Everyone diagnosed with allergies has a similar reaction - "What do I do now?" This happens whether it's one allergy, or many, and especially if you're an adult or if it's your children who have just been diagnosed. Why? Because a lot of the time your body has developed allergies to the foods you eat the most. With that, presumably, your favorite foods have just turned into the enemy.

So what do you do? Two years ago, I was diagnosed with 20 food allergies and had no idea what to do to avoid them; I was very overwhelmed. While Cooking Allergy Free has a wealth of recipe ideas and places to discuss your allergies, below are a few recommendations for coming to grips with your allergies, where to shop, and other general tips.

Read the labels:

Learn the different names for your allergens and their derivatives; therefore, you won’t be surprised by “hidden” allergens in your food. For instance, if you check out our corn allergen listing, you can see all of the different ingredients that may contain corn or its derivatives. This may take some time to learn, but is a good skill to understand what’s actually in the food you’re buying.

Shop organic, if possible

It may seem impossible to learn the labeling and names right away, so I found that shopping at organic food stores help. Organic packaged foods tend to have less ingredients and more human-readable names than normal supermarkets. I found that this was especially helpful for grains – like corn and soy – which tend to be in tons of packaged foods nowadays.
While Whole Foods or Wild Oats are great supermarkets for organic shopping, there are more and more brands with minimalist (organic, or at least less complicated) ingredients creeping into other grocery stores daily. Your first shopping experience will be lengthy... very lengthy. But when you get home, you will have a few good brands that use less 'formulated' ingredients and are descriptive in their labeling. Each subsequent trip will be faster; you'll start to easily recognize brands that work for you.

Snacks are key!

When I first started an allergy-free diet, I was very strict about avoiding every single one of my allergens. However, I felt like I couldn’t eat anything. I would get so frustrated (and hungry) that I would tend to go for my comfort foods – which would usually be the allergy-laden foods that I shouldn’t be eating. Once I started stocking up on a few simple snacks that I knew worked for me, I stopped getting as upset and was able to stay on track all day long.

Variety

There is so much food out there. You just have to be adventuresome. I just read an article about how the American diet is the least diverse in the world. We simply don't eat the variety of fruits, vegetables, and other standard foods like people in other countries. While our aisles may look diverse, most packaged goods have corn bases (which is why corn is one of the largest American allergies; similarly soy is the most prevalent in Asian countries).

In my opinion, its easier to avoid fruits/vegetables because there are so many other varieties and some pretty exotic stuff out there, if you can find it. It can take more effort to avoid the grains like wheat, corn, and soy. Variety is great, and that's why we're the "Allergy Recipe Resource"; so that you can get some great ideas you may have never found otherwise.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with substitutions

You might have to throw away some inedible dishes (which I definitely have had to do). Eventually, though, you start to learn what substitutions work in certain types of dishes. I have made some real disasters in the kitchen when trying to substitute for eggs. However, I keep trying and think learning to substitute is better than an allergic reaction which can ruin even the best-tasting meal.

The "Food Substitutions" category has a lot of good ideas for what you can swap out, whether its due to an allergy or just lack of a key ingredient. However, be aware that not all substitutions work in every recipe.

Seek out others, and find what's worked for them

Talking with others is extremely helpful to calm you down when trying to overcome your allergies. Of course the web is always a great source for getting answers to your questions, but getting a response directed right towards your specific situation, from others dealing with the same issues, is a wonderful thing.

The Cooking Allergy Free Forums are a great place to ask your questions, or share what's worked for you. Having a community around you is a great reminder that you're not going through this alone and that you can get through it.. which leads to the last tip....

Above all, have hope!

If your allergies aren’t life threatening, you’re allowed to make a few mistakes along the way. Eventually you’ll get on track and feel much better in the long run.

-Melissa

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