Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I turned to the front page of the Chicago Tribune today. They are featuring a special, ongoing report on food allergies.
Today's lengthy front page story discussed the increased incidence of food allergies--turns out now it's 1 in 25 kids. That's a lot of kids. Too many, in fact.
It also focused mostly on the whole issue of food labeling--something that has been discussed at length here and on other food allergy blogs and web sites. The article estimates that 30,000 Americans require ER treatment each year for food allergies. And guess which foods are the biggest culprits with regard to mislabeling and also incidence of reactions: cookies, cake, ice cream and candy. Note to all you moms out there who feel guilty when you don't let your food-allergic kids have the treats their friends are having--keep up the good work. This stuff can cause a reaction--it's OK to deny your kids if you're not sure about the product.
The link to the article is here, if you'd like to read the full story.
I really cannot tell you how thankful I am that this major newspaper has decided to run an ongoing investigation about food allergies. You know some of the online comments are gonna get nasty, but you know what--let's get it out in the open. This story is going to educate people and that will help dispel some of the ugliness.
I've written to the Tribune a couple of times regarding food allergy stories that they have run and usually the paper's bias was against people with food allergies. This time, it looks like our voices are going to be heard. We're being taking seriously.
1 in 25 kids. It's about time!
Let me know what you think of the article!
5 comments:
when i saw this article on the front page of my trib this morning, i thought FINALLY! Finally it is getting the attention it deserved. what took so long?? i can't believe some of the nasty comments, but then again, given my personal experiences over the years, i'm not that surprised really. i posted about this on my blog too. much more work ahead of us...but a good start.
Thank you for sharing this...
Read that this morning and emailed it to a few friends. Yes, I was shocked to read the number 1 in 25, but at the same time, cannot hide the excitement, 1 in 25, if this is not the time to DO SOMETHING, when?
My mind still lingers at Oprah. What do you think if few of us get together and write a letter to her, a real letter, a letter heart to heart, woman to woman, that we are counting on her to do a special on food allergy, maybe she can get her famous Dr. Oz to say something too.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks for linking to the Chicago Trib. article. It was very interesting. disturbing, and yet I can't say I am terribly surprised by what I read. I have little confidence in these companies. It's all about making money. They don't actually care about the consumer (of course!). What with the beef and mad cow disease and e coli, autism and vaccinations, etc. The list goes on and on. I am sure our food supply is better than it used to be years ago, but we have a long way to go.
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