Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34285 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
Marjorie Hurt Jones, R.N., has more than 20 years experience in health and nutrition. She has devoted her life to helping people cope with food allergies. She is the author of Superfoods: Allergy Recipes and Cooking for the Health of It, as well as co-author of the Yeast Connection Cookbook. An educator and frequent speaker, she published the newsletter Mastering Food Allergies for more than 10 years and now manages the website of the same name. She is president of Mast Enterprises, Inc., a company dedicated to helping people recover from food allergies.

Customer Reviews

this book is great when you're willing to experiment
I purchased this book when I first discovered my food allergies (gluten, egg, dairy, etc.), and it was very helpful in getting me started and educated... It lists the integrity of many gluten-free flours, which really helped me learn to bake gluten-free and make the finished product taste good. However, I really wasn't able to enjoy any of the recipes straight out of the book (without modifying them). The flours such as quinoa and buckwheat are common in these recipes, and both flours have very strong flavors... I just prefer baking to taste like the original "yummy-allergen-packed" food, instead of a lousy replacement... :) So, anyway, if you're energetic and creative with your allergen-free cooking, go for this book--it has some great "starting point" recipes that you can play with until they taste great. But, if you're not willing to experiment with substitute ingredients in order to come up with something you like eating--this book may not be for you.

Here the other cookbooks I have found to be helpful...

The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook: Two Hundred Gourmet & Homestyle Recipes for the Food Allergic Family

Food Allergy Survival Guide: Surviving and Thriving With Food Allergies and Sensitivities

good information on variety of flours
I liked this book because my son is allergic to wheat, barley, rye, strawberries, coconut, red meats (yes, really), peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. While we did not rotate (HAD to do total avoidance!), I really liked the intro to so many new foods, such as amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat, and her succinct flour chart at the front (which nicely describes their qualities for breading, baking, etc., as well as whether they contain gluten). I use it frequently for this alone!
However, as another reviewer pointed out, there are many uses of foods my son is allergic to, and I have to substitute, but with the number of allergies he has, I have to do that anyway (try baking with no wheat, eggs, or milk!). That said, my son (and all his friends) love the grain-free pancake recipe she has in here, and just for the record I use regular buckwheat rather than all that grinding. Thank you!

Don't believe the book's title!
First the bad news: This book's title is an outright lie and should be changed (or the book's content changed to fulfill the title's promises). It claims to contain 350 recipes that are free of common allergens including gluten, soy, milk, etc. This is completely untrue. A large percentage of these recipes contain at least one of these allergens, usually with no options provided for substitutions. Particularly of note is the extensive use of items with hidden gluten and soy. People newly diagnosed with allergies may not realize that many of the ingredients contain these allergens and the recipes are not labeled to let you know. In spite of the claim to be milk-free, there is a whole section dedicated to milk-based recipes (using goat milk, perhaps, but still a problem for most of us). Ironically, she mentions that beef recipes were left out of the book because some people might be sensitive (although it's not one of the allergens the book claims to be free of). Obviously gluten is a much more common allergen and harder to substitute for than beef so it seems that which ingredients are included is more arbitrary than based on the needs of the allergy-prone. Since most gluten-free cookbooks contain large amounts of other allergens (like dairy, corn, or soy) I was really hoping for a cookbook that wouldn't require me to make massive substitutions.

For people with nut allergies (which I don't have), this is probably the wrong book for you, skip it.

In spite of all this (and the warnings posted here, thanks, everyone, for that!), I decided to take a look at the book since there are so few options for people like me with multiple allergies. Although the fact that the title is grossly misleading made me angry enough that I didn't want to buy the book, I finally decided that there was enough good information to make it worthwhile. The first thing I did was go through the book and cross out all the recipes that contained gluten, wheat, soy, dairy, and corn (my biggest allergies and the hardest to substitute for). There were MANY!

Finally, the good: There is a lot of good information in this book (tempered with some bad - if you are newly gluten-free, wheat-free, etc. consult another book for information on foods to avoid). The book includes the usual writeup on alternative flours and other substitutions. Strangely there is no mention of rice milk as an option for those allergic to soy and dairy - and no mention that many (or most) nut milks contain soy. She also doesn't give substitutes for margarine in recipes for those allergic to soy and dairy.

Unlike other books, she includes nutritional information related to avoiding certain foods. For example, she lists each of the B vitamins and explains the best dietary sources. If you are allergic to a number of these foods, you could be at risk for not ingesting enough through your diet. For those of us forced to avoid many foods (or for people with other medical issues) this information could be critical.

Of course we're all mostly interested in the recipes. Even after excluding the large number with gluten, dairy, soy, etc. there were still a lot of interesting items left. For me, the salad dressings/veggie dips were the most useful. Since I can't have soy, dairy, or citrus, these recipes offered new hope for me (but most contain nuts, be warned). Other recipes seemed good but not particularly simple to make. This book is better at offering variety than quick options for a weekday. On the other hand, if, like me, you're looking for some "real food" options for entertaining, this book offers some good ideas that aren't overly complicated.

Good luck and happy eating!