Food Allergies For Dummies E-Book

Robert A. Wood

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 567

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Includes over 25 allergen-free recipes!

Covers peanut allergy and the new labeling guidelines

Are you constantly worrying about what you or your loved ones eat? Is every dining experience an episode of anxiety for you? Being allergic to different types of food not only ruins the experience of eating, it can lead to dangerous, sometimes lethal, consequences.

With Food Allergies for Dummies, you can feel safer about what you eat. This concise guide shows you how to identify and avoid food that triggers reactions. This guide covers how to care for a child with food allergies, such as getting involved with his/her school’s allergy policies, packing safe lunches, and empowering him/her to take responsibility for his allergy. You will also discover:

• The signs and symptoms of food allergies
• How to determine the severity of your allergy
• Ways to eat out and travel with allergies
• How to create your own avoidance diet
• Ways to enjoy your meal without allergic symptoms
• How to prevent food allergies from affecting your child
• The latest research being done to treat food allergies

Food Allergies for Dummies also provides an in-depth chapter on peanut allergy and how to spot traces of peanut in your food. With this book, you will feel safer and more comfortable while you eat. And, with plenty of helpful resources such as Web sites and allergy-friendly recipes, you’ll hardly have to worry about your diet!

Leseprobe

Food Allergies For Dummies

by Robert A. Wood, MD, with Joe Kraynak

Food Allergies For Dummies®

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007920012

ISBN: 978-0-470-09584-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

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A s the incidence of food allergy continues to increase in the U.S., particularly in children, the need for an easy-to-read book also has increased. With Food Allergies For Dummies, Dr. Wood has provided all of us with a handy reference tool.

As someone who has a peanut allergy, he is in a unique position to write this book. Dr. Wood understands this topic personally and professionally. His easy-to-read writing style and calm demeanor make him a favorite among patients throughout the country and around the world.

The articles he writes for parents are reprinted by organizations around the world. At FAAN’s annual meetings, Dr. Wood is a favorite speaker. Families travel thousands of miles to visit his clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. For those with young children, he helps unravel the mystery and brings a diagnosis and treatment plan that helps the children and their families. Teens, the highest risk group for severe or fatal reactions, visit his office to hear from someone who really does understand the opposing forces of striving for independence while having to be cautious and always ready for the unexpected reaction.

His writing style leaves you feeling like you know him. Most importantly, he touches on all the key topics — including why peanuts cause so many reactions, why food allergy is increasing, and where you are likely to find allergens. Dr. Wood shares his personal experiences with peanut allergy reactions, reminding us all that even one of the world’s leading experts sometimes has reactions. He helps us learn from his mistakes and how to assess risks to minimize stress or worry.

If you are looking for a book that you can sit and read quietly, this is it. If you need a book you can use as a reference tool, this one fits that bill too. You won’t be disappointed with Food Allergies For Dummies. You’ll find yourself recommending it to everyone you know, just like the patients who travel long distances just to speak to Dr. Wood.

Anne Munoz-Furlong Founder and CEO The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network

About the Authors

Robert A. Wood, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and International Health and Chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, he completed his residency in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed an allergy and immunology fellowship. Dr. Wood is an internationally recognized expert in food allergy and childhood asthma and has published over 100 manuscripts in scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics, and the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, as well as two books and numerous book chapters. He is Deputy Editor of the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, was Associate Editor of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. He personally cares for over 4,000 patients with food allergy and has a special interest in this topic as someone with a severe, lifelong peanut allergy.

Joe Kraynak is a freelance author who has written and co-authored dozens of books on topics ranging from slam poetry to computer basics. Joe teamed up with Dr. Candida Fink to write his first book in the For Dummies series, Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, where he showcased his talent for translating the parlance of psychiatry into plain-spoken practical advice. He then tackled Flipping Houses For Dummies with legendary real estate pro Ralph Roberts to produce the ultimate guide for real estate rehabbers. In Food Allergies For Dummies, Joe returns to the doctor’s office with world-renowned allergist, Robert Wood, MD, to pen the definitive guide to living well with food allergies.

For additional details about the authors, late breaking food allergy research, and more practical information on the diagnosis and treatment of food allergies, visit Dr. Robert Wood’s Food Allergy website at www.drrobertwood.com.

Dedication

From Robert Wood: To my wife, Renee Melly Wood, DVM, for her unbelievable patience and support, to my parents, Dr. Bob and Carol Wood, for their consistent support and lifelong example of hard work, integrity, and compassion to all, and to my brother David, for all he taught me about life before his tragic death.

