BETHANY NIAZIAN: For over ten years my family and I have dealt with multiple food allergies, some of them quite severe. My daughter is allergic to wheat and sunflower oil, while my mother (who lives with us) has only 30 ingredients on her "safe to eat" list, though olive oil and parsley (2 on her list) are hardly foods on their own! It's easier to tell people what she CAN eat rather than what she can't. I didn't really have allergies till I hit 40; in the past five years I've had to cut from my diet all citrus, wheat, cocoa, cane sugar, barley malt, yogurt and peanuts.
Therefore, I've spent a lot of time researching food allergies, finding alternative foods, and adapting or creating recipes that are tasty and nutritious without posing an allergen threat to my loved ones or me. Currently I am developing several allergy-free cookbooks addressing multiple food allergies BEYOND the "Top 8". My family calls me the Adapt-a-Recipe Queen.
I focus particularly on food allergies that are less commonly seen -- most blogs and websites I find address the "Top 8" but aren't much help with regard to what to eat (or how to adapt recipes) if you have OTHER food allergies too. Among my biggest goals for this blog is to meet that need.
I'm constantly meeting more people whose lives are affected by multiple food allergies, and I believe that we have a lot of knowledge and support that we can offer to each other; this blog is one of the ways I am trying to do that. I welcome and encourage your comments, questions, and sharing of experiences.
