Allergy — Gluten Allergy / Gluten Free Diet / Yeast Allergy / Asthma / + other Allergies — Page 41

Sulfites

by Allergy Guy

Sulfites (or sulphites) describe a group of compounds containing the SO32- ion.

Sulfites are added to foods for the following reasons:

  • As a preventives
  • To inhibit oxidation (“browning”) of light-colored fruits and vegetables, such as dried apples and dehydrated potatoes.
  • Prevent melanosis (“black spot”) on shrimp and lobster
  • Reduce bacterial growth as wine ferments
  • “Condition” dough
  • Bleach food starches
  • Maintain the stability and potency of some medications.

Sulfites seem pretty useful as a food additive.

They are also a natural byproduct of fermentation, so all beer and wine contains at least some sulfites. Producers sometimes add sulfites as well.

Some people are allergic to sulfites, especially asthmatics. According to the FDA, of all the reports they receive about adverse food reactions, reactions to sulfites are most likely to cause a true allergic reaction.

Responses range from mild to life-threatening.

According to the FDA:

A person can develop sulfite sensitivity at any point in life, and no one knows what triggers onset or the mechanism by which reactions occur. “Doctors believe that asthmatics develop difficulty breathing by inhaling sulfite fumes from treated foods,” notes Dan Atkins, M.D., a pediatrician at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, Colo. He says that in a severe reaction an overwhelming degree of bronchial constriction occurs, causing breathing to stop. This can lead to lack of oxygen reaching the brain, heart, and other organs and tissues and, possibly, a fatal heart rhythm irregularity.

“We now know that asthmatics who have more severe symptoms and are dependent on corticosteroids, such as prednisone or methylprednisolone, are especially prone to sulfite sensitivity and are most at risk of having a severe reaction,” notes Atkins. But it’s a chicken-and-egg situation, notes Simon: “We don’t know which comes first, the asthma or the sulfite sensitivity, because some people’s first experience with asthma is a sulfite reaction, and as their asthma becomes more severe they eventually become steroid-dependent.”

Click the link for a list of foods containing sulfites.

In the USA, the FDA requires that all foods containing sulfites be labeled as such. Other countries are expected to follow this lead.

Other Names for Sulphites

Scan the list of ingredients for the following:

  • E 220, E 221, E 222, E 223, E 224, E 225, E 226, E 227, E 228 (European codes)
  • Potassium bisulphite/metabisulphite
  • Sodium bisulphite/dithionite/metabisulphite/sulphite
  • Sulfur dioxide
  • Sulphiting agents
  • Sulphurous acid

Internal Links

External Links

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Foods That Contain Sulfites

by Allergy Guy

Here is a partial list of foods that can contain sulfites.

Note that all fermented products, such as beer and wine, contain natural sulfites. They can also contain added sulfites.

According to Quality Attibutes and Their Measurement in Meat, Poultry and Fish Products By Albert Marchant Pearson, sulfites are excellent at preserving the colour of fresh meat.  It is supposedly illegal to use for this purpose in the US, but still happens.  It is legal to add sulfites to pork sausages in the UK.  Apparently, sulfites can also reduce the incidents of salmonella growth in meat.

