Food Allergy Awareness Week takes place this year from May 12-May 18 and was created by the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network now known as FARE. It is a week designated to raising awareness on all aspects of food allergies.

Did you know that the color teal is the signature color used for food allergies?  Coincidentally, it’s also one of my favorite colors.  You’ll be seeing a lot of teal in the rest of this post! This year on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 12, the Empire State Building will be lit in teal to raise awareness for food allergies. Read more about the fascinating story behind Turn It Teal .

I’ve teamed up with fellow fabulous food allergy bloggers to host a week long campaign on Instagram where we will share different aspects of living with allergies. We plan to share an allergy topic each day in Instagram stories and will use the hashtag #allergiesIRL.

Food allergies definitely do not have to define you but they impact our lives and those around us in many ways.  For our first topic, we wanted to ask our friends to open up about: ” What Is One Thing You Wish Someone without Allergies Knew?”

Here are some of the responses we received from fellow food allergy bloggers starting with my response:

 

 

According to the FARE website, “researchers estimate that 32 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.6 million children under the age of 18. That’s one in 13 children or roughly two in every classroom”.  About 40 percent of children with food allergies are allergic to more than one food.”

Even though food allergies are on the rise in staggering numbers, the impact of food allergies seems to still be widely misunderstood.   I believe the reasons include but are not limited to:

• Food allergies vary in scope and severity which also affects the way everyone manages their food allergies.
• The term “allergy” often times gets confused with a less severe symptom, “intolerance” or lifestyle choice as opposed to a life threatening anaphylactic reaction from ingesting an allergen.

So why talk about it?  Even though you may not have a food allergy, given the above statistics, chances are you will know someone who lives with food allergies.   The impact of food allergies goes beyond food and can affect food industry and labeling laws, airlines, restaurants and education sectors.  The more we respect our  differences, the better we can help to support each other in all facets of life. Through increased awareness, we can ensure that communities have the tools necessary to create safe, inclusive programs and support those with food allergies.  It definitely takes a village and I’m always so grateful for friends and family that are empathetic and go above and beyond to keep my girl safe and happy!

 

 

Tell us below in the comments or join us on Instagram by sharing what you wish people knew about living with food allergies?  Here are the topics we will be covering for the remainder of the week:

 

Sharing your story may help someone out there to feel less alone. When my husband and I first started our journey with our kids and their allergies we felt very isolated. However the reality is that there are many families and adults living and thriving with food allergies.    I started my blog in the hopes of connecting to community through my recipes and stories. I hope in turn that sharing my family’s experiences may help you or someone you love. Thank you for reading and being a part of my journey. Happy Food Allergy Awareness Week 💙

*Note:

• All above contributors and their blogs are found in my links page under Allergy Life
• A special thanks to Kortney from Allergy Girl Eats for creating all the teal phots found in this post