Diagnosing a Food Allergy

Recently, there seems to be a spike in the occurrences of food allergies. Recent events I've catered have requested that the chef I'm assisting provide both a vegetarian option and a gluten-free option. The Health Day news service reported that a recent study shows that one in twelve children has at least one food allergy now, and the details for this report can be found in the July 2011 Pediatrics journal.



In class, we talk about how to deal with customers who express the need for special modifications to the menu due to allergies.

When I teach ServSafe classes, we discuss the risks of cross contamination of food allergens as well as bacterial contaminants. I teach my students that even casual contamination, like slicing gluten-free bread on the same cutting board as all the other breads can cause a severe reaction in customers. I know a lady who can't even eat gluten-free pasta if the boiling water has been stirred with the same spoon or tongs as the gluten-containing pasta.

On the other side of the food allergy spectrum are people who suspect they may be allergic or intolerant to a food. A suspected food allergy should always be inspected or researched by an allergist. While I am a fan of holistic medicine, I disagree heartily with the skin tests that examine reactions to certain products. This can help give an idea of the types of allergies or sensitivities a person may have, if he or she suspects an allergy, then a follow up with an allergist or gastroenterologist is absolutely necessary to determine the nature of the intolerance.

There are multiple types of food allergy tests, including a skin prick test, an intradermal test, a total serum IgE, and an atopy patch test. There are also food elimination diets and oral food challenges. The golden standard is a double-blind placebo controlled food challenge. Of course, how many medical professionals and patients will do that?

The risk of following a food allergic diet, such as a gluten-free diet without actually needing to, is that you are cutting out certain food groups that your body is intended to consume. Wheat products contain magnesium, iron, B vitamins, and fiber that are essential to health. Individuals following a gluten-free diet need to find alternatives for those sources. Dairy free products are not always high enough in calcium, vitamin D, or vitamin B12, so you need to carefully read labels to make sure you're getting the same nutrients from your substitutes. The other is that you may be unnecessarily complying with a diet that isn't best for your health.

The American Dietetic Association published a guideline for diagnosing food allergies. Essentially, you could seek out an initial skin test to check for sensitivities, but you should follow up that analysis with an IgE test to see what antibodies your body produces against common allergens. Then you'll know that you can expect an immune response to those foods, rather than another type of reaction. If you suspect a wheat allergy, then you will probably need to get a biopsy done to detect any intestinal damage caused by the reaction to wheat.

You can get more information about food allergies at the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website. Celiac disease information is available at the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. Basic information about food allergies can be found here.
To see the HealthDay report, click here

Family Mealtimes and Children's Vegetable Consumption and Liking

http://karistaskitchen.com/2010/05/07/carotte-a-letuvee-waterless-cooked-carrots/

Does how often you eat with your family affect how many vegetables you or your children eat? Or does the vegetable intake have to do more with what you ate?

The February issue of the American Dietetic Association Journal discussed the association between family mealtimes and the higher dietary quality of school-aged children and adolescents. The researchers found that of the 434 caregivers that participated in the study, the frequency of family mealtimes was unrelated to children's vegetable consumption or liking. This contrasted with the findings of other studies on older children that had related the mealtime frequency with dietary quality and intake.

However, they did find that children consumed more vegetables and had more liking for them when the meals were home-made, as opposed to when the meals were comprised of convenience items. They also found that television watching during mealtime was associated with a lower consumption of and liking of vegetables. These results were consistent with other studies previously done.

As a nutritionist, I was not especially surprised that the composition of the meals affected children's intakes of vegetables. I was a little surprised to find that how often a family ate together had less effect on the children's intakes than I expected. It seems that even if families don't eat together for all five meals per week, they can still provide well-balanced meals for their children.

I was surprised and pleased to see that vegetable liking and consumption were higher in families that reported making more of their meals from scratch than from convenience or ready-made products. This adds fuel to my "cook at home" fire when I discuss healthy eating and cooking with clients and peers. Taking time to cook foods from scratch, particularly sauces, may seem like too much time in the kitchen, but when studies like this show that children are more inclined to eat the vegetables when they're scratch cooked, then the motivation might increase.

As a culinary student, I am learning how to prepare vegetables according to restaurant standards. One of the most important lessons we're learning is to avoid and prevent overcooking of vegetables, which is a surefire way to ruin a perfectly good vegetable.

When you're cooking the vegetable, cook for the shortest amount of time possible. If you've got vegetables that cook at different stages, such as carrots and snow peas, start the longest cooking vegetable first, and then add the quicker-cooking vegetables later. For my example, start cooking your carrots about 3 to 5 minutes sooner than your snow peas, depending on the size and type of cooking you're doing. Never ever cook your vegetable til it's mushy, unless you're planning on pureeing it in a blender.

Opening a can of vegetables probably takes 1 minute less time than steaming a fresh vegetable. If you haven't got time to cook fresh veggies every night, then undercook a lot of them at your first meal and reheat them briefly in a skillet for your next meal. Voila! Fresh veggies!

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How to Bake the Perfect Pie

A dear classmate in the culinary program and I got together to bake pie...hers was a beautiful coconut crust pie with a cornmeal custard filling. I forgot to photograph mine...and my husband inhaled the pie in a matter of days almost without any assistance of mine, so enjoy her pie.

Tuesday, July 5, is an online Pie Party, so this is her pie.