Do you ever wonder why you never see the words allergy free on our products or website?

I began using the term allergy friendly about 6 years ago and ever since then have been correcting those who refer to Nonuttin’ products as allergy free.  While I can understand that like “gluten free”, it’s a quick and easy way to refer to products that are designed for those with food allergies, it doesn’t communicate the true reality of food allergies. Read more »

If you’re like me, there have been times when you wondered whether your child actually had a food allergy or whether they had outgrown the allergy.  Both of our children outgrew dairy allergies which we didn’t know until we actually tried milk with them under our doctor’s guidance.  Until recently, we thought Megan might have outgrown her kiwi allergy but she wasn’t willing to do an oral challenge.  Unfortunately, as you may know from an earlier blog post and the Nonuttin’ News, we found out the hard way in December that kiwi is still very much one of her food allergies.

What if there was a blood test that was far more accurate than anything we have right now (skin or blood) that could give a definitive diagnosis without an oral challenge?  Would you feel relieved? Read more »

Oh boy, you’d think that being deprived of peanuts and nuts for approximately 1-14 hours was akin to snatching a bottle out of a baby’s hands.  Add in food allergies being referred to as a disability and you’ve got people frothing at the mouth. Read more »

My heart is feeling 2 sizes too small these days.  I may not be green but I seem to be feeling the same biological issue affecting one of my favorite Dr. Seuss characters.  It’s not that I want to steal Christmas but that I’m feeling like I’d rather avoid it altogether.

I’ll be hosting my side of the family which is the first time we’ll all be together in the 7 years since we moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island.  The distance was just too great to drive over the wintery Rocky Mountains for 15 hours to my sister’s house and 17 hours to my parents’ house and too costly to afford airfare along with everything else that comes with Christmas.  But this year we all decided to make sure we could get together since my eldest nephew will be out of high school this year and most likely moving on to other things.  It was time to bite the bullet and be in the same place.

Add to our family of 10 the French exchange student that we’ll have for Christmas (don’t ask, it seemed like a good idea at the time) and we’ll have 11 people in the house for a week, 5 of them teenagers.

I’m now working on Christmas presents for the family and the French student along with planning meals and baking, all a bunch of things I haven’t had to worry about for years.  So I’m starting to feel the Grinch as I worry about what food is coming to our house and planning dairy free meals for our French student along with all of the allergy issues we always deal with.

I’m sure it will work out just fine but I forgot how stressful it can be, right at the time when society’s expectation is that we’re joyful.  Guess it’s time to get rid of the Grinch and channel my inner Who.

Time today for a little rant.  What’s new?  The topic is demos.  You know, where ladies stand behind a table in your grocer’s aisle, complete with a hair net and gloves.  They offer little samples of various food products, coupons and more.  Many people love food demos and even go to Costco every Saturday to “lunch” on the samples.  Companies do food demos because if consumers try the product we may like it or simply feel guilty and agree to buy an item from that kindly lady behind the table.

99% of the time I avoid food demos, whether or not my allergic child is with me.  In fact, I really try not to make eye contact and have been known to avoid aisles completely if it means I can bypass a demo.  When I have stopped, I’m inevitably disappointed, if not downright ticked off.  Sometimes I can see right away that there are food allergens that we need to avoid in the product but other times I have heard allergen information from the presenter that’s not even close to the mark.  As an example, several years ago Nestle came out with a new Real Dairy product line of ice cream.  Of course, we Canadians know that Nestle has several peanut free chocolate bars on the market here so hope surged within me that I just might be able to get a delicious new ice cream that was safe for our whole family.   Read more »

I spoke to the  producer of a national talk show last week and part of that discussion was telling her all of the major national brands in Canada that have begun producing and labeling items as Peanut Free.  She asked me to send her a couple of those products along with Nonuttin’ samples so that she could see what kind of selection is available to Canadians but not to Americans.  So off to the grocery store I went.

Many items such as candies and chocolate bars were really easy with Halloween coming soon.  The store had huge displays of all of the peanut free items currently being offered and I had no problem finding all sorts of goodies.  I then headed to the cracker and cookie and fruit snacks aisles where I added several Dare products to my cache.

Along the way, I decided to try and get at least a few items that were both peanut free and dairy free because the producer’s child suffers from both of those allergies and I hoped to send a pleasant surprise their way.  That’s when the going really got tough.  I haven’t had to shop dairy free for several years since both of my girls outgrew their dairy allergies.  I discovered that it hasn’t gotten any easier and with all of the peanut free items that I could find I was only able to get 1 item that didn’t have dairy or traces of dairy in it.

