"allergy" news and stories

Can you believe that the cake on the front cover of this book is gluten free? Is everyone - whether you have allergies or not - drooling? 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes is, as the title suggests, a cookbook of entirely gluten-free recipes that work. It's a great resource for both celiacs and for people who have friends and family with celiac disease. The recipes cover every meal of the day and primarily consist of made-over recipes that will reintroduce old favorites (now gluten-free, of course) back into your kitchen. There are many different muffins, cookies, cakes and even recipes for sandwich loaves because when authors Donna Washburn and Heather Butt asked families what kinds of gluten-free recipes they were interested in seeing, these were some of the favorites that they named. They're comforting foods and the book lets celiacs keep them that way.

In addition to the recipes, which are accompanied by wonderful photographs, there is an extensive guide to alternative flours and techniques for using them, which will enable cooks to adapt some of their old favorites to a new dietary standards.

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A 19-year old South Carolina man died as a result of eating a batch of pancakes from an expired mix. It wasn't exactly the pancakes that killed him, though. He seems to have had an allergic reaction to a mold that grew in the mix.

As unfortunate as this story is, it can illustrate a valuable point to everyone about checking expiration dates, especially on things that have a long shelf life. While the ingredients, which in the case of pancake mixes consist primarily of flour, can last for a long time in a cool, dry place, unwanted things can develop over time. Sometimes a product can smell or look "off, though a potential problem may not be obvious to the naked eye. "Unseen molds can trigger both minor and severe allergic reactions, so it is best to throw out an old mix than to risk anaphylactic shock - especially if you are prone to allergies.

 Update: Link is now fixed

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There's a lot of banning of foods going on these days - first sodas from school campuses to help fight childhood obesity, and now...nuts. With the seeming increase in peanut and other tree-nut allergies, schools, restaurants and airlines are banning foods that contain peanuts, almonds, walnuts, and other tree nuts.

I understand the idea behind "banning" say, sodas from schools. Sodas and junk foods are blamed for the decline in nutrition and increase of childhood obesity, so they must be removed from school campuses, where the target audience is likely not able to make wise, informed choices. They are children.

But peanuts? I do not particularly love peanuts, almonds, walnuts, or things that contain them like peanut butter. And I certainly understand the severity and gravity of nut allergies. In schools, removing nuts might be a good idea based on the same idea with sodas - that children with allergies don't always know what they're eating. However, it seems somewhat extreme to ban these foods from restaurants and airplanes, as if adult consumers weren't smart enough to make the choice not to eat something that is potentially life threatening to themselves.

If you have a peanut allergy, don't you know that you do? If you have a peanut allergy, you are careful about what you eat and don't have a problem asking what's in a certain food. If you have a life-threatening allergy, you're probably carrying an epi-pen, too.

 

Well, not exactly. Scientists are working with an enzyme found in fruits and vegetables that may prove useful in lessening severe allergic reactions to peanuts. In lab tests, the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO) changed the proteins in peanut extracts such that they couldn't bind with certain antibodies and cause an allergic reaction. Still, this was only true for two of the eight allergens found in peanuts, and tests on animals or humans are far off. The goal of the current research is not to develop peanut products that are intended for those with peanut allergies, but to lower the risk of severe reactions if someone were to accidentally consume peanuts.

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Peanut and other tree nut allergies generally produce the most severe reactions. Approximately 0.6% of Americans have peanut/tree nut allergies, out of a total of 1.6% with food allergies of some kind. Unlike some other allergies, which seem to be outgrown by children, the reaction to these nuts does not fade with age and can increase in severity with each exposure. In fact, the number of people who have food allergies seems to be increasing, according to Dr. Hugh A. Sampson of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the Journal of Pediatrics, though he notes that the reason for the rise has not yet been determined. It is thought that the increase may be due to an increase in the number of trace exposures to allergens, a concern that has contributed to the FDA's push for new labeling laws.

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