There was supposed to be an update to the Swami Xpress software last summer. It is almost summer time again. I haven't seen any threads telling when this is going to happen. Does anyone have any news about this?  Dr. D are you willing to chime in here?

It is currently being worked.  The new features have now been tested in the SWAMI GenoType product used by professionals.  DNP will complete adding the features to the consumer product (SWAMI Xpress) and should be able to release it in the near future (after some additional testing).  No exact date has been set.  

got any specific need for an update dalkantrell?

According with this June newsletter:

"SWAMI XP2—The Second Generation Arrives in July with New Features"

precisely what C is mentioning above

Just out of curiosity, anybody have any idea about what some of these new features are?

They are detailed in the new newsletter that just came out today.  Sounds wonderful.  Ability to link with other family members to make meal planning easier, more specificity about existing conditions, and lots of other upgrades.

Quoted from Constantine

Just out of curiosity, anybody have any idea about what some of these new features are?

* Digital Delivery (No need to wait for mail)
* Drag and drop menu planning
* Ability to link family members as noted above
* Ability to specify diet restrictions:Lacto-ovo Vegetarian,  Kosher, ...  
* Ability to emphasize/deemphasize particular nutrients/toxins in foods

One place to watch is the SWAMI Alerts and Software Updates thread
http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-xpress/m-1247915915/

I noticed the drop down on diet restrictions did not list vegan for A's - that would greatly be appreciated seeing as how I am vegan and do not eat eggs, dairy, honey or any animal products for that matter.

It would be interesting if Swami integrated Metabolic Typing somehow.  I'm sure blood-/Genotypes vary in their metabolic profiles.

I, myself, mostly eat the foods from my Swami lists, but the *way* that I eat them is influenced by Metabolic Typing.  This is the best diet I've concocted so far.  Feel GREAT all the time.

swami is much more complex than that Jeremy

Quoted Text

Dr D on MT:
I looked at metabolic typing back in the early 1980's. There is essentially no scientific literature on the subject other than a book by Dr. Watson in 1972 and another by a Dr. Willey in the late 1980's. In both cases the authors provide no corroborating evidence (i.e other studies to support
disease susceptibilities, or a functional understanding of physiology) to support their contentions, nor has any gene or chromosome site ever been identified which could be linked to any 'metabolic type' per se. The result is little better than tossing a coin.

Quoted from Teresa S

According with this June newsletter:

"SWAMI XP2—The Second Generation Arrives in July with New Features"

Thanks for the info. I look forward to the changes.  

What exactly does the "kosher" box do to the SWAMI report?

I have a SWAMI run by a professional, and she checked off "kosher" on mine. I still see non-kosher meats and fishes in my "neutral" and "beneficial" lists. There aren't any meat/milk combinaions in my genoharmonic combinations, but I don't know whether that's due to the kosher box on SWAMI or if it just worked out that way for me personally.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

What exactly does the "kosher" box do to the SWAMI report?

I have a SWAMI run by a professional, and she checked off "kosher" on mine. I still see non-kosher meats and fishes in my "neutral" and "beneficial" lists. There aren't any meat/milk combinaions in my genoharmonic combinations, but I don't know whether that's due to the kosher box on SWAMI or if it just worked out that way for me personally.

SWAMI Xpress does not currently allow one to specify a Kosher prerequisite on foods.

SWAMI Xpress version 2 adds the same functionality that was already in SWAMI GenoType when you had it ran by a professional.


Selecting Kosher in the prerequisites dropdown should eliminate nonkosher foods from beneficial and neutral lists. This works for me on obvious nonkosher foods (obvious is for me).  It may be that there is an ignorance factor here. So SWAMI may include a few foods that are not kosher, that I either do not know is nonkosher or would know if I thought about the food but do not notice it when I scan the lists.  

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On non Kosher foods appearing in your list:

As I noted above most of the functionality was first tested in SWAMI GenoType, with the hopes of eliminating any problems before including it in the consumer version.

When the Kosher and vegetarian options were first introduced there were some problems, but they seem to be working correctly now.

It may be your list was made while this functionality was still being debugged.

If the list is fairly recent, you can help improve the product by filing a bug report:

http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-xpress/m-1247917643/

Essentially a food has to be marked in the software has being non kosher. If this mark is missing on people's food.

If there is a question about whether a food is presently excluded because it is nonkosher, I will be happy to test to verify whether the software currently recognizes that a food is nonkosher.