While I’m thankful that my own children’s allergies no longer include dairy, it seems to me that the manufacturing world’s focus on peanut free has really given dairy the short shrift.  And it has somehow communicated to the world at large that only peanut allergies are life threatening and need monitoring.  For those of you with dairy allergies, I know I’m preaching to the choir but this grocery trip really opened my eyes up anew.

I’ve said for years that I believe the most difficult allergens to avoid are dairy, wheat and soy.  I find this holds true in my search for ingredients for Nonuttin’ products too.  And despite my desire to have Nonuttin’ products soy free as well, I have discovered that even if we were to remove soy from our own facility, so many of the ingredients we source have soy cross contamination issues that I wouldn’t be comfortable labeling our products as soy free.

I’m not sure what it will take to have other major allergens come to the forefront like peanut has but I think we’ve got a long way to go.

Our allergic child is 13 today.  Like all parents, I feel that sometimes 13 years have zipped past while other times I feel like time has stood still.  I still feel like a young woman but the obvious signs such as 2 teenagers in the house now, not to mention the mirror, would prove otherwise.

I do find that my husband and I are different from many other parents in the way that we celebrate each birthday of our youngest child; we celebrate that we got her to another birthday unharmed.  At first, I thought that we were an anomaly and I wasn’t telling too many people how we viewed these birthday milestones.  But it turns out that other parents do this too.  A couple of our staff members are like that because one has a child with diabetes while another almost lost her child 4 years ago when he was brain injured.

I suppose it’s a little morbid to think this way but it makes sense when you think about what we live with every day.  Even though we live each day with the appearance of being  “normal”, there’s always that niggling little fear of a life threatening reaction that we tuck away in a little compartment so that we don’t drive ourselves crazy with the what if? scenarios.

  So, while it might be weird, I’m really happy my daughter’s having a birthday this year and I’m hoping for many more to come.

It’s the Victoria Day long weekend and so begins the odyssey of lily-white, sun-starved Canadians into the wilds of Canada bearing backpacks, tents, hot dog forks and sunscreen.  Forget that the forecast is only a chilly 15 degrees Celsius here on Vancouver Island this weekend, we’re going if we have to wear toques.  Luckily, we upgraded to a tent trailer last year so no sleeping on the ground will be required.

So what does it take to go camping with a peanut, nut and kiwi allergic child?  Surprisingly, it’s getting a little easier now that we have some favorite brands of items that go with us, not to mention Nonuttin’ granola, granola bars and trail mix.  We take a nut free brand of chocolate covered cookies that we use for S’mores, our own bread and buns, bake our own goodies and after that, it’s all about fruit, veggies and what can be cooked on an open flame.

This time, we’re not going alone so the planning does get a bit more complicated.  Like school events, this is where I find it easiest to simply volunteer to make all of the baked goods required.  Luckily, my 2 girls are like their mom and love to bake and cook so while I worked today, the muffins, banana bread and cake (there’s an anniversary celebration today too) were magically created at home since my girls had the day off school.  I love this teenager stuff (bet you don’t hear that too often).

I have to admit that when we first started camping when the girls were little, I was really concerned about being away from home in case an allergic reaction occurred.  Of course, we always have epi pens both on our daughter and ourselves but being away from civilization was worrisome.  What I discovered, at least on Vancouver Island, is that camping is not what I remember it to be when I was a child.  My dad was one of those guys who eschewed anything paved and took us on back roads into places I’m not sure we were actually allowed to camp.  I remember being rescued from a mud pit once by a logging crew after my dad got my grandparents motorhome stuck on particularly nasty back road.  Not exactly where I’d want to be in case of an emergency.

But every provincial park we’ve been to so far is removed from the main roads enough to feel isolated and away from civilization while still being no more than 10 minutes from a main highway, phones and even a grocery store.  I feel fairly comfortable with that. 

And now that I  have convinced my husband that camp food can be more than just hot dogs and eating out of cans, we’re all set.

