Parents of food-allergic youngsters know that the most surefire way to safeguard their kids from trigger foods is to prepare all meals and snacks at home in a controlled environment. For this week’s series, I asked three top voices in the Twitter food allergy community, Kim Maes, Cybele Pascal and Robyn O’Brien — all parents of children with food allergies — for their favorite cooking tips, essential tools and strategies to prepare allergen-free food.
Embrace whole, fresh foods. Since food-allergic individuals must cut so many foods out of their repertoire, many parents worry about proper nutrition and a balanced diet. Robyn O’Brien has a simple mantra to help: Eat Less Fake Food. Here’s O’Brien’s rationale behind this mantra, as she shared with CalorieLab:
“We were feeding our kids blue yogurt, chicken nuggets, and mac and cheese when we first found out that our fourth child had food allergies. And then to learn that processed foods contain new allergens and proteins (not found in kids’ foods in other developed countries) that aren’t listed on the labels — what mom has time for that? So we decided to try to Eat Less Fake Food. And it goes such a long way in reducing your children’s exposure to hidden allergens, chemicals and preservatives now in the food supply that weren’t there when we were kids. Since 70 percent of a child’s immune system is found in his digestive tract, by simply eating less fake food, you are doing so much to ensure the health of a child and not corrode those digestive pipes with food pumped full of chemicals.”
This article, written by Marissa Brassfield, originally appeared on CalorieLab