  • Apple cider
  • Apples (dried, glazed, dehydrated, canned or frozen)
  • Apricots (dried, glazed or dehydrated)
  • Baked goods
  • Beer (Alcoholic or non-alcoholic)
  • Breads
  • Candy
  • Canned fruits and vegetables
  • Cereal
  • Cheese, blue *
  • Cheese, soft (some types)*
  • Chocolate bars
  • Cider (Alcoholic or non-alcoholic)
  • Coconut (dried or dehydrated)
  • Coleslaw
  • Condiments
  • Cookies
  • Cornmeal
  • Cornstarch
  • Crackers
  • Deli meat
  • Dextrose syrup
  • Dressings
  • Dried fruit
  • Fish
  • Frozen fruits and vegetables
  • Fruit bars
  • Fruit filling
  • Fruit juice
  • Fruit syrup
  • Gelatin
  • Glazed fruits
  • Glucose solids
  • Glucose syrup
  • Grape juice (regular or sparkling)
  • Grapes (fresh) – safe in some countries
  • Grapes (glazed)
  • Gravies
  • Guacamole
  • Herbs (dried)
  • Horseradish
  • Hot Dogs
  • Jams
  • Jellies
  • Ketchup
  • Lemon juice/concentrate
  • Lettuce (fresh) – safe in some countries
  • Lime juice/concentrate
  • Maraschino cherries
  • Marmalade
  • Meat (even fresh meat, depending on preparation)
  • Mincemeat (dried or dehydrated)
  • Molasses
  • Muesli
  • Mushrooms (canned or frozen)
  • Mustard
  • Noodles
  • Olives (canned)
  • Onions (pickled)
  • Papaya (dried or dehydrated)
  • Pastries
  • Peaches (dried or dehydrated)
  • Pears (dried or dehydrated)
  • Peas (canned or frozen)
  • Pectin
  • Peppers (canned or frozen)
  • Perfume*
  • Pickled foods
  • Pickles
  • Pineapple (dried or dehydrated)
  • Potato chips
  • Potato starch
  • Potatoes (dehydrated, frozen french fries, dehydrated, mashed, peeled, pre-cut)
  • Raisins (dried or dehydrated)
  • Relish
  • Rice mixes
  • Sauces
  • Sauerkraut
  • Sausages
  • Shellfish
  • Shrimp (fresh/frozen)
  • Snack foods
  • Soft drinks
  • Soup mixes
  • Soups
  • Soy products
  • Spices
  • Starches
  • Sugar beet starch
  • Sugar syrups
  • Tea
  • Tomatoes (dried, sun dried, dehydrated, canned, frozen or paste/pulp/puree)
  • Tortilla chips
  • Trail mix
  • Vegetable juices
  • Vinegar, wine vinegar
  • Waffles
  • Water (bottled)
  • White grape juice
  • Wine (Alcoholic or non-alcoholic)

Foods with Naturally Occurring Sulfites

According to one of our readers, here is a partial list of foods with naturally occurring sulfites.  I have not verified this list.

*

  • Grapes and all related products
  • Peanuts and all related products
  • Cabbage and all related products
  • Brussel Sprouts
  • Pork
  • All Soy
  • Molasses
  • Mushrooms
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Peppers

Note that it seems odd that pork would have naturally occurring sulfites, however the reader that suggested this reports that she reacts to all pork, even when cooked at home.  It could be that it contains sulfites, or that she is sensitive to pork.  Please share your own experience with pork: does it cause you problems or not?

Personal Care Products

The following may contain sulfites.  Check each item/brand that you use with the manufacturer before using.

(Note: not a complete list.  You should check all your personal care products, including soap, makeup etc.)

  • Shampoo
  • Toothpaste

Please leave a comment if you notice anything that is missing

* Items marked with and asterisk have been suggested by readers by I have not personally verified them.

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Gluten-Free Product Review: PatsyPie Peanut Butter Cookies

by Allergy Guy

Like other PatsyPie products, their gluten-free peanut butter cookies are good. Like their other products, they are tasty, have a nice texture, and are not too sweat.

This flavor produces a lot of crumbs when you eat it, so it is not a cookie for all occasions.

It is more salty than their other flavors, almost (but not quite) too salty.

They are not too sweet – which is a big plus. They seem to use quality ingredients over all.

As far as allergies go, their products are gluten free, but it does contain peanuts. It also contain rice, corn and eggs.

PatsyPie Peanut Butter Cookies Product Rating

Rating scale is from -3 (awful) through 0 (neutral) to +3 Excellent

Taste: 2 Tastes good but I prefer some of their other products.
Texture: 0 Lots of crumbs when you eat it. Not ideal for when you are well dressed or eating at your keyboard.
Freshness 2 Tastes fresh, but some of their other products seem to be fresher.
Packaging 2 Convenient “standard” cookie packaging. Does not seal particularly well for freshness, but it does seem to keep the cookies pretty fresh some how.
Environmental 3 There could hardly be less packaging. There is a minimum of plastic (just a small window so you can see what’s inside.
Quality 3 Contains high quality ingredients.
Value 2 High quality. Not the cheapest gluten-free cookie on the shelf, but at least they give you something good for what you pay.
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Gluten-Free Product Review: PatsyPie Chocolate Chip Biscotti

by Allergy Guy

PatsyPie makes some excellent gluten-free cookies. I’ve not had a chance to review them all yet; this is the first, and several other reviews will be coming soon.

