Customer Reviews

5 Years Without Food: The Food Allergy Survival Guide : How to Overcome Your Food Allergies and Recover Good Health

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Upon seeing the reveiew from a reader who didn't like this book, I was compelled to let others know that this book is NOT at all "dangerous" as claimed by the misinformed reader. Dr. William Shrader, a leader in the field of food allergy is fully aware of the contents of this book and supports what the author says. Food allergy patients should NOT be influenced by that negative review because this book will certainly be BENEFICIAL to helping food allergy sufferers in their quest to find healthy, tastey recipes.

After discovering that I had severe food allergies, I turned to this book for help on what to eat and how to fix tastey recipes. It explains the 4-day Rotation Diet (much better than any other book on the market) and provides MANY recipes, all of which result in good tasting, healthy, food. I keep the book open on my kitchen counter and use it every day.

Actually this book is MUCH more than an allergy cookbook! The author goes into detail as to what causes food allergies and what the patient can do to help heal themselves. Anyone who suffers from food allergies will love the thoroughness of this book.

I bought this book after it was obvious that my children and I had severe food allergies. It has been most informative and helpful. It introduces foods you can probably eat because they are different, recipes for them, a sample rotation menu for 4 days, and sources for these alternative foods. Alternative natural sweeteners are also included, as are alternatives to baking powder, which usually contains corn starch or potato starch. There's something for everything, including multiple salad dressings, even if you can't have vinegar. I have referred to it repeatedly since buying it 9 months ago. I take issue with the negative reviews. Yes, the recipes are a little bland because they are so simple. They have to be simple to avoid too much borrowing from different food families. And she does warn readers not to be too fussy about the recipes & to just be grateful for what you can eat. She does have a recipe chapter for special occasions, including Christmas and Thanksgiving. She has gluten-containing recipes for those who can eat gluten. You can choose to avoid gluten, as we have. There are gluten-free recipes in this book. Unfortunately, there's not many, but that's not her fault. There's not much you can do with gluten-free grains unless you combine them all, which then defeats your rotation diet! In addition, if you're gluten sensitive, but not egg sensitive, try coconut flour. Coconut flour is gluten-free and makes delicious cakes BUT requires several eggs, no matter what you make with it. Coconut also has lots of healthy fats and fiber. There is a coconut flour cookbook for sale on the web, and Amazon may have it as well.
As for having spelt, gluten and goat milk recipes in the book, some can tolerate spelt, just as my son tolerates goat milk. That is why they are listed. You don't have to eat them if you're allergic. If you have to carry an epi-pen, or have had trouble breathing after consuming a food, DON'T eat anything related to that food! If you're only mildly allergic (i.e. skin rash, etc.) ask your doctor about trying other foods in that family. Her food family charts are great - you can look things up by name or by family number. I have added foreign foods to the charts in my book so I'll remember which family they're in.
Lastly, she talks about the importance of probiotics in treating food allergies and important tests you might want to have if you have severe health problems related to your food allergies. I had some of the tests done and they were real eye-openers for me!
Her personal story is included in the book and it is inspiring. When I get upset about not being able to eat a food, I read her story - she was allergic to everything, but has recovered her good health. Her son was severely food allergic, but can now eat everything after receiving EPD (enzyme potentiated desensitization) and then LDA (low dose allergen) treatments. This has given me great hope & she has more info on her website. Her other books are also well-written, so check them out as well.

After struggling for a long time with my own very severe allergy problems (at three separate times I was allergic to all foods), I have found this book to provide a goldmine of useful information. The recipes themselves are priceless to a non-cook like myself. She is also careful to point out that diagnosis of food allergies is individualized and doesn't recommend that anyone who can't eat certain things eat them. On the other hand, she shows that there's no need to restrict yourself more than you really have to, which is bad nutritionally. I found this book very balanced and incredibly comprehensive.

If you are looking for a guide to the many alternative foods available and how to rotate your food items, then buy this book. My mistake was getting it as a cookbook for my gluten-free, dairy-free, lamb-free, etc-free diet. The recipes I tried just didn't turn out as tasty as recipes from several other books, especially the baked items.

While the author could perhaps be clearer about some of the ingredients she recommends (spelt, alternative milks), I think this is a great book for those of us who suffer from food allergies. I myself have found spelt to be a safe alternative to wheat, and I only tried it after reading her book, as others had told me it would have the same effect as wheat. Each person's allergic reaction seems to be different, so to write a book that will be useful for all is difficult, but I think that Dumke's book comes as close as possible to doing this.

