"food allergies" news and stories

Over the weekend a tweet from celebrity chef Rick Bayless caught our attention. It read: "O, wht 2 do? Peanuts all thru r kitchen, severe allergy guest. Cnt serve in good conscience, 4 his safety. Says we owe him $ 4 inconvenience."

While we were unable to reach the chef to get the gritty details, the incident certainly caught the attention of Bayless' Twitter followers and those with food allergies -- who agreed that the chef made the right call, including Chris Wiess, VP of advocacy and government relations for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

"When I first read the tweet, I was impressed with his response. It does seem like he took the issue to heart. If a restaurant manager or employee looked around and assessed the situation, and felt that they couldn't provide a safe meal, we wouldn't want them to take a risk. What Rick did was very admirable," said Weiss.

For chefs and restaurant owners, guests with food allergies aren't going away anytime soon, and the consequences are deadly serious. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 100 to 200 people die in the United States from severe food allergy-related reactions each year. (Keep reading, and take our food-allergy poll after the jump.)

If you have an allergy to eggs, wheat or peanuts, you're far from alone.

Allergies appear to be on the rise, affecting about 10 to 12 million people, says the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). And according to a national survey, "elementary school nurses identified food allergy as a larger problem than diabetes," states Mary Jane Marchisotto, executive director of Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) in a press release. But thanks to the first-ever allergen guide, issued Monday by NIAID, doctors may soon have a better grip on proper diagnosis and treatment. (The full clinical guide is now available to the public on the official NIAID Web site, and a parents' guide is in the works.)

To better equip the health-care community, NIAID pulled extensive research from a group of 34 professional organizations, federal agencies and patient advocacy groups, including the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) for "Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States."

In two-year-old Ethan Wily's church nursery program, photos hang of the children and next to each is listed his or her personal food allergies, according to a CNN article. The article's author uses the anecdote to illustrate the fact that allergies to common foods like nuts and shellfish seem to be growing more common among kids across the United States.

The number of kids with food allergies spiked 18 percent between 1997 and 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found, CNN reported. About 3 million children under 18 had food or digestive allergies in 2007, according to the CDC.

Is it the Western diet? Is it that kids aren't being exposed to common allergens at an early enough age?

Doctors aren't sure.

Some speculate that the Western diet -- sanitized as it is -- is creating an opportunity for allergies to develop.

Beware! Allergens abound at most eateries. Photo: Dan4th/ Flickr

Hanna Raskin's first waitressing job was at a small Greek diner in Michigan. In the 15 years since, she's worked at a chop suey joint in Mississippi, an exclusive Arizonan country club, a vegetarian eatery and an Irish pub. She currently picks up odd shifts at a seafood eatery in the North Carolina mountains, where she cracks crab legs for helpless tourists. This is the second in a series of posts.

My mother, who has a severe shellfish allergy, hasn't tasted seafood since the Eisenhower administration. Since she hasn't a clue whether crustaceans are salty, sweet or sour, she suspects they're lurking everywhere on the menu: "Now, does this cheesecake have any shellfish?" she'll ask her very patient server.

As a kid, I cringed at my mom's fastidiousness. Because really, who would put shrimp in granola? But with chefs now fusing ingredients at a breakneck pace and food allergies multiplying at an unprecedented rate, my mother isn't the only one asking. Twelve million Americans suffer from food allergies, and they're demanding that restaurants accommodate them.

I've always been thankful that I'm not allergic to anything. I breathe a sigh of relief every time I get to say "not that I know of" when the doctor asks if I'm allergic to anything. At the same time, I've always felt really bad for people who do suffer from food allergies. Lactose intolerance? You poor thing! What? You can't eat wheat/bread? I just don't think I could make it.

I realize that if you are one of the people who can't eat certain foods you get used to it and take it in stride. And of course, food labels are enormously useful in helping people avoid those dangerous foods. Even though there are more, manufacturers are required to list the top eight, which are responsible for 90% of allergic reactions. I'm sure all of these look familiar to any careful label reader!

1. wheat
2. soy
3. peanuts
4. tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
5, milk
6. eggs
7. fish
8. shellfish