Researchers from the Children’s Hospital Boston found that at least one in eight children suffering anaphylactic shock from a reaction to a food allergen required a second dose of epinephrine to fully recover. According to their report in the journal Pediatrics, food allergies affect at least 6% of children, and symptoms for a severe reaction may include swelling, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, itching, and/or skin rash.  “An injection of epinephrine is often enough to reverse the condition, but sometimes two shots may be necessary,” Dr. Susan A. Rudders of Children's Hospital Boston said.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

“Rudders and her colleagues studied about 1,200 children with an average age of 6 who were treated at two Boston hospitals for food-related allergic reactions between 2001 and 2006. A little over half of the children suffered severe reactions and 44% of this group received epinephrine. Of that smaller group, 12% received two doses of epinephrine.

Special Offer: For the month of April, save over 40% on select Bob’s Red Mill Products. This includes several of their granolas, pancake and waffle mixes, and flaxseed. Plus, save approximately 35% on most of the remaining Bob’s Red Mill products sold on Amazon (I just bought the coconut flour) using the automatic discount and subscribe & save (which includes free shipping). To see the offerings and purchase, see the Special Offer on Amazon.

New Products: Bob’s Red Mill has announced that they are now producing Gluten Free Quick Cooking Rolled Oats and Gluten Free Whole Grain Oat Flour. Both of these new products are produced from the highest quality gluten free oats grown on dedicated oat-growing fields by a cooperative of 200 farms. Each farm delivery is sampled many times and tested with an R5 ELISA gluten test to ensure the absence of gluten. For more information, see the Bob’s Red Mill Website.

Giveaway: To celebrate these new additions to their gluten free line, Bob & Co. has partnered with Carol Fenster to bring you an awesome giveaway. From Bob’s blog, “Carol was a huge advocate for bringing these products to you, so we’re giving away 10 autographed copies of Carol’s beautiful 1000 Gluten Free Recipes. To sweeten the pot, we’re adding a package of gluten free oat flour and gluten free quick oats for each of our 10 winners.” To enter to win, see the Bob’s Red Mill Blog.

We reported a news brief on this story yesterday, but the full news release was submitted to us today and offers even more details on the report findings ... 

April 9, 2010 – New Nationwide Harris Interactive Survey Finds Gluten is Commonly and Erroneously Believed to Be a Food Allergen - HomeFree, makers of organic, ready-to-eat, whole grain cookies free of common food allergens including peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and dairy, today released the results of a new nationwide survey revealing that America has some knowledge of food allergies, but is confused about the difference between food allergies and celiac disease.

The survey of 1,013 U.S. adults, conducted by Harris Interactive® by telephone between January 28 – 31, 2010, found that three out of four Americans can correctly identify at least one food allergen from a list of foods including cinnamon, dairy, gluten, bananas, nuts, wheat and eggs.  Smaller majorities can correctly identify nuts, 65 percent, and dairy, 60 percent.  Less than half identify eggs, 46 percent, and wheat, 44 percent, correctly as common food allergens.  Interestingly, a similar number, 43 percent, incorrectly identify gluten as an allergen.  Just 3 percent of Americans can correctly identify all four of the listed common food allergens (nuts, dairy, eggs and wheat) without making any incorrect identifications, while 19 percent correctly identifies all the listed allergens but also incorrectly include gluten as one of the allergens.  Over 1 out of 5 Americans, or 22 percent, either don’t know or think none of those mentioned are common food allergens.

When your writing, work, and life revolve around a specific topic, such as food, the people you deal with tend to be quite knowledgeable on that subject. Emails with fellow bloggers, viewers, and experts in the area of food allergies always yield a high understanding of food and its many concerns.

However, it is clear that the information is still not reaching the greater population. Our friends at HomeFree Treats, makers of delicious allergen-free cookies, conducted a simply survey of more than 1,000 people using Harris Interactive. Within this sample population, only 3% picked four common food allergens (dairy, eggs, nuts, and wheat) out of a list of seven foods that also included gluten, bananas, and cinnamon. 22% of the respondents either did not know or answered that none of the seven foods were common allergens. 43% mistakenly chose gluten as an allergen. Gluten is a concer for Celiac Disease, and many people find that they are intolerant to gluten, but it is not an allergen - though wheat is.

The survey from HomeFree Treats was reported in USA Today.