brooke has allergies: a guide

(aka. manifesto of a defective immune system)

flaming text that reads TL;DR

Deadly: All tree nuts, peanuts, soy (unless noted in Safe Soy(a))

Very Unpleasant: Legumes (all kinds of beans and peas)

safe ingredients i can eat

"Anyone can cook" - Auguste Gusteau, Ratatouille (2007)

frequently asked questions

The No-No List

follow this if ingredients are available for a specific food (like, found-on-the-back-of-the-box ingredients, not "i'm pretty sure it doesn't have [...]" ingredients.
if there isn't near certainty about what's in something, it's unsafe

S-Tier Anaphylaxis Inducers (severe allergy, cannot eat any amounts)

Very Unpleasant, Will Still Make Me Sick (moderate to severe allergy, i avoid all of it)

The Safe List

Safe Soy(a)

forms of soy i'm able to eat (bless). if an ingredient has the exact wording listed here, then i'm good to have it.

note: soy/soya/soybean are the same thing. i dont' know why there's so many names.
for brevity, i'm just using 'soy'

things i can have, despite their name/appearance

so, you want to cook

firstly, genuine thank you. allergies are difficult to work around, and i appreciate you making the effort and picking up the gauntlet that my allergies.

here's the big things to consider/work with if you want to make the food brooke-safe:

  1. read everything. food manufacturers put stuff in foods that you wouldn't ever consider, so, you have to check everything. This means reading every ingredient, not just the bolded allergens at the bottom. Only the top 10 allergens in canada need to be bolded, and some of my allergies are outside of that.
  2. wash everything (including your hands!!!!). You should be doing this anyways, but it's specifically important for allergies. cross contamination (where an allergen gets into a food it wasn't supposed to be in) can happen easily with cooking utensils. if you are wearing a lotion with one of my allergens in it, that can also cause cross contamination. disinfectants (like alcohol) can kill germs, but it doesn't get rid of the proteins associated with allergies. Soap and warm water is the key here.
    also, i don't need you to buy a whole new kitchen set (that's wild) or overhaul your kitchen, just to be clean. If you aren't sure where a utensil/cooking tool has been, please wash it.
  3. new ingredients (if you can) This one is a bit harder to do for certain ingredients, but i'm putting it here anyways. foods (usually spreads) that are accessed multiple times (like butter being used on different things with knives that have already touched something else) are a definite source of cross contamination. if you're able to use a new/unopened container, that is best.
  4. take pictures of the ingredients i know you've read the ingredients, and i'm not trying to psyop you into thinking i don't trust you. i ask what's in the food because mistakes happen and things get missed (i've done it too), so having the ability to check exactly what's in the food is important to me. you don't need to write everything down, but if you could take a picture of the ingredients list of the foods you used, along with the recipe, it's way safer for me.
  5. ask me if you aren't sure
    6. i don't know what the food scientists are doing in their little food science labs, but there are new weird things getting added into products every day. If you see something and go "huh, that's weird" just ask me. i'm happy to look and i can make the call if its safe or not, before you commit to the bit (the bit being the food you're making).

Answers to frequently asked questions

can of easy cheese

fun fact: i can safely eat this man-made horror.

WHEY, CANOLA OIL, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, CHEDDAR CHEESE (MILK, SALT, CHEESE CULTURE, ENZYMES), MILK, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, LACTIC ACID, SODIUM ALGINATE, MILKFAT, SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, COLOR (ANNATTO EXTRACT, APOCAROTENAL), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE.

brooke made this website.
she got a whole degree for this.