Friday, April 28, 2006

Going Veg With Food Allergies

Question for Savvy Vegetarian:

I am hoping you can help me with my dilemma. I want to become vegetarian, possibly vegan but I have medically verified allergies, some of which are life threatening, to almost every fruit, vegetable, nut, and seed that I have tried. What can I do? My situation has put me in a difficult position.- P.T.

Savvy Veg Advice:

Dear P.T.

I would imagine that your allergies seriously restrict your diet now, and I don't think that being vegetarian could make things worse. It's even possible your allergies could improve with a change in diet, especially if you went organic.

There's a book called the Food Allergy Survival Guide by vegans, Joanne Stepaniak and Dina Aronson, that I recommend. Sprouting could be useful for you. I think you'd be surprised at what you can do. There's such a wide variety of food available on a vegetarian diet -I'm optimistic that you could feed yourself.

I wouldn't say not to go vegan, but don't commit until you explore all your options.

All the best,
Judy Kingsbury
Savvy Vegetarian