5 Tips to Safely Celebrate When You Have Food Allergies

Gathering with family is an important part of the holidays for most of us. If you suffer from food allergies or eat a restricted diet due to a health conditions, it can be especially tricky to navigate. I'm putting together a short list of tips and tricks to get through it safely and make sure you still have a wonderful family get-together!

Here's my top tips for celebrating with family if you have some dietary restrictions.

1. Talk to the host prior to the event - Ask ahead of time what is on the menu and if the host would like you to bring something. If possible you might ask them to prepare the main course in a way that fits your dietary needs. You should also figure out if there will be enough dishes that you can eat to fill you or if you will need to bring your own food. By all means, do offer to bring a dish or two that you know you can eat and then share the love with everyone! I'm always tickled if family raves over my grain-free paleo-style dishes.
2. Know what it's swimming in - I've found that most of the common food allergens come in the sauces, dressings or marinades. These culprits frequently contain gluten, dairy, egg, soy, or sugar. You may ask the host to hold aside a portion of undressed salad or fix your piece of chicken or fish with no marinade or sauce. I usually ask for olive oil, salt and garlic ...It's delicious every time and I know I'm not getting any hidden gluten or dairy in the sauce.
3. Send a package ahead of you - if you're traveling to an area where there is no Whole Foods or natural grocery nearby to accessorize your diet, you can often ship ahead a small box of essentials. You can either pack them yourself or you can use a service, like Amazon or Vitacost and have them ship the necessary items. I frequently do this with non-perishables, like coconut milk, sunflower nut butter, chia seed, and high quality coconut or olive oils. Plus you can leave any of the gourmet leftover items with your host to enjoy! Better yet, order enough to get free shipping and include a hostess gift of some special gourmet food item that he/she cannot purchase locally. Organic dark chocolate or specialty cooking oils are a wonderful gift idea!
4. Don't go hungry - When we are hungry our brains may bypass the filter of what we know to be a better choice. We'll often we end up eating too much and pick foods that we'd normally avoid. This is why I vow never take my husband grocery shopping on an empty stomach... you just never know what will make it's way into your shopping cart! ;-) Eat a small protein snack prior to heading out, like nuts/seeds, guacamole or jerky. If you know there will not be any safe options, it's ok to eat your entire meal before you go and just enjoy the company and not the food.
5. BYOBF (Bring your own back-up food) - whether traveling by plane or car or just driving across town for a holiday get-together, you can never go wrong by having a few nonperishable snacks or options with you. You never know when you'll get stranded in the car or in the airport for longer than expected. I carry things like packets of sunflower nut butter, coconut butter and shredded coconut, a piece of fruit, dried organic beef or bison jerky, Alter Eco 85% dark chocolate bar, and/or packets or tins of wild salmon or sardines. I can't tell you how many times I've been stranded somewhere longer than anticipated and hungry and so thankful for my little stash! As the true saying goes, "Fail to plan and plan to fail..."

Wishing you a most delightful and delicious holiday season making many memories with your loved ones!

Could These Seven Foods Be Causing Your Weight Gain?!

Food Allergy "Fat"
"Fat" that comes with food sensitivities is a characterized by bloating and fluid retention that many people experience when they ingest these top seven food allergens.  Eating foods that interfere with our body’s chemistry causes tissue swelling, abdominal bloating or even facial puffiness that may have the appearance of real fat. In fact, it’s not unusual for a person to look ten to fifteen pounds heavier due to these nasty reactions.

The foods that people react to most commonly are also the most prevalent in the Standard American Diet (SAD, for short)  They are dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.  Many patients assume they aren’t “allergic” to these foods because they don’t experience the immediate histamine reaction we associate with an allergy, like hives, throat swelling or vomiting.  Another complicating factor is that these type of reactions often cause delayed symptoms, meaning that you may not feel badly for 12-36 hours. This makes such sensitivities extremely difficult to identify, particularly if your sensitivity is to a food that you eat on a daily basis. If you are constantly consuming wheat or dairy, for example, and having a low-grade reaction, you may not recognize this as your body’s distress signals. Instead you might assume they are totally unrelated chronic problems, like a eczema, migraines, fatigue, joint pain, or heartburn.

Virtually any food can cause these reactions — even “healthy” foods like citrus or bell peppers. Typically an individual will develop sensitivities to the foods he or she eats most often. Unfortunately the top seven - dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs, and peanuts - are the basis for most processed foods so most Americans are frequently exposed to them.   If we eat such foods on a daily basis, we may experience a near-constant state of reaction — including bloating and fluid retention. More serious, it may cause inflammation to the lining of the gut, upset your metabolism, create nutritional deficiencies, and blood sugar imbalances.  This can lead to food cravings, low energy, depression and even PMS!