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On genoharmonic combinations I do not think it checks for dairy/meat combos, particularly within the lists on the right. I have not tested (mostly because I do not have not done SWAMI for Bs, but also because I have never done a SWAMI for someone that observes halakha guidelines)

Quoted from Jane

more specificity about existing conditions

YEY!!!!!

The latest version of my SWAMI is from last August. Was that before or after it was debugged?

Ran SWAMI for an O Gatherer with and without Kosher specified. These are some food that I notice becoming avoids on Kosher setting: Rabbit, Catfish, bear, Horse, Kangaroo, Marrow Soup, Eel, shark (other non kosher foods were already avoids).

Quoted from ruthiegirl

The latest version of my SWAMI is from last August. Was that before or after it was debugged?

After-Kosher was working for me then.

There's no reason marrow soup should be non-kosher, assuming it's made from kosher bones.

My SWAMI gives me Oppossum as neutral. I don't know enough about kosher birds to recognize if there are any non-kosher options in the poultry section. In the seafood section, there are a whole bunch of non-kosher options: jellyfish is neutral and snails are beneficial. I'm not overly familiar with the various fishes to know which of the others may be non-kosher; there's such a huge variety of seafoods on SWAMI and I only eat a handful of them (partly due to availability and partly due to price.)

Swordfish is a questionable fish kashrut-wise, because it has fins and scales at one point in development then loses one of them (not sure which one) at another point. Some rabbis say it's kosher and some say it isn't. I personally won't eat it, but for the purposes of SWAMI it may as well stay in the "kosher" list so that those kosher consumers who choose to eat it can know if it's healthy for them or not.

The vast majority of the "easily recognizable as non-kosher" seafoods are already in the "avoid" column, but I'm not sure if that's because of the kosher setting or because they're not healthy for me.

There are way more foods on SWAMI than I'm able to personally obtain, so I don't really worry about it. Many of the fruits and live foods are too expensive for me to buy or completely unavailable to me, but there aren't any kosher concerns with them.

Quoted Text

There's no reason marrow soup should be non-kosher, assuming it's made from kosher bones.

I wondered why it was not kosher, but it moved a diamond superfood to a full avoid in my hypothetical client.

Possum if I thought about I would have said it does not have hooves and does not chew cud (but I did not think).

SWAMI still appears to consider

Jellyfish, dried, salted  and
Snail, Escargot  

Kosher.

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I will email Bob about Jellyfish, Snails, marrow soup, opossom, and marrow soup and we should be able to get those values corrected.

Thanks.

On poultry:

Also included Ostrich in my nonkosher request (since it appears to be impure in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14), although I read some counter opinions.

To my logic Emu should be nonkosher, but it is not mentioned in scripture, so I let it go.

Grouse might be questionable.

these appear kosher: : Chicken, Turkey (a few said might not), Quail,Cornish Hens, Squab ,Goose, Duck, Partridge and Pheasant

Guinea Hen I presume is kosher, but I did not find a rating.

A vegetarian option?!?!?! Hooray!!!!!

Quoted from chrissyA

A vegetarian option?!?!?! Hooray!!!

Actually several -- depending on if you eat eggs or dairy products.

Birds are listed specifically in the Torah, and the rabbis sometimes disagree about the modern translations of those names. Turkeys were native to North America and some rabbis said "we don't have a history of eating this bird back in Europe so it's not kosher" while others either thought it was similar enough to European birds to fall into the same category, or perhaps they thought it was another species of bird mentioned in Torah that was unknown in Europe. I'm not sure of the exact criteria, but rabbis I trust say turkey is kosher and that's what I follow.

With mammals it's a whole lot simpler. Either it has split hooves and chews its cud (aka, has 4 stomachs and eats grass) or it doesn't. Horses have the 4 stomachs but not the split hooves. Pigs have the split hooves but doesn't chew its cud. Neither animal is kosher. Any new species of mammal found can be evaluated for those two signs, so we know if it's kosher or not.

IMO, any food that's rabbinically questionable (some rabbis say yes, others say no) should remain in the "kosher" section for SWAMI purposes.  SWAMI should list any "potentially kosher" food for healthiness; people can consult their rabbis for Kashrut questions. It's far easier to ignore 2 or 3 foods (swordfish and turkey, possibly other poultry) if your family or community doesn't eat those foods than it is to ignore a dozen seafood items in your SWAMI beneficial list.