What to Avoid

Trying to figure out what to feed us can be quite daunting at first.  Here is a concise list of what we are allergic to and what ingredients to avoid.  To find out what you can feed us, go to my Safe Foods List.

*  If cooking for Michael, avoid wheat, gluten, corn, soy, shellfish, and tree nuts (except for almonds and pecans).
*  If cooking for Laura, avoid peanuts, shellfish, and dairy products.  Avoid large amounts of soy.
*  If cooking for Sabrina, avoid wheat, gluten, soy, shellfish, dairy products, and egg (except when used in baked goods, such as one egg in a cake).
*  If cooking for Naomi, avoid wheat, gluten, soy, peanuts, tree nuts (except for almonds and pecans), and dairy products.

What Ingredients to Avoid:
This food allergy sheet is very helpful for learning how to read labels to avoid foods containing milk, soy, peanuts, wheat, shellfish, egg, and tree nuts.  This corn allergen list is the most complete one I have found for corn, and this corn-derived ingredients list is also helpful.

Avoiding tree nuts, peanuts, and shellfish is pretty straightforward, but avoiding corn, wheat, and soy is much less so.  What follows is my summary of the basic ingredients to look out for and to avoid related to corn, wheat, and soy (either because the ingredient contains one of the allergens, or because of frequent cross-contamination): 

Corn:
Avoid acetic acid, alcohol (if not specified what kind), artificial flavorings, aspartame, baking powder, calcium lactate, caramel, cellulose, citric acid, confectioner's sugar, dextrin, maltodextrin, dextrose, distilled white vinegar, fructose, glucona delta lactone, gluten-free foods (which often contain corn in the form of corn flour, corn starch, and xanthan gum), grits, hominy, invert sugar, invert syrup, iodized salt, lactate, lactic acid, maize, malt, mono- and di-glycerides, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate (MSG), natural flavoring, polenta, powdered sugar, saccharin, semolina, sodium citrate, sodium erythorbate, sorbate, sorbitol, splenda, starch, treacle, xanthan gum, xylitol, anything with the word "corn" in it, and anything with the word "vegetable" in it if the vegetable isn't specified.

Wheat:
Avoid barley, bread crumbs, bulgur, couscous, crackers (unless gluten-free and corn-free), durum, farina, flour (unless specified that it is gluten-free and corn-free), malt, matzah, modified food starch, oats (unless they are certified gluten-free), rye, semolina, spelt, starch (unless specified as a wheat-free and corn-free starch), and anything with the word "wheat" in it. 

Soy:
Avoid soy sauce because it almost always contains either wheat or corn.  Avoid edamame, miso, shoyu, tamari, teriyaki, tempeh, textured vegetable protein, tofu, and anything with the word "soy" in it.  The two exceptions are soy lecithin and soybean oil, which in small quantities, like in chocolate and mayonnaise, don't bother the four of us at all.

Milk Products:
No one in our family has a severe milk allergy; however, it's best if we consume milk products just in small quantities, if at all.  We all have varying degrees of lactose-intolerance, so lactose-free milk products are better for us than ones containing lactose, and ones that are whey-free as well are even better.  This page about lactose intolerance is very helpful for understanding which milk products do and do not contain lactose.  The following page about lactose intolerance also explains its relationship to whey. The girls and I also have an intolerance to the milk protein casein, but we can handle small amounts of dairy without an adverse reaction.