Allergy Prevention is NOT just one click away...

Recently one of my best friends tagged me in a video to watch, about a peanut food detector... called the Nima Peanut Sensor (also available in a Gluten detector). You can watch the video below..

Device can detect if your food has peanuts

This ingenious device can detect if your food has peanuts

Posted by NowThis Future on Monday, January 8, 2018

How many times do I have to state my opinion.. if you cannot take the time to properly know what is in the food you are serving - and make sure your staff do also.. YOU DO NOT DESERVE NOR SHOULD YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE ANY TYPE OF FOOD SERVING ESTABLISHMENT! If innocent people are trusting to eat at your establishment, they should not have to bring any type of mini chem-lab or device to check your food - YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS IN IT AND GIVE THEM THAT INFORMATION!

If your allergy is THAT severe that you don't trust the information given to you and you have to check it yourself - YOU SHOULD NOT BE TAKING THAT RISK! Why would you go through humming & hawing over it and risking "oh well let's order it anyways and I will check it myself"!?
First of all you're going to be charged for it, whether you can eat it or not, you could easily save that money and use it to buy already nut-free food from a store or the ingredients to make it yourself. And again if your allergy is THAT severe than you should NOT be touching it just to put it into a device anyways!?

This is simply teaching people to become lazy. To entrust a little man-made machine with their lives, especially if their food-based allergies are FATAL. If any food service owners/workers don't know the answers to what is in their food (first of all I would leave..) then they shouldn't be working and serving it OR at least give an honest "I don't know, i would greatly advise you not to order it."

But again this technology is probably going to be great for anyone who has minor allergies, such as lactose intolerance - I know many friends that take those pills in order to still be able to tolerate some degree of lactose in their diet. I'm sure that for example, this device would be good to give them some knowledge about how much lactose is in the food, in order to save them from some possible "discomfort" in the future. One of my coworkers mentioned that it may be good technology to use primarily if you are travelling to countries that have significant language barriers to your own. She recently took a vacation to Japan and it was hard to translate between English-Japanese to explain about her allergies. So yes I do think the technology could be very helpful in certain situations.

That being said, my food-based allergies are fatal. My allergies are to not only peanuts BUT ALSO tree nuts as well! I would never risk my life in this way during average daily life in my own country - travelling I may bring it as a very last resort backup... BUT If you don't know.. PLEASE DON'T TRY IT, don't touch it, order it or go near it.

In MY opinion.. Some food is Rotten?

One of the newest series on Netflix is: ROTTEN a discussion series that focuses on food production, imports/export history, falsification, trends and more. Each episode discusses a different food from chicken to honey to garlic...etc. I first heard of the series because ALLERGIC LIVING posted an article about one of the episodes.
The episode that has recently sparked interest is "The Peanut Problem." It starts off describing (or some would say accusing) the recent plummet in peanut (and tree-nut because YES they are different) sales due to the increasing rise of people with food-based allergies. They also are quick to show some people's opinion that allergies have only began over the past several years.. which in my opinion IS completely WRONG!

First of all, there has always been allergies, there has always been viruses and diseases - the thing people don't think about while they are complaining is that have we ALWAYS known what they were? NO! Have we always known what to call them or how to cure them? NO!

I may not be a scientist but I can assure you things like Chickenpox or the Flu or even minor/major allergic reactions have been around FAR MORE than just the recent years they have increased. Way back in the 1600's or even the 1300's way before modern medical technology I'm sure they had illnesses..etc that people would suffer and die from. But back then they probably didn't label or call them anything other than a plague or the work of God(s). Back then people didn't talk and research about the things that killed them to the extent that we do now. I'm sure even back in our parents day there WERE people who had food (or any other type of trigger) based allergies but they possible assumed the symptoms were a cold, or the flu, or just a 24 hour bug they caught from someone else.. It's true the rise of fatal allergies is quite alarming, and I'm sure over the past several years most allergies were not as fatal.
So yes I do personally believe something is happening in our food or biology that is making allergies more severe. But no I do not believe that they have just magically shown up in the past 40 years to mock and torture anyone in the food & farming industries.

