Corn Allergy Life – Label Reading, Adapting, Stresses

Ingredient Label Reading – it’s a whole game of shenanigans for any health nut out there preaching about healthy food. Before my allergy, I was a bit of a health nut. I’d avoid a lot of big word ingredients on packaging such as Carboxymethylcellulose or Microcrystalline Cellulose or whatever crazy big words might be found tuckered away on an ingredient label that you cannot find in your own kitchen or down the baking aisle at the store. What in the world are those things anyway? A quick internet search or flip through a dictionary back then wouldn’t find me anything. 

I’ve been paying attention to ingredient labels since I was about, mmm, maybe 8 or 9 years old. I can remember when Mountain Dew switched their ingredients from sugar to corn syrup for sweetener. I was about 8 years old then. I remember having a fuss with my grandma about it because it was our shared favorite drink and I would no longer drink it. I would be willing to drink water or lemonade. To me, it’s kind of funny and ironic that I sit here having to double-check every single ingredient label ever. Back in the day, I used to be all over ingredient labels and what was healthy with my cousins and siblings. Parts of my family had a knack for nitpicking the baby weight on us kids between concerns with diabetes or America’s weight issues. Today I’m that friend that scoffs at your bag of chips, will show you all the poison you’re eating and had you the bag back. No thanks. I’ll pass. You should probably pick a different product though, that’ll be what I say.

There’s a lot of sciency stuff going on with medicine and food in our world today that I don’t fully understand. Not all of it is bad, just because you don’t understand it. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t question and be wary though either. The more you know, the better off you are in health and in wealth. Knowledge is absolutely key! My childhood experiences surrounding medications, their inactive ingredients and adverse reactions were a foundation for me in my adult life to both avoid medications that weren’t necessary and also to research more into what a doctor had to say for diagnosis. They’re very limited to their own knowledge and experience and don’t always know what is best for you. It doesn’t hurt to question things. I’ve found this to save my life in dealing with this corn allergy onset. The very doctor who discovered it was still poisoning me with corn laden prescription medications.  

The Adult-onset corn allergy that fully bloomed for me at the age of 22, was the real game-changer. I went from lightly looking at labels and avoiding the majorly chemical-looking ingredients and corn syrups to really scoping them out and avoiding any foods I couldn’t mimic in my own kitchen based on the ingredient label. If I couldn’t find an answer on an ingredient in less than 5 minutes on a search online – it was put back. The ingredient item noted for later and more in-depth research. 

The Corn Allergy List I had stumbled across in 2014 was a lot longer than the one you’re going to find available online on most sites today. I still use this old list, even though some items such as Sugar have been changed in the way the FDA allows the labeling to go – it’s stricter and reflects the use of actual Cane sugar today vs 2012 it could’ve been any kind possibly and with a lot of contamination. I don’t remember all the little nuances surrounding this topic over the years in the Corn Allergy support groups, all I do know is that I myself, am sensitive to sugar and must avoid it. My list remains unchanged since the day I found it. 

Here is the list of items that I avoid at all costs on all Ingredient labels, other than items marked with an *Asterisk. Items marked with an Asterisk are not always derived from corn but are highly likely to be corn contaminated. You’re highly recommended to reach out to a manufacturer if you see an *Asterisk item on the label of a product you’re considering. 

To anyone who is already frustrated, stressed to the max from a litany of ailments and doctor’s appointments, and just got diagnosed or confirmed positive to have an allergy to Corn: I’m deeply sorry. It’s hard. A lot harder if you haven’t had any kind of experience or understanding regarding food and medication label reading. Medications especially aren’t something people think about. It is the very first thing I bring up regarding this allergy though. The convenience we corn allergy sufferers have available for safe OTC medications is NOT PRESENT TODAY. There is no market out there for corn-free medications right now. Benadryl, Allegra, and any other name-brand medication for allergies even have some form of corn byproduct packed into the delivery method for the medication. 

I start by saying something about medication because of my own history with medication usage and the secrets surrounding the delivery methods in getting the medicine in your system. As a child, my mother had Munchausen syndrome and would have doctors convinced that I needed to be on anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers. I was fortunate enough to have been blessed with a wonderful psychologist and counselor who spotted this dynamic from miles away and did everything in her power to prove my mother was wrong, I was a normal child, and that the medications they were prescribing me had adverse reactions on my psyche. It did too – I had adverse and rare reactions to these medications that had this counselor not pulled out her bible of adverse reactions, inactive ingredients, and rare blah blah blahs – I’d be a basket case today and still suffering from inadvertent consequences from medications I didn’t need to be on. Young children especially should not be placed on medications until after every other option has been exhausted. A lot of child behavior problems honestly stem from parental failure in understanding of a child development needs and dynamics. Medication plastering a child is the lazy way to handle your own lack of discipline and understanding in a childs’ development. Mental disorders are actually very rare and rarely need some kind of medication applied. I will always argue this point. I’m not saying there isn’t a time or place for antidepressants or ritalin, but I will say the need for it and that time and place are actually pretty rare compared to how much it is used.

