Pages Tagged “Food Allergy”
Blog Posts
- Fly the Anaphylactic Skies
At first I thought this was a followup to another story about an anaphylactic reaction during an airplane flight last week. No, it’s a totally separate incident. One patient had an expired epi-pen. The other had never had anaphylaxis before. Both planes had bottles of epinephrine and a syringe, not an auto-injector. Fortunately there were […]
- Intentionally Contaminated
Food companies are adding sesame flour to foods that didn’t have sesame so they can “comply” with new labeling requirements by always labeling “contains sesame” instead of instead of adding it to their existing cross-contamination protocols. Meaning people with sesame allergy are suddenly finding that foods they used to be able to eat are now […]
- To Die For. Really!
There’s a peanut allergy alert for “Chocolate to Die For” ice cream. I don’t think the name was intended to be taken literally.
- Could You Be a Bit More Specific?
I found this photo on my phone from sometime last year, back when you could still go to self-serve frozen yogurt/ice cream places. The label is…well…TBH it’s accurate, if a bit vague…
- Yes, Adults Have Food Allergies Too — More Than Previously Thought
Discussion of food allergies tends to focus on children (for a lot of reasons), but a recent study found a much higher rate of food allergies among adults than expected. They found that 10.8 percent of American adults – that extrapolates to 26 million people! — reported a convincing food allergy (based on actual symptoms […]
- Food Allergy Shots Moving Forward
If you have environmental allergies to pollen, dust, animals, etc. you’ve long had the option of taking shots to desensitize yourself to the allergen. That hasn’t been the case for food allergies. But a pollen allergy is a lot less likely to kill you than a nut allergy. Some sort of treatment beyond “try not […]
- Wondering About Age and Food Allergy Deaths
OK, this is a bit morbid, but bear with me. Most news stories about deaths from food allergies feature children or teenagers, maybe young adults in their twenties. You read about grieving parents. You rarely read about the 40-year-old who leaves behind a grieving spouse and kids. Food allergies send a lot of people to […]
- Aw, Nuts!
Silly as it sounds to recall nuts for undeclared nuts, not all nuts are the same. If you’re allergic to cashews but not pecans, you want to know whether the pecans you might eat have come in contact with cashews. And that’s not even getting into the peanut/tree nut difference! In this case [Edit: link […]
- Preventable Death. From Grilled Cheese.
If you are told a child in your care has a severe food allergy, believe them. Don’t kill a three-year-old with a grilled cheese sandwich.
- Walk for Food Allergy: Studio Edition
Today I joined hundreds of people at the CBS Studios in Los Angeles to raise money for Food Allergy Research and Education through the FARE Walk for Food Allergy. We skipped last year and decided to join this year’s event at the last minute. Rather than walking along the shore at Long Beach, this year’s […]
- Teal Pumpkins Go Retail
Cool: Michael’s is selling plastic teal pumpkins for people who plan on offering non-food treats for allergic trick or treaters as part of the Teal Pumpkin Project. You can still paint a pumpkin teal, of course, but this simplifies the setup. (Are we really that close to Halloween already?)
- Why would you risk eating out with a food allergy?
Someone always asks this. It’s like asking why, if a car could kill your child, you would cross the street with them instead of keeping them home?
- The office snack tray. Or as I call it, the minefield.
Sure, there are a few things that don’t have peanuts in them (or at least aren’t supposed to). And there are potato chips too. I’ve taken to bringing my own string cheese and keeping it in the fridge. It’s one way to be sure there’s something I can eat safely.
- Peanuts in Thin Mints Nestle Crunch
Limited edition Thin Mints Nestle Crunch bars contain ground peanuts, even though neither regular Crunch nor Thin Mints cookies contain peanuts.
- Epi-pen How-To
A diagram of how to administer an epi-pen to someone experiencing severe anaphylaxis as a result of a food allergy, bee sting, etc.
- Fuzzy Memories of Duck Food Danger
A moment of deja vu while helping at a preschool field trip got me thinking about early childhood memories of a food allergy incident.
- A Teal Pumpkin for Halloween
The idea behind the Teal Pumpkin Project is to offer alternate Halloween treats that aren’t candy, so that kids with severe food allergies can still go Trick-or-Treating. It started last year in Tennessee, and FARE picked it up and promoted it nationwide this year. When I was a child, I always had to either decline […]
- Walking (and walking, and walking) for Food Allergy
The family went out to raise money for food allergy research, and learned why it’s called Long Beach.