From Joe: In memory of my brother Mitch, a brilliant physician and an outstanding human being who passed away well before his time.

Authors’ Acknowledgments

Although we wrote the book, dozens of other talented individuals contributed to its conception, development, and perfection. Special thanks go to acquisitions editor Lindsay Lefevere, who chose us as the authors and guided us through the tough part of getting started. Jennifer Connolly, our project editor, deserves a round of applause for acting as a very patient collaborator and choreographer — shuffling chapters back and forth, shepherding the text and photos through production, and asking a whole lot of questions to ensure that you would have all your questions answered. We also tip our hats to the production crew for doing such an outstanding job of transforming a loose collection of text and illustrations into such an attractive bound book.

We owe special thanks to the folks at FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network), especially FAAN founder Anne Munoz-Furlong, for gathering the recipes for the delectable dishes served up in the appendix and for writing the foreword for our book.

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Feasting on Food Allergy Fundamentals

Chapter 1: Breaking Out with Food Allergies

Pinning Down Food Allergy: What’s an Allergy, and What’s Not?

Meeting the Many Faces of Food Allergies: Signs and Symptoms

Investigating the Conspiracy: Allergens and Other Contributing Factors

Labeling Your Maladies with a Doctor’s Diagnosis

Battling Back with Medications, Modifications, and Other Therapies

Getting the Lowdown on Potential Futuristic Cures

Living Large with Your Food Allergies

Unmasking Common Food Allergy Myths

Chapter 2: Turning Allergies Inside Out: Probable Causes and Common Symptoms

Finding Out What’s Wrong with Your Food

Finding Out What’s Wrong with You

Exploring the Sudden Rise in Food Allergies

Gauging Your Child’s Risk for Developing a Food Allergy

Exploring Common Signs and Symptoms

Chapter 3: Spotting the Usual Suspects: Wherefore Art Thou, Allergen?

Naming the Common Culprits

Ingesting Allergens with Your Food

Calming the Fears of Contact Reactions

Clearing the Air About the Risks of Airborne Allergens

Chapter 4: Picking On Peanuts: A Potentially Deadly Foe

Investigating the Allergic Nature of Peanuts

Playing Find-the-Peanut on Your Plate

Inhaling Peanut Dust: Airborne Reactions

Steering Clear of the Other Nuts

Part II : Progressing from Hives to Hope: Diagnosis and Treatment

Chapter 5: Labeling Your Ailments with an Accurate Diagnosis

Taking a Flyover View of the Diagnostic Journey

Self-Screening for Food Allergies

Taking a Trip to Your General Practitioner

Seeking an Allergist’s Advice

Getting the Skinny on Allergy Workups

Looking for Clues with Additional Diagnostic Tools

Chapter 6: Concocting Your Own Avoidance Diet

Setting Sensible Goals

Drawing Up Your Avoidance Diet

Decrypting Food Labels: Allergen-Savvy Grocery Shopping

Approaching Warning Labels with Caution

Feeding Your Nutritional Needs

Taking Turns with a Rotation Diet

Chapter 7: Making It Stop: Finding Symptomatic Relief

Pro-Acting and Reacting to Anaphylaxis

Dealing with Itchy Stuff: Eczema

Dealing with More Itchy Stuff: Hives

Alleviating Gut-Retching Food Allergies

Catching Your Breath . . . Asthma Symptoms and Treatments

Treating a Chronic “Cold”: Allergic Rhinitis

Chapter 8: Debunking Alternative Tests and Therapies

Exposing Meaningless Tests and Other Mumbo Jumbo

Demystifying Homeopathy: A Little Hair of the Dog That Bit You

Deflating the Hype Surrounding Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs

