Tag Archives: allergies

Soy What?

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Kelson

Ugh. According to the website, EVERYTHING at Rubio’s contains soy except the chips, salsa & guac. But is that soy oil, lecithin, or protein? #

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Docs and Cheese

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Kelson
  • Latest spam trend: Word docs in Chinese. No clue what they are – I’m not going to open them! Also: Make Money Fast seminars…in Shanghai. #
  • Making a list of my allergies. And I keep thinking I’m missing something. #
  • I still find it amusing that caminobrowser.org focuses on a picture of the browser showing the Wikipedia entry for Cheese. #

Posted in Food, Spam | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Backwards

Posted on April 10, 2008 by Kelson

From a food allergy alert released today:

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., is recalling “Chocolate Covered Almonds” due to undeclared peanuts and “Chocolate Double-Dipped Peanuts” due to undeclared almonds. [emphasis added]

I have to wonder: are they just really bad about keeping their ingredients separate, or did they get the labels switched on a couple of batches?

Posted in Food, You Must be Mistaken | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Linkage: Authorship, Allergies & Alternate History

Posted on December 2, 2007 by Kelson

Catching up on interesting links from the past week.

Balkanized North America Map (thumbnail)Balkanized North America: what if every region that started independent had stayed that way, and every region that threatened to secede from the US or Canada had succeeded? (via ***Dave)

Enter Sandman: Who wrote “Footprints”? You’ve probably read the poem, or heard it, in which the narrator dreams of walking along a beach with God, and looking back and noting how many sets of footprints there are at different points in their life. It turns out at least four people claim authorship. (via Neil Gaiman)

Lunar UnicycleRetro-Future: To the Stars! Science-fiction illustrations from 1930–1970, many of them from Soviet/Eastern Bloc countries. (via Slashdot, though I noticed it popped up again today on The Beat)

My Son’s Food Allergies: Danger Every Day: An essay on a family dealing with their toddler’s serious (i.e. life-threatening) food allergies. I am so glad I didn’t have things this bad when I was younger. Fortunately for me, mine didn’t get really dangerous until I was around 17 or 18—just in time to go off to college and get exposed to all kinds of strange food! (Found on CNN)

Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam (CAUSS): volunteer group that tears down unsightly (and illegal) signs stapled to telephone poles and such. I saw their site a few years ago, but had no idea that they were not only still around, but had expanded to multiple cities. (again, via ***Dave)

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Allergen-free? Try again!

Posted on June 19, 2005 by Kelson

Saw this sign on a display in Whole Foods the other day:

Allergen Free Fish Sticks

Okaay… but what if you’re allergic to fish?

Posted in You Must be Mistaken | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Church to 8-year-old: Drink the Kool-aid

Posted on August 14, 2004 by Kelson

Time to add an “outrage” category. This is just insane: A church panel has invalidated a girl’s communion because she can’t eat wheat (original article here).

The girl has celiac disease, which means any amount of wheat can cause her serious health problems. A local priest was willing to let her use a rice-based wafer, but higher-ups declared it was invalid — that if there wasn’t wheat, it didn’t count. She can either take the communion with a wheat-based wafer, or not take it at all.

For all intents and purposes they’ve excommunicated this girl because of a medical condition.

Good thing I’m not Catholic and the sacrament doesn’t involve peanuts.

I wonder if the church would be willing to pay for emergency room visits (or funerals) resulting from this kind of situation?

Posted in Annoyances, Food | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Allergy labeling

Posted on July 21, 2004 by Kelson

Congress has passed passed the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, mandating the top 8 food allergens appear on labels in plain English! The voluntary labeling over the past few years has been very helpful. Well, some of it has — the “processed in a facility that also processes XYZ” labels mainly amount to a CYA statement, although I’m sure there are people sensitive enough that it does help.

The NPR story provided some examples of why this matters, including a story of a college student who had a very similar experience to one I had a few years ago: he bought a chocolate chip cookie from a vending machine — a brand he had been eating with no problems for several years — but they had added peanut flour to their mix without labeling the change. He died within 15 minutes. When it happened to me, I had enough medication to stop it. But I don’t eat anything from Famous Amos anymore.

Some other nice provisions include having the FDA do a study on cross-contamination [archive.org], and having the CDC track allergy-related deaths.

Further reading: The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, The Food Allergy Initiative

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Warning: Contains Ingredients

Posted on December 9, 2003 by Kelson

Here’s another interesting Food Allergy Alert:

Wisconsin Cheesecake Co., Inc., is recalling 28-oz. Candy Bar Cheesecakes containing either Butterfinger, Reese’s Pieces, Peanut Butter Cup, or Snickers brands because they contain undeclared peanuts.

Now I’m not sure what’s stranger about this: the fact that someone managed to leave peanuts off the ingredients list, or that they think a recall is necessary in this case. Anyone with a peanut allergy has long since learned to avoid anything that says “Snickers” or “Reese’s.” Heck, I still have to think twice to remind myself I can eat snickerdoodles. If I see a Butterfinger cheesecake, I don’t need to look at the ingredients. I already know it’s not safe.

Eh, maybe it’s to counteract all those “well-meaning” adults who don’t believe in allergies and insist, “Oh, just one bite won’t hurt you!” — and then watch in horror as the three-year-old who was left in their charge is rushed to the emergency room. I can just imagine someone like that saying, “Oh, well, it says Snickers, but it doesn’t say it has peanuts, so it must be safe for him.”

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Details, please?

Posted on July 30, 2003 by Kelson

Excerpt from a recent Food Allergy Alert:

Sunny Lake Trading, Inc. is recalling 10-oz. plastic bags of “Candy” because they contain undeclared peanuts.

Gotta love their marketing scheme. “I’d like to buy some candy, please.”

It reminds me of those long-distance phone companies with names like “The Cheapest One.”

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And what exactly is it you’re trying to say?

Posted on July 10, 2003 by Kelson

Someone is extremely unclear on the concept in “Study Acquits Peanuts in Allergic Reaction.” Consider:

A new study debunks the theory that peanut allergies are caused by an offending ingredient inherent in the nut. Instead, the research shows, the condition stems from a person’s abnormal immune response.

In other words, they’ve determined that peanut allergy is an allergy.

Well, duh.

At least they had the sense to provide a link to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

Posted in Food | Tagged , | 2 Comments