When you eat reactive foods, they enter your bloodstream incompletely digested... as bigger particles that your body doesn’t recognize as food. This not only causes indigestion and gas within the gut, but may trigger release of cytokines and chemicals like adrenaline and histamine that set off an inflammatory response. As fluids rush into afflicted cells and are held in your tissues, swelling and abdominal bloating occur. Due to the fluctuation in endophrins that occurs in this "flight or flight response, you may find that you crave the foods your are most sensitive to.  The only real way to heal the gut is to eliminate these food triggers from your diet.

Elimination Diet to the Rescue!

One of the best ways to determine if you are having food reactions is an elimination diet.  Plan for a minimum of 3 weeks off all of the most common seven food allergens:  dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.  You will not be cured by that time, but you can determine which of these seven you are reacting to by adding them back into your diet one-by-one and seeing which one(s) you have a reaction to.

Another way to find the food culprits is to have your physician test you for IgG food sensitivities.  The elimination diet is the "gold standard" to determine what foods you are sensitive to but some patients prefer to have the data on paper before they start.  I use laboratories like, Genova Diagnostics, Metametrix, and US Biotek for this type of testing. 

Be aware that avoiding staple ingredients like wheat, dairy and corn syrup may require you to limit restaurant and packaged foods and to prepare most of your meals yourself.  I also recommend drinking plenty of water and getting regular exercise. Exercise will stimulate your metabolism and boost your energy level. It will also help flush excess fluids, burn calories and suppress your appetite, allowing you to experience even faster results.  Finding you have hidden food sensitivities may require you to adjust your eating, but when the inches start coming off and you feel better than you have in ages it will be worth all the effort!

Reviews and comparisons of Almond Milk.... the best and the worst!

photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

Are you looking for a dairy-free, soy-free alternative to milk?  Almond and coconut milks are delicious and healthy alternatives.  If you own a juicer, it is quite simple to make your own... however, if you want to try commercially available brands, I've tried them all and researched ingredients for you!

Here's my take on the best and the worst of commercially available almond milk...

• Blue Diamond Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla- my favorite! Fantastic with lattes, creamy, delicious and smooth,  Does not contain gellan gum or xanthan gum both of which may cause reactions in hypersensitive patients.  From company email: Blue Diamond only uses the highest quality food grade *carrageenan – not degraded carrageenan.
• So Delicious Almond Milk - also very tasty and great for lattes.  Contains carrageenan and locust bean gum but no reactions.  One of the few certified gluten-free, dairy-free!  And they do make "Plus" versions with extra protein (5gm per serving) from added rice protein - haven't tried this yet.
• Whole Foods 365 Organic Almond Milk - Very bad news!  Do not try this if you are gluten-sensitive! Contains **xanthan gum- which I reacted to with trouble breathing & rash.  
• Silk Pure Almond Milk - tastes great, no carrageenan but contains gellan gum and locust bean gum.  Gellan gum is polysaccaride produced by pseudamonas and since often people with sensitive immune systems, (like me!) react to lipopolysaccarides, proceed with caution!  The upside is the make the small individual containers which are great for travel...
• Pacific Organic Unsweetened Almond milk - This one you will find in the aisles with the, non-refrigerated dairy alternatives.   One of the few certified organic brands.  Contains "rice starch" which is not great for paleo or those sensitive to starches, also contains  carageenan (seems to be a pattern here :) but certified gluen-free, dairy-free.  However, it tastes terrible in lattes...very acidic and not creamy at all.  Also curdles and separates when heated. They do make travel sizes....

*Carageenan is a natural polysaccharide (carbohydrate) extracted from red seaweed. It is referred to as a seaweed gelatin much like agar agar. It is a vegetarian/vegan alternative to gelatin.  There are two types of carrageenan, undegraded (food-grade) and degraded (hydrolyzed with acid).  New studies are being done on the safety of Carrageenan, which is in question.

**Xanthan gum may be derived from a variety of source products that are themselves common allergens, such as corn, wheat, dairy, or soy. As such, persons with known sensitivities or allergies to food products are advised to avoid foods including generic xanthan gum or first determine the source for the xanthan gum before consuming the food.  Specifically, an allergic response may be triggered in people sensitive to the growth medium, usually corn, soy, or wheat. For example, residual wheat gluten has been detected on xanthan gum made using wheat. This may trigger a response in people highly sensitive to gluten.