I like their biscotti recipe. When combined with the chocolate chips that they use, it is not as good as it could be. Good but not great.

They are not too sweet – which is a big plus. They seem to use quality ingredients over all.

For one thing, I think the quality of the chocolate they use could be improved. That would make a big difference.

I find the combined texture of the crisp biscotti and the soft chocolate chips a bit odd. You might like the combination fine, but in my opinion, I don’t really like the combo so much. I could get used to it though if they used better quality chocolate.

This is by no means a bad product. I think you should try it if you see it at the store. But I think you should try some of their other products first – almond biscotti for example, or snappy ginger.

As far as allergies go, their products are gluten free, but not necessarily nut-free. This particular recipe does not included nuts. It does contain rice, corn and eggs.

PatsyPie Chocolate Chip Biscotti Product Rating

Rating scale is from -3 (awful) through 0 (neutral) to +3 Excellent

Taste: 2 Tastes good but I prefer some of their other products.
Texture: 1 OK. Holds together well. I personally don’t like the combination of hard biscotti and soft chocolate chips, but you make love it.
Freshness 1 Tastes fresh, but some of their other products seem to be fresher.
Packaging 2 Convenient “standard” cookie packaging. Does not seal particularly well for freshness, but it does seem to keep the cookies pretty fresh some how.
Environmental 3 There could hardly be less packaging. There is a minimum of plastic (just a small window so you can see what’s inside.
Quality 2.5 -½ point for the chocolate chips.
Value 2 High quality. Not the cheapest gluten-free cookie on the shelf, but at least they give you something good for what you pay.
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Feeling Icky – Could It Be Allergies?

by Allergy Guy

Do you feel “icky” all the time?

“Feeling icky” could mean a number of things. Let’s summarize it like this – feeling tired most or all of the time, experiencing brain fog (hard to think and concentrate), feeling indecisive, depressed, lethargic, unmotivated, half-asleep, insomnia, upset stomach, poor appetite, etc.

To be clear, I’m not talking about just one of those feelings. I’m talking about several, most or all of those feelings, and maybe more besides.

There could be a number of causes for this general feeling of being “off colour”:

 

  • allergies. Something you are eating or breathing is making you sick.
  • Lack of sleep. Chronic insomnia, or just short-changing your self on sleep can cause some or all of these symptoms. By the way, allergies can cause insomnia for some people.
  • Intolerance to milk products.
  • Exposure to noxious chemicals.
  • Poor air quality.

There are other causes as well, but the above summarizes some of the main environmental causes of feeling lousy, and most of them have to do with what you eat, drink or inhale.

This website is mostly about allergies, so keep exploring if you want to learn more about how allergies affect your health and sense of well-being. To get you started, here are a few of the most common allergies:

Lack of sleep is another big downer. It is really hard to think when you are lacking sleep, and it affects your physical and mental health as well as your physical, and especially mental energy levels.

Sleep is worth talking about here because it can be closely related to allergies.

For one thing, some people find that their allergies keep them awake, either because the symptoms are so annoying, or because one of the allergy symptoms is insomnia.

Another thing about sleep: most people are actually sleep deprived. Besides directly causing many of the symptoms listed above, sleep is closely tied to your immune system. Getting enough sleep strengthens your immune system.

A lack of sleep weakens your immune system.

A weak immune system makes you more susceptible to developing allergies, where as a strong immune system makes it easier to manage the allergies you already have.

Intolerance to milk products is different from having a milk allergy. Many people can not digest milk. The problem is lactose, a type of sugar found in milk.

You can buy milk-digesting enzymes to manage a milk intolerance, as well as reducing the quantity of milk products you consume.

