Food Allergies and diet

shaumom wrote: »

Libby283 wrote: »

I have a few new food allergies to work around. I also mostly eat out. Help! I am struggling to find food I can eat. I had a BLT sandwich with no mayo for dinner.

I can’t have egg, white potatoes, coconut, palm oil, turkey, lamb, pork, strawberries, fish or nuts. I dislike steak and get tired of chicken.
I liked salad with toppings like egg, or chicken salad which are now a no go.

Anyone have suggestions of what I can eat?

Sympathy. I have a lot of allergies as well and it's a right pain, yeah?

And...I'm gonna pass on some information that is really important to know, for your future decisions re: meals and food choices. So, please bear with me. :-)

Obviously, your body is releasing histamine when you have an allergic reaction, and then you get symptoms, yeah? What it helps to understand is that the body releases histamine all the time for normal bodily functioning. Histamine is used to elevate your heart rate when you are exercising, startled, or stressed, for example. It's also used in digestion and a number of other things.

So basically, your body releases histamine all the time, with no symptoms or problems at all. A simplified explanation is that you can view your body's histamine levels as a bucket. Histamine in the bucket doesn't cause allergy symptoms. But if the histamine level gets high enough to overflow? (hits your threshold) Then you start having allergy symptoms and life sucks.

The reason this matters to you right now is because you CAN have a reaction to food WITHOUT hives or outward symptoms. If the allergic reaction is small, with a little histamine released (but not a lot), it might make the 'bucket' fuller, but it doesn't always have to overflow the bucket and cause symptoms.

However, the fuller your bucket it, the easier it is to 'overflow' and cause more severe symptoms. So even though you may be able to eat food that can be cross-contaminated - like at a restaurant or pre-made food from equipment lines that don't have special anti-cross-contamination cleaning protocols- and you don't notice symptoms? If it HAS your allergens, even if just from cross-contamination, it's likely that your histamine level is elevated as a result. And more histamine in the bucket means it takes less histamine to overflow and cause symptoms.

In other words, the less careful you are to avoid your allergens, the more problems you are likely to have with future allergens later that day, the next day - basically, until your histamine levels drop again. :-(

I understand that your life right now involves a lot of eating out, or people in the office ordering in, and a lot of time working outside the house that doesn't allow for a lot of cooking time at home. Which means, well, life sucks, in terms of allergies. Because with allergies, it's pretty difficult to avoid all of them (cross-contamination included) at any restaurant, or in pre-made foods. Restaurants are just not able to fully avoid many allergens with the set up that they have. Allergens absolutely can remain in food processing equipment after they are cleaned (there are certain protocols to eliminate as much of the proteins from equipment as possible, but this is more expensive than normal cleaning protocols, so it isn't always used.).

And that means - you are either going to have to making more food at home and get used to taking it with you all the time (in coolers, in fridges, in small bento or lunch boxes in restaurants), or you are going to have to accept getting allergic reactions more frequently. :-( Which absolutely, utterly sucks. But that's pretty much the reality. There will be some foods you can find that are pre-made that may be allergen free for you. There will never be a restaurant meal that you can have that will not carry a risk. Sometimes it'll be okay, sometimes it won't, and it depends on the restaurant, the staff that day, and so on.

Some folks feel the convenience far outweighs the risk, some don't. Most people I know make the decision based on how bad their symptoms are if they have a reaction, you know? Especially if a reaction might impact their job, their ability to care for their kids, their ability to drive, or other important parts of their life.

Although good news for eating out, at least in terms of social experience - I have called ahead to restaurants that we are planning to go to, and if you frame it right, they will usually let you bring your own food in. I usually just say, 'my group is planning to eat at your restaurant, but while the rest of the group will be eating off your menu, I have so many food allergies that I am not able to eat the food you prepare. Could I bring a small lunchbox with my own food to eat in your restaurant?' As long as it's clear that there will be numerous paying customers who will be there along with you (who otherwise obviously would not be, as one assumes they would go with you to someplace you CAN bring food into), the restaurant is usually fine with it. Not always, but usually, in my experience.



