Asthma and Food Allergies- Part 2

Today Dr. Ana-Maria Temple is sharing about Prevention and Functional Medicine Treatments for asthma. I’m so thankful for all of her work, she has helped educate me in many ways. You can find her website at www.familywellnesstips.com. Thanks again Ana for sharing your expertise with us!

Functional Medicine Tips for Reducing Asthma Symptoms and the need for Medications:

Asthma is a disease of chronic inflammation of the airway. It likes to manifest along with eczema and seasonal allergies. It’s called the allergic march. All 3 are inflammatory conditions.
Like many chronic diseases, Asthma has a genetic background.
– 1 parent with asthma = A child has 30% risk of developing the disease
– 2 parents with asthma = A child 60% risk of developing asthma
– If a child has eczema before the age of 2yrs old, they are at an increased risk to develop asthma later in life. (1)
– We discussed the link between food allergies and asthma in a previous post

However, genetics DO NOT mean that the disease will occur 100% of the time. In other words, in most chronic conditions genetics do not define the outcome. Genes put us at risk, BUT its Genetics + Environment (triggers) + what we do in our every day life (mediators) = disease.

Let’s talk prevention:

What to do before becoming pregnant:

Many studies in animal models are suggesting that pre-pregnancy maternal health is as important as health during pregnancy in determining children’s health. (2)
– do not smoke. Not inside, not outside, not anywhere.
– eat fruits and veggies 8-13 servings a day. Both egg and sperm carry genetic
material. How we eat and treat our bodies determines how our genes are being expressed in our bodies and in our offspring.
– start or maintain a fitness routine to empower your body with strong heart and lungs that are imperative in delivering oxygen and nutrients to the future fetus.

What a mom and dad can do during pregnancy:

– do not smoke. Not inside, not outside, not anywhere.
– eat fruits and veggies 8-13 servings a day. Yep, I have to say it again for those who
skip the top part.
– regular fitness routine is important for so many aspects of pregnancy, including
asthma prevention in the offspring. 30 min a day, every day can make a life long
impact on the child. It can be yoga, walking, swimming, cross training, etc.
– control your stress levels. Stress alters your Cortisol Level which affects almost all
other hormones in your body. The hormone shifts have an impact on the fetus.
– sleep – see hormones above. Furthermore, a recent study showed a relationship
between less sleep and less good bacteria in your gut. (3) Pregnant women need great gut flora for nutrient absorption by the fetus, prevention of infectious illnesses that can adversely affect the fetus, and hormone regulation.
– build your gut health, see below in supplements

After delivery:

– breast feeding is one of the most crucial steps to asthma prevention. Even small amounts can make a huge difference. Yes one ounce every feeding can help.
– Vitamin D is a powerful anti-inflammatory that has been shown in numerous studies to decrease asthma symptoms. Formula fed babies need about 32 oz a day to get enough vitamin D, while nursed babies do not get Vitamin D from mother’s milk.

Weaning to solids:

– When it comes to food introduction, forget rice cereals, they are processed flakes in a box mixed with arsenic (sorry but it’s true). Start babies on fruits and veggies.
– Spices like turmeric, cardamom, pepper, cumin, cinnamon can be used for babies 6 months and older. Here is a great Blog on this topic: http://spicespicebaby.com
– When it comes to finger foods for babies and toddlers – NO Food Coloring! If Fruits/ Veggies are not always avail, packaged foods with ingredients you can pronounce and can identify as food, no more then 5 ingredients per package.
– NO JUICE, unless you juice at home. NO store bought juice ever in your house. EVER!

Toddler years

– At the age of 12 months, if a child has been suffering from chronic issues with ear infections, wheezing, bronchitis, eczema, continuous runny nose and congestion, I would NOT transition to Whole Milk. I prefer Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Hemp Milk, or Non-GMO soy milk – if they are non-allergic. Dairy has been shown to be an inflammatory food in some children. Proceed with nutritionist guidance.
– If at 12 months, the baby is healthy without medical issues, I would start Organic minimally pasteurized whole milk, despite family history of Asthma. I am not a fan of Raw Milk (not a controlled substance, not regulated, who knows how the milk is stored and where, illegal in many states, high risk of bacterial infection, etc)
– During the Picky Years when toddlers start chucking food at your head and refusing food because they are not growing as fast, do not give in and supplement their discarded healthy meals with pasta, bread, crackers, milk in larger quantities, cheese, cereal, and other white/beige foods.
– Eating habits begin now and are easier to correct at 18 months then 4 years down the road.
– A white/beige diet = asthma, allergies, eczema, weight gain, hyperactivity, increased levels of tantrums, developmental delay, poor brain development.
– Ensure the family eats 8-13 servings of fruits and veggies a day

Beyond the Toddler Years:

– a white/beige diet = asthma, allergies, eczema, weight gain, hyperactivity, increased levels of tantrums, developmental delay, poor brain development.
– ensure the family eats 8-13 servings of fruits and veggies a day
– do not keep soda, sports drinks, juice, or other sugar ladened drinks in the house.
– sugar => blocks the immune system for 5hrs after ingestion. More viruses => more
asthma
– if your child likes to overdose on crackers and snacks, stop buying it
– simple carbs => sugar => asthma
– nightly family meals around the table without electronics have been shown to
decrease asthma exacerbations in kids

More Tips Applicable to Everyone:
– dosages to be discussed with your doctor

Reduce the use of antibiotics –
children who received antibiotics during their first year of life are twice as likely to develop asthma before the age of seven! Most ear infections do not require antibiotics. Great and amazing blog post here about ear infections.

Reduce antibiotics in foods –
Buy grass fed /organic meat and dairy to reduce exposure to antibiotics from animal products.