Noxious chemicals can make you feel poorly. This is noticeable when you are exposed occasionally, but if your workplace or home are always contaminated with noxious chemicals, you may never make the connection.

Besides obvious chemicals such as cleaning products, certain adhesives, and industrial chemicals, here are some common sources of nasty chemicals that are hidden in plain view:

  • New carpets
  • Composite wood products, especially particle board – found in kitchen cabinetry and furniture especially.
  • New clothing. You are much more likely to have problems with this in a clothing store or shopping centre than at home.
  • Many newly manufactured items. This could be a problem at home, but again more likely in a store, shopping centre or at work.

Poor air quality. This is very common. Most recently constructed buildings, especially in cold climates like in Canada, are sealed for energy efficiency, but this limits the supply of fresh air. This problem is amplified by all the chemicals used in modern materials, including building materials.

There are other causes of poor air quality as well:
Pollution is another significant cause of poor air quality. Major sources include traffic and industry. Industrial pollution can affect huge areas covering tens of thousands of square miles.

Mold is an even bigger problem in some areas. If you have a damp basement, the chances are you have a mold problem in your house. Other causes include faulty plumbing, a leak in the roof, and high humidity in the bathroom.

This article does not cover every reason you might feel “icky”, but it is a good start. Some of these problems affect everyone who is exposed to them (mold and pollution for example, or lack of sleep) while others affects some people, for example allergies.

All possible causes are worth investigating. Once you find the cause and fix it, you will feel so much better!

 

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Gluten-Free Product Review: MI-DEL Ginger Snap Cookies

by Allergy Guy

For a reasonably-priced gluten-free product, I was pretty impressed with the quality. You can pay a lot more for a lot less in both quality and quantity.

These cookies are quite small, so you can have a really tiny snack if you want to, or eat several if you want more. Of course their size makes them slightly addictive.

Although called a ginger-snap, they are neither snappy nor very gingery.

I’m not sure if it is a matter of product freshness or just the way they make the cookies, but I would describe them as more of a soft cookie than a “snap”. Maybe “snap” is not supposed to refer to the texture, but I definitely think of ginger snaps as being a bit more crisp, a bit harder.

I am not complaining about texture mind you, the texture is fine, just not what I was expecting in a ginger snap.

It could be that the bag I bought was not sealed properly, and that they came from the factory more “snappy”. The cookies did not seem stale to me though, although not perfectly fresh either. They are supposed to last another six and a half months – I don’t know what their total shelf-life is supposed to be.

They taste like they have coconut in them, although this is not on the list of ingredients. I say that first because this feeling that they have coconut in them came across to me at least as much as the feeling they have ginger in them – maybe more. I can’t be sure that I would notice the ginger if it wasn’t for saying “ginger” on the product package.

Still, I’d rather it be less gingery than full of artificial ingredients. It says “natural flavors”, but the dirty secret of the food industry is that the work “natural” is meaningless, and “natural flavors” just means that the additives were derived from natural sources. Everything comes from a natural source in the beginning!

In short, the cookies are pretty good and reasonably priced, just not quite what I was expecting.

As far as allergies go, these cookies contain no nuts, although the packaging has the usual disclaimer about other nut-containing products may be manufactured in the same facility.

These cookies do contain soy and canola oil. I wish they didn’t – these are number one GMO-infested ingredients.

MI-DEL Ginger Snap Cookie Rating

Rating scale is from -3 (awful) through 0 (neutral) to +3 Excellent

Taste: 1.5 They taste good. I like them. Not very strong in the ginger department though.
Texture: 2 The texture is fine, but as a ginger snap, they are not very snappy. Should be a bit more crisp. As a soft cookie though, they are fine.
Freshness 1.5 They taste fresh enough, but I couldn’t help wondering if the texture was due to they way they are made, or product freshness.
Packaging 2 About normal for cookies: a plastic-coated bag. They look hard to open but they are not. I am not sure how good the seal is – might be excellent, I can’t tell. Probably better than average sealing for this style.
Environmental 1 About average. One bag means it is not over-packaged. Plastic-coated paper makes it hard to recycle.
Sugar 1 Second after the gluten-free flour, and then again at number four. Sweet enough for a cookie, but not too sweet.
Quality 1.5 Basically pretty good quality for packaged cookies.
Value 2 Good quality for the price.
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Gluten-Free Product Review: Enjoy Life Snack Bar

by Allergy Guy

Enjoy Life snack bars are neatly packaged, allergen-free, and convenient.

