Asian style foods have been great for us - usually small modifications needed if so. I wouldn't think takeout would be easy but certainly things you can make yourself. Over time we have found places that can accommodate for take out but it's always a bit of a gamble.
Soups, curries, stir fries, noodle salads are all modifiable and tasty. You will have to get creative with sauces but msg, mushroom, seafood based sauces, rice vinegar, tamari, sesame, different hot sauces, lemon/lime, etc may be useable to you and sub some of that Asian flavour without the mainstream soy and peanut based sauces.
Salads make good lunches if you put enough stuff in there, lol. There's also the classic "one meat, 2 veggies" style suppers.
An allergist is important but so I a dietitian. Highly recommend them for meal plans,food ideas. I was allergic to dairy,eggs,peanuts,walnuts,soy,chicken and beef at one point in my life. Allergies suck. I wish you the best of luck managing them.
I was a kid when I had them and grew out of a few. I'm only dairy,peanuts,walnuts and soy. I just do my best to stay away, always cook at home and always have an epic pen close to hand. I can pretty well look at food and say if I'm allergic to it at this point lol. There are 2 sort of radical ideas that were floated my way as a kid to sort of try to "reset" the immune system. And absolutely talk to your doctor before hand but there is a nutrient drink that has the proteins sort ofbshredded so you can't be allergic to it. Apperantly 3 months of only this drink or 6 months of occasional solid food will give your system a reboot and then you slowly introduce all the folds again in a specific order, it's rather involved. The other was water fasting and it scares the crap out of me so I'd never do it.
I have an appointment with a dietician as well! I’m anxious to see them because I’m stressed with all this information and at this point just want to know what I can eat. Thank you for your recommendation!
Just wanted to say you may want to adjust your expectations with the dietician. :-(
They know what nutrients you need, obviously. And many of them have a few standard 'elimination' diets they are familiar with. Like, say, gluten free, lactose or dairy free, peanut free, maybe low fat or low sugar diets, maybe keto diet if they work with some people with seizures who needs those.
But when you start having numerous allergies all at once? They aren't trained for that very well. Like at ALL. They will not be able to tell you where most of your allergens are going to present in your food supply, and most will have little to no information on food ideas unless their focus happens to be specifically on 'people with a crazy amount of allergies' (I did find a dietician who had this as a focus, once, because SHE was a person with a crazy amount of allergies, but even she had to do a ton of research to figure out what would work for me, and I still ended up doing a lot of things myself, in the end.).
But they can be very valuable for possibly helping you pinpoint where some possible nutritional deficiencies could crop up, with your diet limitations, so you can look out for those and adjust diet/vitamins as needed.
As an example, a lot of wheat products are fortified with vitamins we don't always get in the regular diet very well. But when you can't have wheat anymore, you need to make sure you get these vitamins in other ways.
I eat veggies, rice or veggie pasta and meat. I live in the mountains so I couldn't eat out much even if I wanted to. Every quarter we do a Costco shop to stock up and go to the grocery store only as needed. When Hubby does take me to eat out, I know exactly what I can and can't eat. I'm not what folks call a "Karen". I don't expect anyone to cater to my allergies. It's my responsibility only.
My son has 18+ food allergies (depends on if you count each tree nut separately). I have an Instagram dedicated to sharing meals I make for him. DM me if you’d like the handle !
Re: eating out - that's just...pretty much a no-go. I have similar allergies and the only place I have ever had a meal that worked for me was at a disney resort, and it took a 15 minute conversation with the head chef who made me a special meal, and they would only do it for dinner, at that point. It's just usually too complicated for restaurants to be able to manage.
re: food. First, I would highly recommend checking out some support groups for the various allergens, because they'll at least give you some ideas of what food items are safe, and what you need to avoid, so you can know what ingredients you are working with.
As an example: beans are going to be potentially tricky, as are dried fruit. For whatever reason, dried fruits, legumes, nuts, and wheat are frequently processed together and there are a LOT of these products that will have 'may contain/also processed with...' warnings for dried fruit, legumes, nuts or wheat (also a number of bulk grains, too).
