Parents offered new choices in allergen-free food

Enjoy Life is by now a well-known brand, and one that many of us have grown used to seeing in our grocery stores if not in our cupboards. This is a great story of a couple of guys who wanted to help out the growing population of allergy sufferers.

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An idea that started as a class project between two friends is big business in the booming food allergy and intolerance market that one research firm estimates will reach $3.9 billion this year.

Scott Mandell and Bert Cohen, classmates at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2000, founded their allergen-free food company, Enjoy Life Natural Brands LLC, in 2001. The pair drafted their initial business plan for a school assignment in their last class before graduation. Their idea for an allergen-free food company was inspired by Cohen’s mother, who had multiple sclerosis and serious dietary restrictions.

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From peanuts to shellfish… Why are so many adults suddenly getting allergies?

I found out myself, well into my 20s, that I could not eat hazelnuts. It was as an adult that I found out I could not eat one of my favorite snacks. Here is a story about another adult who finds herself allergic to foods she had grown used to eating without any issues.

When Edwina Galloway started to feel a strange knot in her throat after eating some peanuts, she tried to ease it by drinking tea.

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But within minutes her throat was constricting and she was struggling to breathe. Her husband bundled her into their car and rushed her to hospital.

Fortunately, it was only a mile from their home in Sevenoaks, Kent; had it been much further, Edwina could have died.

‘By the time I got there, I was shivering and shaking as my body was going into shock,’ says Edwina, 48, who runs her own administration business. ‘It was terribly frightening.’

Edwina was suffering from anaphylactic shock – an allergic reaction which causes puffy lips and eyes, other symptoms such as vomiting and breathing difficulties as the air passages swell. Untreated, it can prove fatal within minutes.

Edwina was immediately given antihistamine, which eased her symptoms. She later underwent tests to see what had brought on such a violent reaction; the results couldn’t have been more surprising.

‘I was told I’d developed an allergy to peanuts and hazelnuts,’ Edwina recalls.

‘It was a real shock, as there is no history of allergies in my family, and I certainly had never had an allergy before.

‘In fact, my husband is a vegetarian and so nut roast had been a staple of our diet. This allergy just came on out of the blue.

‘Now I have to carry an adrenaline jab with me at all times in case I have a really bad reaction.

‘Luckily, that hasn’t happened yet, but the allergy has changed my life. I have to be incredibly careful about what I eat because it takes only a trace of nut to set me off.

‘I went to a friend’s house for lunch a year ago, and although she was very careful to prepare food without nuts there must have been a tiny hint somewhere because I took a mouthful and blotches started to come up on my face.

(continued)

Read on via From peanuts to shellfish… Why are so many adults suddenly getting allergies? | Mail Online.

Obese children more likely to have food allergies

This is an interesting discovery. It’s interesting also that of all the people I know who have food allergies, none of them is of larger than average size. 

Obese children and teens are 26 per cent more likely than kids of a normal weight to have some kind of allergy, especially a food allergy, U.S. researchers report.

But it is not yet clear if obesity actually causes allergies; only an “association” between obesity and allergies was found, said Dr. Darryl Zeldin, the senior author on the paper.

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Refusing Food: Get them used to it early

“No thank you, that could make me sick.”

At my son’s daycare they celebrate every child’s birthday. On most occasions they are accommodating to nut allergies as there are usually a couple children who suffer from this life-threatening condition.

From an early age, we have impressed upon our son how important it is that he is careful with food that is offered to him. He is five years old and on one occasion made us proud that he is so well aware of his situation.

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Introducing Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks

Mr Christie's Snak Paks

Kraft Foods has just introduced a selection of single-portion packs of mini cookies called Mr. Christie’s Snak Paks, and today our five-year-old son and I had the pleasure of trying out the four types that carry a “Peanut-Free” symbol.* Our son is allergic to tree nuts as well, and we were assured by a public relations executive representing Kraft, that these four products were completely peanut-free: Barnum’s Animal Crackers, Teddy Grahams, Mini Chips Ahoy!, and Barnum’s ABC’s Cocoa cookies. They come in brightly coloured, whimsical, 30 g packages — a good treat size.

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Food Allergy Awareness Week in Canada

According to Journal 47 from Tuesday April 28th, 2009 a Motion was passed approving May4-May 8 to be Food Allergy Awareness Week!

No other info has come out of this but be sure we will be keepign an eye on this! Great news!

Source from here.

Take Action to Prevent Reactions

Spreading the word! This FAAN article is getting lots of press and lets take care to practice these actions and CAP it every day!

Take Action to Prevent Reactions during Food Allergy Awareness Week

FAIRFAX, Va. (April 28, 2009) – As part of its ongoing efforts to educate people about food allergies and reduce risk-taking behavior during Food Allergy Awareness Week and on a daily basis, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) reminds everyone to CAP It!

Carry your medicine. Avoid your allergen. Plan ahead to prevent a reaction. Simply put, CAP It can save a life.

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Man died an hour after being treated for peanut allergy

This tragic story has to be told. Why do health professionals feel that a study that is still in it’s infancy is safe to practice on patients? This should never have been done, let alone on someone who is known to have severe allergies to peanuts. I stronly urge anyone who is approached by thier allergenist to consider this story. 

