So, I made a flier for an upcoming show. Haven’t done one in a while. I tried to stay sort-of true to the source…
Author Archives: AiXeLsyD13
AllergyEats | Urgent request for support to help impact REAL, impending food allergy legislation!
This is an important one for my food allergy readers… please take the time to read this post from Allergy Eats and respond accordingly! This is your chance to have some real input to actual legislation, not just another request to your state, federal, and local officials.
The entire post below is reposted with assumed permission… please re-post, re-blog, re-tweet, use your ham radio or the telegraph, and get the word out.
Urgent request for support to help impact REAL, impending food allergy legislation!
I am reaching out to the entire food allergy community with a great opportunity for us to have an impact on REAL, forthcoming food allergy legislation.
A few months ago, I was invited to work with a governmental body that is enacting a food allergy law pertaining to restaurants. (For now, please respect my decision not to mention specifics. I believe doing so could compromise my ability to effectively represent our food allergy constituency.) I was, and remain, very excited about this opportunity to advocate for our community.
In the course of this group’s discussions, there seemed to be a lingering question – what is the definition of an allergy-friendly restaurant? While I was very comfortable responding to that question myself, I believed at the time that it would be more effective to have community comments, which I was (and am) very confident would support my position. I suggested that I contact members of the food allergy community, via the thousands of AllergyEats members and social media followers, and solicit as many unprompted opinions as possible.
So here’s what I’m requesting. Could you please take a moment to answer the following question:
How would you define an allergy-friendly restaurant? (Please be as specific as possible.)
This is an absolutely critical opportunity to affect not only impending legislation, but legislation that could become a template for other states and municipalities across the nation!
I strongly urge you to take a few minutes to respond to this request. I believe my effectiveness in advocating for the food allergy community will be directly impacted by how many supporters answer this call. To that end, please also consider spreading this message as broadly as possible, using social media, blogs, or any other resource you have access to. The more voices we have, the more effective we will be!
I assure you that I will continue to do my best in advocating for our community and I promise to share more about this particular legislation when appropriate.
Important Note: I need to collect responses by February 2, giving us just one week, so please consider responding as soon as possible.
Again, the question I am asking you to answer is:
How would you define an allergy-friendly restaurant? (Please be as specific as possible)
Please submit your responses to me at contact@allergyeats.com or feel free to post your comments here on the blog by clicking Comments or Reply. (Email is preferable, but either is greatly appreciated.)
Thank you for your support!
I’m going to say it even though I shouldn’t have to… comments on this blog are appreciated, but to get them to AllergyEats, please comment on the original blog post or email contact@allergyeats.com.
Sadly, this sums up my general attitude towards dining out with food allergies and “safe” menu options:
http://twitter.com/#!/FoodAllergyBuzz/status/30366826915434496
Sat. Feb. 5th at Excuses with the Hang Lows! (via Ernie and the Berts)
Feb. 5th at Excuses… you really ought to come out to this one. The Hang Lows are cool dudes, and ska bands are always a great time!
a-MAZE-ing
Okay. Terrible blog title. But I drew another maze. I’m just gonna keep posting these until someone does one & sends it back.
“Toybox” (Shpiez Remix) (via Ernie and the Berts)
Prepping for Food Allergy Awareness Week 2011
Okay, so I’m on a roll this morning. That Subway stuff struck a nerve. It reminded me that I would like to have more consumer-driven responses to food allergy issues, and less government mandates. Food Allergy Awareness Week is not for a few months (May 8-14, 2011), but it doesn’t mean that you can’t start getting ready now.
I just wrote to the Food Network, requesting some Food Allergy Awareness. I used their contact form, and this is what I had to say…
I’m a big fan of all the Food Network shows. I’d love to see an Iron Chef battle where they can’t use any of the “top 8” allergens. I am allergic to shellfish, and always recoil slightly when it’s a lobster or crab battle… or when the inevitable prawn works its way into a dish. There is a Food Allergy Awareness week every May. It would be great timing for such an event… and really help the allergy awareness and cross-contamination cause. There are MANY food-allergic foodies out there!
I’m sure you’re aware that the top 8 allergens are Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, Soy, & Wheat. TO have an Iron Chef battle where they ahd to prepare meals without any of the top 8 allergens would be truly epic, and help show others out there that there ARE indeed alternatives & work-arounds when dealing with a life-threatening allergy. Food allergy awareness week this year will be May 8-14, 2011.
Thank you for your time, I hope to hear your thoughts on this matter!
-Eric
I’d like to ask that you also write your own letter or email. And, why stop at one? Please, share with me other places where you think we ought to write, and I’ll write to them too!
I’ll definitely be writing more, perhaps armed with statistics like the following (from Top8Free.com):
Prevalence of food allergies in the United States
Ninety percent of food allergies in the United States are caused by eight foods: Milk, egg, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish, and shellfish. This website is dedicated to a diet free of these allergens. Of course, it is possible to be allergic to just about any protein. In Japan, rice allergy is one of the offenders.
Just to give you a sense of how many kids are suffering from food allergies today, here is a table of the most common food allergies. This does not count children with milk-soy protien intollerance or Celiac disease, only children with Ig-E mediated food allergies.