The Mediterranean Diet – see below
Has been shown in many studies to reduce the risk of asthma and to reduce the use of medications in those suffering from asthma (7) (8)

Vitamin D – is anti-inflammatory. Low levels of vitamin D have been associate with Severe Asthma. A current review of the literature (1) showed vitamin D to be effective in reducing asthma symptoms in adults and children with moderate or severe asthma (4)

Magnesium – relaxes the airway and has been shown in adults to help in those with moderate Asthma symptoms(5)

Zinc – is a mineral that is important in controlling histamine response . Having a diet rich in zinc is important in reducing the risk of developing food and environmental allergies.

Vitamin C – can decrease the risk of getting the common cold, which triggers asthma. Furthermore it can relax airway swelling in those with exercise induced asthma symptoms. (9)

Probiotics – moms, make sure you are taking a probiotic, drinking kefir, eating fermented foods, or drinking kambucha during pregnancy under your doctor’s supervision. Your healthy bacteria gets transferred to the baby during birth. Baby guts colonized with healthy strain of probiotics show less health issues at birth and later in life (6)

Quercetin – a kind of antioxidant called a flavonoid, helps to reduce the release of
histamine and other allergic or inflammatory chemicals in the body. Histamine contributes to allergy symptoms, such as a runny nose, watery eyes, and hives

Allergy testing for food and environmental allergens – an important part of the treatment plan for Asthma. Reducing exposure to allergens may significantly reduce asthma exacerbations and need for asthma medications.

Bottom Line –

• Look with your doctor for the common causes of asthma. Is it food allergies?
• Is it environmental allergens?
• Is it mold?
• Is there something wrong with the bacteria and microbes in the gut?
• Is it a toxin?
• What about stress or a poor diet?
• All of these things are potential triggers for asthma and all chronic disease.

Mediterranean Diet – The 8 Pediatric components
1. 2+ fruits every day
2. 2+ servings of veggies every day
3. 2+ whole grain servings a day
4. eat beans, legumes, 4 or more times a week
5. eat nuts and seeds daily
6. use olive oil as a source of fat (no vegetable, corn, palm oils)
7. eat fish 2 times or more a week
8. eat red meat once a week or less

Things to Know About Asthma:

Asthma Symptoms:

– cough with running and playing when well
– cough at night more then 2 times a week when well
– wheezing
– difficulty breathing, shortness of breath with colds or with activity
– constant coughing

Asthma Evaluation:

– all kids may wheeze one or two times under the age of 3 before we diagnose them with asthma
– Criteria for Asthma diagnosis of children under 3years

– wheeze with every cold,
– hospitalized with wheezing more then once,
– they need albuterol with every cold,
– they need oral steroids more then once a year

– there is one test that can help with the diagnosis of asthma in kids older then 6years old – Spirometry. However, it can be a tricky test and results may vary. The best way to diagnose asthma at this time is from the history and illness pattern.

Asthma Triggers:

allergies, mold, foods, pets, cold or hot environments, exercise, stress, viral infections, sinus infections, poor diet, poor gut health

Asthma Pathology:

– this is chronic inflammation of the airway. With chronic inflammation of the airway, the lungs become very sensitive to changes in temperatures, allergens, exercise, colds, etc. Poor nutrition decreases the ability of the immune system to function properly. More toxins are absorbed by those who consume

Asthma Treatment (2 treatments that are misused):

– Albuterol
This is a medicine delivered in puffer or nebulizer form and it is used for coughing or wheezing. It is a temporary relief that generally lasts 4hrs. If your doctor has prescribed this medicine and your child is coughing and you wonder if you should use it, the answer is always yes. In my clinical practice, I find that most parents are afraid of using albuterol for various reasons. If albuterol has been prescribed and is used at the onset of cough and/or wheezing, the symptoms resolve much faster and with less doctor visits.

– Inhaled Corticosteroids
This is a medicine that is prescribed in puffers or nebulizers and is used twice daily (generally) independent of cough, shortness of breath, or wheezing. If your doctor prescribes it, use it. This is a preventative medication that helps keep airway inflammation down, so a cold is just a cold and coughs don’t worsen leading to Emergency Room visits or hospitalizations.

Fun Fact: a medium strength inhaled steroid used twice a day for 365 days of the year, has to be used for 5 years to equal ONE ROUND of Oral Steroids of 3-5 days duration.

IN THE END – KNOW YOUR SYMPTOMS AND YOUR TRIGGERS. FIND THE ROOT CAUSE AND IT WILL HELP YOU REDUCE MEDICATIONS AND DOCTOR VISITS!

In Good Health,
Ana-Maria Temple, MD

Citations:
1 – https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2431-12-168 2 – research happening in New Zealand at Wellington Hospital, results are not
published yet
3 – probiotics – http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/
201845643/sleep-guts-and-bugs
5 – https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/021110.htm://www.cochrane.org/
news/high-quality-evidence-suggests-vitamin-d-can-reduce-asthma-attacks 6- infant guts – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350908/
7 – mediterranean diet – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18782109
8 – mediterranean diet – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651981/
9 – vitamin C – http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g5517/rr/797361
4, 10 – summary of asthma and alternative options – http://www.umm.edu/
health/medical/altmed/condition/asthma

Asthma and Food Allergies – Part 1

To help celebrate Food Allergy Awareness week, I asked my followers on social media to tell me what they would like to hear about. Due to so many requests, I decided to answer questions throughout the whole month of May. The last request I received was about food allergies and asthma. I am not equipped to answer this question myself, but I am thankful that I know someone who is. Last week I introduced you all to Dr. Ana-Maria Temple who is a pediatrician. She is a wealth of information and has kindly written a two part series for all of us on this important topic. Her and I decided to do this in two parts because there is so much information that we would like you all to have. This week Ana-Maria will be teaching us about food allergies and their affect on asthma. Next Friday, she will be teaching us about how to prevent asthma and also functional medicine treatments for asthma. Be sure to come back next week. Thank you Ana-Maria for everything you do to educate us!

