Customer Reviews

On the Nature of Food Allergy

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If you are the parent of a child newly diagnosed with a food allergy, get thee to "How to Manage Your Child's Life-Threatening Food Allergies" by Linda Marienhoff Coss. THAT book will give you all the information you need, in plain, direct language, about how to live with food allergies and how to keep your child safe.

This book is more academic in tone, and reads more like a fascinating encyclopedia. It explains exactly what happens to your body when you have a food allergy, discusses possible causes for an increase in food allergy, and then goes into great detail about the 10 main food allergen categories: Cows Milk and Hens Egg, Wheat, Peanut and Legume, Tree Nut, Seed and Spice, Seafood, and Fruit and Vegetable.

These allergen chapters are particularly interesting, they are descriptive and discuss how the food was introduced into human diets, where the foods grow, how they are served, and the specific problems they might cause. Each chapter also contains useful tables with names and hidden sources of the allergens.

There is also a chapter about less common allergic foods, and one about allergies to food additives.

Chapters 16, 17, and 18 contain the tips that will be of most help to parents, about the challenges of eating in restaurants, tips for managing food allergy, and how to manage allergies at schools and camps. However, these chapters are not nearly as comprehensive as the book I mentioned earlier.

In summary, this book is fascinating and unique and worth reading, but it is not the best book for helping someone live with a food allergy.

On the Nature of Food Allergy: A Complete Handbook on Food Allergy for Patients, Parents, Restaurant Personnel, Child-Care Providers, Educators, School Nurses, Dieticians and Health-Care Providers is an in-depth reference and resource accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Chapters cover the lethal allergy of anaphylaxis and its treatment, and allergies to cow's milk, hen's eggs, peanuts and legumes, tree nuts, seeds and spices, seafood, fruits and vegetables, rare allergies, reactions to food additives, which restaurants are the most risky, and more. Of especial interest is the extended coverage on both sides of sensitive debates as to whether to ban peanuts and tree nuts from schools or public places, whether it's beneficial or harmful for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers to avoid common allergen foods. Highly recommended.

ON THE NATURE OF FOOD ALLERGY BY DR. PAUL J. HANNAWAY is a complete guide to food allergies. This is a book that is an absolute MUST for allergic persons, their loved ones, health professionals, and restauranteers. In this book Dr. Hannaway gives encyclopedic details of food allergies, what causes them, and how to avoid or handle reactions to foods.Until reading this book I was not aware of just how serious food allergies can be, how difficult it is to completely avoid the foods one is known to be allergic to, and how quickly one can die from an allergic reaction. In addition to explaining the vital necessity of an allergic person having not one but two epi pens on his or her person at all times, but also the importance of knowing how to use one correctly, as even the majority of health care professionals do not know that it must be administered in the muscle, not sub-cutaneously. One of the most useful, yet frightening, aspects of this book is the doctor's detailing of hidden uses of culprit foods as additives to various other prepared foods. Did you know someone allergic to peanuts can die from being kissed by someone who ate peanuts or from handling playing cards which a peanut eater previously used? Or that shrimp shells are a component of glucosamine? Vital information for someone allergic to shellfish! By all means get this book!