This book presents a rotation diet. Rotation diets are meant to prevent new food intolerances. Rotating foods means that if you eat a food on one day, you don't eat that food again or anything that might cross react with it until 4 days later.
I probably have celiac disease, and I developed reactions to all the foods I had been eating often, except for lettuce, radishes and vanilla beans. And I do have to rotate my foods, because I've developed new intolerances to foods I wasn't carefully rotating, even on a gluten-free diet. And no new intolerances to foods I *was* carefully rotating. Celiac disease causes mast cell overgrowth and that might be why I have the food reactions.
However, I haven't followed Ms. Dumke's guidance on how to rotate foods, I don't think it makes sense. There's good info on cross-reactions at the end of Brostoff and Gamlin's "Food Allergies and Food Intolerance", and it's consistent with my experience of food reactions. For example, he says that if you have an intolerance to soy you probably have an intolerance to all legumes. I've tried 5-6 different legumes and they've all made me sick. And everytime a food has made me sick and I've tried a food in the same genus, it's also made me sick.
Food cross-reactions are good guidance for a rotation diet: if you eat a food on one day, don't eat a food that's likely to cross-react with it until 4 days later. When I've done this with foods, it has prevented intolerances to them.
Dr. Brostoff says that rotating foods by family, which is what Dumke mostly does, is often overly restrictive and sometimes too un-restrictive. For example, people who react to one kind of fish usually can't eat any kind of fish, even if it's not in the same family. For many foods all you have to do is avoid foods in the same genus. For example I can't eat buckwheat (very allergenic stuff!). But I can eat rhubarb, which is in the same family. So you'll save yourself a lot of inconvenience and protect your health better by following his advice.
Also, her rotation diet has a gluten grain on almost ever day! The gluten grains - wheat, rye, barley and oats - are part of a single plant subfamily. No other food is treated this way, and it is very unhealthy to do this with gluten. According to Enterolab, an online lab which tests for gluten sensitivity, about 30-40% of people are somewhat gluten sensitive! Gluten may be the root cause of many food intolerances, perhaps by causing mast cell overgrowth, and an autoimmune reaction that damages the small intestine. People who have food intolerances perhaps should be on a gluten-free diet, even if they haven't noticed problems with gluten, because eating gluten may just perpetuate the problem. Little is known about how food intolerances work, at least my kind which make me groggy-sick for about four days, with sometimes back pain, frequent urination, irritability, increased appetite. Until it's better understood, it seems like a good precaution *not* to eat gluten, because much *is* known about the problems caused by gluten.
She believes in yogurt and the idea that food intolerances might be caused by imbalances in the microorganisms in the gut - which shouldn't be taken as gospel by people reading it, because it's an unproven idea.
Her book is very misleading. She does give many recipes for unusual kinds of yogurt or bread or pizza, yeast substitutes, etc. It could help people survive with their food intolerances.
My food reactions have gotten less severe in the 6 years that I've been gluten free and rotating my foods. Six years ago I would have to lie down when I had a food reaction, I sometimes felt like I wanted to throw up. I would go into rages, not realizing it was a food reaction. A few years ago I was severely sick in bed for a couple of months with food reactions. I had back pain so bad I couldn't sit up for more than a few seconds. Recently when I've had food reactions I've gone out shopping the following day. I tend to stand around and stare groggily in the grocery store, but I'm out there. And I feel maybe a bit irritable and keyed up. So, I believe the reactions are fading and in a few years I'll be free of that enormous burden of living on exotic foods. I seem to be healing on a gluten-free diet.
My guess about the reactions being from mast cell overgrowth is from a website by thefooddoc. Celiac disease is known to cause mast cell overgrowth in the small intestine. Dr. Lewey, thefooddoc, is an osteopathic gastroenterologist. He believes mast cell overgrowth causes multiple food intolerances. It has been shown to be associated with diarrhea. He doesn't mention rotation diets as treatment, but he does suggest that some antihistamines, probiotics and cromolyn sodium help.

This is a good book for people with food allergies to read. However, people with very severe food allergies should check with an allergic before trying anything new. This book provides good ideas and information but some people will have to be careful. My son has a severe, life-threatening allergy to cow milk protein. Very small amounts of cow milk protein can kill him. The protein in goat's milk is very similar to the protein in cow's milk. I gave my son some goat's milk many years ago and it almost killed him. His allergist would never have advised me to give him goat's milk. Many people have food allergys but people vary with regard to how allergic they are. If you have to carry an epi-pen because of a food allergy, that is a sign to be very careful. That said, I still think this book will help people with known food allergies or with illnesses that may be related to eating food(s) that causes an adverse reaction within the body. A book will not replace having an allergist that knows how to test for food allergies. Complete removal of all traces of all types of milk protein from my son's diet has been the only way I've found to keep him safe so far. People suffering from food allergies may want to also read about adding enzymes from live food to their diet as another way to reduce the problems associated with food allergies. I have been studying food allergies for 11 years and there is always more to learn.

i must respond to the negative review posted.

goat's milk does NOT contain the same allergen as cow's, and IS often tolerated by many. the same holds true for spelt - it is an ancient, and therefore non hybridised, grain, and hence often less likely to provoke reaction.

therefore, TRYING new alternatives is always worthwhile, in order to maintain a broader range of foods in one's diet. to try a food, caution is always in order, and special safer procedures can and should be used.

i write this, because i feel the book in question needs to be seriously considered by all allergy sufferers. there is not enough written on the subject - and the suffering of those who have such profound difficulty with foods is immense.

please do not be put off by one review - such a wealth of information is worth serious consideration. every body is different, every allergy condition varies. just proceed with any changes with caution, and move slowly.

Many of Dumke's suggestions could be deadly to those with wheat and milk allergies. She suggests using spelt instead of what. Spelt is just an ancient form of wheat! Goat's milk is another alternative she suggests. Goat's milk is a milk protein with the same allergens as cow's milk! I first referred to her book after finding out about my food allergies and was looking for information. I ended up getting severely ill after trying spelt, goat's milk and other "alternatives." I was clueless and naive and I don't want anyone else to have to experience what I went through.