Although the episode does spend a great deal of time talking about some incidental deaths in the UK caused by negligent/ignorant restaurant owners who CLEARLY used peanuts & tree nuts in their food but told customers otherwise, I think people are missing the bigger point of why they mentioned it in the episode in the first place..

“If you don’t know what’s in your food, get out of the business – today,” - Chef Ming Tsai, American restaurateur, television personality, and celebrity chef.

Tsai is completely right! If you cannot take the time to care for the people you are responsible for serving, if you cannot take the time to properly know what is in the food you are serving - and make sure your staff do also.. YOU DO NOT DESERVE NOR SHOULD YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE ANY TYPE OF FOOD SERVING ESTABLISHMENT! The same way that venues are responsible as the last point of contact for someone drunk when they leave, you are responsible for the food you serve.
This also emphasizes a point I make constantly that people are ignorant or lazy to the fact peanuts ARE in a different family than tree nuts. They think people that are allergic to peanuts are fine to eat tree nuts or vise-versa. So it must be fine to just tell them there are no peanuts in the food, even though there are tree nuts (or again vise-versa.) This is NOT always the case!? Some people are allergic to peanuts, some tree nuts, SOME ARE ALLERGIC TO BOTH! Some people stay away from ALL NUTS because they do not want to risk their life in order to eat a pine nut but not a cashew.

My point being, if you can take the time and commitment to open a restaurant in the first place, you can take the time to protect the people who are trusting you to serve them. It is NOT anyone's fault that they are born or grow into a food-based allergy. It is NOT the family's fault that for once they want to take their children out to dinner to feel like a normal average party of society when all they do is read ingredients lists and hide at home because they feel no one is considerate or cares enough about food allergies. I cannot keep track of how many restaurants or cafe's I have been to and had to leave because the servers or cooks when asked about the oils they cook with, or if they have cross-contamination with ANY nut products say "I don't know."

Tsai points out that it is very easy to make your information known for employees AND customers; all you need is a binder or book with a chart of the most known allergens, list all your food products and simply check of the boxes of what contains what. SIMPLE! Everyone can refer to the book! I can't tell you how many times I have been told "I'm sorry I don't know BUT please hold on while I get the book, if you don't mind looking through it." OF COURSE I don't mind! That shows that even if they don't know my answers they know enough to let me look through the book and make a decision based on my own comfort level. GOOD SERVICE!

There are other points I could talk about from the episode, but I'd rather not turn my blog into an essay (haha) but I will make this a two-part post and cover more of my opinions. In the meantime you can click here to read the ALLERGIC LIVING article. And please comment if you'd like me to discuss my opinion on the other episodes, or any other allergy trend/topics right now.

Peanuts on Pinterest!?

It's been a while since I've posted on my Allergy-Awareness sections of my blog.. and I promise it's been for good reason. Well reason enough...

During school we had a project which needed us to create Pinterest accounts.. I admit before school I did not, nor had I any plans to get.. a Twitter, a Pinterest, a blog, a LinkedIn or be involved with any other social media. Regardless I have been keeping it up during my periodic days of boredom or lack of energy.

I decided to create an Allergy Awareness board, I will be searching for helpful tips & tricks, stories, facts and other things not just related to food based allergies but all kinds as well. For any other fellow "pinners" I'd love to follow you and get your fellowship back so we can continue this widespread knowledge gathering.

More posts to come - Don't forget to check out the rest of my Allergy Blogs while you wait. And as always thanks to everyone for your continuous support!

The Business of Baking

I can’t tell the bakers and chefs of the world how appreciated it is when you consider food-based allergies and cross-contamination into your businesses. It makes our lives a little bit less hard. Thank-you.
Allergic living released a list of the top allergen-free (and gluten-free) bakeries in Canada, and today I thought I would share that list!



 To check out their list of American bakeries please click here!

 

EpiPen: the pen that Saves Lives

It doesn’t matter whether you have allergies yourself or if you know people that do. Everyone should know how to properly administer an EPIPEN auto-injector. Epipen.ca is a website that helps people understand anaphylaxis and how to properly use an Epipen or Twinject products.

