Our first feature this week (and we have a substantial agenda lined up for the week) is on the topic of food allergies. Kim Maes, creator of Cook It Allergy Free, recounts her path toward creating a mobile resource for families with food allergies, and goes a step further to point out a collection of reference tools for people in similar situations to her own.
When I began the endeavor of creating the Cook IT Allergy Free iPhone App, I did not quite grasp the enormity of what would required to bring my little idea of creating an essential kitchen tool for those living with celiac disease, food allergies, and autism to life. I had no tech background prior to this – only a nutrition background. So I will be very honest when I say that there were definitely some hours of frustration and challenges involved along the path of bringing this concept to fruition.
However, because of my family’s own struggles with celiac disease and other food allergies, this App, along with my blog, have truly evolved into a passionate endeavor for me. There is nothing that I want more than to help other families that are struggling with the challenges of cooking for food allergies, sensitivities, and other dietary restrictions. And I think that this app can go a long way towards taking the confusion out of this crazy world of ingredient substitutions!
The Cook It Allergy Free App for iPhone and for iPad provide a customizable cookbook solution for those living with celiac disease, autism, or food allergies. This app has more than 200 gluten-free recipes that can all be tailored to meet each user’s individual dietary restrictions.
This is a wonderful kitchen tool for people allergic to, or avoiding, gluten, dairy/casein, eggs, or nuts. With this, there is no need to have to search for a recipe that does not contain specific ingredients. Instead, you can just pick any recipe in the app and, with a simple tap, trade out allergens (such as eggs, butter, milk, yogurt, buttermilk, cream, sour cream, cream cheese, cheeses, nuts, nut butters, corn syrup, and soy) for safe and correctly calculated allergen-free substitutions. You can then create personalized Recipe Boxes and Shopping Lists with your saved recipes, as well as share them by Email, Facebook, or Twitter.
The Cook IT Allergy Free App is great for families dealing with celiac disease and/or food allergies because it takes the guesswork out of allergy-free cooking. It is also an amazing tool to help families dealing with the challenges of autism as they may be facing the daily struggles of the Gluten Free/Casein Free Diet (GFCF Diet).
With the increased rates of food allergy, celiac disease, and autism diagnoses lately, there are more and more of us finding ourselves in the daunting world of ingredient substitutions. Luckily, there are also an increasing number of apps available to us to help us navigate through this territory. Here are some of my favorites:
My Food Facts: Allows you to personalize the app to your food allergies and then you can use your iPhone camera and scan the UPC barcode of processed foods in the supermarkets. The App searches a comprehensive food product database of over 100,000 products, 6,000 manufacturers, and 13,000 brands for allergens that may be present on food product labels. If a food allergen is found, My Food Facts will immediately alert you.
iCanEat onTheGo Gluten & Allergen Free: Personalizes fast food menus with 9 common food allergens for meal options for 20 chains to help you eat Allergen Free when you are on the go.
iEatOut Gluten & Allergen Free: Customizes safe menu options from 7 international cuisines for restaurant dining.
Is That Gluten Free?: Contains over 23,000 manufacturer verified gluten-free products from over 510 brands (and more being added continually). Allows you to shop with confidence and know that the products you are purchasing have been verified gluten-free.
Is That Gluten Free? Eating Out: Features 36 national restaurant chains, including 12 fast food, 9 fast casual, and 15 casual restaurants. Has over 1700 verified gluten-free menu items.
Gluten Free Registry: The leading moderated database of gluten-free friendly restaurants, coffee houses, grocers, caterers, and more.
Gluten-Freed-Gluten Free Dining for Health and Celiac: A gluten-free restaurant finder, using your location to find the nearest gluten-free places around you.
My Allergies: Provides you with a food diary and analysis tool to help you identify possible links between the foods you have eaten and your symptoms of food allergies or intolerances.
Having apps like these gives us the power to overcome the trials, errors, and stresses of an allergy-friendly lifestyle and allows us to get back to enjoying wonderful allergen-friendly meals with our families.
This is wonderful news about more apps coming out that help those afflicted with food allergies! When I was pregnant my father and brother developed an Iphone application that gives a list of synonyms for common allergens because I was put on bedrest and could no longer do the food shopping. I actually had never trusted anyone enough to do it, but then I had no choice and the app made it much easier. It’s a free app called “Am I Allergic-Food Thesaurus”. It was such a hit that I have created a fan page on Facebook called “Am I Allergic-Food Allergies” that discusses food, drug, and environmental allergy topics in the news and issues that people with allergies face. Please feel free to check it out and thank you for creating your app!
I am located in Canada and a large portion of these apps are not available in the Canadian store. That’s disappointing to me as many of these (excluding the ones I already have of course) would be more than useful to me.
Regardless, thank you for posting these.
Another good app for those who have iPhones to try is Allergy Caddy –
Great for eating out:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/allergy-caddy/id427426634?mt=8