#friend is celiac and lactose intolerant so!!! safe soup!!!

[bosspigeon]

i made So Much Soup bc friends were coming tonight, and i was already planning pulled pork, but another friend decided to come too, and this friend has a lot of allergies, so i made sure to make something he could eat, but i wound up making a ton of it, and my other friends tried the soup and also liked it a lot so i filled two big containers with soup and sent them home with it and now i have no more soup and i think that's what love is

#pidge speaks #i was like oh damn think i made too much soup #but no!!! it was just enough soup!!! #hello i am slightly drunk perhaps #also xfinity guy is coming tomorrow (today bc its 4am oop) so HOPEFULLY i will have wifi by the end of the day #god willing and the creek dont rise #ANYWAY SOUP!!! LOVE IS STORED IN THE SOUP!!! #it was pumpkin soup bc August is Pre Halloween for me #and it was gluten free and dairy free so ✌✌✌ #friend is celiac and lactose intolerant so!!! safe soup!!! #also made safe mashed potatoes #the pulled pork wasnt safe but friend is vegan anyway #i also made my own bbq sauce bc im bougie #friends complimented my cooking and it made me v happy so

[healthbetold]

Food allergies complicate hungry Americans’ search for meals

SACRAMENTO, Calif .– When Emily Brown, a Kansas City mom, couldn’t find groceries to eat her 2-year-old with multiple food allergies in a local pantry, she plucked up the courage to ask about gluten-free foods or dairy alternatives.

The answer: “You have something.”

The only things her daughter could eat were potatoes and salsa.

“It really took all my strength to get into the car,” she said. “I cried in the car and then just thought, ‘We can’t be the only family, I can’t be the only mother struggling with this.”

For the millions of Americans newly affected by food insecurity during the pandemic, a particular crisis hits those with food allergies and intolerances: most charitable and government food programs offer limited options.

While some pantries stock gluten-free shelves or post allergen information, most have been forced to narrow down customer choices over the past year and instead turned to contactless models, where customers pull up and take out a pre-made bag of groceries.

“Everyone deserves an equal chance to choose their own foods,” said Carla Carter, director of public relations and programming for the National Celiac Association. But, she said, “COVID has drastically changed that to, ‘Here’s a box of food, good luck.'”

Those who sign up for government assistance face similar problems. The program for women, infants, and children – known as WIC – offers a substitute for peanut butter: they’re beans, not exactly suitable for sandwiches. Soy milk is a substitute for cow’s milk, but some people, like Brown’s child, can’t have one either.

Emily Brown speaks to her daughters Hannah, 7) (let) and Catherine (9) outside their office on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 in Kansas City, Missouri. Brown runs a nonprofit service to help families with food allergies access safe and healthy foods that she started after struggling to source food for her daughters with numerous food allergies. AP

Grocery brands or SNAP let families choose what to buy, but specialty foods – like gluten-free bread or sunflower seed butter – are often much more expensive. In some stores, the latter costs three times the cost of private label peanut butter, gluten-free flour four times the cost of a standard bag, and even the cheapest dairy alternatives are often twice as expensive.

Feeding America, the largest anti-hunger organization in the country, has not collected data on the overlap between hunger and food allergies or intolerances. But it’s likely that millions of Americans who aren’t sure what to eat are reaching certain limits. An estimated 32 million people have a food allergy and 85 million people live in households where someone has a food allergy or intolerance, according to Food Allergy Research & Education, which advocates for people with allergies. About 1% of people are diagnosed with celiac disease, which means they cannot consume gluten, and about 6% of people have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, Carter said.

Eight years after her experience in the grocery kitchen, Brown is now one of the few people running a program to help people with allergies and intolerances access safe food.

Brown’s nonprofit Food Equality Initiative serves approximately 200 families with celiac disease or food allergies and gives them $ 150 a month to use on an online allergy-friendly food marketplace. Some of their clients take advantage of it to complement government assistance programs.

Nutritionist Kate Scarlata is among proponents trying to change the conversation about food insecurity by promoting a more dignified approach. She specializes in irritable bowel syndrome, which can cause stomach pain, diarrhea, and constipation when eating certain foods like garlic and onions, ingredients found in many long-life products such as sauces and soups.

She started a tour of pantries in April to raise awareness and found that many of those she visited didn’t ask people if they had any food intolerances or special dietary needs.

Charitable nutrition programs can start with a few simple questions, she said, “Do you have a special diet? Are there any foods that bother you? “

Brown, meanwhile, is working with Drs. Ruchi Gupta and Lucy Bilaver of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research at Northwestern University to gather better information on how many people with allergies are food unsafe because of the lack of comprehensive data.

“The challenge we have is that here in the US we are addressing food insecurity and nutrition programming so broadly,” Brown said.

As pandemic risks subside, proponents hope for a return to customer choice programs. This is the model Claudia Montenegro uses in her San Diego pantry, Porchlight Community Services, which advocates for people with food allergies.

Claudia Montenegro (left) speaks to Elizabeth Shoemaker in the Porchlight Community Service pantry in San Diego in May. AP

In 2016, Montenegro struggled to afford allergy-friendly foods to meet its gluten and milk intolerances.

She and some friends decided to pool their money so they could shop in bulk and look for sales. Word of mouth was growing, and she was soon distributing food from her porch.

Today Porchlight has grown into a full-fledged, volunteer-run pantry serving people with allergies to nuts, dairy products, gluten and wheat, shellfish, eggs and soy, and diabetics.

Customers are asked to deposit $ 35 per week if they can, but those who cannot pay are still welcome. Volunteers buy all of the groceries themselves, and shoppers can choose items like coconut-based yogurt, nut butters, lactose-free milk, and gluten-free flour.