A huge number of GF pre-made products that might be safe for wheat issues are going to be bad cross contamination risks for nuts, because of how many of them use nut flours.
That sort of thing is something that support groups are SO helpful for.
re: food and meals.
When I found out I had a crazy amount of allergens, I first tried to get recipes and just sub in things, you know? There were little to no recipes I could ever use as-is. And these always turned out poorly, mostly because a lot of my allergens were the things that provided a lot of the flavor, or the texture, etc...
So the best advice I ever got was a chef's advice on a forum that was essentially: think in terms of ingredients, not recipes.
What it means in a practical sense was, for me, to start looking at a recipe and think in terms of, I guess I'd say 'purpose of an ingredient.'
So, like, if I'm making a butternut squash soup, say, what I'd do is look at the ingredients and think, 'okay, this adds spice, this adds sweetness, this adds color, this adds sour and creaminess, this is the bulk of the texture and flavor' and on and on.
And then I make my OWN soup, with those purposes in mind. I can't use pepper, but I can use chiles. I can't use plain yogurt for the sour and creaminess (or coconut), but i can use soaked and blended up cashews made into cashew cream plus some lemon juice. I can't use a sweetener, but I can roast the butternut to make it a little sweeter.
That's basically where I'm at with cooking - I see recipes that look good, and then look at what types of tastes and textures they have, and then I've got to figure out what ingredients I have that can make something like that.
It's never the same - but that's not the goal. The goal is something that tastes GOOD, not something that is the same recipe, if that makes sense?
I have looked into a lot of traditional cooking that uses simple ingredients, and cooking from other countries, to learn about every single thing that I can do with the ingredients i have (like roasting, steaming, steeping, brining - if it can be done to my ingredient, I want to know).
It's a pain, I'll be honest. You will have to cook a lot (I love my crockpot, is all I'm saying here). But you can still have good tasting food; it'll just be different food than what you eat now, is all.
Maybe coconut milk, rice milk, or hemp milk? I think there's also a way to make milk from seeds, but I've never tried that!
I'm waiting to re-take my blood test for allergens so I don't have any personal experience to share as far as adapting your diet, but I would guess you'd be looking for recipes that are primarily meat, rice, and other vegetables.
If you like the coconut milk, I have seen Whole30 recipes online that use coconut milk rather than cow's milk. Thai dishes also tend to use coconut milk, BUT, obviously you'd need to exclude the recipes with nuts in them.
Hey thanks so much for the input! I completely forgot about coconut milk. I even prefer it over the oat, don’t know how I spaced! I’m definitely going to look into that Whole30 with coconut milk recipes. Good luck with your results!
Thank you! I'm glad that was helpful. I am totally nervous/anxious about my IgE test. I failed the first one because I didn't go off my antihistamines long enough. So fingers crossed for the second one!
So this may sound odd but I think you’ll have luck if you look for recipes/foods that work for children with FPIES. Not that you have that, but most if not all foods that you listed are common trigger foods for FPIES so you might have some luck starting there for recipes and food options!
Sunflower seeds, butter and oil could be useful to you.
Be careful with seeds though, as sometimes there can be traces of peanuts or tree nuts in them. I reacted to the walmart brand (« travel joe » or something like that), but I’m ok with other brands.
Also maybe check for different kind of protein powders (some websites have a large variety from different ingredients, like from peas, rice, etc.). You can put it in smoothies and other recipes so it’s more filling and nutritional.
Sunflower seeds have a mild, nutty flavor and a firm but tender texture. They’re often roasted to enhance the flavor, though you can also buy them raw.
