The weather here has been unusually warm – dry, sunny days where it’s nice enough that your jacket stays at home. As a result, trees are starting to bud – and allergy season is just around the corner.

Trees usually produce the first pollens of the year. That means folks with tree pollen allergies will be already facing their typical symptoms, from allergic rhinitis to asthma exacerbations.

If you are allergic to trees – even if the trees are not yet budding where you are – it’s worth it to get on your preferred antihistamine now. Tree allergy season is just around the corner. While it seems crazy to treat allergies before they show up, all the research shows that antihistamines work best if they are in your body in sufficient concentrations before you are exposed to your allergen! Some antihistamines appear to take time before they really relieve symptoms – but this is more likely to be related to the fact that they get used up quickly as they quell an existing reaction, leaving no additional medication available to handle any new reactions as they start up. Given that we aren’t dealing with allergy season yet, but will be …

We love salads, but we do have some challenges. Dairy made from cow’s millk can be a problem. There’s also my husband’s stomach, which just won’t take onions anymore. Then there’s my new low carb eating plan. Of course, we need to stay gluten-free too. Oxalates are a new problem that has changed our eating. This makes for a long list of things to avoid.

What to do when the whole family loves salad and we have all these competing dietary requirements? Obviously, we aren’t going to be having a Cobb salad with croutons.

When allergies – or any other dietary restrictions – come along, you improvise and experiment!

Here’s the salad that has become a family favorite.

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Monique’s Greek-Inspired Salad

Ingredients:
1 English cucumber
1/2 fennel bulb
1/2 – 3/4 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
1 red pepper
200 gm (7 ounces) sheep or goat feta

3/4 – 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tablespoons sweetener of choice
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar

Instructions:
Take the first 5 ingredients and chop into your preferred bite size. I cut the cucumbers into four long strips and then chop into slices. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Chop the fennel fairly chunky – but not too big! Same with …

Leaky gut refers to a condition of the intestines, where there are “leaks” in the intestinal lining that allows substances from the intestines to get into the body. While this may sound like a good thing, it is not: it means we are absorbing things that a healthy gut would keep out of the blood stream.

Leaky gut may be related to a host of conditions, including both asthma and arthritis. The problem is that the intestines are not just supposed to absorb things; they should also be acting as an effective barrier against bacteria, viruses, parasites and even undigested food! Any of these things can trigger an immune response – and may even play a role in food intolerance and food allergy.

Leaky gut also allows toxins into the body. One of these toxins is called oxalate, and it may be one of the factors behind asthma and allergies. Oxalate is a low level poison that research shows can contribute to and exacerbate inflammatory processes in the body.

As toxins circulate in the body, they tax the liver. As the liver gets overloaded, it can’t clear the toxins out. The leaky gut syndrome actually gets worse as toxins circulate …

GMO foods are plants or animals that have been genetically modified. GMO stands for genetically modified organism.

The problem with GMOs is that the hype is not often matched by the actual results.

Further, testing the safety of these organisms for the allergic is not being done. After all, the only difference between a food and an allergen is its DNA and the development of GMOs involves direct changes to the DNA of the plant or animal. The possibility that such GMOs could result in food allergies definitely exists.

For that matter, the only difference between a safe food and a poison is the same DNA.

Here are 10 reasons to avoid GMOs whenever possible:

GMOs won’t fix the planet’s food shortage
In fact, the reason that our planet continues to have food shortages has more to do with things like using corn crops to make ethanol than lack of ability to produce food.
GMOs don’t mean more food per acre
While the big promise has been more food per cultivated acre, that has not been seen in practice.
GMOs do not reduce pesticide use
A large number of GMOs are actually designed to be resistant to pesticides, rather than be hardier plants. According …

My favorite group writing project, hosted by my friend Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings, has come around again. This month’s topic is: what I learned from colorful characters.

I’m sure we’ve all got our own definition of colorful characters. In my case, I think of those larger-than-life eccentrics who just seem to do everything BIG. They are also perhaps the folks who take you by surprise and refuse to fit any mold no matter what you expect.

My Aunt Lucille fits that definition perfectly.

Aunt Lu had allergies for as long as I could remember. This never slowed her down somehow: despite allergies to pets (cats mostly), she still visited people, even if she forgot her antihistamines and inhalers at home. Nothing was as important to her as the people she loved.

Not that this was necessarily a smart way to manage her allergies. She was eccentric in how she managed allergies too. In fact, she ended up in emergency a few times because she insisted on visiting either myself or one of my brothers – and we all had cats. Unfortunately, poorly managed asthma (often allergy related) is a significant cause behind emergency room visits and she never thought …