Saturday, July 5, 2008
Allergy Update
The results from my blood test are in and the best news is: I am no longer allergic to dogs. WOO HOO! I am still allergic to cats. They're sneaky anyway. The rest of the news is mixed. I continue to be allergic to egg whites, milk and wheat. I am able to have one serving of each per day if I desire I am also allergic to lemons. Doctor said, "avoid lemon in large quantities like lemonade." I never knew that your throat wasn't supposed to feel thick and furry after you drank lemonade. Big surprise- I'm developing an allergy to peanuts. WAH!!!!! I love peanuts. I am allowed 1 tablespoon or less per day. sniff sniff All of the other things I was tested for were negative. It's back to the doctor in about 5 months. I will get new meds to include the cat allergy. They mailed me my food allergy meds. The bottle is big. Let's see if I can build up a tolerance to anything by December. Until then I am encourage to seek rice and soy milks as substitutes for cow milk. Bye bye cheese and the occasional ice cream. I should try wheat substitutes such as corn, oat, rice, rye, barley or spelt. What's spelt? I guess there is no suitable substitute for eggs and peanuts...oh wait...I could make cashew butter...hmmm.
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2 comments:
I have 2 children with allergies. One is allergic to dairy, egg, peanut, tree nuts, soy and has outgrown her allergy to corn and wheat. The other is severely allergic to peanuts.
I wanted to pass on some information about substitutes.
DAIRY: rice milk amd soy milk are great alternatives to cow's milk. You can find rice, soy or buffalo milk yogurts at Whole Foods. The rice yogurts are really yummy and come in 4 flavors. There is rice ice cream and soy ice creams also available at Whole Foods. Some sherbert are dairy free, but read label carefully. As for mayos, you can get egg-free, dairy-free mayos that are very very good.
EGG: have you heard of egg replacer by Ener-G? It is a power that you mix with water. It can replace egg in most recipes with the same lifting properties. You can find it at most health food stores and at Whole Foods.
WHEAT: This is a difficult one to avoid. Please note that Spelt is wheat. You should be very careful in eating it. It is an ancient form of wheat. Some people with wheat allergies can tolerate spelt. But there are other alternatives you can find, especially if you can have corn. Look in the gluten-free section. They have all kinds of wheat free breads. Also corn based products are great (crackers, tortillas, wraps for sanwiches,...). If you bake, you can try to substitute flour with gluten free (GF) flour mix. I would recommend trying GF recipes because otherwise, it will take you lots of time to get the texture/rise right. Start with cookies and muffins that are more forgiving than breads.
PEANUT BUTTER: If you are allergic to peanut butter, I would be careful in substituting it with tree nut based products. You might develop a tree nut allergy if you eat too much of it. You can try Sunflower seed butter called Sunbutter. It is AS GOOD if not better than peanut butter, has the same great texture and can be eaten as is, or substitute 1 for 1 in any recipe for peanut butter.
One thing to know: manufacturer use many many different terms to list dairy, eggs and wheat. If you would like a list of terms they use, go to www.loudounallergynetwork.org on the allergens page (how to navigate food labels) for a list of terms per top 8 allergen.
On the same site, you can view recipes and get links to allergen-free cooking websites.
There is also a list of products that are allergen-free under the products page.
Good Luck!
Thanks for the information Anne! I have been allergic to milk wheat and eggs my entire life and have slowly built up my tolerance. I'm hoping that it will continue to improve. I bought a small bottle of chocolate soy silk tonight. I'm afraid to try it =-( I want to see if I can drink goat's milk, which I already know I like.
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