Addressing the Leaky-Gut Hypothesis

Healing Yourself through Mind, Body, and Soul Manipulations

Solving Allergies through Acupuncture or Acupressure

Chapter 9: Exploring Cures from Mice to Man: Current Research

Muting Allergen Sensitivities through Immunotherapy

Treating Your Allergies to an Ancient Chinese Herbal Remedy

Fighting Back with Anti-IgE Antibody Therapy

Investigating Other Futuristic Treatments

Part III : Living Well with Your Food Allergies

Chapter 10: Living at Home with Your Allergies

Dumping the Bad Stuff . . . or Not

Stocking Up on the Essentials

Cooking and Dining Safely in the Midst of Allergies

Organizing an Information Station

Chapter 11: Eating Out and Traveling with Food Allergies

Preparing for Your Outing

Taking Your Allergies Out to Dinner

Traveling with Your Allergies

Chapter 12: Conquering the Challenges of Daycare and Preschool

Making the Big Decision: To Send or Not to Send

Finding the Right Daycare Center or Preschool

Teaming Up with Your Child’s Daycare Center or Preschool

Chewing on Some Snack-Time Issues

Keeping Parties Fun while Making Them Safe

Chapter 13: Sending Food Allergies Off to School: K-12

Selecting an Allergy-Safe Educational Environment

Making a Safe School Safer for Your Child

Packing for Lunchtime: Cafeteria or Brown Bag?

Protecting Yourself without Becoming a Party Pooper

Taking Your Allergies on a Field Trip

Going Behind the Scenes with 504 Plans

Chapter 14: Empowering Your Adolescent or Teenager

Fostering an Atmosphere of Empathy

Empowering Your Teen to Take on More Responsibility

Getting a Little Help from Your Friends

Mastering the Art of Acceptable Risk Taking

Laying Down Some Safe Dating Guidelines

Chapter 15: Preventing and Outgrowing a Food Allergy

Preventing Food Allergies: Hope or Hype?

Ranking the Likelihood of Outgrowing an Allergy Food by Food

Speculating on the Timing

Prodding Your Allergy to Vacate Sooner

Monitoring and Managing Your Allergies

Safely Reintroducing the Problem Foods

Part IV : The Part of Tens

Chapter 16: Teaching Your Child Ten Key Food Allergy Lessons

Finding Comfort in Numbers: Lots of People Have Food Allergies

Decoding Labels and Asking Questions

Teaching Your Friends a Thing or Two

Sitting at the Cleanest Table in the Cafeteria

Eating Off a Plate or Napkin

Steering Clear of Sloppy Eaters

Avoiding Lunch Room Food Swaps and Food Fights

Stocking up on Some Healthy, Yet Yummie Snacks

Asking for Help Immediately when You Start Feeling Funny

Carrying a Health Emergency Card

Chapter 17: Packing Ten Key Food Allergy Tips for Camp, College, and Other Outings

Packing Fresh Medications

Taking Your Allergy Free Diet on the Road

Packing Emergency Information and Instructions

Identifying One or More Point Persons

Tweaking Your Emergency Plan

Training Counselors and Other Personnel

Giving Your Child a Refresher Course

Choosing a Food Allergy–Friendly Camp

Educating Bunkmates and Roommates

Buddying Up with a Food Allergy Savvy Pal

Chapter 18: Substituting Foods and Ingredients: Ten Common Dietary Substitutions

Discovering Peanut and Peanut Butter Alternatives

Replacing Milk, Ice Cream, and Yogurt

Discovering a Better Butter

Checking Out Some Cheesy Substitutes

Trading in Your Chocolate

Whipping up a Fake Egg Mixture

Finding a New Staple: Wheat-Free Breads

Breakfasting with Wheat-Free Cereals

Baking Your Goodies with Wheat-Free Flour

Discovering Safer Thickening Agents

Chapter 19: Exploring Ten Outstanding Food Allergy Web Sites

Tapping Online Resources at FAAN: Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network

Communing with the Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics

Investigating the Food Allergy Initiative

Poking Around in the Food Allergy Kitchen

Visiting AAFA: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America

Accessing Anaphylaxis Canada

Dropping in on the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology

Attending the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology

Joining the Anaphylaxis Campaign

Gathering Additional Information at AllAllergy.net

Chapter 20: Responding to a Severe Reaction: Ten Do’s and Don’ts

Identify the Symptoms

Tell Someone Immediately

Remain As Calm As Possible

Respond Immediately

Administer Medications

Call 911

Don’t Drive Yourself

Call Your Doctor

Call Family or Friends

Review What Happened

Part V : Appendixes: Allergy-Friendly Recipes and Other Treats

Appendix A: Breads & Breakfasts

Potato Pancakes

Banana Pancakes

Cinnamon Syrup

Corn Muffins

Cinnamon Raisin Coffee Cake

Vanilla Icing

Blueberry Muffins

Pumpkin Bread

Appendix B: Main Courses

Turkey Soup

Chicken and Rice

Mexican Casserole

Appendix C: Snacks and Cookies

Caramel Popcorn

Chocolate Melt Away Cookies

Minty Cream Filling

Cinnamon Crunch Cookies

Molasses Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies

Rice Krispie Treats

Sugar Cookies

Traditional Holiday Sugar Cookies

Appendix D: Cakes and Desserts

Fruit Crisp

Blondie Cake

Chocolate Pudding

Cream Filled Cupcakes

Cream Filling

Hot Fudge Sauce

Pumpkin Pie

Coconut Topping (optional)