The Relationship between Food Allergies and Asthma

There is a close relationship between asthma and food allergies, though the actual relationship is

not yet fully understood. Here is what we know so far based on the latest medical

literature.

General Information:

• Asthma and food allergy may often coexist.

• Up to 45% of children with asthma have food sensitivity by food sIgE.

• Food-allergic children were found to have 29% chance of having asthma by the US National

Center for Health Services (NCHS)

• Food allergic individuals with asthma are at higher risk for severe asthma then individuals

that have asthma and no food allergies.

• Food allergic individuals with asthma are at a higher risk for severe allergic reactions to

foods, particularly if the asthma is uncontrolled.

• Children with asthma and food allergies are less likely to outgrow their food allergies, then

those with only food allergies.

• Food allergy should be considered in children with acute life-threatening asthma

exacerbations with no identifiable triggers.

• Food allergy should be considered in children with moderate to severe eczema and with

severe persistent asthma. (Editorial note: I would consider this connection even in

children with mild to moderate eczema and asthma combo)

• Being sensitive to more foods and having higher levels of sensitization is associated with

increased severity of asthma. See Photo Above

• Food allergies often affect young children, can develop before the onset of asthma, and are

considered a risk factor for persistent, problematic asthma in young children.

• Studies indicate that children with food allergy present with asthma at an earlier age than

those without a history of food allergy.

Looking at Individual Foods:

Table outlining the foods that have the highest association with the development of Asthma

(red). Blue arrows show the other factors associated with increased risk of

developing Asthma.

asthma and allergies table

• Sensitization to egg, one of the most common food allergens in childhood, has been shown to

be a risk factor for developing environmental allergens and asthma later in life

• A specific study examined the role of clinical peanut allergy with asthma. The authors

reported that having peanut allergy (based on a positive history of reactions, peanut-
specific IgE > 15 kU/L and positive skin test to peanut) was associated with increased

rates of hospitalization and use of systemic steroids as compared to asthmatics

without peanut allergy.

• A 2009 study found that having cow’s milk allergy is a predictor for subsequent airway

inflammation. Children with IgE-mediated milk allergy at 7 months of age diagnosed

by oral food challenge had increased risk of elevated airway inflammation at 8 years

of age.

• The presence of asthma is a predictor for persistent cow’s milk allergy

• Wheezing infants, who have test for specific IgE of >or=0.35 kU/L to wheat, egg white, or

environmental allergens are at higher risk for developing asthma later in childhood.

Consequently, detection of those specific IgE antibodies in wheezing infants may help

with the early diagnosis of asthma, especially in cases with no clinically evident

eczema.

A Word of Caution:

• Cross-reactivity between foods and environmental allergens can lead to positive skin tests or

serum IgE levels to foods that may not be clinically relevant. For example, people

with birch tree pollen allergies can test positive to peanut and those with dust mite

and/or cockroach allergies can test positive to shrimp

In Good Health, Ana-Maria Temple, MD

Citations:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3155248/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990684/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20146729

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12859453

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10981525

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16210063

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17469157

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922978/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20618346

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12612281

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15867869

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19389315

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3070157/ – charts authors

Camping with Food Allergies- Part 1

Over on social media, I do Tuesday Tip’s where I share helpful tips about baking, living with food allergies, and my favorite kitchen items. This week, my Tuesday Tip was to have fun. I know that doesn’t sound all that helpful. For those of us that live with or have family members with food allergies, our lives are consumed by food and keeping us or our loved ones safe. We eat 3-6 times a day so by nature, we are consumed by food allergies. What else do you do 3-6 times a day that could make you really sick or even worse, land you in the ER fighting for your life? Probably nothing. It’s no wonder that the stress level of people with food allergies and their families are so high. That’s why my tip is to have fun. Since our lives are consumed with food, it’s safety, and our loved one/s we can become isolated and all consumed. Having fun and doing things other than thinking about, planning, and preparing food are of utmost importance for us.

My family lives in the burbs and enjoys the burbs, but our hearts are in the woods and traveling internationally. My family comes alive when we are out. The weather has finally turned for the better here so camping season has officially started for us. We headed east of where we live into the Cascade Mountains to enjoy a weekend camping “off grid”. There were no hook ups, water, or bathrooms. Thankfully we own a little tent trailer that holds several gallons of water and has a battery for minimal electricity, only when necessary. The trailer isn’t fancy, but it’s just right for our family. It gets us up off the ground and gives me an indoor place to cook when it’s hot or raining. A win both ways! I will write a post tomorrow all about how we eat with multiple food allergies and intolerances while we camp so be sure to come back.

UmpalaRAIN Archery
UmpalaRAIN Archery

Today’s post though is all about FUN. I have added a few affiliate links in case you want to check out these items. This is how we have had fun while we are camping. Hopefully some of these ideas will be new for you or good reminders. We have three girls and no boys, but that doesn’t stop us from having a great time in the woods. If we let our girls, they would wear dresses while hiking and rock climbing. 🙂 A year and a half ago, my husband had the idea to get a bow and arrow along with a sturdy target. We took it camping then and our girls just loved it. The bow we got for them was just right for our, then, 9 year old daughter. It was a bit challenging for our, then, 6 year old daughter. Now they are 10 and 7 and can both use the bow and arrow really well. Our 7 year old is quite the sharp shooter! Having the bow and arrow is a great way for all of us to have fun together, cheering each other on, and working together. I never would have thought of this, but I’m glad my husband did. This set always goes with us when we off grid camp. We also use it in our backyard.

