AILING MUSICIAN CREATES HEALING "SONG"
A Star Dressing is Born
For Immediate Release
Contact: Sandy Muckleroy
Sisters & Brothers, Inc.
(512) 326-3304
May 15, 2006
Sisters & Brothers, Inc., makers of the SASS line of fresh, natural dressings has an interesting story to tell about the genesis of one of their flavors. Lemon Song SASS, which company president Lauri Raymond calls “a vinaigrette without the vinegar,” has a light, Asian-inspired flavor enhanced by fresh lemon juice. “To my knowledge,” says Lauri “it is the only dressing that uses fresh lemon juice.”
The story begins in 1982 in Honolulu, Hawaii where musician Felix Almestica was diagnosed with Grave's disease, in which the body attacks the thyroid and the thyroid reacts by overworking itself. Felix couldn't get enough nutrition - his body was literally eating itself up. His doctor gave him three alternatives - radioactive iodine therapy, oral medication of Propylthouracil, or having his thyroid removed. Thinking it the least of three evils, he chose the oral medication. (One "minor" drawback: it destroys your bone marrow.) After four months with no noticeable improvement, he quit the medications and began his search for other solutions.
All this time Felix was unable to work. His physical energy was out of balance; he alternated between extreme energy and total exhaustion. He couldn't sing due to deep congestion, another by-product of his illness.
In 1983 Felix took a job in a health food store in Hawaii and began researching natural therapies for the thyroid gland. First came a systematic internal cleansing of his body over a four-month period. This included taking nutritional supplements designed to cleanse built-up toxins from the body and the gradual elimination of all possible toxic foods from his diet. At the end of this cleansing, Felix was drinking vegetable juices, water, miso (soybean paste) soup and little else. He was also feeling better than he had in many years.
He cautiously began to reintroduce foods into his body, maintaining a diet of simple and highly nutritious organic foods. Brown rice and vegetables became one of his staple dinner menus. He began to add fresh lemon juice and various thyroid-balancing herbs he had learned about. Eventually, ingredients added separately to foods were transformed into bottles of dressing. Friends tried the concoction and loved its taste. Felix's delicious and highly nutritious dressing was in the process of being born.
After two years on this diet, Felix was in full remission -- the first case of remission from Grave's Disease his doctor had seen. (Felix has documentation of his amazing journey back to health, including letters from his doctors.)
In 1991 Felix moved from Hawaii to Austin, Texas, where friends began to encourage him to market his remarkable dressing. When he discovered SASS salad dressings, he decided to contact Sisters & Brothers. Upon meeting with Lauri Raymond and reading the company's vision statement, Felix knew he wanted the Austin, Texas based company to produce and market his dressing.
Everyone at Sisters & Brothers fell in love with Felix, his inspirational story and his unique delicious dressing. After 3 years of talking, tasting and testing, it was introduced to the world as Lemon Song SASS. (“Lemon” for the fresh lemon juice, which is unusual in a bottled dressing and “Song,” in honor of Felix’s musical talents.) Because it’s made of ingredients traditionally used to balance the thyroid gland, Feli believes that the dressing would be helpful for both hyper- and hypo- thyroid conditions.
In the meantime, Felix has resumed his musical career. He continues to eat a wholesome diet of organic foods; he still enjoys excellent health; and of course he still splashes his food with liberal amounts of Lemon Song SASS.
Felix continued learning how to keep himself in remission successfully for over 30 years. Then around 2011 while living in Hawaii Felix and his wife being very sensitive and aware of their health, noticed considerable changes manifesting themselves that were not very pleasant and they began searching for solutions. They searched high and low and acquired an assortment of products from many sources including detoxing herbs, mushrooms, algae, vitamins and superfoods, they also stepped up their growing of their own organic herbs and vegetables. It became a very expensive and laborious process. To read more about Felix and the Lemon Song creation click here also read the rest of the story of Sisters and Brothers.
Sisters & Brothers, Inc.
P.O. Box 41269, Austin, Texas 78704
512/326-3304
info@freshdressings.com
Then he was given a gift of "Love" which led to him getting his life back and started him on a journey as a Wellness Entrepreneur.
