In the last few days I’m seeing all sorts of headlines that claim food allergies are all in our heads and implying things like health consequences if we don’t eat wheat.

I can’t think of anything further from the truth.

Wheat is not a required ingredient in anyone’s healthy diet. In fact, we are so bombarded by wheat in everything – I have found it as starch in everything from soup to cheese spreads to juice-based drinks! Wheat has become the one size fits all food, even though it’s so highly processed in most items that your body could hardly recognize it.

People have been living on this planet without eating wheat for millennia. What about all those traditional cultures who lived in parts of the world where wheat was unknown? How come they weren’t dying like flies? The Inuit never ate wheat before the influence of European cultures and diabetes in their peoples is now reaching epidemic proportions.

So, what’s behind all this noise that we shouldn’t exclude a food from our diet before we are diagnosed? If I feel better when I don’t eat wheat, then that should be enough evidence that avoiding wheat helps me. I …

I’ve written before on how our family has a lot of history with allergies – which pretty much guaranteed that my kids would also face the challenge of allergies.

Little did I know what I was in for.

Long story short (which you will be able to read as a serial this year on the blog) is that my son – who had the worst allergies – is now virtually symptom free. No hives. No wheezing. No foods we have to avoid. No sneezing through the spring, summer and fall.

As a result, a blog entitled “You Can Recover From Chemical Sensitivities And Allergies” caught my eye. After all, it’s interesting to read what others have done when faced with this chronic – and sometimes life threatening – condition.

I’m always open to a new tip or two.

Beverly Hartsfield shares her experience with allergies on The Gardening Guide. Her approach was to focus on getting the body healthy and reducing her exposure to irritants of all kinds, from chemicals to dust and pesticides to cleaners. She recommends getting fiber, dropping processed foods and eliminating sugar and high glycemic carbohydrates (which the human body isn’t really designed for anyway). She …

Our readers write:

Do you by any chance know of any web forums or google groups specifically about dust mite allergies or similar?

Would appreciate any help.

Regards,
Gavin

Unfortunately, I have never seen a forum that was specifically and only for dust mite allergies. I did check Google groups as well as Yahoo groups and both showed that there are groups to discuss allergies – but not specific to dust mites. In addition, most of these groups did not appear to have an active community – which I’m presuming you’d be interested in. Of the groups I saw, low numbers and low numbers of postings were the rule.

However, there are organizations out there that will answer questions that you might have. One of these is the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) and you can submit a question to them on this web page.

You also have to keep in mind that most of the sites out there that want to tell you about dust mites also want to sell you a solution. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it does mean that the information may have a bias. Consider this when reading!

If you are looking for more medical information, …

The answer is: probably not.

While the services likely do what they say they do – which is kill dust mites and eliminate their allergens – experts believe that the dust mites will return to their former levels in a couple of months.

Companies that offer this kind of service usually recommend twice a year cleaning – which means that you’ll be living with your regular level of dust mites for at least 8 out of 12 months.

What do these services do to kill dust mites? In most cases, they use steam cleaning. Sometimes they also employ ultraviolet light. Pediatric allergist and professor emeritus, Peyton Eggleston, says that both methods will kill mites – but only in the short term.

If you’ve got your own steam cleaner at home, you can likely kill off mites yourself. A better bet is a mite-proof cover for your mattress and key bedding items, like pillows. Wash bedding frequently in hot water to ensure no mites in items like duvets or comforters.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings has challenged his fellow bloggers to showcase their best of 2009.

Here’s mine!

This year has been quite a journey for me and my family. It was a rough winter: someone was sick in our house for every week between late October and early March. So, the start of the year had me thinking about healthy food made at home – which lead to the inclusion of interesting allergy-friendly recipes being added to the site! My first (and possibly best) recipe is for homemade pumpkin pie. I include an egg-free version, which I had to develop for my mother – who at age 70 developed an egg allergy. In fact, our family favorite has become the egg-free version: we never make the other now!

In fact, how to feed the allergic family became a bit of a theme. One question which is on the mind of every parent of an infant who could have allergies is when to introduce solids to the family’s newest member? While the debate rages, most experts say exclusive breastfeeding (in other words, breastmilk and nothing else) for at least the first 6 months is one of the best …