Percentage of young children with allergy to:
- Milk 2.5%
- Egg 1.3%
- Soy 1.1% (There is little agreement on this number. Estimates range from 1 to 5%)
- Wheat 1.0%
- Peanut 0.8%
- Tree nuts 0.2%
- Fish 0.1%
- Shellfish 0.1%
- Overall 6 to 8% of population
Percentage of adults with allergy to:
- Shellfish 2.0%
- Peanut 0.6%
- Tree nuts 0.5%
- Fish 0.4%
- Milk 0.3%
- Egg 0.2%
- Soy 0.2%
- Overall 3.7%
Source: Hugh A. Sampson, MD. “Update on food allergy“, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, May 2004
While writing to politicians does gain some inroads, there are other productive avenues to explore.
Gluten-Free food at Subway?
I recently came across an article that is at once good news and quite annoying…
Food Allergy Daily | Subway Now Testing Gluten-Free
On one hand, it’s great news that they’re finally recognizing a food allergy. On the other, it almost angers me that they haven’t dealt with the shellfish issue that I have been telling them about for years. (Literally… over the span of more than a few years, and through dozens of letters and emails.)
This part is quite amusing…
Employees will be educated on how to cut the bread using a pre-wrapped knife to avoid cross contamination.
Perhaps they read my dog-turd analogy? In a response to that, My friend Ms. Gomez had assured me that they already wash all utensils to avoid cross-contamination. Apparently this is not the case… or they wouldn’t need new training and a “pre-wrapped knife”. (Besides the fact that I have seen the sandwich artists “wash” a knife after cutting a sandwich… with a dirty dish-rag. To me, this doesn’t constitute washing.)
Although, one of the past letters did say this…
Maybe I’m the one who got the ball rolling here?
My favorite letter to Subway: https://aixelsyd13.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/five-five-dollar-five-dollar-foot-up-your-ass/
Check out my review of a local Subway on UrbanSpoon: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/271709/restaurant/Dormont/Subway-Banksville-Plaza-by-Kuhns-Pittsburgh
I’m going to have to write to them again, and ask a few questions… like if they’ve already been trained in cross-contamination, what’s this new training for? And… why are they going gluten-free and ignoring the people with allergies to shellfish, peanuts, eggs, and the other “top 8“?
Yinz still ain’t drivin’ right.
Last night, it took me two hours to get home… it’s normally a 35 minute drive. The industrial park in which I work was in chaos. The roads weren’t that bad, but tires were spinning because of people flooring the gas… and the local cops stopped a bunch of cars… close together… on a slush-covered hill.
I took these photos while sitting still for quite some time, not while moving. Yinz are ridiculous.
Yinz Ain’t Drivin’ Right
I saw this video thanks to Twitter this morning… I’m pretty sure it’s the one I’ve heard talked about as being a clip on GMA yesterday. It sparked awe in me, and perhaps obviously this point, a rant.
I’m not even sure where to begin. I mean, I’ve been amazed for years about the lack of caution during hazardous road conditions from my fellow southwestern PA motorists… but this is beyond amazement. If I were in charge of public service announcements, my #1 topic/message would be that “AWD/4WD may help you go, but it doesn’t help you stop“… and to leave space between you & the vehicle in front of (or beside) you. Too many people just drive like nothing’s going on out of the norm as far as road conditions during inclement weather. Then again, you have the other end of the extreme… people driving like they’re afraid, and being so ‘cautious’ that they’re a danger to others. But that’s all general. I’d love to just point out the insanity in this video.
- The White SUV – Okay. I live not too far from here. It’s obviously quite a hilly area like most of southwestern Pennsylvania. I would avoid hills like this if at all possible when I knew there were icy or even snowy road conditions… To a certain extent in these neighborhoods all routes out involve some sort of hill, but there are less “extreme” grades around. I wonder what sparked the camera man to start taping at this point? What auto-acrobatics led up to a “wow, I should get this on video” moment? Think all 3 cars there were damaged, or just the 1st 2?
- The Speedy Sedan – Seriously? Did you just miss the twirling SUV… and the minivan that apparently decided to join the chaos only to make a futile attempt to clear a path for your louge-run? It almost looked like someone stepped on the gas trying to go down that hill, Speed Racer. I’d love to see the look on your insurance agent’s face when they see this pinball-machine like run, assuming you have insurance. I hope you had a change of underwear in the car with you. I feel bad for the poor guy who probably thought his car was safely parked in the front yard away from road hazards flanked by other vehicles… unless he ended up there just like this guy. What flew to the left there that started out behind the parked black SUV? A tree?
- The Concerned Citizen – Yeah, I get that you’re trying to help, but that may not be the best place to walk… in case, you know… someone else were dumb enough to slide down that hill. He’ll re-appear later with a construction cone.
- Sedan #2 – Adds injury to insult while you’re distracted by Brian Boitano trying to cross the road.
- SUV #2 – Won’t be outdone… it’s a almost a sedanwich, but it turns into a nice little road block. Maybe this will serve as a warning to other would-be travelers to turn around and go home?
- Sedan #3 – This driver likes a challenge, and decides to plow through the blockade just like in all those movies on Spike. Another bright idea is to get small children out of the car and on to the icy road.
I’d love to read your thoughts.
(Video & News story also available here.)
World (and Lunar) Domination 