“Health must at all times come from and be maintained by digested foods. Naturopathic physicians understand this principle and use it to repair the damage done to organs, tissues and cells which have become depleted of the necessary constructive elements. These necessary elements can come only from digested foods. …no drug yet offered can rectify the damage done by failure of digestion.” (The Nature Doctors, Kirshfeld and Boyle, 1994, page 251)
Historically, there are at least 4 kinds of ways food reactivity has been identified: Intolerance, Allergy, Lectin reactivity, and Sensitivity.
- Intolerance means that you are eating something you cannot digest well, such as lactose intolerance.
- Allergy is an immune system reaction against a food element. The standard method used in medical practice is skin scratch testing, in which small amounts of food concentrates are “scratched” into the skin, and an allergic reaction is watched for over the next few days. This will discern whether the skin immune system is reactive to a particular food, but tells nothing about digestion or digestibility.
- Lectin reactivity is a genetically based immune reaction against a small protein in a food. This is the basis for The Blood Type/ Genotype Diet.
- Sensitivity is a food reactivity that is occurring through an unidentified mechanism.
What does not digest well tends to ferment, putrefy and goes rancid in the intestines. These processes create toxins that are absorbed into the blood and create irritation and inflammation in susceptible tissues. The purpose of this dietary evaluation is to identify whether there are any foods that may be causing this. You may not be able to digest some foods adequately- This is what we are looking for.
The elimination of foods that you are intolerant to will ALWAYS result in improved digestion, which in turn may lead to reduced food allergy presence, reduced lectin reactivity and food sensitivities.
The Carroll Method is a specific way to determine if a food or food combination is inherently digestible by your body. This is unique to you or your genetics. To heal chronic disturbance or disease we must identify and remove the cause, usually found at least in part in the diet. This was one of the first and remains one of the most useful methods in determining the dietary basis of disease.
An allergy is an immune system response against a food or food element in the digestive system or in the blood. The Carroll method does not determine an immune system reaction/allergy, but rather a primary inability of the digestive system to properly digest and metabolize a particular food, food group or combination of foods. These un-digestible and unmetabolized foods lead to the creation of inflammatory toxic byproducts resulting in poor digestion as well as reduced nutrition. These toxins then enter the blood and become the basis for inflammatory irritation of organs or tissues, leading to increased disturbed function and the development of chronic disease.
Even a slight amount of the wrong food can cause a big problem. It literally poisons the digestive process so that nothing digests properly and lots of problems follow. We see that in most cases of chronic disease there is also digestive disturbance. This digestive disturbance 9 times out of 10 has preceded the disease process, reduced cellular nutrition, lowered vitality, and created a load of inflammatory toxins from which the disease process develops.
The Carroll method is different from the Blood Type Diet and Genotype diet in that it looks at a person’s unique enzymatic inability to digest and metabolize foods. The two systems complement each other well, because they are both customized ways of looking at YOUR genetic (born with) dietary needs. One from a lectin/ immune stand point (Blood Type/Genotype) and the other from an enzymatic/ metabolism stand point.
In addition to foods, there are 12 mineral salts that the body uses in large quantities. This fact was determined by the biochemist Schussler around 1900. We evaluate these mineral salt deficiencies and report these along with your dietary information. We recommend supplementation with whichever salts may demonstrate a deficiency in the testing process.
The Carroll method is a means of discerning which foods or food combinations are disturbing the digestion and contributing a toxic load to the body. It is an old method, not practiced or recognized by standard medicine. It was almost lost during the 1970’s and 80’s when naturopathic medicine had reached its lowest point since its inception in 1896. It was kept alive by Dr. Harold Dick and Dr. Leo Scott after Dr. Carroll’s death in 1962. I learned this method from and continue to be mentored by Dr. Jared Zeff (who studied with Dr. Dick in the early 1980’s) and Dr. Letitia Dick (Dr. Dick’s daughter).