If so, Allergic Living wants to hear from you!

We are researching an article on whether there has been progress on allergy and gluten-free food issues – from meal plans to dining hall practices and residence accommodations – for university and college students.

If you have attended a university or college within the past two years, we’d like to hear about how you have (or have not been) accommodated, and any significant experiences: from the surprisingly positive to the unfortunately bad.

We’d also like to hear if your college is one you would recommend to others as “accommodating”.

Here are more details of what we’re looking for:

• Institution name
• Program studied / year at college
• Would you recommend the university re accommodations?
• Stories about the dining hall, cafeteria, other food situations and living on campus
• Specific positive or negative experiences
• Suggestions for improvement

We look forward to hearing from you. Drop us a line by clicking the link below:

Click the image below to download the poster! Don’t forget to share with friends, schools, workplaces and family members. Education is the best way to spread awareness.

With strong evidence that schools close to highways are setting off asthma attacks in kids, this 2011

Does the air around your child’s school trigger asthma attacks? George Thurston, an environmental health science professor at New York University, wanted to know, so a few years ago he enlisted a bunch of 5th grade students in the South Bronx to help. The kids lived in a neighborhood where 13 percent of children suffer from asthma and where the hospitalization rate for asthma was dramatically higher than in other areas of the city.

In some of the schools, the children and their teachers could see diesel trucks and buses rumble by all day long, spewing out dark, sooty vapors on their way to massive garbage dumps. Was there a connection between all that pollution and the kids’ frequent breathing troubles?

To answer the question, Thurston found 40 children with asthma in four schools in the South Bronx. He gave each child a rolling backpack with air-monitoring equipment. Thurston’s team carefully tracked their symptoms, and later, a local TV crew spoke to participants.

“It feels like somebody’s not letting me breathe,” ponytailed Aldores Lopez said shyly on camera. “My mum gets nervous. I don’t like it when my mum gets nervous.”

The results were striking. All the children’s asthma symptoms – wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath – increased on high traffic days. What’s more, the kids’ breathing troubles were exacerbated by a key pollution ingredient – soot, the carbon particles that look like black smoke spewing out of diesel trucks and buses. They become part of the tiny particulates that get trapped deep in the lungs.

Thurston’s study bolsters a body of research which makes a powerful case that highway-related pollution is a key trigger of asthma attacks in kids. A 2007 review of the research put it this way: “The health studies show elevated risk for development of asthma and reduced lung function in children who live near major highways.” That’s a serious warning when you consider that, according to the same research review, 11 percent of U.S. households are located within 325 feet of a four-lane freeway.

A 2011 study in the shantytowns near Lima, Peru, drives home the point: Teenagers who lived within 800 feet of a congested roadway were twice as likely to wheeze or to use medications for asthma as those who lived four blocks away. Pulmonologist William Checkley, the senior researcher from Johns Hopkins University, sums it up: “The closer to the road, the more disease.”

Many of the studies of the effects of vehicle exhaust have focused on where children live. But a new wave of research, like the South Bronx study, is targeting the air near and at school, where kids spend one-third of their waking hours.

At the University of Southern California, researchers looked at the highway effect both at school and at home by following nearly 2,500 kindergarten and Grade 1 students, none of whom had asthma at the outset. After three years, 120 of the children had developed the lung disease. “Children exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution at school and at home are at increased risk of developing asthma,” the researchers concluded.

Yet it’s still not clear whether exposure to high volumes of traffic-related pollution causes asthma, says Jim Gauderman, an associate professor of preventive medicine at USC and the study’s lead author. It may instead trigger the symptoms of a disease that’s already there. Or, if it does cause the disease, it may be doing so at an earlier age, says Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s school of environmental health. His research for Canada’s AllerGen research network suggests that children born to mothers who lived beside busy highways during pregnancy are more likely to develop asthma by age 4.