Raisin and Spice Cupcakes

Vanilla Frosting

Sweet Potato Pie

Wacky Chocolate Cake

Appendix E: Glossary

: Further Reading

Introduction

When I was about nine months old, my mother gave me a bit of peanut butter on her finger. My face immediately doubled in size. Fortunately, I grew up in a small town and the hospital was only a few minutes away. My mother, who is a pediatric nurse, took me straight to my pediatrician, who also happened to be my father. They quickly treated me and made the diagnosis based on the reaction alone.

When I turned two years old, I had my second reaction. The standard practice at the time was that when you turned two, you would retry any food you had been allergic to as an infant. Bad idea, but at least I got to visit my father at work again.

After that second incident, I led a charmed life. We avoided peanuts and my parents established strict rules around the house. My seven sisters and brothers followed the rules, and I managed to stay safe at home. Away from home, I avoided obvious peanut products but ate everything else — baked goods, desserts, ice cream, candy, you name it. Back then, we had little knowledge of food allergy and certainly no precautionary labels on foods. In retrospect I believe I was just lucky. I was especially lucky because prescribing and carrying epinephrine were not standard practices in those days. I had no real strategy to avoid peanuts, no action plan, no medications. And this was not because proper medical care was unavailable. In fact, I received the best of care and was actually a patient of the world’s most renowned pediatric allergist of the 1950s and ’60s — Dr. Jerome Glaser.

My charmed existence was rudely interrupted by a tainted brownie in ninth grade. The cafeteria had changed the recipe after receiving a large supply of surplus peanut butter. It really was an awakening for my parents and me. I started paying more attention to what I was eating — as did the cafeteria workers in my school — and was given a vial of epinephrine and a syringe to carry around with me.

A few years later, I experienced another severe reaction when I ate a sugar cookie from a bakery that must have been contaminated. I have since had three more reactions — one to spaghetti when I was in college, one to a piece of coconut cream pie, and a third to another contaminated cookie.

Undoubtedly, my personal experience of living with a severe peanut allergy coupled with the fact that I was raised by medical professionals led me down the path to becoming an allergist specializing in food allergy. Currently, I personally care for over 4,000 patients with food allergies, and I have treated thousands more over the course of my career. I’m also actively and passionately involved in performing cutting-edge research to track down the root cause of food allergies, discover superior preventions and treatment options, and hopefully discover a cure.

In Food Allergies For Dummies, I pass along the knowledge and insights I’ve gathered over my nearly 50 years of living with, studying, researching, and treating food allergies. I present strategies and tips for avoiding exposure and preventing reactions. I reveal medications and treatment options that can quell symptoms ranging from minor to severe. I point out unproven, untested options that simply waste your time and money. I show you exactly what to do in the event of an emergency. And, I offer guidance on how to live well with food allergies at home, school, and work; while dining out; and as you’re traveling for business or pleasure.

My capable co-author and I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating on this project to create what we believe is the best food allergy management guide on the planet. We hope that you and your family, friends, teachers, and childcare and healthcare providers enjoy reading this book as much as we enjoyed writing it. We also hope that the information contained in this book protects you from harm and improves your quality of life for years to come.

About This Book

On a daily basis, I see patients who have been undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and over-diagnosed. Often, they have no idea which foods trigger their symptoms, because they haven’t been properly tested and evaluated. In some cases, their doctors subject them to too many tests, misinterpret the test results, and saddle their patients with an overly restrictive diet that not only compromises the patient’s quality of life but can actually lead to malnutrition. I’ve seen young children whose diets are unnecessarily restricted to less than ten foods!

I don’t want you or your loved ones to suffer unnecessarily from a bad or nonexistent diagnosis. In Food Allergies For Dummies, I arm you with the information and insight you need to assess the care you’re receiving and team up with your doctor to identify the foods that ail you, without mistakenly eliminating from your diet foods that are perfectly safe. An accurate diagnosis is key to successful treatment and a fuller culinary and nutritional life.