UmpalaRAIN Hiking

We love to hike and explore the woods. There is an awesome little trail that is in our camp spot that leads to a large rock face. We scramble up the rocks to the bottom of the rock face together. I just love watching my girls scramble, they are awesome at it. My youngest takes it as a huge challenge and does a great job. This trip she learned how to follow kairns. 🙂 That is a very important skill to have here in the northwest since we hike so much and trails can be hard to find sometimes. My husband was sad that he didn’t bring his rock climbing gear. Next time we will have to bring it. We have taken our girls to a rock climbing indoor gym here and they love it. It would be fun to see them climb outdoors as well. As for me, I just belay everyone because I’m afraid of heights. On our way down the trail we found some unwanted hitchhikers, TICKS. YUCK! I wasn’t expecting ticks, but thankful I knew what they were. We found 4 on our trip enjoying their new home in our hair. :/ As far as we know, we left them all there.

UmpalaRAIN Hammock

This hammock lives in our backyard all summer and is a hit with our girls and all of the neighbor kids. It is typically full of kids with lots of laughter. Bringing it camping is great fun as well. There are always a large amount of trees where we camp to put it up.

UmpalaRAIN Scavenger Hunt
UmpalaRAIN Scavenger Hunt

My girls think I’m a little silly, ok maybe a lot silly. One night, we had the girls do a scavenger hunt in the woods. They had to find all of the items or they couldn’t have s’mores. LOL! Thankfully they are good sports and did the whole list and enjoyed it. Yes, I know, I’m terrible that I make my girls find poop. I did tell them it had to be dry. 🙂 It’s all fun and educational. The s’mores were worth it!

UmpalaRAIN River

There was a neat river close by so we found a safe area for my girls to wade in rain boots, skip rocks, and play with water skeeters.

UmpalaRAIN Craft

Now, I know we went camping, but I do think that a craft bin is a MUST! There will always be times when kids need time to chill. I have found the craft bin is great when I am cooking or the girls are simply done playing outside, which I get. Several hours in a day, my girls were in our craft bin and had the best time together. These are items that are different from the ones we have at home, so that makes it fun too. My bin is about 32 inches long, 25 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. That’s not exact, but a good guess. It is large, but it is so worth it to us. This bin stays in our trailer.

Craft Bin items
1. Playdough- make sure you have an allergy friendly one that is safe for your family. I make traditional playdough with regular flour because we only react to ingested gluten. I know that isn’t safe for very many of you so I won’t give you my recipe.

2. Coloring books of all kinds- I have coloring books that fit all the ages of my girls so they can all find something they enjoy

3. Crayons- I love these Melissa and Doug ones because they don’t break!

4. Crayola Markers– Crayons just aren’t good for all purposes so pens are a must too

5. Crayola Magic Markers and Paper– if you have a little one these are great! No mess or coloring on anything you don’t want them to. My older girls still really like these as well.

UmpalaRAIN Card Game

6. Playing cards- my girls love to play card games

7. Old Maid– because everyone loves Old Maid! 🙂 We can’t control our laughter, ever!

8. Melissa and Doug reusable sticker books– my girls spent so much time doing these this weekend

9. Plain paper for coloring

10. Bubbles– everyone always loves bubbles!

11. Water balloons– if it is hot when you go, these are a must, so quick and easy

12. Slip and slide– we only take one of these when we are in a camp ground, not off grid camping. None the less, they are super fun!

13. Water guns– Who doesn’t love a good water gun fight?!

We have realized that going camping doesn’t mean that you just have to sit around and enjoy the woods. Trust me though, we LOVE the woods. It’s ok to bring other things for the kids to do and it will make your life much better too. The things that we remember and enjoy the most are things that we get to do together. When we are home, we are distracted with life and don’t get as much time to spend face to face with our kids as we would like. That’s what camping does for us, it’s a lot of face to face fun together. What are some fun things that you like to do when camping?

Why are Food Allergies on the Rise?

I often get asked why food allergies are on the rise. While I have my own opinions as to why this is, I don’t have a medical background to give facts and data. This is why I turned to my friend Vivian who is a general practitioner. She is a wealth of information, well researched in this area, and has a son with severe food allergies. I am so excited to have her guest post for me on this important topic.

Why is allergy on the rise?
I’m always asked ‘What is the cause of allergies?’ – and it is a difficult question to answer, and you can probably talk about it all day because there are so many factors at play, which I will highlight here.
Food allergies among children in the US increased approximately 50% between 1997 and 2011 – allergy is now an epidemic in many of the developed countries. And it’s not just children – adults are starting develop food allergies for the first time in their adulthood too.
So the million dollar question is… WHY?

Genes
There is no denying that genes play an important role in the development of allergy – if you have a family history of atopy (food allergies, asthma or hay fever) you are more likely to develop allergies but the rapid rise in the incidence of allergy must be linked to the environment too as our genes cannot evolve that quickly. Some interesting facts:

• foreign-born Americans have significantly lower risk of allergic disease than U.S. born Americans.
• your risk of developing allergies increase the longer you reside in the U.S.
• this tells me that it is not simply down to the genes but must be also due to environmental factors too

In 2013, Dr Silverberg of St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Centre in New York found that foreign-born children who moved to the U.S. had an increased risk of developing allergies, and this risk increased the longer they resided in the U.S. So this supports the theory that environmental factors are causing more allergies.

“Why is the environment making us more allergic?”

Whilst there are many theories out there, so far no one has the definitive answer. There’s the Hygiene hypothesis (that we are too clean and the immune system is not stimulated enough – I’m not a fan of this theory though).