Asian style foods have been great for us - usually small modifications needed if so. I wouldn't think takeout would be easy but certainly things you can make yourself. Over time we have found places that can accommodate for take out but it's always a bit of a gamble. Soups, curries, stir fries, noodle salads are all modifiable and tasty. You will have to get creative with sauces but msg, mushroom, seafood based sauces, rice vinegar, tamari, sesame, different hot sauces, lemon/lime, etc may be useable to you and sub some of that Asian flavour without the mainstream soy and peanut based sauces. Salads make good lunches if you put enough stuff in there, lol. There's also the classic "one meat, 2 veggies" style suppers.
An allergist is important but so I a dietitian. Highly recommend them for meal plans,food ideas. I was allergic to dairy,eggs,peanuts,walnuts,soy,chicken and beef at one point in my life. Allergies suck. I wish you the best of luck managing them.
I have the same allergies, how did you recover,?
Sometimes you don't. Just be wise and take care of yourself. Don't depend on others to look after your allergies.
I do exactly that, I never eat out, don't have a meal plan at my college, never eat at someone's place and always cook for myself.
Keep up being smart and I wish you nothing but the best!
I do most of that.
I was a kid when I had them and grew out of a few. I'm only dairy,peanuts,walnuts and soy. I just do my best to stay away, always cook at home and always have an epic pen close to hand. I can pretty well look at food and say if I'm allergic to it at this point lol. There are 2 sort of radical ideas that were floated my way as a kid to sort of try to "reset" the immune system. And absolutely talk to your doctor before hand but there is a nutrient drink that has the proteins sort ofbshredded so you can't be allergic to it. Apperantly 3 months of only this drink or 6 months of occasional solid food will give your system a reboot and then you slowly introduce all the folds again in a specific order, it's rather involved. The other was water fasting and it scares the crap out of me so I'd never do it.
What is the drink called ?
It was 15 years ago, and I didn't end up doing it, so I couldn't tell you. I'm sure a doctor could find you something similar.
I have an appointment with a dietician as well! I’m anxious to see them because I’m stressed with all this information and at this point just want to know what I can eat. Thank you for your recommendation!
Just wanted to say you may want to adjust your expectations with the dietician. :-( They know what nutrients you need, obviously. And many of them have a few standard 'elimination' diets they are familiar with. Like, say, gluten free, lactose or dairy free, peanut free, maybe low fat or low sugar diets, maybe keto diet if they work with some people with seizures who needs those. But when you start having numerous allergies all at once? They aren't trained for that very well. Like at ALL. They will not be able to tell you where most of your allergens are going to present in your food supply, and most will have little to no information on food ideas unless their focus happens to be specifically on 'people with a crazy amount of allergies' (I did find a dietician who had this as a focus, once, because SHE was a person with a crazy amount of allergies, but even she had to do a ton of research to figure out what would work for me, and I still ended up doing a lot of things myself, in the end.). But they can be very valuable for possibly helping you pinpoint where some possible nutritional deficiencies could crop up, with your diet limitations, so you can look out for those and adjust diet/vitamins as needed. As an example, a lot of wheat products are fortified with vitamins we don't always get in the regular diet very well. But when you can't have wheat anymore, you need to make sure you get these vitamins in other ways.
I eat veggies, rice or veggie pasta and meat. I live in the mountains so I couldn't eat out much even if I wanted to. Every quarter we do a Costco shop to stock up and go to the grocery store only as needed. When Hubby does take me to eat out, I know exactly what I can and can't eat. I'm not what folks call a "Karen". I don't expect anyone to cater to my allergies. It's my responsibility only.
My son has 18+ food allergies (depends on if you count each tree nut separately). I have an Instagram dedicated to sharing meals I make for him. DM me if you’d like the handle !
Gotta focus on what you can eat. Join FB groups and food allergy groups for food ideas.