Food Allergies For Dummies can’t and doesn’t even attempt to act as a surrogate for skilled and knowledgeable medical care. Your family doctor and allergist play the leading roles in your diagnosis and treatment. This book plays a supporting role, expediting your diagnosis and treatment and enhancing your life by:

Assisting you in determining if and when you need to seek professional medical advice for diagnosis and treatment based on your symptoms.

Guiding you in selecting the medical professionals who are best qualified to diagnose and treat food allergies (and are covered on your health insurance policy).

Providing you with the information you need to more effectively team up with your healthcare providers to arrive at an accurate diagnosis and obtain the most effective medical treatments, without overly restricting your diet.

Empowering you to take control of your allergies by presenting practical, plain-English advice, tips, and strategies for living well with food allergies at home, work, and school, while dining out, and on vacation or business trips.

Saving your life by showing you how to construct your own food allergy emergency kit and follow life-saving procedures if you or a loved one experiences a severe allergic reaction.

Although Food Allergies For Dummies is packed from cover to cover with valuable information, advice, and tips, you don’t have to read it from cover to cover. We broke the information down into easily digestible parts, chapters, sections, subsections, and even sub-subsections, so you can dip in at any point in the book and find just the information you need. Of course, I don’t want to discourage you from reading the entire book — if you skip around too much, you’re likely to skip right over some golden nuggets.

Conventions Used in This Book

I don’t like to think of my book as conventional, but I do have some standard ways of presenting material. For example, whenever I introduce a new, somewhat technical term, such as anaphylaxis, I italicize it. A commonly used term that’s not necessarily a technical term, I enclose “in quotes,” but for the life of me, I can’t really remember a chapter in which I actually quoted something. Web site addresses appear in monofont and never hyphenated, even if they run longer than a line of text; simply type the address into your Web browser exactly as it appears.

In almost every chapter, I include intriguing research on food allergy or stories about people who’ve walked into my clinic with a suspected food allergy and emerged after successful diagnosis and treatment feeling a whole lot better. These stories aren’t necessarily about real people — to protect their privacy, I composed composites of real case studies I’ve diagnosed and treated over my many years in practice.

In a few chapters I include fill-in-the-blank forms you can scribble on. Although you can fill out these forms in the book, you may want to make copies to write on, especially if you borrowed the book from your library or plan on re-selling it on eBay when you’re done with it. These forms are incredibly valuable at empowering you to take a more pro-active role in your diagnosis and treatment.

Even though you see two author names on the cover of this book — Robert Wood and Joe Kraynak — you see “I” throughout the book when I, Robert (you can call me Dr. Wood or Dr. Bob), am offering expert advice, presenting research data, and describing patients. Joe’s the word maestro who fiddled with the language to make it sound just right. Although Joe knows much more about food allergies after having worked with me, he’s careful not to hand out medical advice.

What You’re Not to Read

The best way to ingest and digest the information in this book is to read every word of it from cover to cover. Joe and I toiled tirelessly to provide you with everything you need to know and do to live well with your food allergy, and I’d hate for you to fast forward through the juicy parts.

You can, however, safely skip anything you see in a gray shaded box. I stuck case studies and technical information you really don’t need to know in these boxes, to clue you into the fact that this is optional reading material. I doubt that you’ll want to skip the case studies, because they provide real world examples of people who struggle with the same food allergy issues that you and your family now face, and they offer hope for a full, symptom-free life ahead.

Foolish Assumptions

In some books that cover advanced topics, authors must assume that their readers already understand some basic topics or have acquired beginning-level skills. For example, if this were a book about biochemistry, you’d have to know a little about chemistry, first. To read, understand, and apply the information in this book to your life requires no prerequisites. This book, along with expert medical care and a moderate amount of cooperation from those around you, are all you need to start feeling better.

I do, however, make a few foolish assumptions about who you are. I figure your situation matches one or more of the following scenarios:

You experience unexplained symptoms that seem to arise or worsen after eating.

Your doctor has diagnosed you as having a food allergy, but you’re still experiencing symptoms.

Your doctor has diagnosed you as having a food allergy and placed you on a severely restricted diet, and you’re determined to find ways to introduce more variety into your diet and live a fuller life.

You’re a parent or caregiver of someone who has food allergies, and you want to know what you could and should be doing to help.

You’re a medical professional who needs or wants to learn more about food allergies in order to diagnose and treat your patients more effectively.