Personally, I believe the gut and the food we eat has a lot to answer for…

All disease begin in the gut – Hippocrates

The father of medicine said this about 2000 years ago – and I think we are only beginning to find out there is truth in his wisdom. Obviously, I don’t necessarily agree that ALL disease starts in the gut. Congenital and genetic conditions that you are born with, for example, do not. However, I am convinced that a lot of chronic medical conditions which are on the rise begin in the gut e.g. autoimmune, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, allergies… just to name a few.

Research has shown:

• Antibiotic use in infancy is linked to increased odds of developing food allergy in childhood
• The bacteria found in stools of children with food allergy is significantly different to those of children without food allergy.
• Beneficial bacteria in the gut produce substances which alter the integrity of the gut barrier to the outside world, and the way the gut presents food particles to our immune system.

The Gut

Did you know that the gut is a major immune organ?

As well as digesting and absorbing food, the gut also plays a significant role in healthy immune function. We are seeing a worryingly rapid rise in allergy and autoimmune diseases (e.g. Hypothyroidism, Lupus, Rheumatoid, MS), and although allergy and autoimmune diseases are different entities, there is a common theme – all of them result from a malfunctioning immune system: in autoimmune disease, the immune system attacks the body itself, whereas in allergies the immune system attacks food/environmental allergens.

The allergy epidemic has gone hand in hand with a period in the developed countries of increasing antibiotic usage, GMO foods, intensive animal farming, pollution, increasing cesarean sections rates, formula feeding, and a low fiber/highly processed foods diet….just to name a few!

For example, you may think you are ok because you don’t take any antibiotics, but the antibiotics that livestock has been fed/injected from intensive farming probably stays in the meat, so you are most likely ingesting some antibiotics inadvertently when you eat meat farmed this way, and similarly with milk and dairy products.

Why does it matter?

Antibiotics kill bacteria – as well as killing the bad bacteria that causes infection, they also kill the good bacteria you need for health. There are trillions of bacteria in the gut – weighing around 3 pounds, and these are necessary to maintain normal gut function. A combination of environmental factors listed above has led to an altered ‘microbiome’, the healthy bacteria missing and instead the gut has ‘bad’ bacteria which can release toxins, cause the gut to be leaky and therefore leads to an increased risk of allergies. The way it does this is by allowing food proteins to enter the blood stream when normally these food proteins would stay in the gut. When food proteins are circulating in the blood stream, these may trigger an immune system or “train” the immune system to become allergic to that particular food.

The gut bacteria is so important in regulating how food proteins are presented to our immune system – if they present food in the wrong way, we end up with an allergy.

SO it ALL begins in the gut! Somehow, the gut is presenting food wrongly as foe… Why the immune system produces the wrong signal is an area of rigorous research. It has been suggested that beneficial gut bacteria produce many of the important messengers involved in the correct signalling process and with the altered gut microbiome caused by environmental factors, these important beneficial gut bacteria may be missing thus changing the signalling process in the gut. Due to GMO farming, modern day food no longer resembles what our ancestors used to eat. Wheat and soy are both heavily altered to withstand harsh conditions for improved crop yields, and this is also having an impact on our health.

As well as the gut, food allergens may also be presented to the immune system through the skin – and this is particularly relevant for eczema sufferers where the skin barrier is broken and may explain why infants with eczema have a higher risk of food allergies (good eczema control is particularly important in infants to prevent this theoretical mechanism of food sensitisation). It has been suggested that if your immune system is ‘seeing’ allergens through the skin but not encountering it in the gut as food, an allergy may develop to that particular food when you start to eat it. The LEAP study (2015) conducted by Professor Lack’s team in London has shown that early introduction of peanuts into the diets of high-risk infants can reduce the incidence of peanut allergy developing later on (see my blog post on this next week). So it is important that the gut sees these allergens, identify them as food and ‘accepts’ them early on before the immune system starts playing havoc and misleads the body into attacking it.

For me as a doctor, the rise of allergic and autoimmune conditions is both alarming and frustrating as we are not good at treating them. We have strong and toxic medicines to dampen the immune system with but these can cause serious side effects and we don’t like using them. Apart from these toxic medications, we can only treat surface symptoms without ever getting to the root cause: food avoidance for allergy, painkillers for rheumatoid arthritis, steroid creams for eczema.

I really think that Hippocrates was way ahead of his time, and we are only beginning to unlock an important piece of the disease puzzle by looking at the gut. The modern day life assails many assaults on the gut and as a result, we are seeing a rise in conditions which were rare a couple of decades ago.

Watch this space.

In the meantime, look after your gut.

Thanks Vivian for a great piece on the rise of food allergies! Here you can find more information on gut health from Vivian. She is such a great resource so click through her other articles as well!

Navigating the Grocery Store

May 14-18 is Food Allergy Awareness Week. On social media I asked my followers what they would like me to write about food allergies. In the next few weeks I will be writing several posts to answer the great questions I received. I also have two awesome guests that will be posting on food allergies as well so be sure to come on back in the coming weeks. Here is the first in the series.

One of my followers on Instagram last week what I do to help my girls when they feel sad about foods they can’t have. This post is dedicated to answer this great question. Keep in mind that this is what I have done with my girls, it may or may not work for you. I hope it is helpful since this can be a very difficult issue to deal with for sure.

1. One of the most important things we can teach our kids is that life isn’t always fair. Life just isn’t fair, no matter how much we want it to be. There will always be difficult situations to navigate in life. My husband and I have worked really hard to instill this in our girls in many different situations. We have three girls and we simply can’t make everything fair and equal all the time. That will never be reality for them once they leave our home either, so we want to prepare our girls for the realities that they will face later in life. This is no different with their food intolerances and allergies. It doesn’t seem fair that they can’t eat the same foods as other people, but it is their reality. We give them the freedom to feel sad and talk about how hard it is to have food allergies. It is important for them to be able to voice their feelings. Since life isn’t fair for anyone, in our case with food intolerances and allergies, we help them to see beyond it.