What’s not in dispute among the researchers is this: kids who live or learn near a highway are more likely to cough and wheeze. When you consider that asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood, this is a major public health issue. Over seven million children in the United States live with asthma. Across North America, it’s the No. 1 cause of missed school days. Now consider this: one-third of U.S. schools sit within 1,300 feet of a major highway, in what the media has dubbed the “air pollution danger zone.”

Free of: dairy, nuts and gluten, plus the other top allergens. For those not following a gluten-free diet, a flour alternative is included.

Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

Carrot Cupcakes

• 1 cup (250 mL) brown rice flour (superfine if possible)
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) potato starch
• 1/4 tsp (1.25 mL) xanthan gum
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 mL) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp (1.25 mL) ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) salt
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (80 mL) white sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 mL) crushed pineapple with juice
• 1/2 cup (120 mL) grapeseed, coconut or canola oil
• 2 eggs [See "Recipe Notes” for egg substitute]
• 1 1/4 tsp (6.25 mL) vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots

Pineapple “Cream Cheese” Frosting

• 4 oz (113 g) dairy-free cream cheese alternative
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) palm shortening, coconut oil [see “Recipe Notes”] or dairy-free margarine
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) drained, crushed pineapple or 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 mL) pineapple juice
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) lemon juice
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups (250 mL+) sifted confectioners’ sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line 16 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together: brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.
3. Using a hand blender, in a separate mixing bowl mix: brown sugar, white sugar, pineapple, oil and eggs. Or whisk for 1 minute.
4. Add dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, then stir with a wooden spoon just until the ingredients are combined. Stir in the shredded carrots.
5. Pour batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups; they should be 2/3 to 3/4 full.
6. Bake the cupcakes 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To make the frosting, with a hand mixer, beat the shortening, oil, or margarine with the cream cheese alternative until soft and well-combined. Beat in the drained pineapple (or pineapple juice) and lemon juice, and slowly blend in 1 cup of the powdered sugar. If a sweeter icing is desired, beat in up to ½ cup of additional confectioners’ sugar. Chill the frosting in the refrigerator as the cupcakes cool.
8. Once thickened, give the frosting a quick whip. The consistency will be slightly softer than a buttercream. Frost cupcakes and serve.

Next: Recipe Notes

Missing out on great restaurant evenings with friends? Learn how you, too, can indulge.

Step 1: Before You Go

Know your condition: Do your homework: learn, in detail, what you can’t eat, where an offending protein hides, the multiple names for it, and names for it in key languages. If you have shellfish allergy, the French bistro menu may refer to fruits de mer. Hint: they aren’t fruits. Nuoc mam pha? Sounds lovely but it’s Vietnamese fish sauce. Sodium caseinate? Dairy. Durum? That’s wheat. (Look up specific allergies and celiac disease at Allergicliving.com, and see left panel links for “hidden peanut”, “hidden milk”, “hidden gluten”, etc.)

Carry your meds: Allergists recommend epinephrine as the first-line medication for a food allergy reaction. Having an auto-injector with you is especially important whenever you plan to eat, since anaphylaxis can come on swiftly after consuming the wrong food. Consider that restaurant reaction horror stories almost always occur because the patron did not have an auto-injector on hand. Also have a food allergy action plan on you: in your purse, backpack or as a pdf on your smartphone. (See American and Canadian plans.)

Restaurant card: I recommend bringing a chef or food allergy card. These explain your allergies and the types of foods they are found in. Top chefs have told me that these can mean the difference between clarity and confusion in the kitchen. Find them at Selectwisely.com or Allergytranslation.com.

The right attitude: Let’s get you psychologically prepared to dine out. Your mental equipment includes: an approachable demeanor, a genuine smile and lots of pleases and thank yous. These will get you far at a restaurant. Conversely, anger or threatening language or behavior will get you nowhere fast. You will be pleasantly surprised by what a positive frame of mind will bring.

Next Page: Step 2 – Deciding where to dine