The Food Allergy Friendly Story
For many years I have suffered with sinus headaches and migraines. I had seen a multitude of doctors and specialists and had undergone test after test after test. Additionally, I had been prescribed a fist full of medications. Some were to prevent the migraine; some were to be taken as soon as the migraine started, some to be taken if the migraine continued to get worse. The migraine would start at any time – at work, at home, in the day, in the evening, while driving a car. There have been times when I had to stop driving and just wait on the side of the road until the migraine would subside enough to continue activity. There were even times where it was so bad; I had to be taken to the emergency room at the local hospital. The worst was that several of the doctors simply thought that it was all in my head (that I was crazy and the pain was not real).
I was getting no relief, I had huge monthly prescription co-pays and was flooding my body with far too much (and various) synthetic chemicals, some of which were narcotics. I was not happy.
After describing my situation one day at a holiday dinner with family, I was told that I probably have a food allergy; most likely gluten. I was pointed in the direction of an elimination diet and within weeks of removing gluten from my diet, my headaches had completely disappeared. After that, headaches that I occasionally had were more of your run of the mill headache, but I was free of the migraines, and the medications! Today, if the rare migraine ever shows up, I can usually trace it back to some questionable source of food that I eaten. Even still, these migraines are not as painful and except for some over the counter pain relievers, I’m medication free.
While still working on the elimination diet, I also discovered that I was also allergic or highly sensitive to soy, dairy and eggs. I was feeling great, but couldn’t find any food! I had bought the books for gluten-free cooking and checked out the related websites. However, many of these products contained dairy or soy.
Trying to eat in a restaurant was nearly impossible. Again, even those with gluten free menus still contained soy or some other ingredient that a person like myself with multiple allergies just can’t have.
Like most people with multiple food allergies, we cooked at home for nearly every meal. We shopped at some great stores and found some wonderful products. But I missed going out to dinner. Let’s face it; we don’t go to restaurants because we NEED to eat. We go to restaurants for the EXPERIENCE - socializing with friends or family, a romantic meal, or to celebrate a special occasion.
My dining experiences were anything but enjoyable. Either the wait staff had no clue about what a food allergy was, or all of the food was already prepared in sauces, marinades or commercial seasoning mixes with who knows what chemical additives. I would order a plain salad, with no dressing and if I was lucky I could get an unseasoned steak or broiled fish (no butter) and maybe a baked potato. Worst case would be to go and watch my friends enjoy their meals.
So, slowly but surely I found a few local restaurants with really FRIENDLY wait staff who went out of their way to make sure that what I ordered didn’t contain any of the ingredients I was sensitive to. I would write this down on scrap pieces of paper or back of a business card so they could take it to the kitchen. The best restaurants would let me order completely off the menu. Steamed vegetables from one dish, grilled chicken with olive oil from another, etc. I also began keeping a list of those food products that I could eat (and enjoyed).
Before you knew it, I had created a list of restaurants, food products and where to buy them. I think to myself, "This would have been a lot easier if there was a website that I could find these or a common label on all of the packages." – Food Allergy Friendly was born.
www.FoodAllergyFriendly.Net
I was getting no relief, I had huge monthly prescription co-pays and was flooding my body with far too much (and various) synthetic chemicals, some of which were narcotics. I was not happy.
After describing my situation one day at a holiday dinner with family, I was told that I probably have a food allergy; most likely gluten. I was pointed in the direction of an elimination diet and within weeks of removing gluten from my diet, my headaches had completely disappeared. After that, headaches that I occasionally had were more of your run of the mill headache, but I was free of the migraines, and the medications! Today, if the rare migraine ever shows up, I can usually trace it back to some questionable source of food that I eaten. Even still, these migraines are not as painful and except for some over the counter pain relievers, I’m medication free.
While still working on the elimination diet, I also discovered that I was also allergic or highly sensitive to soy, dairy and eggs. I was feeling great, but couldn’t find any food! I had bought the books for gluten-free cooking and checked out the related websites. However, many of these products contained dairy or soy.
Trying to eat in a restaurant was nearly impossible. Again, even those with gluten free menus still contained soy or some other ingredient that a person like myself with multiple allergies just can’t have.
Like most people with multiple food allergies, we cooked at home for nearly every meal. We shopped at some great stores and found some wonderful products. But I missed going out to dinner. Let’s face it; we don’t go to restaurants because we NEED to eat. We go to restaurants for the EXPERIENCE - socializing with friends or family, a romantic meal, or to celebrate a special occasion.
My dining experiences were anything but enjoyable. Either the wait staff had no clue about what a food allergy was, or all of the food was already prepared in sauces, marinades or commercial seasoning mixes with who knows what chemical additives. I would order a plain salad, with no dressing and if I was lucky I could get an unseasoned steak or broiled fish (no butter) and maybe a baked potato. Worst case would be to go and watch my friends enjoy their meals.
So, slowly but surely I found a few local restaurants with really FRIENDLY wait staff who went out of their way to make sure that what I ordered didn’t contain any of the ingredients I was sensitive to. I would write this down on scrap pieces of paper or back of a business card so they could take it to the kitchen. The best restaurants would let me order completely off the menu. Steamed vegetables from one dish, grilled chicken with olive oil from another, etc. I also began keeping a list of those food products that I could eat (and enjoyed).
Before you knew it, I had created a list of restaurants, food products and where to buy them. I think to myself, "This would have been a lot easier if there was a website that I could find these or a common label on all of the packages." – Food Allergy Friendly was born.
www.FoodAllergyFriendly.Net
Saturday, January 24, 2009
NEWS about The Food Allergy Friendly Network
In this thread I plan to post news about The Food Allergy Friendly Network, our company website which lists our Certified Members in our categorized and searchable database of Restaurants, Retailers and Food Product Manufacturers that are dedicated to meeting the needs of the food allergy consumer community.
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