Like the economy and the swine flu, allergy and Celiac news seems to have a certain pattern.  Doom, gloom, and then a light at the end of the tunnel.  Recent news from the specialty diet world is no exception.  But, like life, sometimes it takes the doom and gloom to truly appreciate that light so here are a few highlights from various places around the globe:

Allergy Mom’s Newsletter:  Gina Clowes is the mom of a multiple food allergic child and a tireless advocate for special diet families.  Her most recent newsletter was disturbing because it features an interview with a parent who lost a child last year to a peanut allergy.  What was very enlightening was that this parent mentions that his family had come to expect a certain kind of reaction from their teen and were completely caught off guard when this life-ending reaction occurred.  It’s also a wake-up call to remind all food allergic parents that a “mild” allergy is not always predictable.  Our family had quite a discussion around this terrible tragedy.  You can read Gina’s interview with the father on the Allergy Mom’s April 25 Newsletter.

Recently Anaphylaxis Canada has asked for those living in British Columbia to respond to proposed changes to the BC medical act that would allow naturopaths to treat allergic patients as part of their scope of practice.  Anaphylaxis Canada’s concerns are that  food allergic individuals (as opposed to intolerances) should be treated in a medical setting where intervention would be possible in the case of an anaphylactic reaction to treatment.  That position bears thought when hearing about a recent Dublin inquest where a man died from peanut allergy while being treated with alternative methods.

Did you know that this week is National Food Allergy Awareness Week in the United States and last week was National Food Allergy Awareness Week in Canada?  To learn more about increasing awareness any week of the year, please visit the FAAN website (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) in the US and Anaphylaxis Canada’s website in Canada.

Nonuttin’ Foods began providing GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) free products 2 years ago because there have been questions raised as to whether genetically engineered food could be having an effect on the rising rates of food allergies.  Since there have been no specific studies to date really delving into that question, we prefer to avoid genetically manipulated foods and advocate labeling (not currently required in North America) to allow the customer a choice.  Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they have provided a research grant to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine to investigate that question.  It may take many years to have the question answered but at least it is a start.

Did you know that there is a correlation between rising food allergy rates and the rising rates of childhood obesity?  A new study looks at the possibility that one is affecting the other.

Peanut allergy gets a lot of media attention often because of its severity and in recent years, the amount of well known food processors that have begun labeling their products as peanut free (Mars, Nestle, Christie to name a few in Canada).   However, as reported in the UK recently, fruit and vegetable allergies, particularly Oral Allergy Syndrome, is gaining ground on the peanut and may be considered the epidemic of the food allergy world for the new century.

And finally, (are you getting tired of all of this news yet?) it looks like pure oats will finally be allowed gluten free certification in Canada.   For any of you who have tried to decipher exactly why you don’t see “gluten free” on our Canadian labels and website while we can on our US information, the confusion may finally be coming to an end.  Essentially, Health Canada’s position is that pure oats are a suitable addition to most gluten free diets and may help add some needed fiber and nutrition to the Celiac diet within reason (i.e. 10 bowls of pure oats a day is too much of a good thing – for anybody!).  But that doesn’t mean we’re allowed to put “gluten free” on our granola labels in Canada because oats aren’t allowed to be called gluten free, also according to Health Canada.  However, the Canadian Celiac Association is expected to roll out a new pure oats certification program at their annual conference in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario on May 31 which may change all of that.  I’ll be there with bells on!

I’m glad to know that I’m not going crazy; well, not in one sense at least.  It had seemed to me that we’ve fielded many more sesame questions over the last couple of years and it seemed that sesame was an allergen that was present with 1 or more other food allergens, such as peanut or dairy.  My hunch has now been proven right.

At John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Robert Wood has indicated that their evidence shows that sesame allergies have grown the most of any food allergy in the last 2 decades and is now in the top 6-7 food allergens.  This statistic, gleaned from patient files over 3 years, was presented at the recent American Academy of Asthma and Immunology annual meeting.  You can read more about this article at:  http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=98576 

Sesame is already listed in Canada as one of the top 10 food allergens and in the UK and Europe as one of the top 12 but the FDA is reviewing whether sesame should be declared in the US (it’s currently not in their top 8).   In my limited experience, I’ve found that many US parents of sesame allergic children aren’t aware of where sesame might be lurking beyond the obvious crackers and hamburger buns simply because manufacturers aren’t declaring it.  As the use of sesame becomes more common due, in part, to the growing ethnic food availability, it will be very difficult to avoid, particularly when used as a whole as opposed to paste.  Sesame testing for such tiny particulate matter can literally be hit and miss.

If these numbers are accurate, it would appear that sesame should be added to US declarations sooner rather than later.