise! (smile)
And here's a site map (posted on tripod.com) to a list of some of the articles that he had posted on his main website after it was up and running. These articles are no longer accessible on his later website (dogtorj.com, but fortunately, most of the articles that were written for his tripod.com site can still be accessed by clicking on the links in this list.
https://dogtorj.tripod.com/id70.html
https://dogtorj.tripod.com/id70.html
"What," you might ask, "are secondary food intolerances?"
Reacting to the consumption of meat from an animal that has ingested a food to which we react (such as gluten, for example) is considered to be an example of this phenomenon. You will find that this is not a phenomenon that is correctly defined by authorities, medical, or otherwise. Note that when the term "secondary food allergies" is used in articles posted on websites, and medical literature, they are virtually always referring to cross reaction issues, which is a totally different physical process.
This issue does not occur because of cross-reactivity.
Examples of cross-reactivity can be found on an ECARF webpage (Zuberbier, 2016, November).2 For example, for some people, an allergy to pollen from certain trees, such as birch, walnut, pecan, or hazelnut, can cause cross-reactions to certain fruits such as apple, peach, plum, cherry, certain nuts, and/or vegetables such as carrots, celery, and potatoes. For some people, a ragweed allergy can cause cross-reactions with melons, bananas, and tomatoes, for example.
This article discusses secondary food intolerances as described in the first paragraph, and although it's possible that these reactions might be due to cross-reactivity issues, that doesn't appear to be likely. A tentative search of the Internet turns up absolutely no medical references regarding this issue, nor do there appear to be any references discussing this issue associated with any other websites.
iZuberbier, T. (2016, November). Celery, Cherry & Co. – Cross Reactivity. ECARF, Retrieved from https://www.ecarf.org/en/information-portal/allergies-overview/celery-cherry-and-more-cross-reactivity/
This article discusses secondary food intolerances as described in the first paragraph, and although it's possible that these reactions might be due to cross-reactivity issues, that doesn't appear to be likely. A tentative search of the Internet turns up absolutely no medical references regarding this issue, nor do there appear to be any references discussing this issue associated with any other websites.
iZuberbier, T. (2016, November). Celery, Cherry & Co. – Cross Reactivity. ECARF, Retrieved from https://www.ecarf.org/en/information-portal/allergies-overview/celery-cherry-and-more-cross-reactivity/
So does secondary food intolerance actually exist?
As Doctor Symes posted on May 15, 2010,
Secondary food intolerance” is the term I am currently using to describe the situation that arises when a food intolerant individual consumes meat of an animal that was fed gluten grains (wheat, barley, rye), soy, corn or even dairy products and is negatively affected by it. . . .
Unfortunately, the link to that article no longer works, and apparently no medical entity, or Internet website has embraced this concept and carried on DogtorJ's claims. Does this mean that the claims are invalid? Certainly not. A search of the archives of our discussion and support forum will turn up numerous posts over the years, shared by members who claim to have experienced similar secondary reactions.
Most authorities (self-proclaimed, or authentic) don't understand this concept will enough to write about it (and they probably have no interest in it, because there's nothing to be gained by taking a position on it. And medical researchers virtually always go with the money, and there's no money to be had for financing research on this concept. So here we are, having to draw our own conclusions, without any references to back up our opinions.
Most authorities (self-proclaimed, or authentic) don't understand this concept will enough to write about it (and they probably have no interest in it, because there's nothing to be gained by taking a position on it. And medical researchers virtually always go with the money, and there's no money to be had for financing research on this concept. So here we are, having to draw our own conclusions, without any references to back up our opinions.
Maybe we should do our own research.
Members of our discussion and support forum have shared opinions in posts made over the years, discussing how they are able to safely eat meat from free ranging or wild animals, but they react to meat from feedlot animals, presumably because animals fattened in feedlots are fed rations that contain wheat, or soy, or some other protein to which many of us react. Some of us find that we can eat eggs from free ranging chickens, although we react to conventionally produced eggs. This happens especially with conventionally produced eggs sold in the supermarkets, because they are typically sprayed with soy oil in order to extend their shelf life, and, of course, some of the soy proteins managed to penetrate the egg shells so that they are absorbed into the interior of the egg, leading to a firsthand contamination risk.
References
1. Symes, J. B. (n.d.).Lectins - The Missing Links. [Web log message]. Retrieved from https://dogtorj.tripod.com/id55.html
2. Zuberbier, T. (2016, November). Celery, Cherry & Co. – Cross Reactivity. ECARF, Retrieved from https://www.ecarf.org/en/information-portal/allergies-overview/celery-cherry-and-more-cross-reactivity/