About EpiPen^® (epinephrine)
Epinephrine - also known as adrenaline - is recognized by healthcare professionals as the treatment of choice for severe allergic reactions. It is the drug form of a hormone that the body produces naturally. EpiPen^® is an auto-injector that administers a pre-measured dose of epinephrine. During anaphylaxis, administering EpiPen^® and EpiPen^®Jr helps to decrease the body's allergic reaction.

Some of the ways EpiPen^® works include:

- Relaxing the muscles in your airways to make breathing easier

- Helping to reverse the rapid and dangerous decrease in blood pressure

- Relaxing the muscles in the stomach, intestines, and bladder

Epipens can’t save someone’s life. BUT when someone is having going into anaphylactic shock Epipens CAN give them the extra time needed to make it to the hospital. The best feeling in the world is when you know that there are people around you that you can trust. People that you know will be able to take care of you when something bad happens.

Managing Allergies 'all day, every day'

Growing up as a child with a food based allergy of any kind can be more than tough. It’s scary, confusing and stressful. You don’t feel like just another ‘average normal’ person in the world along with everyone else who can randomly call up dinner dates or take free samples in the mall. Not to mention the threat of cross-contamination and if the manufacturer’s leave out any crucial ingredients from their list.

Allergic Living wrote an article about Managing Peanut Allergies and said this…
“The only current treatment for this allergy is to avoid all traces of peanuts and peanut butter or other peanut-containing products. If your allergic child (or you) eats peanut with a known allergy, the drug epinephrine (adrenaline) will be needed to halt the reaction. But using the epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen) is an emergency situation only, it’s not a treatment. This is why “avoidance” is the operative word for managing a peanut allergy.”

Here is my own variation of this list to help other children, parents and friends realize that even if we have a smile on our face it’s really hard dealing with allergies internally and socially.

1-Hand Sanitizer:

The safest way to keep germs and bacteria from your system is to stay clean. This means washing your hands and sanitizing any public surface you share with others.
It’s easy to mask this by politely offering sanitizer to your friends – but don’t let them touch the bottle; pour some into their hands for them. Even if they have momentarily forgotten about your allergy they will still see the act as courteous and you will have risked coming into contact with any transferred allergens.

2-Avoid Cross-contamination:

If you are having a get together or party where friends encouraged bringing food or ingredients to make a big meal together request fresh ingredients. This means they do not scoop a glob of the family’s butter and bring it. Someone may have put a peanut butter covered knife in that butter and they are now bringing it for you to cook with.
Make it a contest; give your party a ‘chef’s challenge’ theme and see who can buy the freshest ingredients. That way no one is bringing the family’s used products and you can read all of the packaging before it’s opened when guests arrive.

3-The fear of Label Reading:

If you feel uncomfortable reading labels in front of your friends, its natural – I still do. But there are ways around it; pretend you have never heard of the product or manufacturer before so while your friend explains to you how they ‘swear by it’ read the ingredients list BOTTOM TO TOP then again TOP TO BOTTOM. If you’re engaged in conversation your friends are too busy talking to fully pay attention to where your eyes are looking.
If you have a trusted friend who has always looked out for you and your allergy make it their job to keep your friends distracted while you read over everything. You’re the host after all so suggest that your guests start the party and you will tend to the food out of courtesy. Anything that may contain an allergen you then set to the side to put back in the fridge and when questioned remind them of your allergy and say that there was way too much food for the small table space anyways – so that they don’t feel too horrible for forgetting.

