#AllergicToEverything Cookbook Kickstarter Is a Silver Lining During EpiPen Shortage
For the past six years, Jessica Schipp has been researching food allergies and recipes to aid those suffering from multiple food allergies. Drawing on her own experiences, she has started a fundraising campaign in order to publish a cookbook built around people with multiple food allergies.
After suffering through an elimination food diet to target the foods that were making her ill, Schipp was inspired to create a cookbook for people suffering from multiple food allergies. Called #AllergicToEverything – A Cookbook and Lifestyle Guide for Food Allergy Collectors and the People Who Love Them, this new cookbook has raised a third of its $33,111 goal as of June 4.
It includes over 100 recipes that are free of common allergens like soy, milk, wheat, peanuts, and shellfish. This cookbook calls for allergy-friendly answers and serves as a holistic answer for the multiple allergies an allergy sufferer may encounter.
When the United States is facing another EpiPen shortage, the lives of countless allergy sufferers can be improved by the addition of allergy-friendly cookbooks. Two of the most popular devices for delivering epinephrine — EpiPens and Adrenaclick — are experiencing a shortage with no end in sight. This can spell disaster for the 1-2% of people that face life-threatening allergic reactions from food allergies and other external allergies.
Luckily, dietary options offered through cookbooks like Schipps’s may improve the livelihood of for allergy-sufferers. She details her own experiences with food allergies and offers her own story between the pages of recipes. It includes pages on symptom tracking, how someone with allergies should read an ingredient label, and tips on how to save money while buying allergy-friendly goods.
Though there are ways to avoid allergens and stay healthy through alternative diets, the need for EpiPens and other devices like it is essential for those with severe allergies. While 90% of new homes are built with ducted systems for heating and cooling which help stem the flow of external allergens, an accidental ingestion of a shellfish or peanut could be disastrous.
Stamford Hospital’s director of allergy and immunology, Dr. Paul Linder, encourages EpiPen users to keep old EpiPens until the shortage ends, even those that are past their expiration date. A good way to test if the EpiPen is still usable is to look at the fluid through the window on the device — if the fluid is clear, then the EpiPen will still be safe to use, even though the expiration date may have already passed.
The Kickstarter for #AllergicToEverything ends on June 15, but it is unknown when the EpiPen shortage will cease.