2. We teach our kids thankfulness as a response to difficult situations. Let me be clear again though that we absolutely let our kids feel sad and talk about the challenges they face having food allergies and intolerances. The fact is that we can’t change that our girls (both my husband and I as well) have food allergies and intolerances. If we can’t change that, it is up to us to determine how we let them affect our lives. We can mope around in our sadness and discouragement, or we can choose to be thankful for what we CAN eat. Yes, our list of “can’t haves” is very long, I call it a scroll. You know what though? There are SO MANY foods we CAN eat. Having food intolerances and allergies has pushed all of us to be adventurous with new foods that we might not have ever tried. Our family has become so close knit having food allergies and intolerances because we can’t eat out very much we spend almost every meal together. Most of us also have a very strong desire to be creative, so we have taken our creativity into the kitchen.

3. I am typically very determined in many areas of life. This has done our family well having food allergies and intolerances. I have been determined to not let food allergies and intolerances get the best of us or keep us from enjoying life. If I find a “normal” recipe that looks good, I am determined to figure out how to make it work for my family’s long list of can’t haves. There are very few foods that I haven’t been able to re-create to fit my family’s needs. My family has to endure eating all of my experiments until I get them right, which they are very gracious to do. This has greatly helped my girls to not feel left out. If they are going to a party or event, I always ask the parent what they will be providing for food. I make the same food that will be served at the party so my girls feel included, but with safe food for them. My freezer is full of desserts all the time so the girls have many options to choose from when they have an event to attend. This has helped them to always feel included which is one of the toughest things for kids with food allergies and intolerances to deal with.

4. When we are in a grocery store and see foods that my girls would like to eat, but can’t have we do two things. We find a similar product that is safe for them. The area that we live in has a plethora of natural food stores that have huge selections that fit our needs. If we can’t find it in our local stores, we look online where we can find almost anything we need. It doesn’t satisfy the urgent “want” while we are at the store, but it’s good for them to learn to be patient. 🙂 The other thing we do in this situation is figure out how we can make it ourselves. See #3 for this. My girls are at ages that I can reason with them about what they can and can’t have. If your kids are too young to reason with, I would suggest bringing a safe snack for them to eat while you are at the grocery store so they aren’t thinking about all the food they are passing by.

5. From the time our girls could talk we taught them about their food allergies and intolerances, their reactions, and the consequences of eating those foods would be for them. We wanted them to know clearly why they couldn’t eat certain foods. Education is so important with our kids in this area. I often use the example that we teach our kids the ABC’s from the time they are born knowing they don’t understand them at the time. We repeatedly teach the ABC’S because we know that one day they will know their ABC’s for themselves. I see it no differently with food allergies and intolerances or teaching kids not to touch a hot stove. It is our job to repeatedly teach our kids about their food allergies and intolerances until they know and understand them clearly for themselves. This year I have gone into our two older girls classrooms to talk about food allergies as well to educate their friends. The more we can educate our own kids, their friends, and our families, the easier it will be on our kids.

Please let me know if you have any other questions that I can answer. I hope this was helpful!

Cuisinart Food Processor Review

I recently posted a video on social media that shows how quickly sweet potatoes can be turned into sweet potato fries in seconds. Several people had no idea that it was even possible and were amazed at how quickly and easily my Cuisinart food processor chopped my sweet potatoes. For almost two years, sweet potatoes were one of my best food friends. I ate them almost every day for lunch and loved them dearly. They got bumped only because I now love plantains too, but sweet potatoes will always be at the top of my list.

Originally when I started eating sweet potatoes, I was making chips out of them. See the sweet potato chip recipe here. I also made these with my food processor using my 4mm slicing blade. This is where my love for sweet potatoes began. I mean, who doesn’t love chips of any and all kinds?! Prior to this, I greatly disliked sweet potatoes. Gasp, I know! I never got into the candied yams at Thanksgiving or anything like that. It’s probably because my family never ate them and because I don’t like any mushy food at all. I have a quick gag reflex for anything mushy, so baked sweet potatoes were out. Enter sweet potato chips and I was SOLD! This way they were a tad bit crunchy, just like I like food. 🙂 While I loved my sweet potato chips, they were a bit high maintenance, needing to be flipped every 5 minutes towards the end of their baking. I just couldn’t give them that much attention. Making sweet potato fries changed all of that since I can flip large spatulas full all at the same time. Voila, I was eating sweet potato fries daily and loving it.

I figured there had to be a way to make french fry shapes with my food processor and sure enough, this french fry disc (affiliate link) is what I found and purchased. This attachment makes shoestring size fries. Several of the reviews I read about this attachment in particular was that it can get clogged and not work well. I do find this to be true, but it’s a real simple fix. All you need to do is open the lid and pull the pieces out of the attachment that are stuck and move along on your merry way. That’s all, no big deal!

Over the many years that I have had my food processor, I have used it for many things. I use it to chop vegetables like celery, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, etc. so that all of my pieces are uniform in size. It works great and super fast. The cucumber on the left, below, is with the 2mm slicing blade. The cucumber on the right is using the 4mm slicing blade.

I also use the grating attachment to grate carrots, cheese, and anything else you would like to be shredded.