Elizabeth Shoemaker reached out to Porchlight during the pandemic after a hip replacement caused her to lose her job, relationship and home. At some point, their food aid payments dropped from $ 200 to $ 20. She developed a gluten intolerance, but struggled to afford gluten-free products until she found Porchlight, supplies them and takes good care of her mainly plant-based deceased.

She can’t afford the fee, so she volunteers at the pantry.

“I know now that I can rely on her for the next week so I don’t have to hoard food,” she said.

The post Food allergies complicate hungry Americans’ search for meals first appeared on Health be Told.

source https://healthbetold.com/food-allergies-complicate-hungry-americans-search-for-meals/

[livehealthynewsusa]

Food allergies complicate hungry Americans’ search for meals

SACRAMENTO, Calif .– When Emily Brown, a Kansas City mom, couldn’t find groceries to eat her 2-year-old with multiple food allergies in a local pantry, she plucked up the courage to ask about gluten-free foods or dairy alternatives.

The answer: “You have something.”

The only things her daughter could eat were potatoes and salsa.

“It really took all my strength to get into the car,” she said. “I cried in the car and then just thought, ‘We can’t be the only family, I can’t be the only mother struggling with this.”

For the millions of Americans newly affected by food insecurity during the pandemic, a particular crisis hits those with food allergies and intolerances: most charitable and government food programs offer limited options.

While some pantries stock gluten-free shelves or post allergen information, most have been forced to narrow down customer choices over the past year and instead turned to contactless models, where customers pull up and take out a pre-made bag of groceries.

“Everyone deserves an equal chance to choose their own foods,” said Carla Carter, director of public relations and programming for the National Celiac Association. But, she said, “COVID has drastically changed that to, ‘Here’s a box of food, good luck.'”

Those who sign up for government assistance face similar problems. The program for women, infants, and children – known as WIC – offers a substitute for peanut butter: they’re beans, not exactly suitable for sandwiches. Soy milk is a substitute for cow’s milk, but some people, like Brown’s child, can’t have one either.

Emily Brown speaks to her daughters Hannah, 7) (let) and Catherine (9) outside their office on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 in Kansas City, Missouri. Brown runs a nonprofit service to help families with food allergies access safe and healthy foods that she started after struggling to source food for her daughters with numerous food allergies. AP

Grocery brands or SNAP let families choose what to buy, but specialty foods – like gluten-free bread or sunflower seed butter – are often much more expensive. In some stores, the latter costs three times the cost of private label peanut butter, gluten-free flour four times the cost of a standard bag, and even the cheapest dairy alternatives are often twice as expensive.

Feeding America, the largest anti-hunger organization in the country, has not collected data on the overlap between hunger and food allergies or intolerances. But it’s likely that millions of Americans who aren’t sure what to eat are reaching certain limits. An estimated 32 million people have a food allergy and 85 million people live in households where someone has a food allergy or intolerance, according to Food Allergy Research & Education, which advocates for people with allergies. About 1% of people are diagnosed with celiac disease, which means they cannot consume gluten, and about 6% of people have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, Carter said.

Eight years after her experience in the grocery kitchen, Brown is now one of the few people running a program to help people with allergies and intolerances access safe food.

Brown’s nonprofit Food Equality Initiative serves approximately 200 families with celiac disease or food allergies and gives them $ 150 a month to use on an online allergy-friendly food marketplace. Some of their clients take advantage of it to complement government assistance programs.

Nutritionist Kate Scarlata is among proponents trying to change the conversation about food insecurity by promoting a more dignified approach. She specializes in irritable bowel syndrome, which can cause stomach pain, diarrhea, and constipation when eating certain foods like garlic and onions, ingredients found in many long-life products such as sauces and soups.

She started a tour of pantries in April to raise awareness and found that many of those she visited didn’t ask people if they had any food intolerances or special dietary needs.

Charitable nutrition programs can start with a few simple questions, she said, “Do you have a special diet? Are there any foods that bother you? “

Brown, meanwhile, is working with Drs. Ruchi Gupta and Lucy Bilaver of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research at Northwestern University to gather better information on how many people with allergies are food unsafe because of the lack of comprehensive data.

“The challenge we have is that here in the US we are addressing food insecurity and nutrition programming so broadly,” Brown said.

As pandemic risks subside, proponents hope for a return to customer choice programs. This is the model Claudia Montenegro uses in her San Diego pantry, Porchlight Community Services, which advocates for people with food allergies.

Claudia Montenegro (left) speaks to Elizabeth Shoemaker in the Porchlight Community Service pantry in San Diego in May. AP

In 2016, Montenegro struggled to afford allergy-friendly foods to meet its gluten and milk intolerances.

She and some friends decided to pool their money so they could shop in bulk and look for sales. Word of mouth was growing, and she was soon distributing food from her porch.

Today Porchlight has grown into a full-fledged, volunteer-run pantry serving people with allergies to nuts, dairy products, gluten and wheat, shellfish, eggs and soy, and diabetics.

Customers are asked to deposit $ 35 per week if they can, but those who cannot pay are still welcome. Volunteers buy all of the groceries themselves, and shoppers can choose items like coconut-based yogurt, nut butters, lactose-free milk, and gluten-free flour.

Elizabeth Shoemaker reached out to Porchlight during the pandemic after a hip replacement caused her to lose her job, relationship and home. At some point, their food aid payments dropped from $ 200 to $ 20. She developed a gluten intolerance, but struggled to afford gluten-free products until she found Porchlight, supplies them and takes good care of her mainly plant-based deceased.

She can’t afford the fee, so she volunteers at the pantry.

“I know now that I can rely on her for the next week so I don’t have to hoard food,” she said.

source https://livehealthynews.com/food-allergies-complicate-hungry-americans-search-for-meals/