Table of Contents
In memory of my father, Howard,
and my brother, Dennis.
I miss you both so much.
And to our future generation:
Brent, Jordan, Joshua,
Stephen, Erin, Eliana, and Alexis
Foreword
I have spent the past thirty years of my professional life treating people with food allergies. The technical and scientific elements of diagnosis and treatment have advanced amazingly in recent years. However, the down-to-earth question of how and what to feed these patients has always been a problem. It has become even more difficult with the tremendous additions to our food supply. Instead of forty to fifty simple foods, our dietary intake now includes a possible 7,000 different foodstuffs, additives, chemicals, and drugs. Little wonder that the allergy diet poses a big problem for the preparer.
This book sets out to simplify and clarify. Dr. Yoder has spent many years studying the faults of available foods and diets, looking for suppliers of pure foods and ingredients, and experimenting with food preparation. She shows clearly that one is able to provide a tasty, nutritious, yet safe diet for the allergic patient.
This product of Dr. Yoders many years of study and work is a marvelous addition to the physicians tools. The difficult partproviding a diet for diagnosis and for treatmentcan be handled expeditiously with this book. If a patient (or parent) can read, he or she should be able to maintain allergy-free nutrition without sacrificing the joy of eating. In fact, Dr. Yoder describes meal preparation in such detail that it sounds as though even I, a kitchen klutz, could do itand have fun.
Allergy-Free Cooking is easy to use because it is well organized. The completeness of the presentation is represented by the thirty recipes in the chapter on cookies, each sounding very original and delicious. Dr. Yoder has even found intriguing uses for bananas.
Dr. Yoder has also given very practical methods for coping with traveling, holidays, and parties, all of which can be trying for the allergic patient. Various chapters describe shopping, substitutions, and precautions. Parents will find these eye-opening ideas a godsend.
I have always maintained that the allergic patient does not have to starve to death or be bored to death on an allergy diet. This book is readable proof of my conviction. I plan to use it extensively.
Allergy-Free Cooking comes at a most opportune time. Estimates suggest that over half of the U.S. population has ingestant problems, many allergic. This book will provide essential information to a great number of patients who probably have been waiting for such a practical book.
J. C. Breneman, M.D., A.B.A.I.
Four-time Chairman
International Food Allergy Symposium
Preface to the First Edition
My daughters, Laura and Patty, who are now teenagers, were sick from the day they were born. I took them from doctor to doctor. Finally, they were diagnosed as having severe allergies. And I also discovered I had just as many food allergies as they had!
It was a long time before we finally regained our health. The girls were sick much of the time and needed close medical supervision. However, we all learned to adjust our diets and not let food allergies limit our lifestyles. In fact, because of their allergies, I have encouraged the girls to be as active as possible. They are both adventurers; Laura has been camping and horseback riding in the Rocky Mountains, white-water rafting and mountain climbing in Idaho, jet skiing and wind surfing in Florida, and hang gliding in Tennessee! Patty is just as active, camping and traveling around the country, water and snow skiing, and participating on her school track and softball teams.
At first, however, it wasnt easy to adjust to having food allergies. I was discouraged with the bland and boring meals we were eating. I read every cookbook on food allergies available, but all I found were recipes that eliminated a few allergens such as milk, eggs, and wheat. At the time there werent many books for people sensitive to other foods. So I went to different health food stores and bought interesting and unusual foods to add some flavor to our diets. I began to experiment with different ingredients and create new recipes. The results were terrific. I realized that despite our food allergies, we could still have delicious and exciting meals.
Along with my appetite for experimenting in the kitchen, I hungered for more information to help us understand and cope with our food allergies.
Being a nurse at the time, I went to the medical libraries and read everything I could on allergies. Slowly but surely I was gratified to see the study of food allergies emerge as a new medical science. This persuaded me to get my Ph.D. in nutrition.
Soon I found local doctors requesting that I see their patients and counsel them on meal management of food allergies. After answering the same questions a few hundred times, I decided to create a booklet with a few recipes and tips on living with food allergies.
I set up a research kitchen, hired a staff, and began to develop hypoallergenic recipes. With more time and practice, I grew increasingly satisfied with the quality of the recipes and was able to create more interesting concoctions.
In my spare time I began traveling all over North America, lecturing about food allergies and appearing on various television and radio shows. I received so much mail from people who wanted to share a recipe or offer practical advice on how they managed their diet, I decided to publish a newsletter entitled Food Allergy and Nutrition Newsletter.
I received many requests from readers who needed help with their specific food allergies. Using this feedback, I began research on a computer-generated allergy-free diet that would offer recipes and cooking information tailor-made to the persons individual requirements. It took three years of intense work to develop the program. The end result is an extensive notebook similar to the one you will learn to create in chapter 2.
This book incorporates the information and research developed for the computerized diet, the recipes I have developed over the years for my family and in our research kitchen, and the excellent advice I have received from readers and allergists all over the country. My hope is that it will help you get started on your way to a healthier and happier life. If you have any questions or comments, or would like information about attending a workshop or having me conduct one in your area, write to me and Ill do my best to respond quickly.
Eileen Rhude Yoder, Ph.D.
1987
Preface to the Second Edition
I cant believe that my book has been in print now for almost a quarter of a century. Thank you, readers. In that time, my children have grown to adults. Laura is a pilot for a major airline and still has fixed allergies, especially to soy. She has to pack her meals and carry them with her for her four- to six-day flights. Patty is a mom and has outgrown most of her allergies, but now my grandson has allergies. My niece, Jamie, had numerous allergies as a child and now her daughter, Erin, has allergies to fish. My mother still has food allergies. Allergies tend to be inherited, and in my family there are five generations of known food allergies.
Over the last twenty-five years, there have been some advances in testing of food allergies, as well as improvements in the food-labeling laws. These have been a long time coming.
