Purse

The huge growth in the number of vegan products on the market should be a massive bonus for those with milk or egg allergies. But – so many of them come with PAL/May Contain warnings for milk and egg, that it has also been a cause of great frustration and no small degree of acrimony. Vegans and the allergy community are coming from very different places. And then there is the food industry – with a whole different set of priorities – and the regulators/enforcers who have to police the territory. At a very interesting seminar organised by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute last week it soon became clear that there are basically four players involved. Read on...


Purse

A recent article in the Evening Standard by Rachel Johnson was read with fury by the food allergy community. Michelle Berriedale-Johnson points out in how many ways Johnson got it wrong. She also brings news on Precautionary Allergen Labelling, the Ready2React Campaign and advice on dealing with allergies at work. Read on...


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The Specific Carbohydrate Diet was created in 1924 by a US pediatrician Sydney Valentine Haas (1870-1964). He used the diet (affectionately known as the banana diet) to help children with failure to thrive, protein malnutrition associated with celiac disease, and inflammatory bowel disease. It was subsequently developed, with guidelines and recipes by Elaine Gottschall in her 1987 book Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet. In an interesting article in this month's Townsend Letter, Christine Bowen decribes how it resolved her lifelong intestinal issues, the research that has subsequently been done to validate Dr Haas' theories and the success she has had with her own patients on the diet.


Purse

Could the unprecedented 8-fold rise in horse deaths at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, in May and June this year be connected to the wireless devices fitted on April 29th to all horses racing there? Arthur Firstenberg and the Cellphone Task Force suggests that they could. Read on.


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An article in the excellent Latitudes magazine about 18 year old Eli who was diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome after developing eye, noise, throat and head jerking symptoms when he was 7. By following the Feingold diet and eliminating chemicals from the family home Eli's tics were brought under control - except when he went back to school each January after the school carpets had been cleaned with a harsh chemical cleaner. Now 18 Eli, who has just accepted a scholarship to play college baseball at Wallace State CC, remains on the Feingold diet and aware of environmental triggers - and tic free.
Read Eli's full story here on Latitudes.


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Dr Janice Joneja is recognised as a world expert on histamine intolerance – or, to be more accurate, histamine excess - a condition affecting up to 1% of the world's population but rarely recognised by conventional medicine. Her books on the conditon and their accompanying cookbook have been hugely successful on Amazon and are now available through a number of other outlets. See here for full details.


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Helpful post on Allergy Insight blog on cobalt allergy - often linked with nickel allergy. Read more.


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Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has recently released a report entitled “Vegan and Plant-based Food“ in which it outlined the extent to which the public is confused about the meaning of ‘vegan’, and the worrying number of vegan-labelled products which contain traces of egg, milk or other animal derivatives. Read more in an excellent post here on the Allergy Insight site. Further comment here on Michelle Berriedale Johnson's blog.


Purse

Pholcodine is a drug that is to be found in a wide range of cough medicines. Unfortunately pholcodine has a similar molecular structure to the muscle relaxing drugs which are routinely given to patients about to undergo operations. If that patient has recently (within the last year) had an allergic reaction to pholcodine they could easily react to a muscle relaxant administered prior to an operation. Read more....


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In a recent BSACI on line symposium Professor Stephen Holgate called for urgent action to tackle the environmental causes of the global explosion in allergy cases: the loss of biodiversity, pollution, diet and urbanisation. A timely call but the evidence has been there for many years. Read on...


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Research by Dr Hazel Gowland and Dr Michael Walker covering allergy related cases in the UK courts between Jan 2014 and Feb 2020 show that successful prosecutions resulted in improved allergen control and tightening of allergen related legislation, especially in food service. 28th December 2022


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Trehalose intolerance is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme trehalase, which is required to break down the dietary sugar trehalose into glucose in the gut, for absorption. It is found mainly in mushrooms, particularly shiitake and oyster mushrooms, but also seaweed / algae, shellfish, insects, sunflower seeds and yeasts. As an additive, it is sometimes used to prolong the shelf life of dried food — especially in Japan. 5 September 22 For more see the Allergy Insight blog here.


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John Scott who suffered for many years from Total Food Intolerance (finally resolved through Helminthic Therapy) has now started a Facebook group for Total Food Intolerance sufferers. As he says, ‘thanks to the complete lack of effective treatment options in the medical kit bag and typical dismissal of the condition as psychosomatic by medics, some sort of support group is desperately needed'. For more on Total Food Intolerance follow the links from this blog post. Read more.