You’re a teacher or school administrator who wants some definitive answers about food allergies, so you can more effectively discern real risks from overblown claims and put an effective and reasonable food allergy policy into place.

Your friend has a food allergy, and you want to know what you can do to help.

You’re just plain curious.

How This Book Is Organized

I wrote this book so you could approach it in either of two ways. You can read the book from cover-to-cover or pick up the book and flip to any chapter for a quick, stand-alone mini-course on a specific food allergy topic. To help you navigate, I divvied up the 19 chapters that make up the book into five parts. Here, I provide a quick overview of what I cover in each part.

Part I: Feasting on Food Allergy Fundamentals

This part begins with a primer that touches on almost every topic covered in the book, so you can accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 18 pages. I proceed to present you with an explanation of the food-allergy connection, lead you on an exploration of common causes and symptoms, point out the top allergens and their favorite hiding places, and finish up with some practical advice on effectively dealing with the very common, often scary peanut allergy.

Part II: Progressing from Hives to Hope: Diagnosis and Treatment

The key to whipping food allergies is to arrive at an accurate diagnosis, eliminate the problem foods, and treat any lingering symptoms or unexpected reactions with allergy medications. In this part, I show you how to work with your doctor to streamline the diagnostic process, identify the specific foods that are triggering your reactions, and develop an effective treatment plan to keep reactions at bay.

Here you develop skills for deciphering food labels, so you can more effectively avoid the foods that ail you. I reveal the most effective medications for providing symptomatic relief, and I warn you of unproven, often costly, alternative tests and treatments. Finally, I present cutting edge research that may lay the path to an eventual cure.

Part III: Living Well with Your Food Allergies

After you step out of your doctor’s office with diagnosis and perhaps prescriptions in hand, you return to your daily life and need to know how to manage your food allergy in your day-to-day activities. The chapters in this part show you how to apply the information your doctor provided to your workaday and play-a-day world, so you can more safely and fully enjoy your life. Here you gain the knowledge and skills required to cope with your food allergies at home, on the road, in daycare, in preschool, and from kindergarten to your senior year in high school.

In this part, I also offer tips that show teens and tweens how to play a more active role in managing their food allergies in the face of sometimes daunting peer pressure. I show you how likely it is (or isn’t) that you will eventually outgrow your food allergy, and offer some tips that may assist you in increasing your chances.

Part IV: The Part of Tens

No For Dummies book is complete without a Part of Tens. Turn to this part for a list of ten key food allergy lessons to pass along to your children, ten tips to enlighten your child’s caregiver at daycare or preschool, ten common dietary substitutions to help out in the kitchen, and the top ten food allergy Web sites where you can gather even more advice and support.

Appendixes: Allergy-Friendly Recipes and Other Treats

Food allergies may reduce your recipe box to a meager collection of index cards for only the blandest of dishes. In this part, you begin to restock your box with several time-tested, patient-recommended recipes that treat the palate, satisfy your appetite, and nourish your body all at the same time.

FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) generously provided me access to its vast collection of recipes, and I selected the recipes that my patients most often recommend.

In this part, I also include a collection of food-allergy-related terms and their definitions, making it easy for you to look up a definition as you’re reading the book or doing your own extra research.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, I’ve sprinkled icons in the margins to cue you in on different types of information that call out for your attention. Here are the icons you’ll see and a brief description of each.

If you remember nothing else in a particular chapter, remember anything that’s marked with one of these icons.

Tips provide insider insight from behind the scenes. When you’re looking for a better, faster way to do something, check out these tips.

“Whoa!” This icon appears when you need to remain extra vigilant or seek professional medical guidance before moving forward.

When I drift off and start using more doctor jargon than usual, I warn you by marking the text with this “Technical Stuff” icon. I do, however, try my best to present the more technical material in plain English.

Where to Go from Here

Think of this book as an all-you-can-eat buffet. You can grab a plate, start at the beginning and read one chapter right after another, or you can dip in any chapter and pile your plate high with the information it contains.

If you’re looking for a quick overview of food allergies along with their diagnosis and treatment, check out Chapter 1. Chapters 5 and 6 are key, so if you’re skipping around, don’t miss these essential chapters. They contain everything you need to know to obtain effective medical care and avoid the foods that cause discomfort.

If you’re already under the care of a doctor, and you’re satisfied with the results, you can safely skip to any of the chapters in Part III to gather tips and strategies for dealing with food allergies in different places and situations.

