Food & allergies intolerances

Emma Sharp, Contributor

This is the final in our series on food allergies; we hope you found the articles useful.

Those of us with food allergies do not need to struggle as much as we think at first. The key is to focus on what we can eat rather than on what we cannot ingest. If we dwell on the opposite, then life is made miserable. I know what this feels like.

Five years ago, I had four anaphylactic shocks in one month, all of which were from contaminations of the culprit proteins in sesame and nuts. You can just imagine how hesitant I was to eat anything at all, and how scared everyone was to prepare food for me. Up to this day, friends always say they don't want to cook for me because they don't know what I am allowed to eat. In a nutshell (pardon the pun), everything except the foods mentioned above. That leaves a whole host of choices. The problem is, things like Asian sauces, oils, cereals and breadcrumbs might contain these foods; and some brands of chocolate, crackers and cookies have labels warning that they 'may contain traces of nuts'. Unless you are cooking from scratch, you had better read well. And I don't mean be literate, because I have looked at a list of ingredients 10 times, and missed the word 'sesame'. Needless to say, I ended up having to use my Epipen.

Awareness Week

Food Allergy Awareness Week is May 9-15, and I feel it is my duty, as a chef, to help those with food allergies and intolerances realise that life can go on as normal. I mention intolerances here because although they are not life-threatening at first, being intolerant to a food can make you very sick and, in turn, lead to health consequences if continually consumed.

I will not go into the deep medical aspects of it all because it is a very complex subject. While attending the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology Conference 2006 in Miami, Florida, and having seen my own specialist, I have come to understand that patient history is as important as Radioallergosorbent tests, skin-prick testing and allergen challenges. I am not here to diagnose you, but to advise you on how to best deal with preparing your meals if you face these food obstacles.

Allergies and intolerances to wheat and dairy are common. This poses a problem if you are accustomed to eating packet foods. People are constantly seeking out alternatives to basic items such as bread and butter, pasta and milk, crackers and cheese. My advice is to change your diet a little. Instead of having bread with your scrambled eggs in the morning, try steamed rice, vermicelli noodles, baked sweet potatoes, mashed Irish potatoes, roasted breadfruit; to replace pasta, use any width rice noodles - I find the wider ones hold together better with sauces; ditch Excelsior and go for rice cakes; if you can't have butter or cheese, home-made salsa, guacamole, or bean dips will go well with those rice cakes; and if you must have milk, switch to the soy, almond or rice versions.

I want to reiterate that you should be concentrating on the array of foods which will not make you ill. Stock your kitchen with fresh fruit, vegetables and provisions which grow in the ground. If you are a vegetarian, get your protein from lentils, split peas, black and broad beans. If not, still intersperse these inexpensive dried pulses with meats, chicken and fish. Sure, there will be problems when you go out to eat, but then you'll just have to get used to bringing your own! Perhaps restaurant chefs will soon cotton on, and provide options for people with food allergies and intolerances.

Emma@sharpactionfood.com or emmadaltonbrown@gmail.com