A man who suffered from a peanut allergy collapsed and died from severe anaphylactic shock less than an hour after receiving treatment for his allergy from an alternative medicine practitioner.

 
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Nurse practitioner answers some frequently asked food-allergy questions

I like posting these types of articles because it brings to the forefront some common questions regarding food allergies. You can never have too much info about what to do or how to know what it is.

Nurse practitioner and manager of the Bunning Food Allergy Program at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Christine Szychlinski, is recruiting parents for an extensive, ongoing study to determine the causes of food allergies. She explains some food allergy basics:

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Food Allergy Buzz: Since When Does Heat “Kill” Allergens?!!

In order to help spread this news, please note what FAB has to say below. This is important!

Anyone who knows me well or even visits Food Allergy Buzz on a regular basis probably knows that I spend a good amount of time each day reading food allergy related news. I have many Google Alerts, sometimes more than I can reasonably read in a day. Early Tuesday morning, I came across this article–Food allergies: Tips for Ordering Meals Out–which contained very disturbing misinformation about cross-contamination from a restaurant manager. He was being cited as an expert of sorts on eating out with food allergies. The article also mentioned food allergy mom, author, and advocate, Linda Coss–she was not interviewed for the article, but information from one of her press releases was used in the article. Linda has followed up with the newspaper to correct and clarify the information in the article.

Here is what I found troubling (emphasis added):

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The Nut-Free Mom Blog: A “Green” Approach to Your Food-Allergic Child’s School Lunch

Nut Free Mom has a great focus in honour of Earth Day. Litter Free Lunch offers products and ideas on how to prepare a safe and clean lunch for your children. Have a look at what she has to say!

At the FAAN conference last Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting Felice Farran, a mom of 2 school-aged boys with nut allergies. She also happens to be the co-owner of a company called Litter Free Lunch.

As moms of kids with food allergies, we are all very familiar with packing school lunches! Felice is concerned about the environment as well as her child’s food allergies and she couldn’t find a decent, earth-friendly alternative to paper napkins for her kids’ lunches. So she came up with the idea of offering washable cloth napkins that are perfect for taking to school. The company also has an organic line. Check out their growing product selection at http://www.litterfreelunch.com/.

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Food For Thought — Understanding Food Allergies In Kids

This is a well written general-information article and a good overview for anyone new to allergies or just interested in knowing a bit about it. 

Every year, thousands of parents learn of their children’s food allergies following a reaction that can affect many body systems, including the skin, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and/or cardiovascular systems. About 2 million school age children have food allergy, and one child in 20 under age 3 has food allergy.

Food allergies develop when the immune system misinterprets a food as harmful and develops an immune response against the food. If a child develops allergy antibodies (called IgE) to a food protein, reexposure to that food may be accompanied by a release of chemicals that produce the allergic symptoms.

 
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What to ask at a restaurant/resort.

When you visit a restaurant or on vacation at a resort do you go into detail with the staff regarding the menu and allergy practice in the kitchen? There are many ways to go about getting the ‘good feeling’ about a restaurant from just going on a recommendation and eating there (McDonalds used to be this way) or giving the manager/head-chef the third degree. 

We have come up with some standard questions we like to ask. Sometimes we feel the need to ask them all, sometimes we are satisfied if the management has a strong grasp without the need to ask all the questions.

It is especially wonderful when a staff member offers to give you a tour of a buffet or the menu outlining what is safe and what to stay away from. When someone suggests to stay away from something I also like to ask about the preparation of that dish, if it is prepared separately and safely from the safe dishes.

Do you have a standard list of questions different from what we have below?

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Dog Protects Girl from Peanuts

You have probably heard of these peanut-snififng dogs, but I just love hearing about the feel-good stories. Especially when the person involved is a young one and is extremely allergic.

Do you know of anyone with an allergy dog?

How many kids can say they’ve never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

8-year-old Riley Mers can say that.

And no, she’s not from another planet.

She’s from Monument, Colorado.

The reason Riley can’t eat PB&J is because she’s allergic to peanuts – so severely allergic that when she stepped on a peanut shell one time, it nearly burned through her skin.

For virtually her entire life, Riley has been unable to leave her home or her yard.

Going to school?

Forget about it.

Riley studies online, mostly, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

And when she does go to school, she has to sit in a special room of her own.

After all, what if some other kid brought peanut butter and jelly for lunch?

Riley is so sensitive to peanuts that even peanut dust can cause her to have a life-threatening allergic reaction.

But recently, Riley’s life changed.

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Adapting Passover Recipes For Food Allergies — Courant.com

This time of year does not only affect those of us celbrating Easter but also includes our friends celebrating Passover. The Jewish dishes traditionally contain many ingredients that would be life threatening to allergy sufferers. I found the following story to be appealing to see how a Jewish family overcomes these hurdles to allow thier son to enjoy the holiday.

For Jews, the Passover Seder, with its special dietary laws, rituals and foods, is one of the most important meals of the year. When the Anivum family of Hartford gathers next week to celebrate, charoset, a mixture of apples and nuts, matzo and other traditional dishes, will be on the menu, but with modifications to make them safe for 14-year-old David Anivum, who suffers from anaphylactic egg, nut, peanut and fish allergies.

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