4-Make sure the ‘Higher-up’s’ know:

It may seem horrible awkward but your supervisors, bosses and teachers are here to help you and look after you. Even if it through an email or phone call make sure they know about your allergy.
Each new semester of college I remind my teachers of my allergy and it does help. When classes have parties they look after the food so that you can enjoy yourself.
When one of my classmates had peanut butter (I didn’t even notice at the time-hadn’t had my coffee yet) the teacher asked them to put their food away and move seats using the excuse they were too tall to sit at the front and that today we couldn’t be distracted by food.
If you can somehow let everyone around you know without that awkwardness it helps. My personal brand in the business world is now ‘the nutty marketer’ and my logo is a “no nuts” symbol. There is now no way that anyone who knows me or will meet me in the future will forget about my allergy or at least whenever they see my business card or websites they will be reminded or ask about it. It’s my own clever way to get the conversation started because not everyone can hold out their hand and say “Hi I’m Jessica nice to meet you, I have a nut allergy so please be careful.”

5-Going out for dinner:

With any food based allergy you may never want to step out of your house other than to buy your own groceries. But going out for dinner with friends is possible. For me I’m thankful for Facebook because you can remind friends of your allergy online without having to see their reactions or listen to them apologise for forgetting or ridicule you and ask if it’s really that big of a deal.
If you do have friends that don’t try to understand your allergy then they aren’t very great friends to begin with and you should stick to hanging out with them in public areas or parks and never at their house or restaurants. True friends will be patient enough to include you in their plans and figure out a place where you can all go together.
Get your friends excited and see if you can coax out of them the options they are thinking of. This way you can call ahead and ask about the oils and products they use. If its unsafe or the chefs aren’t sure then communicate back to your friends so that reservations don’t get made and cancelled. This saves the embarrassment of asking once you’ve sat down and then you have to leave.
Again you could play the ‘courtesy card’ and offer to make the arrangements for them since they are such good friends. This way you can pick from your own handful of trusted restaurants without much worry.

6- The EpiPen, Medic Alert & Knowledge:

Children these days are cursed with growing up too fast at young ages. It’s considered normal to have a small purse in grade 3-4 because you’re mimicking your mother or favourite TV character. Take advantage of this and put your EpiPen inside the purse or backpack. That way it’s hidden from stealing/tampering hands and your child can still feel fashionable and safe.
NEVER GO ANYWHERE if you don’t have your EpiPen with you. Again this is not a treatment but it could give you the extra time you need to make it to the hospital if anything should happen. I keep one in my school backpack, purse, laptop back and of course one at home.

Medic Alert jewelry is a great way to notify people of your allergy if you are still embarrassed or shy. Most conversations I have start with someone noticing my bracelet which gives me a chance to explain the situation to them. This jewelry lets paramedics and strangers know that you have a severe allergy. Sometimes when my friends forget about my allergy and are being insistent that I try something all I have to do is shove my hand out and when they notice the bracelet they apologise and back off. As a child it can seem irritating to have these things around but Medic Alert does a great job of having fashionable subtle jewelry that over time just becomes a part of your daily routine of clothing.

A Sense of Emotion

While looking up information on food based allergies I found this advertisement. This picture is from ALLERGIC LIVING but was posted on a blog by “Sophie Safe” a mother who talks about the trials and tribulations of raising a child with a food based allergy.

         


The advertisement was made by Allergy Asthma Information Association and their mission is to “create a safer environment and improve quality of life for Canadians affected by allergy, asthma, and anaphylaxis by empowering individuals and providing education, leadership, and a national voice.” They practise the three A’s which are Awareness, Avoidance and Action. They focus on education and prevention.

By the look of the figure this advertisement is targeting adolescents/young adults who have/or are affected by someone who has an allergy. The message is that even the simplest action can lead to an allergic reaction. Even a small amount of an allergen can cause you to go into anaphylactic shock whether you “thought” what you ate was safe or not. The image uses powerful emotional appeal techniques. Anaphylactic shock can happen almost instantly and the image represents this fact.

I think that the positioning strategy for AAIA would be to represent a lifestyle. Living with any kind of allergy is a different lifestyle of its own because you have to constantly be aware of information and choose the things you touch, eat and buy accordingly. I’m not saying there is a specific ‘allergen lifestyle” out there like with Harley-Davidson but you do have to live a different way then others.

I love this advertisement because it’s hard dealing with food based allergies not only for the one with the allergy but for the loved ones close to them. With more advertisements like this AAIA could create some much needed awareness and understanding in our communities.