Allergy Foods – Avoiding the Top 8
What foods are the top 8 allergy foods? The top 8 allergy foods are crustaceans, eggs, fish, gluten (wheat, rye, and barley), milk, peanuts, soybeans, tree nuts. You might think that is a pretty simple list of 8 out of the many foods that you could eat. You might also think that you would just need to avoid those foods?
I’m afraid it is not so simple at all especially when food allergies can be a life or death matter. A person with a food allergy must weave his way through a tangled maze of labels. Trying to avoid allergy foods is complicated by manufacturers using multiple ingredients and hidden ingredients along with poor food labeling. Until recently labels were extremely difficult if not impossible to decipher. Recently manufacturers have been required to list common allergens on their labels. So that makes it simple right?
No, this is not entirely foolproof. Each time a person who has a food allergy tries a new food they are gambling that the food will not trigger an allergy. A person with a food allergy typically starts with no safe foods and starts accumulating a list of foods that they have discovered are safe.
Crustaceans include crabs, lobster, crayfish, and shrimp. Crustacean allergy is different from a fish allergy. Someone might be allergic to one but not to the other. A problem is cross contamination. You might order one thing that is prepared in the same area as something different that you are allergic to.
Eggs and milk are ingredients in many baked goods. Gluten products are extremely difficult to avoid. Recently there are gluten free products advertised but they are still difficult to find and can be more expensive than a product with gluten.
Peanuts used to be the staple food in peanut butter and jelly packed lunches and airplane snacks. Now with food allergies it is difficult to bring peanuts anywhere with you. Tree nuts are often processed in facilities that process peanuts. Soybeans or their derivatives are used as a meat substitute in many vegetarian products.