That’s the good news.

The trouble with them though, is that they seem to have been designed by food scientists, not cooks or bakers.

While the photo on the package looks appetizing, the bars themselves do not look like much of anything. And that is a good indication of the taste and texture as well.

Basically, this is highly processed food, its just a matter of using a different feed-stock from the usual allergens like wheat and milk.

They lack much of a taste, and while they don’t actually taste bad, they are a long way from tasting good.

What they lack in taste, they also lack in texture. They have a sort of uniform blandness to their texture. There is an attempt to alleviate this by adding something granular and slightly crunchy, but it doesn’t work. Never have I noticed a texture in food that I could say was out of place, until now. The texture baffles me, actually.

In short, I would summarize these bars as edible yes, but not worth eating. They lack taste and texture, leave me feeling unsatisfied, and smack of low-quality, over-processed ingredients.

You could eat them if you have to, but really, there are other snack possibilities out there, so why bother with these?

I’m sure the people who created these things don’t eat them, except when they are at work, and then only because they are paid to.

Enjoy Life Snack Bar Rating

Rating scale is from -3 (awful) through 0 (neutral) to +3 Excellent

Taste: 0 Not good, not bad either. One is enough.
Texture: -2 Over-processed. A mixture of bland and crunchy that is artificial.
Freshness N/A I don’t think the ingredients are of high enough quality to tell.
Packaging +2 Convenient individually wrapped bars. Packages are hard to open without scissors.
Environmental -2 Over-packaged.
Quality -2 Seems like inferior ingredients to me.
Value -2 A product this bland and unsatisfying (and full of sugar) isn’t worth much
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Gluten-Free Prepared Food Product Reviews

by Allergy Guy

This section reviews gluten-free prepared foods (such as wheat-free cookies) and ingredients (such as rice pasta).

See the table of contents below for individual reviews. Some headings may be for categories rather than specific products.

Please provide your input and ides: visit the contact form.

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Product Reviews

by Allergy Guy

This section reviews allergy-related products, such as air filters, gluten-free food etc.

The table of contents below is for broad categories. The reviews are listed under the categories below.

Please provide your input by visiting the contact form.

List of Gluten Free Product Reviews

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Peanut and Nut Free Chocolate

by Guest Writer

By Karen Blue

Chocolate and peanut butter go together, not however for the nut allergic. Over the past several years some manufactures have sold “made in nut free facilities” chocolates, mostly on-line at first. These products can be found in online stores.

Some On-line nut free chocolate:

Major Canadian food manufactures such as Nestle, Dare and even Presidents Choice have put nut free products on grocery shelves. They usually have a peanut free icon on their products. Industry standard for nut free has become an image of a Peanut with a slash through it. Some products have “made in nut free facility” after the ingredient listing, without the icon.

Some Main Stream chocolate bars that have become nut free (Canada only). Always read labels carefully!

  • Aero Kit Kat
  • Coffee Crisp
  • Mars

The United States has been slow to follow this trend. This has inspired business like Peanut Free Planet to start up. Peanut Free Planet ships large amounts of Canadian nut free products to their warehouse, then to people’s houses across the United States. They also sell specialty nut free chocolates and other products.

You may ask what started this nut free, may contain allergy labeling. In 1997 the Canadian federal government agreed to a “precautionary labeling policy.” They allowed manufacturers to place the “may contain traces of peanuts” or other allergens on their products. This allowed people with peanut allergies and other allergies to reduce the risk, of cross contamination. It should be noted that the “may contain” is NOT MANITORY, so if something does not say “may contain” this does not mean a product is allergen free.

Karen Blue runs the avoiding milk protein website.
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