It has become fashionable as of late to mock food allergies as a “trendy” condition, a construct of over-protective parents or attention-seeking adults. I simply can’t think of any other serious, sometimes life-threatening condition that is dissed more often. Take last month, for instance. There we were smack in the middle of Food Allergy Awareness [...]

Was there ever a more capable foe Than one who shields his strength so? An unremarkable plant, heavy with seed cast to the wind with resolve and speed. As his fecundity causes grief both far and wide, from behind fairer bloom, he shrinks to hide. Between sniffles, I must confess a grudging admiration for the [...]

When a Harvard social scientist equated the measures taken by schools to accommodate food allergies with mass hysteria – the media ate it up. Perhaps it was the “emperor has no clothes” syndrome, gotcha journalism or simple contrarianism, but Dr. Nicholas Christakis’s article in the British Medical Journal got columnists and reporters buzzing in a way [...]

We’ve been getting a lot of e-mail lately at Allergic Living magazine from readers asking: what do you think about the Canadian Transportation Agency’s decision that Air Canada must accommodate peanut and tree nut allergies? Does it go far enough? And then Air Canada responded to the CTA, and that brought more mail: What do you [...]

  This issue marks Allergic Living’s fifth anniversary. Yippee for us – and heartfelt thanks to all of you loyal readers. To be honest, back in the drawing board stages, before our first issue was published in May 2005, there were doubters. First, launching a magazine of any description had its risks. Were we, excuse the [...]

With many years in the publishing industry, I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to negative or one-sided reporting. Then I read a story in the December issue of Chatelaine magazine entitled, “It’s Just Nuts.” This one made my jaw drop. The article is at once breathtaking in its cynicism about the rise of [...]

Christina Desforges became known the world over as the girl who died from kissing her boyfriend who had eaten peanut butter – specifically, nine hours before she collapsed, he’d had two pieces of toast spread with peanut butter. Allergic Living was the first to report (Spring 2006 issue) that a coroner would find, however, that [...]

The following article was first published in the Victoria Times-Colonist of British Columbia on April 16, 2007 Thirteen-year-olds aren’t meant to have obituaries. The recent one for Carley Kohnen read that “she passed away tragically at Summit Park, Victoria.” Carley, who was allergic to dairy products and peanuts, attended Lansdowne Middle School. The bubbly teen [...]

There’s some absorbing and provocative reading in Allergic Living’s new Spring 2007 issue. A good way, we thought, to kick off a new publishing season. In the article “Fear of Food,” we start with an issue that some of you living with food allergies will recognize: the sudden fear of even “safe” foods. It’s a [...]

Writer Janet French could relate to the anecdotes of the allergic employees she interviewed for “On the Job With Allergies” in our new Winter issue. Janet works in a newsroom – a literal hive of activity, where reporters often grab a bite to eat on the run between interviews and media conferences. She is allergic [...]