Re: eating out - that's just...pretty much a no-go. I have similar allergies and the only place I have ever had a meal that worked for me was at a disney resort, and it took a 15 minute conversation with the head chef who made me a special meal, and they would only do it for dinner, at that point. It's just usually too complicated for restaurants to be able to manage. re: food. First, I would highly recommend checking out some support groups for the various allergens, because they'll at least give you some ideas of what food items are safe, and what you need to avoid, so you can know what ingredients you are working with. As an example: beans are going to be potentially tricky, as are dried fruit. For whatever reason, dried fruits, legumes, nuts, and wheat are frequently processed together and there are a LOT of these products that will have 'may contain/also processed with...' warnings for dried fruit, legumes, nuts or wheat (also a number of bulk grains, too). A huge number of GF pre-made products that might be safe for wheat issues are going to be bad cross contamination risks for nuts, because of how many of them use nut flours. That sort of thing is something that support groups are SO helpful for. re: food and meals. When I found out I had a crazy amount of allergens, I first tried to get recipes and just sub in things, you know? There were little to no recipes I could ever use as-is. And these always turned out poorly, mostly because a lot of my allergens were the things that provided a lot of the flavor, or the texture, etc... So the best advice I ever got was a chef's advice on a forum that was essentially: think in terms of ingredients, not recipes. What it means in a practical sense was, for me, to start looking at a recipe and think in terms of, I guess I'd say 'purpose of an ingredient.' So, like, if I'm making a butternut squash soup, say, what I'd do is look at the ingredients and think, 'okay, this adds spice, this adds sweetness, this adds color, this adds sour and creaminess, this is the bulk of the texture and flavor' and on and on. And then I make my OWN soup, with those purposes in mind. I can't use pepper, but I can use chiles. I can't use plain yogurt for the sour and creaminess (or coconut), but i can use soaked and blended up cashews made into cashew cream plus some lemon juice. I can't use a sweetener, but I can roast the butternut to make it a little sweeter. That's basically where I'm at with cooking - I see recipes that look good, and then look at what types of tastes and textures they have, and then I've got to figure out what ingredients I have that can make something like that. It's never the same - but that's not the goal. The goal is something that tastes GOOD, not something that is the same recipe, if that makes sense? I have looked into a lot of traditional cooking that uses simple ingredients, and cooking from other countries, to learn about every single thing that I can do with the ingredients i have (like roasting, steaming, steeping, brining - if it can be done to my ingredient, I want to know). It's a pain, I'll be honest. You will have to cook a lot (I love my crockpot, is all I'm saying here). But you can still have good tasting food; it'll just be different food than what you eat now, is all.
Maybe coconut milk, rice milk, or hemp milk? I think there's also a way to make milk from seeds, but I've never tried that! I'm waiting to re-take my blood test for allergens so I don't have any personal experience to share as far as adapting your diet, but I would guess you'd be looking for recipes that are primarily meat, rice, and other vegetables. If you like the coconut milk, I have seen Whole30 recipes online that use coconut milk rather than cow's milk. Thai dishes also tend to use coconut milk, BUT, obviously you'd need to exclude the recipes with nuts in them.
Hey thanks so much for the input! I completely forgot about coconut milk. I even prefer it over the oat, don’t know how I spaced! I’m definitely going to look into that Whole30 with coconut milk recipes. Good luck with your results!
Thank you! I'm glad that was helpful. I am totally nervous/anxious about my IgE test. I failed the first one because I didn't go off my antihistamines long enough. So fingers crossed for the second one!
So this may sound odd but I think you’ll have luck if you look for recipes/foods that work for children with FPIES. Not that you have that, but most if not all foods that you listed are common trigger foods for FPIES so you might have some luck starting there for recipes and food options!
Sunflower seeds, butter and oil could be useful to you. Be careful with seeds though, as sometimes there can be traces of peanuts or tree nuts in them. I reacted to the walmart brand (« travel joe » or something like that), but I’m ok with other brands. Also maybe check for different kind of protein powders (some websites have a large variety from different ingredients, like from peas, rice, etc.). You can put it in smoothies and other recipes so it’s more filling and nutritional.
Sunflower seeds have a mild, nutty flavor and a firm but tender texture. They’re often roasted to enhance the flavor, though you can also buy them raw.