Food Allergy Awareness Month
The personal gets political pretty fast
Yes, I’ve been away from posting for a month now. Life is like that sometimes. But let’s pick it back up - with where the personal and the political meet for me.
Getting under the wire here, but May is National Food Allergy Awareness Month. Anyone who knows my family knows how life-defining food allergies are. What are everyday foods to most people can be poison to those with food allergies. Meal preparation must be exacting. Trying out a new snack - even with federally mandated food labeling - is filled with anxiety. On the plus side, I guess - having a lot of food allergies sure makes you eat better than most Americans because restaurants and many overly processed foods are off the menu due to potential cross-contamination.
There is no cure for food allergies. There are only treatments. Epinephrine injectors are critical. If a food allergy reaction gets out of control, it's called anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis closes off the throat so you can't breathe, crashes your blood pressure, and can lead to cardiac arrest. A timely injection of epinephrine shuts down that cascade (though a trip to the ER is still needed just in case the reaction flares back up again).
Some preventative treatments are proving somewhat effective, especially for newly diagnosed children. For example, introducing small amounts of known allergens early in life in a systematic way can sometimes lead to being "immune" to that food. Sometimes people with food allergies "grow out" of them, though the reasons are poorly understood. The most basic preventative treatment is simply avoidance. If you find out you're allergic to a food, do everything you can to avoid it. Read packaging labels. Only eat food prepared by people you trust. Stay away from places that traffic in those allergens. (Thinking of restaurants that encourage customers to throw peanut shells on the floor.)
For the most part, though, severe food allergies are a lifelong risk to one's health. They also have big implications for one's social life. Think of how much of the first meeting, getting to know, and enjoying other people's company revolves around food. Even a first kiss could carry risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 20 million Americans have food allergies. Food allergy advocates say it's closer to 30 million. And that number is growing quickly. Again, according to the CDC, food allergy prevalence has increased about 50% just since the 1990s.
Thankfully, society has taken steps to step up to this growing health crisis. I've mentioned federal labeling laws already. Advocacy and family groups have been established and proved effective. More unaffected people are generally aware and understanding of food allergies, especially in schools, where most kids are obligated to spend a significant portion of their lives.
Ostracizing, bullying, and the mockery of people with food allergies are all on the decline. Sure, there's still the occasional act of being brain-dead. We had that stupid Super Bowl commercial from last year from Uber Eats and a Saturday Night Live skit recently. But advocacy groups jump on those examples. (Uber took the ad down in response.)
If you've read this far, first of all, thanks. The world is full of problems, and unless you're directly affected, it's hard to carve out the emotional headspace for someone else's difficulties. That's completely understandable. (Heck, I'm doing it right now with disadvantages I probably don't even know about.) However, all that said, maybe you're wondering if there's anything you can do.
Well, first off - and the purpose of this post - is just to be aware of and understanding of food allergies and the people and families that must live with them.
After that, perhaps consider contributing to food allergy advocacy groups. Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) and Red Sneakers are both good ones.
Beyond that, support federal and state food labeling laws. That's one that benefits everyone. Don't you want to know what's in your food? And that goes to dealing with knock-on effects from these laws, too. In response to sesame being added to the allergen list a couple of years back, several food companies chose to "spike" their products with sesame - one of our son's severe allergens - rather than clean their equipment sufficiently to eliminate sesame. For us, all of a sudden, most breads on the market were off limits. And the food companies didn't have to comply with the spirit of the law, only the letter.
Support medical research - yes, even at the federal level and at universities, both of which are currently being cut by the present administration. As part of recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health, one branch called the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases lost half a billion (billion with a "B") dollars in funding - though, I'll admit, it's unclear what fraction of that involved food allergies.
Let's look for ways to make epinephrine injectors more affordable and available. Support programs like the one in the attached link. Also help to make sure injectors are available everywhere they need to be. Severe food allergy sufferers need these injectors in their pocket, at school, and at work. Most of them expire after one year, requiring replacement. In that context, a few years ago, the maker of the brand-name EpiPen decided to start gouging consumers, raising prices by more than 500%. Personally, we were buying EpiPens for hundreds of dollars at one point - again, for a product that expires in one year and is critical to a safe and secure life. This is clearly unaffordable for most people, and as a social result, it's unacceptable. Since then, other injectors and generics have come on the market, lowering prices. In some places, there are price cap laws on the table (though I'm unsure about the wisdom of those). And Mylan - the price-gouging company - was forced to pay a massive settlement. Good.
Again, if you've read this far, thanks. That's quite the investment of your time in an issue that's quite likely not your own, and it is appreciated. Happy Food Allergy Awareness Month. Here's looking forward to a future when you'll never need to read a post about this again!