May is also Food Allergy Action Month! It is estimated that up to 15 million Americans have a food allergy, including 6 million children. Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a nonprofit dedicated to food allergy, states that every 3 minutes a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room. 
There are 8 foods that are responsible for 90% of food allergic reactions in the United States; egg, fish, milk, peanut, shellfish, soy, tree nuts and wheat. Food allergy reactions can vary in severity from mild to severe and potentially deadly (anaphylaxis).
Food allergies are something I know very well. As a child, I had a milk, fish and peanut allergy. I outgrew the milk and fish allergy but, unfortunately I still have the deadly peanut allergy. When I was a child I had no special training on living with food allergies and there were no resources for parents and caregivers or schools. I don’t remember anyone in my school having a food allergy and I didn’t get my first epinephrine auto-injector until I was an adult.
FARE’s legacy organization Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) was founded in 1991 and the first nonprofit for food allergy I ever heard of. FAAN was instrumental in promoting awareness for food allergy. FARE continues the legacy and provides so many great resources for free on their website from resources for the newly diagnosed to managing food allergies when dining out to resources for schools and much more. Check out some of their most popular resources as wells as explore their website for all they offer. I am a lifetime member of FARE and strongly recommend membership for anyone with a food allergy or if you work with the food allergy community. 
FARE also offers free monthly webinars which are also hosted on their site for all to access. Check out the March 2015 webinar I did “Your Passport to Safe Travel: Traveling the Globe with Food Allergies”.
I recently attended and presented at FARE’s National Food Allergy Conference in Long Beach, California, May 16-17, 2015. I have been to many food allergy conferences over the years and always enjoy learning something new and connecting in person with member of the food allergy community. Plus, I usually can eat all of the samples from the allergy friendly companies! During the conference, I spoke as part of two different panels with other adults with food allergies.
Kyle, Lori, Gwen
On Saturday, May 16th was the Adults with Food Allergy panel with food allergy musician and educator Kyle Dine and with Gemini McCasland an attorney at the San Francisco Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education. On Sunday, May 17th I was part of the Planes Trains and Auto-injectors panel with Kyle Dine owner of Allergy Translation and Gwen Smith of Allergic Living magazine.
A few of my favorite food allergy friendly companies were there including: Allergic Living Magazine, Auvi-Q, Enjoy Life Foods, Epi-Pen, Pascha Chocolate, SunButter, SunCups and Vermont Nut Free Chocolates. 
A few things I learned was that in the near future Target will be carrying the individual cups of SunButter, there is a camp for kids with food allergies called Camp Blue Spruce in Portland, Oregon, updates on school access to epinephrine, insights from Chef Amanda Freitag who has a hazelnut allergy, and about an anaphylaxis toolkit for newly diagnosed patients. Next year the conference will be in Orlando, Florida, stay tuned for details.
My family came with me on this trip and we stayed a few extra days to do some fun things in the area. 
We took my daughter to Disneyland for the first time, visited Shoreline Village, went swimming 
and took a ferry boat to Catalina Island for the day.
While on Catalina Island we went on a submarine ride and rented a golf cart to tour the island. I love the many options for outdoor eating in California. Some of the places we successfully dined at during our trip included the Hyatt Regency Long Beach hotel restaurant, Uva Bar in Downtown Disneyland, Tequila Jack’s in Shoreline Village, George’s Greek Cafe in Long Beach
, CA, Mi Casita and
El Galleon in Catalina Island. Of course I brought plenty of safe snacks on the trip!
I have listed many of my favorite food allergy and intolerance resources on our website. If you need a food allergy consultant, speaker, help with product labeling or development, menu ideas or 1-on-1 counseling, please contact me.
Be Well,
Lori Enriquez
Nutrition & Health Consultant
Eat Fit Health, Founder