Four Tips on dining out at restaurants if you have allergies

Are you tired of your allergies getting in the way? We know what it’s like. We talk to patients every day who struggle with food allergies and share that they are afraid to go to restaurants.

We all remember the infamous scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams adds pepper to Pierce Brosnan’s shrimp dish knowing that he’s allergic to pepper! Not cool!

Source: Buzzfeed

Our goal is to provide you with a few simple questions and things to consider when dining out to make sure that it’s a safe and pleasurable experience. At Hudson Allergy, we believe that educating our patients is one of the many keys to success.  Let’s dive in:

Know your restaurant

1. High-end restaurants, particularly in NYC, are usually very aware and helpful for those with food allergies.
2. Most chain restaurants have food allergy protocols in place, but it never hurts to ask or go to their corporate website. This week, Quizno’s launched their interactive allergy menu to help customers who have food allergies through the order process. How great is that?
3. Check AllergyEats.com and see what their users say about how allergy friendly a particular restaurant is that you are considering going to. AllergyEats has an active community who share and rate restaurants. Something to note though is that AllergyEats is a community that mean to guide people and not a guarantee.

Communicate with everyone, but start at the top

1. Its best to speak directly with either the manager (or maître d) or the chef about your food allergies. Managers, maître d’s and chefs have the most power and are most likely to help out. 
2.  Speak with your waiter, and have him or her “repeat back” your allergies or food requests.
3. Don’t forget to tell the bartender! NYC id famous for it’s fancy cocktails with all sorts of components! Be sure to let them know about any potential allergies as well.

Make sure what arrives at your table is YOUR dish

1. If your dish is served by someone else (bus boy, another waiter) ensure that it is YOUR dish.
2.   Give it a once over and make sure it’s what you ordered, and how you ordered it.

Beware hidden allergens

1. Seafood and shellfish allergies: Anchovies hide in Caesar salads and in some pasta dishes. Sambals can contain fish or dried shrimp.
2. Nuts: Can be used at thickeners in chili and can also be found in some barbeque sauces. Nuts allergens commonly cross contaminate in ice cream shops and at some Asian food restaurants. 
3.  Milk: Found in desserts, and in some steak restaurants, butter is used at the last minute on steaks.
4. Egg: Egg washes on some breads and some desserts

As doctors specializing in allergies, it’s our job to help our patients find a balance between food and allergies, so that you don’t have to compromise doing the things you like to do, like dining out! For more information about food allergies, feel free to contact us at info@hudsonallergy.com or give us a call at 212-729-1283.

Facts about insect bites and bee stings

Winters can be drab and long. We long for warm sunshine and the moment nice weather comes about, it is time to go outside! As New Yorkers, one of our favorite outdoor local destinations is Central Park. Central Park is great for picnics, boating, biking, walking and exploring, but it is also full of insects!

Something that many of us forget is that a “bug bite” is usually an allergic reaction to being stung. So, in light of the time you are going to be spending outside this summer, we wanted to share a few fun facts about stinging insects. 

1. It is estimated that 1 out of 30 adults could have a potentially life threatening reaction to the venom of a stinging insect such as a bee, wasp or hornet. 
2. Yellow Jackets are aggressive, build nests in the ground and are usually a problem for gardeners digging up weeds.
3. Hornets are even more aggressive, normally bigger, and have large nests in shrubs and trees.
4. Wasps live in smaller, honeycomb shaped hives found under the eaves of roofs or in shrubs.
5. Honey bees usually live in hives found in old logs, but in New York City can more frequently be found in rooftop apiaries on top of different buildings

You might not know it, but urban honey bee farming has become a sort of new phenomenon in NYC and it’s not just a hipster fad. And while we welcome sustainable locavore practices, this inevitably will increase the amount of bees in the urban areas, which can pose a threat for those of us who are allergic to bee stings.