When you need some quick tips to pass along to your kids or their caregivers, Part IV is the place to go. Here you can also find a list of dietary substitutions and food allergy Web sites.

If you get hungry, head to the appendix at the back of the book, where you can find recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.

Finally for some quick tips, tricks, and tools, check out the Cheat Sheet provided at the very beginning of this book, just past the front cover. Better yet, tear it out (preferably not in the bookstore or from a library copy), and carry the Cheat Sheet with you for quick reference.

Of course, after reading the book, you’re welcome to dip back into it at any time to pick up something you missed or take a brief refresher course.

Exposures and reactions are not always preventable, so always carry your medications just in case and be prepared for unexpected reactions.

Part I

Feasting on Food Allergy Fundamentals

In this part . . .

W hen your immune system wages war against the very foods that nourish you, your body becomes the battlefield. As your immune system mounts its attack against the invading forces, your body bears the brunt and responds with some form of dis-ease and discomfort — hives, eczema, abdominal cramps, sneezing, wheezing, fainting, or a host of other symptoms . . . perhaps even a potentially deadly case of anaphylaxis.

You don’t have to be a casualty of the food allergy war. Armed with the medical intelligence provided in this part, you can gain a deeper understanding of the food–immune system connection and can begin to identify the foods that most commonly confuse the immune system. But first, I provide a quick primer on food allergies to get you up to speed in a hurry and expedite the process of removing offending foods from your diet, pacifying your immune system, and enhancing your postdiagnosis life.

Chapter 1

Breaking Out with Food Allergies

In This Chapter

Distinguishing between what’s an allergy and what’s not

Identifying the telling signs of an allergic reaction

Speculating on the cause of food allergy onset

Labeling your specific food allergies with an accurate diagnosis

Preventing and treating allergic reactions . . . today and in the future

When you begin to suspect that you or one of your family members has a food allergy, all sorts of questions pop up:

How did I become allergic?

What can I do to stop feeling so miserable?

What should I do if I begin to have a reaction?

Can my doctor cure me?

In this chapter, I get you up to speed in a hurry about food allergies. After pointing out what is an allergy and what’s not, I show you how to spot the common signs and symptoms, obtain an accurate diagnosis, avoid the foods that ail you, and relieve your misery with symptomatic treatments. I also reveal what researchers currently believe causes food allergies and some of the possible future cures you have to look forward to.

Pinning Down Food Allergy: What’s an Allergy, and What’s Not?

Due to a lack of accurate information and an overabundance of misinformation about food allergies, many people have developed misconceptions about what a food allergy really is. Some people think that if you get sick after eating a particular food, you’re allergic to that food. Others think that if a food makes you tired, you’re allergic to it, or that a craving for a particular food is a sign of allergy, or if your pulse rate rises after eating, you’re allergic. The general public often lumps every adverse symptom they have after eating a food as an allergic reaction when this, in fact, is not the case.

In the following sections, I define food allergy and then reveal some common conditions that produce similar symptoms to those produced by food allergies but are actually something quite different.

Defining food allergy

Food allergies are sort of like overprotective parents. Trying too hard to do the best for their children, they often cause more harm. In the case of food allergies, an overprotective immune system, attempting to defend you from harmful viruses and bacteria, misidentifies harmless substances in foods as harmful to your health and wages all-out warfare to purge them from your system. This overreaction by the immune system may be enough to kill you.

So what exactly is a food allergy? A food allergy is an immune system response that creates antibodies to attack substances in a food that your immune system identifies as harmful to you. In the process, the reaction releases huge stores of chemical substances, including histamines, which cause symptoms ranging from a mild case of hives to a potentially life-threatening system shutdown. For a description of exactly what happens during an allergic reaction, refer to Chapter 2.

Identifying imposters

Foods can make you feel sick for a variety of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with food allergies. This leaves the door open to quackologists selling all sorts of ineffective cures and treatments for a host of ailments that they falsely attribute to food allergies. To avoid getting sucked in by misinformation, be aware that the following ailments are rarely, if ever, related to food allergies:

Food intolerances: The inability to digest a particular food, such as milk or wheat, is typically related to a missing enzyme in the digestive system that prevents a person from fully digesting the food.

Food poisoning: Some foods may have toxins or bacteria that make you sick. Just because a food makes you sick one time does not mean you’re allergic to it, although you should have your doctor check it out.

Histamine poisoning: