Organizations:
The Food Allergy and Anaphalyxis Network — some good things on their website, though you have to join to get all the info.
Kids With Food Allergies: A great resource for parents of kids with food allergies, this site offers support boards for parents and a searchable database of recipes, though you need to join to access it. (Dues are $25 a year)
Food Allergy Kitchen: An allergy-free recipe exchange on Yahoo groups:
Groceries:
Allergy Baskets.com: Gift baskets of food free of the top eight allergens. What a great idea!
Barbara’s Bakery: Healthy cereals and snack bars, some free of Top Eight allergens.
Bob’s Red Mill — Flours and whole grains, including glueten-free flour mixes.
Chocolate Emporium: Gluten, dairy, nut, and soy-free chocolate.
Enjoy Life Foods: Packaged foods free of wheat/gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish, as well as casein, potato, sesame and sulfites.
Ian’s Natural Foods — Gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free chicken nuggets, french fries, and other frozen foods.
Just Tomatoes, Etc. — This is the source of freeze-dried fruits called for in my granola bar recipes. The company manufactures a variety of fruits and vegetables that are single-ingredient foods.
Namaste Foods: Baking mixes free of gluten, wheat, potato, corn, soy, dairy, peanuts, and tree nuts.
NoNuttin Foods, Inc. Allergen-free granola bars, trail mix, and cookies. Many items are made with gluten-free oats and oat flour. Also sells baking ingredients (Note that their chocolate contains soy lecitin.)
Food Allergy Gourmet: Books, baking mixes, and information on food allergies, celiac disease, and autism diets.
Shop By Diet: Online grocery store that allows you to filter out multiple allergens.
Allergy Grocer (aka Mrs. Roben’s) Online grocery store that allows you to filter out multiple allergens.
Kirkman Labs: Allergen-free vitamins and probiotics.
Publications
Magazines
Living Without Magazine: Tends to be more oriented to people with Celiac disease in terms of the recipes it publishes, but prints great articles on dealing with schools, traveling with dietary restrictions, etc.
Allergic living magazine A new Canadian magazine for people living with food and environmental allergies.
Cookbooks
Cooking Free by Carol Fenster. This book has a marvelous reference section at the back of the book that explains all of the ingredient substitutions that can be used in baking, with information on where to buy unusual ingredients. It also contains recipes for making your own baking powder, mustard, and other “raw ingredients.”
Food Allergy Survival Guide: Surviving and Thriving With Food Allergies and Sensitivities by Vesanto Melina, Dina Aronson, and Jo Stepaniak– Nice overview of different food allergies and sensitivities, as well as conventional and alternative treatments. About one-third of the book is vegetarian recipes, some of which are good, some not so good. The kale chips were a good idea, but they were terrible in practice.
The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook: Two Hundred Gourmet & Homestyle Recipes for the Food Allergic Family by Cybele Pascal: Every recipe is free os the top eight allergens, and there are lots of good recipes here. (Though I think my baked goods are better, if I do say so myself.) A fair number of recipes for meat, which is nice to see in an allergy cookbook.
Books about allergies and parenting
Parenting Plus: Raising Children With Special Heath Needs by Peggy Finston. While the cover and some of the diet information is dated, the emotional story of this book is timeless. Chapters address issues such as parental guilt and anger, dealing with unsupportive family and friends, and nurturing yourself so you can nurture your child. Peggy Finston has been there and knows the stress that food allergies and sensitivities can put on a family. Reading about her expierience, and the experiences of the families she interviews, will give you new insight into your own situation, and renewed courage to go on doing the best you can to help your child be well.
Caring for Your Child with Severe Food Allergies: Emotional Support and Practical Advice from a Parent Who’s Been There by Lisa Cipriano Collins.
How to Manage Your Child’s Life-Threatening Food Allergies: Practical Tips for Everyday Life by Linda Marienhoff Coss.
I am sooooo glad to have found this website. My family is supporting my sister by eating the way she has to. She recently found out she has cancer for the third time and it taking the natural route.
It is soo nice to find some tried and true recipes that have FLARE- not the same old boring no this and no that!!
Thank you so much. I see a published book in your future!
Glad that this site helped you and your family. Best wishes to your sister.
I just found out two days ago, that I am allergic to all dairy, wheat, peanuts, cashews, eggs, paprika, sesame, arugula and the list goes on, not sure what to eat, feel like just not eating. I’m glad I found your site, I hope to get some motivation for new ways to prepare food. Thanks.
I recently found i have multiple allergies,peanuts,milk,wheat turkey,seafood and tomatoes. I need help.
Michelle -
You’ve just received a life-changing diagnosis. Give yourself a little time to adjust. Check out my article on the first steps for the newly diagnosed:
http://foodallergies.about.com/od/foodallergybasics/a/first_steps_food_allergies.htm
I found that I have troubles with many foods. I have a wicked allergy to amines. So it’s nice to see your site – it reminds me that there’s other people out there with the same (or similarly baffling) problems as me.
I wanted to let you know about the low amine recipe blog I’ve started (http://aminerecipes.wordpress.com). I’m hoping it will become an important tool for people with amine problems. I will be adding information from my nutritionist within a couple weeks, and adding recipes every day. Today is day two of getting real work done on it. I’m hoping that it, like your site, will become a helpful resource for people with amine problems.
It’s baffling to me that amines can cause such a wide variety of problems. Because of this, I’m certain that amine sites need to link to each other and become a nurturing community of resources. The final stamp on that was that when I got diagnosed, I couldn’t find any resources that were helpful to me. I’m hoping with a bit of blogging and networking, that won’t happen to other people that discover they have this problem.
Hope all is well with you!
-Michelle Ferris
http://aminerecipes.wordpress.com
Hi~ I just found our site and look forward to trying some of your recipes. I also looove food but am having allergy symptoms. I eat all of the histamine heavy foods a lot as I am pescatarian.I have had a traditional skin test and blood test at the allergist which all came back negative for allergies to all top 8. I’ve been told the skin test is not very accurate and I’m going for the ALCAT next week. I was wondering if I could pick your brain though, since no one I speak to seems to know about a histamine restricted diet. Is there actually a test in the US ( not sure where you are) that you can get to diagnose histamine intolerance? And if not, would a person with this condition also show severe intolerance for the high histamine foods on an ALCAT test? I’m super frustrated.
Thanks.