- What people don’t do after allergies send them to the ER
Study: Only 54% of people experiencing an ER visit for anaphylaxis get an epinephrine injector, and only 22% see an allergist within the next year. Scary.
- Kind of Messy
I…uh… think I’ll get my ice cream bowl somewhere else. Peanuts vs. food allergies, and all that. Also, I’m going to need to walk around a while before I touch my shoes. People have been kind of messy. Originally part of a longer post kicking off fundraising for this year’s Walk for Food Allergy.
- Lessons From a Teen Food Allergy Tragedy
Allergic Living has advice on how to respond to a severe allergic reaction, particularly when to administer epinephrine and seek emergency medical treatment. At first she didn’t show any symptoms and her mother gave her a dose of antihistamine; but in 20 minutes the systemic reaction began. Her father, a physician, gave her three doses […]
- Going to the ER at Comic-Con: Not the Peanuts I was Expecting
You don’t expect to find peanuts in coffee, but two sips were enough to put me in an ambulance and wipe out an entire afternoon of Comic-Con.
- Promising Peanut Allergy Treatment
Studies of sublingual desensitizing treatment for peanut allergy show promise, with 70% of participants able to handle the equivalent of two peanuts after a year.
- I knew those looked familiar!
These are the voyages of the starship Epinephrine. Please help support its continuing mission.
- Allergy Incident on Vacation: That’s Not Sunbutter
The menu had a Sunbutter sandwich, but that’s not what they gave us. Dining out with food allergies requires thinking like Mad-Eye Moody: CONSTANT VIGILANCE
- Allergies In Your Head?
Someone once asked if my allergies were all in my head. How can my head influence a blood test in a lab three states away?
- Ticked off by Meat Allergy
People are becoming allergic to meat after tick bites.
- Spinning the Recall
A food company goes the extra mile to remind you that their product is fantastic, even in the middle of issuing a recall for an allergy-related packaging mix-up.
- 2011 Allergy Walk Complete!
The 4th LA Walk for Food Allergy went well on a gloomy Santa Monica day. We raised $1000 of the $43K, had a Superman/Flash race, and almost lost the car downtown.
- Walk For Food Allergy: Please Help Me Raise Funds for Research & Education
I’ll be walking to raise funds for research and education. Food allergies can be life-threatening, but the causes are still poorly understood, and a lot of people who don’t have allergies either don’t understand or just don’t care about the risks to others.
- Dietary “Demands”?
I’m not sure who annoys me more: The people who think that those of us who have food allergies are all a bunch of whining hypochondriacs and/or drama queens who just want attention, and the tiny percentage who really do have allergies shouldn’t expect to ever eat outside the home, or… The people who lie […]
- Cashew! (Gesundheit)
Who puts cashews on Hawaiian pizza? Apparently Red Brick Pizza does. They kindly made a cashew-free replacement for it.
- Backwards
From a food allergy alert released today: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., is recalling “Chocolate Covered Almonds” due to undeclared peanuts and “Chocolate Double-Dipped Peanuts” due to undeclared almonds. [emphasis added] I have to wonder: are they just really bad about keeping their ingredients separate, or did they get the labels switched on a […]
- Allergen-free? Try again!
Sign at Whole Foods: Allergen-free fish sticks. Okaaay…but what if you’re allergic to fish?
- Church to 8-year-old: Drink the Kool-aid
Time to add an “outrage” category. This is just insane: A church panel has invalidated a girl’s communion because she can’t eat wheat (original article here). The girl has celiac disease, which means any amount of wheat can cause her serious health problems. A local priest was willing to let her use a rice-based wafer, […]
- Allergy labeling
The top food allergens must now be labeled clearly on ingredient statements. Voluntary labels have been quite helpful…well, most of them have.
- Warning: Contains Ingredients
Here’s another interesting Food Allergy Alert: Wisconsin Cheesecake Co., Inc., is recalling 28-oz. Candy Bar Cheesecakes containing either Butterfinger, Reese’s Pieces, Peanut Butter Cup, or Snickers brands because they contain undeclared peanuts. Now I’m not sure what’s stranger about this: the fact that someone managed to leave peanuts off the ingredients list, or that they […]
- Details, please?
Excerpt from a recent Food Allergy Alert: Sunny Lake Trading, Inc. is recalling 10-oz. plastic bags of “Candy” because they contain undeclared peanuts. Gotta love their marketing scheme. “I’d like to buy some candy, please.” It reminds me of those long-distance phone companies with names like “The Cheapest One.”