Whether you find yourself living below an urban bee garden or hiking in the woods, here are some helpful tips to avoid getting stung: 

1.  Honeybees are not aggressive, and generally do not attack unless provoked
2. Honeybees love flowers. Flower have bright colors and beautiful scents, so that yellow summer dress + Marc Jacobs Dot perfume, increase the chances of tricking bees into thinking you’re a gigantic flower. Consider this when getting dressed.
3.  While there is nothing more wholesome than a barefoot run through a field of clovers, clover flowers are among the bees’ favorite nectar spots, and getting stung on the bottom of your bare foot will ruin your whole day.
4. Bees love nectar, which is essentially sugar and water, which is essentially 90% of soda, margaritas, sangria, etc. If you are outside with friends, double check that a bee hasn’t decided to go for a swim in your cocktail or soda before drinking it.
5. Bees buzzing around your head with an onomatopoeic symphony might activate your instinct to swat at them. Suppress that instinct. Bees are not interested in you, unless, that is, you take a swing at them.
6. If you are allergic to insect stings, make sure to carry injectable epinephrine whenever outdoors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewall/157952579

Also for some, getting stung can be life threatening. Do you know about your bite history?

If you do have had a history of getting a severe reaction to any stinging insect we’d recommend that you see an allergist ASAP for skin testing and therapy. Another solution that an allergist can provide is immunotherapies, which have shown to significantly decrease the risk of systemic reaction from stinging insects. This might be an avenue you want to consider and you should contact us to get skin tested.

If you have any other questions about bee stings or other or insect bites, we’d like to be a resource. Our allergists can work with you to alleviate any allergies or provide you with tools and education on preventative measures. 

For more information call us at 212.729.1283 or email us at info@hudsonallergy.com.

Do you think you are allergic to wine? Sulfites and dyes may be to blame!

To continue on with our allergic to alcohol series, this post focuses on allergies that can result from drinking wine.

Like beer, wine too is an ancient beverage, with historic records of wine dating back thousands of years.  Ancient Greeks and Romans had Gods that represented wine; Dionysus and Bacchus, indicating how important wine has been to societies since the earliest of human civilizations.

In it’s simplest form, wine is made from grapes and yeast. Therefore, people who are allergic to either grapes or yeast can have allergic reactions to wine. Wine has the same LTPs as in beer, so this same pollen-cross reactivity (also known as oral allergy syndrome) is common in people who drink wine. However, wine presents a whole different set of allergies than beer. Let’s dive in!

As the saying goes, wine gets better with age, so naturally wine is intended to be kept for a long time. This is particularly true for French red wine. However, in order to keep wines around without having an overgrowth of nasty bacteria or fungi, wine producers may add sulfites to their wines. Sulfates help keep wines fresh, prevent spoilage and oxidization and give them a longer shelf life.  It is not uncommon for people to collect wine or keep a full cellar, and some of this is made possible by sulfates.

While sulfites help preserve wine, sulfates can also cause an allergic like reaction in many people. Sulfites have been known to cause hives, worsen asthma, sneezing and even throat swelling.  Interestingly enough, it is usually not a true allergy, but a negative reaction to sulfites is actually quite common (sulfites are listed among the top nine causes of food allergy by the FDA). Other common foods that contain this preservative are dried fruits and synthetic lemon juice.

Therefore, if you are looking to avoid sulfates, you should try and Italian red wine or an organic wine, which rarely contain sulfates.  Similarly, white wines are also much less likely to have sulfites. However, white wines can contain dyes, which are added to give a richer color (particularly yellow dyes), and these dyes can cause reactions similar to sulfites in susceptible people.  Anybody who has had reactions to foods containing dyes (Jell-o, fruit juices, candies, etc.) should be careful when choosing white wine, or should avoid it all together.

Wine also contains histamine, the chemical compound that begins the allergic reaction in the first place. Histamine is normally sequestered by immune cells in the body, and released when an allergen triggers its release. But histamine is also a normal byproduct of the fermentation process, and any fermented foods (wine, beer, kim chi, kombucha, miso, etc.) contain some level of histamine. These foods usually contain a very small amount of histamine, but It just so happens that red wines can have a lot of histamine, up to 4 mg per serving!

If you have ever felt like you have had a negative reaction to wine, you may be allergic. However don’t fret, this doesn’t necessarily mean your wine drinking days are over. There may be certain properties you just need to avoid and you should figure out what is causing your reaction and not drink wines with those ingredients. 

Talk with one of the doctors at Hudson Allergy about your symptoms and we can set up a time to test if you have allergies to sulfites or dyes. Let us help you figure out how you can continue to enjoy one of the world’s most ancient delicacies.

Contact us: 212.729.1283 or info@hudsonallergy.com