My food processor also does a great job with “blender” muffins, date balls, pesto, sun butter, crackers, and more. It is such a versatile kitchen gadget, it’s a main staple in my kitchen. I really love my food processor and use it often. I have owned this 11 cup Pro Custom Cuisinart Food Processor and I currently own this 11 cup Prep Plus Cuisinart Food Processor (both affiliate links). The first one I got at some point after we were married, but I’m not sure when. I used it for years and then decided I needed a more powerful motor for all the use I was giving mine. They both were great, I have no complaints about either one. They are dishwasher safe with BPA plastic which are both pluses for me. All in all, I highly recommend getting a good food processor if you do a lot of meal prep, chopping vegetables, blending thicker or chunky foods, and like one unit that is great for many of uses. The two food processors in the links above come with a bowl, the lid, a blade attachment, two slicing blades that are different thicknesses (2mm and 4mm), and a grating blade. I had to purchase the french fry attachment separately. They are a bit of an investment, but so worth it if you think you will use it a lot. As always, let me know if you have any questions, I’m happy to answer any you may have.

Scoops!

You want the scoop on my scoops?! 🙂 I absolutely love everything about a set of * scoops These are almost a part of my daily baking, they are that helpful. If you plan on doing a lot of baking or cooking, I highly suggest finding yourself a set of ice cream/cookie scoops. I have found them called both, but I call them ice cream scoops in my recipes. I use these in so many different ways, I will post several pictures below that I used scoops for. The possibilities are endless really.

Here are several of the reasons that I love using scoops:
1. They are quick and easy to use
2. They are dishwasher friendly (can I get an amen to that since a lot of my kitchen tools can’t be?)
3. It is a great way to get even amounts of things. This way my girls can’t grumble that someone else’s food is bigger 😉
4. They are so versatile in the kitchen. See below for all the ways I use them.

Now for pictures 🙂

I make muffins by the 4 dozen. No joke, I do this every 10 days or so. My family eats muffins for breakfast every day, so scooping makes my life a whole lot easier and faster. The largest scoop is the perfect muffin size.

Ok, fine, you are going to begin to see that I make most things in bulk. I make tortillas in HUGE stacks and freeze them. By huge stacks, I mean 8 cups of dough, big. Again, the scoops make my life so much faster and easier here. I use the largest scoop for these as well.

No picture here, but I use my smallest scoop to make melon balls because my youngest insists that I do. In all honesty, I don’t prefer to do this, but for her? Anything! This takes longer than cutting, but it works well none the less.

We love a good healthy snack/dessert around here so we make date balls often. My second from the smallest scoop is the perfect size for these.

I do actually use my scoops for ice cream. 🙂 The largest scoop, of course!

Several other things that I use scoops for are frango chocolates, cupcakes, dinner rolls, small brownie bites, pie filling for small pies, cookies, bread sticks, buns, and more. Hopefully you find this helpful. Scoops forever changed my life in the kitchen, I hope they do for you too. 🙂

* This is an affiliate link for your convenience and to help keep my site running. I will always give my honest opinion, for me, there’s no other way to be. Also, I am a frugal shopper and I like to pass that on to my readers as well. 🙂

Tortilla Press Review

I told you all last week that I would give you my review on the *tortilla press that I have. Honestly, I LOVE this tortilla press so much. I think I made tortillas by hand one time which included rolling them all out and then frying each one individually. If you must do that, it works, but man it is a lot of work. For me, it wasn’t worth making tortillas at that pace.

A few things that you will learn about me more and more are that I am frugal where I can be, I save time when I can, I make simple but tasty foods, I skip unnecessary steps in recipes to save time, and I’m a bit unconventional in the kitchen to be able to do the things mentioned above. There are times that I have to decide which of the above are the most important if I can’t squeeze them all into one recipe. I think the tortillas fit into most of the above. The press wasn’t terribly expensive, it saves me SO much time, it is simple and easy to use, but this one isn’t unconventional. You can see a video on how easy they are to make under my oat tortilla recipe. It really is amazing how fast and simple it is.

Tortillas

Ingredients

2/3 C Brown rice flour
2/3 C White rice flour
2/3 C Tapioca starch
1 t Guar gum
½ t Cream of tartar
¼ t Baking soda
1 t Salt
1 C Warm water

Directions
In a large bowl mix together all dry ingredients well with a spoon. Add water to dry mixture and mix until well combined. The dough is a bit sticky. I use a tortilla maker to make these which saves a ton of time. Using a large cookie scoop place dough on tortilla maker, press down, let cook for about 30 seconds, then remove and place on a plate. Enjoy!

If you are making these by hand with a frying pan I would still use a cookie scoop to get even balls. Then use a baking mat dusted with extra tapioca starch. Place a ball of dough on the mat, sprinkle the top of the dough with more tapioca starch, then roll out into a circle. Spray pan with non-stick spray and fry each side for 10-15 seconds. Repeat until done.

This recipe works really well to double.

The one thing that I really don’t like about my tortilla press is that it’s not that easy to clean. While the press says it is non-stick, I find that I need to use non-stick spray to ensure my tortillas don’t stick. With that, the grease from the spray leaks out the bottom (see the photo below). This is definitely not a deal breaker for me, but something I think is important to share with you all. I clean it the best I can and then I store it with a paper towel underneath it.

Now for my unconventional idea with the tortilla press. For a long time, I have been wanting to make home made ice cream cones that are cane sugar free for my family. I found a great looking recipe that I want to try, but I just can’t get myself to buy an ice cream cone press. While it would be fun to have ice cream cones with the checkered pattern, I don’t think it is necessary to have the pattern and add another gadget to my kitchen. I am going to attempt to make ice cream cones with this tortilla press. 🙂 Wish me luck and I’ll let you know how my pattern free ice cream cones turn out.

* This is an affiliate link for your convenience and to help keep my site running. I will always give my honest opinion, for me, there’s no other way to be. Also, I am a frugal shopper and I like to pass that on to my readers as well. 🙂

Multiple Food Allergies

Most of you I don’t know me personally, so I thought I would share a little bit about us. In the “About” section, I go into a some detail about how I came to be a consultant for kids with multiple food allergies. I thought I would go into a little more detail here. My husband and I have been putting together a presentation for my business this week and this is one of the slides for it above. While I am very aware that food in the world of having food allergies is getting to be really amazing, I know we can all relate to this picture. If we know better than this, most people without food allergies don’t.

