I remember it well. It started when my son was just about a year old. Wheat was on my avoidance list because of my own problems with it, so my son’s first taste of a grain flour was a piece of his father’s rye cake. All the ingredients looked completely wholesome and innocent. In fact, he’d had everything that was in the bread before, without incident, except for rye.

He broke out all over his face. I took him to his doctor. One look and the doctor said, “Whatever food you last tried him on – he’s allergic.” I said, “Rye cake?” He said, “Gluten”.

That’s how our journey into full gluten avoidance started.

When you avoid gluten, you avoid a LOT of foods. Surprisingly, gluten is included in all kinds of things you’d never expect, and masquerades as flavoring and spices. Lists of foods that contain gluten always surprise me. Vitamins? Yep – vitamins can contain gluten.

Since most processed foods use gluten in one form or another, we didn’t eat much take out, fast food or junk for a long time. It turned out that it wasn’t as big a hardship as we might have expected, and frankly – …

One theory that has fascinated me recently is the “hygiene hypothesis”. This theory proposes that we keep our homes and environment too clean; in fact, this hypothesis says that infant exposure to bacteria can actually help to protect your child from developing allergies later.

This idea led me to wonder – what if it isn’t just that we’re too clean on the outside, but actually too clean on the inside?

Researchers haven’t missed this area of study either. After all, we aren’t just obsessive about bacteria in our homes! Antibiotics have become the standard of care for a whole host of conditions. You get strep throat, or an ear infection, or have a cold that keeps hanging on and the doctor takes out the prescription pad.

Since antibiotics tend to kill many if not all bacteria in the body (and not just the problem ones), people in developed countries tend to be deficient in probiotics. Probiotics are the healthy bacteria that we need. These bacteria perform a whole host of functions for us from digesting some forms of fiber in our diet to supporting healthy immune systems.

Given the rise in allergies over the same time period that antibiotics have …

Is your child’s school nut-free? Are you scrambling for an alternative to peanut butter? If so, you aren’t the only one. As kids return to our educational institutions, parents and children alike often need to find a way to eat safely, whether they are allergic themselves or are supporting classmates who are.

Well, here’s the news: peanut butter is out and sunflower seed butter is in.

Sunflower seed butter has been around for a number of years. It’s relatively easy to find in most health food stores. While a bit stronger tasting than the traditional nut butters (like peanut and almond), it still makes a tasty sandwich. Sunflower seed butter packs dietary fiber, protein, Vitamin E, B Vitamins, and minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, selenium, calcium and zinc into every bite. Try it with apple butter – the natural sweetness of the apple is a great compliment to the seed butter.

You can also consider pumpkin seed butter. Pumpkin seeds provide a a good source of protein as well as the essential minerals iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, copper and potassium. You also get some omega fatty acids in each bite. We buy this seed butter and …

Labeling of processed foods is one of the most confusing aspects of managing a new food allergy. How do you evaluate the sentence, “Produced in a facility which also processes milk, gluten and tree nuts”? Or the ever-illuminating, “May contain peanuts and soy”? Another favorite of mine is the following: “Traces of milk and wheat may be present.” Each of these statements are from a real label, where the company is making a legitimate attempt to help the consumer with an allergy. But are they really helping us? Or are you just as confused as I am?

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America would really like to influence new US labeling guidelines. They’ve got a survey that they are asking people with allergies (and their loved ones) to complete. All responses are anonymous. For a few minutes spent answering 20 simple questions (with a couple extra about yourself, if you are willing), you can support the efforts of a national organization that is trying to improve labeling for all those dealing with allergies.

It’s not like governments everywhere don’t know that there are problems. The Canadian government just announced new labeling requirements to protect people with allergies. …

In just the past few weeks, I’ve read about more food recalls than I’d care to remember.

The first bad news for consumers was the Canadian outbreak of listeriosis. This outbreak has involved multiple food products from Ontario processed meats to Quebec cheeses. Several deaths have occurred across the country. Now that the worst appears to be over, late night commercials with the president of Maple Leaf Foods assure us that their meat products are now safe.

Then there was Bimbo Bakeries in the US midwest, packaging a nut bread into Oroweat 100% Wheat bread bags. Another recall ensued. So far, no one has reported any allergic reaction. However, with a growing number of nut allergies in the population, if no one gets sick, Bimbo has simply dodged a bullet. (There’s some serious black humor in this, with a company named “Bimbo” in the headline.)

Hot on the heels of one labeling glitch came another: Cuisine Malimousse discovered that the english-language labels on certain flavors of their Oceania Duo Mousse Lobster and Oceania Duo Smoked Salmon did not declare milk proteins. (You are safe if you can read French; it correctly listed the milk.) Here’s hoping my friend with the child …