So as to the question of what you can eat. First, if you are trying to avoid cross-contamination, see if you can find any groups or lists online (from patients, not medical sites) of cross-contamination risks. Because sadly, doctors are pants at knowing what foods are safe. A lot of food processing these days can introduce ingredients derived from our allergens, or cross-contaminated with them, and doctors keep up on medical information, but NOT on current food processing practices.

People who get sick off the allergens tend to be much more up to date. Although for palm oil, there are so many ecological concerns for it that you can find some good lists of what you'll need to be careful of from boycott lists, for that.

as an example of some things doctors might not know...

Depending on your coconut sensitivity, you may need to be cautious of water filters - many of them used to use coconut fibers as a common part of charcoal filters. Most folks don't have a problem, but I know of one child who was so sensitive that she would react - took them years to figure out why she reacted to water so often. Also, almost every single hygiene cleaning soap/shampoo/body wash contains a coconut derivative. If it foams, there are good odds it has coconut. If you ever get soap/shampoo in your mouth during the shower, you'll be wanting to consider this, potentially.

nuts - you may need to be cautious about peanuts, dried fruit, seeds (sunflower, for ex), and potentially wheat. Wheat, nuts, seeds, peanuts, and/or dried fruits are quite frequently processed on the same lines, for some reason. cross-contamination is not uncommon.


As for recipes you could have - rice is a good base for dishes. They DO have some pre-made bowls of rice in some asian sections of the grocery store that you can nuke to prepare. Then you can get (or make) sauces plus a few veggies or meat to add to the rice and have as a meal.

Other good carb bases for meals can be plantains (some nice Cuban dishes that have plantains, black beans, rice, and fruit and veg), celeriac, cauliflower rice (cauliflower shredded small to use as rice), injera bread (Ethiopian teff based flat bread that you wrap around lentil and meat dishes - it's a little like a crepe crossed with sourdough bread), socca (chickpea based French flatbread), other root veggies that are mashed or fried (so not potato, but rutabaga, turnip, sweet potato, etc...), or grains (sorghum, millet, and corn grits make a good base for savory foods).

I'd look at caribbean foods if you are doing the shellfish thing - lots of nice recipes that can have some interesting ingredients with fruit and beans and such. Asian foods may have some nice shellfish or vegetarian protein (soy is still okay, yeah? - fried tofu can be tasty, with the right sauce). Making a bento could be easy to take with you, and potentially nice to eat.

I know that nothing above is listed as foods you can purchase premade - I honestly don't know of many pre-made foods that would qualify for what you need. Life as someone with allergies is simply much more difficult in terms of acquiring food, especially if you require food that has less work. Because most of the food that is pre-made, so would be less work, has allergens that will make you react (the palm oil is going to be one of the big killers for you, honestly). A lot of folks with a lot of allergies, that I know, do that sort of 1 week food prep stuff. Like, you take one day a week and pre-chop, pre-cook the meals for the whole week, so you have no cooking to do the rest of the week. There are a lot of recipes out there for that type of thing.

Again - allergies suck, and it's far more work to cope with them, sigh. :-(

The one thing, if you have the money for it, might be looking for super-organic, eco-conscious brands for pre-made foods. They'll be 2-4 times more expensive than the same food from other brands, but they are less likely to have palm oil, at least. Vegan foods wouldn't have the meat or eggs, either. Peanuts, if you can find some that aren't nut contaminated, can be a good protein source (some folks buy whole, unshelled peanuts, wash with soap and water and shell themselves, but it's a LOT of work just to have peanuts), but I honestly think tofu would be more likely to be tolerable and easier to buy and use, you know?


Some chickpea based Greek foods, like falafel and hummus, might be okay if you find the right brands, but I haven't looked at them lately (I have to make my own to avoid my allergens).

I wish you good luck. I CAN say that it gets easier. You get used to bringing food all the time, pre-making foods a lot, calling restaurants, reading labels, and so on. It never gets as easy as it used to be, but it just becomes part of your regular life, so it doesn't feel as overwhelming anymore, you know? (if it feels overwhelming at all right now, of course).

And one last thing - if you manage to NOT get your allergens for a couple weeks? It is freaking amazing how much BETTER you feel. So many little things can be allergies - like you are suddenly less tired so you have more energy, sleeping better, have less congestions, or less pain because you have less inflammation. It's amazing how many little crappy things in life turn out to be due to small allergic reactions all the time.