One thing that is difficult having multiple food allergies and intolerances, is finding recipes that fit our needs without having to “tweak” something. Here is a glimpse of what I have running through my brain every day as I look at recipes, create my own, and look for pre made foods that we can eat. This list is what my three daughters and husband can’t have:
– Gluten
– Dairy
– Soy
– Egg yolk (whites are fine)
– Nuts
– Corn products, not derivatives (I’ll do a post on this at some point)
– Cane sugar
– Tomato
– Garlic
– Beans

My two youngest daughters had severe (though not anaphylaxis allergies) to dairy, soy, and eggs from the time they were just days old. I go into more detail in the “about” section on this if you care to read about it. At 18 months old, my middle daughter, had an anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts while we were on vacation. A trip to the ER, benadryl, and an epi shot finally stopped the reaction. As my girls have gotten older, their allergies have become less severe, and my middle daughter amazingly has grown out of her anaphylaxis allergy to peanuts. While their allergies have become less severe, the above foods still have enough effect on my girls that they choose themselves to not eat them. All of my daughters want to do oral challenges (ok’d by our Dr’s) about once a year. When they want to, I let them so they can make the decision themselves what foods don’t make them feel well. Each time they have done oral challenges, my girls feel miserable whether it be horrible nausea, vomiting, rash, diarrhea, headaches, bronchitis type cough and sinus congestion, malabsorption in their gut, etc. While I’m abundantly thankful that my girls reactions aren’t life threatening, the reactions they do have are no fun for them either. They have each decided that their reactions to the foods above aren’t worth experiencing. Gluten, dairy, and cane sugar are on all of my girls and husbands lists, but the other food items are for one or some of them. All of my girls vomit from eating cane sugar, go figure. I’m not sure if that is because they don’t eat very much of it or they have an intolerance to it. They sure are funny when I joke with them about it. I tease them that they can eat a whole bowl of candy and they all yell “NO, we don’t want to get sick. YUCK!!!!” Cane sugar and corn are the most difficult foods for us to avoid when looking at pre made foods so I make virtually all of our food. It’s easiest for me to cook one meal for everyone so I take the whole list above into consideration when I cook. I have purposely left myself out of the list above because I have quite a limited diet due to health issues of my own.

OK, back to finding recipes for people with multiple food allergies… I tell you the above information so you know what I go through in finding food to feed my own family with multiple food allergies and intolerances. Since I have been making food for multiple food allergies for almost 12 years, it has become much easier over time for sure. One of my greatest joys in working with kids with multiple food allergies is finding food that they CAN have. I absolutely love finding recipes from some of my favorite trusted food allergy bloggers, creating my own recipes, and finding products on the market that my clients can eat. Problem solving is so much fun for me and I am fiercely determined to be sure my own family and my clients can eat foods that they love and miss even though they have multiple food allergies. If it is possible to recreate a food for my family and clients with multiple food allergies, I am determined to figure it out for them. I push many boundaries in the kitchen and am willing to try just about anything to be sure my family and clients get to enjoy the best allergy friendly foods possible. You don’t have to eat cardboard, spend many hours, and failed recipes to find great food for your child with multiple food allergies. Let me do it for you, it’s what I do best! I do all of the research of finding recipes for my clients specific food allergies, foods they want to eat, and then help them meal plan as well. Leave me a comment of a food that you wish you could still eat, along with your restrictions. Bring me the joy of problem solving for you. 🙂

Shopping the bulk aisle with food allergies

There is a question of whether or not people with food allergies should shop in the bulk section at their local grocery store. I always hear that people with food allergies shouldn’t ever shop in the bulk section at their local grocery store. This response makes complete sense since the chance for cross contamination is really high in a bulk food section. I even asked the supervisor at my local grocery store, who I now consider a grocery store friend, if those of us with food allergies should shop in the bulk section. She even said no, that the risk would be too high for people with food allergies. Ok, I get it loud and clear, no shopping in the bulk BINS at your local grocery store. I definitely agree that this is not a safe place for people with food allergies to shop.

I will though encourage you to shop in the bulk section of your grocery store, just not in the bulk bins themselves. What I have found with the many grocery stores near me that have a bulk section, is that they also sell their items in bulk, at a discount (usually between 5-10% off the bulk bin price), to their patrons. While I can certainly buy my flours, gums, sugars, etc. online, there are times when the shipping cost is so high it’s almost as much as the item itself. Enter my love for my local grocery stores with bulk sections. I purchase many items from these stores, in bulk bags from the manufacturer, and keep them in containers in my garage. These bags are sealed shut from the manufacturer when I pick them up from the store. My grocery store just acts like a middle man between the manufacturer and myself. Most of the time I have between 150-200 lbs of baking items on hand.

For those of you that have the space, love to save money where you can, and want more than a few lbs of baking items on hand, I suggest you find a great store near you that has bulk items. Typically, I find that most of the stores near me with a bulk section sell their items in 25 or 50 lb bags. I bake A LOT and go through each of my 25 lb bags of flour about every 3-4 months. Hopefully that gives you a good gauge on how long 25 lbs could last you. We are all different in what items we use and need, but here is what I typically have on hand in bulk: brown rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, oats (GF of course), expandex modified tapioca starch, yeast, coconut sugar, and guar gum. I have many other items always on hand as well, but I don’t buy them in bulk. If you have found a place online to purchase your baking items from that you love, great! If you are looking for something local, hopefully this is helpful for you. It’s ok to shop in the bulk section at your local grocery store if you have food allergies, just don’t ever shop in the bins themselves.