I have a stigma against medications and a profound understanding that many ailments we get prescribed medications for are actually very rare. True, legitimate mental disorders are actually very rare and much of the psychology field is very subjective to the viewer at hands understanding and experiences in life. You can be highly educated and still get the diagnosis completely wrong on a person. Any ‘great’ addict is going to be great at manipulating a system like that – I got to witness this growing up first hand. She got her hands on my Ritalin in this manner and abused it, and me. Many people want to debate this subject, I am not here to debate our differences of beliefs here but will firmly stand my ground on it. Medication is often a lazy way to address issues that require discipline and action on your part on so many levels it’s just the American way I guess to pop a pill instead. If this is going to be the case I must say something here about Neurological inflammation. Do your research on it. Allergy reactions can affect your moods and ability to think clearly. Brain fog is a thing. Getting off medications actually helped me find clarity in what was going on around me – and be able to communicate what was going on with me. Being on medications you don’t need to be on that are laden with something you’re allergic with will both cause counterproductive reactions and responses in the body as well as additional symptoms that would not be there if you weren’t taking some kind of neurological chemical altering substance. If you’re a daily drinker, there’s another layer to your cake of problems too.

Even if you don’t have to take medications for one reason or another, you’re still going to need something to get you through a bad day of seasonal allergies, right? You’re still going to need something to help you get through those seasonal colds. It’d be nice to take something that doesn’t have a corn byproduct that’ll make you sicker than before you tried taking something to help you with it? At least for me, that’s how it rolls. If I have an upset stomach and take Pepto Bismol, it gets 10x worse and I’m down an extra day. Runny nose? Sinus infection? Does Sudafed sound like a great idea? WRONG! Migraine for days, worse sinus problems than before, and infection too. The corn byproducts in the inactive ingredients used to bind the medicine and make it deliverable counteract any benefit of the medication itself. This is my personal experience that I am speaking on here in this paragraph. 

Everyone who has a corn allergy has varying levels of sensitivity, I have found no 2 of us are the same in our reactions. We may have a lot of similarities, but some of us can tolerate citric acid and others need an epi-pen for that same item. I have yet to need an actual epi-pen to save my life but it would have been useful in many situations to calm down reactions. The medication was something I ended up firing my original doctor over – she kept prescribing medications with corn in them and when confronted, had the audacity to ask me what I wanted her to do about it. She didn’t even look into compounding medications for me.

My first thing to advise anyone dealing with a corn allergy is to get yourself aligned with both a doctor and a Pharmacy that can understand and compound your over-the-counter medications – this WILL get expensive. I spend about $80 for a 90 count of diphenhydramine compounded with rice flour only. It’s the equivalent of Benadryl for everyone else – just without the gut-wrenching corn byproducts in it for me. You’ll need to provide them your list of allergy triggers and have many conversations. Once you get the foundation set though – you’re one step away from having things a little more convenient than they were before. There is a LOT of footwork with this allergy that is required. It is overwhelming. 

SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS FOR TAX WRITE OFFS! Your insurance may not even bother helping you with these medications, but at least you can write them off with your taxes. I spent well over $3000 last year alone between medications and surgery because of this allergy. The tax write-off is a bit of a break, not enough but it’s still something. 

So Point #01 on Label Reading with this allergy – it’s not really anything to do with label reading, it’s medication researching and confirming with your pharmacist what is in your medications. They don’t really put labels on your prescription medications, you have to do a bit of digging to find the information. There are inactive ingredients used in all medicines – so be aware now and start asking more questions. Allergy or not, I think we all should be asking about these binding agents used in OTC medicines especially. Why is an 11 ingredient Benadryl pill cheaper than a 2 ingredient pill? Why do I have to have a doctor’s prescription written to get OTC medicine without an allergy trigger in it and why do I have to pay 10 fold more than anyone else? It’s not fair or right. That’s just life though, right? 

Point #02 on reading labels? You’re going to be mentally worn down. There’s so much to read, so much to research, you’re going to hit a wall of overwhelming information. I hit it constantly. I’ve been living with this for 7 years and still don’t have it entirely down pat and still get “Corned”. It gets sickening and tiresome to get corned at least once a month, trying as hard as you can to avoid it or not, it’s almost unavoidable if you don’t live inside a self-sufficient corn-free bubble home. Again I’m going to point out everyone has differing levels of sensitivity with corn when it comes to this allergy. No 2 people are the same. 

I’ll refer you back up to the list at the beginning of this article and continue on with point 2 here: Print that lists out, have it in your purse, wallet, a copy of it on your refrigerator. Print enough copies of your allergy list to give to all of your closest family and friends. Do not take offense when they respond “Too long, didn’t read.” or don’t acknowledge it. This is your battleground, not theirs. Independence is the way to go in my book. Depending solely on other people will get you killed, this is my personal belief from experiences in my life. The more you know, the more you can grow and glow in knowledge, wealth, and health. The better you can take care of yourself, the more empowered and confident you will feel. Depending on others will give you too much power in playing the victim in this situation and that is utterly the biggest lie on the planet. You are not a victim and you are not alone, and this is not impossible to live with or afford. It’s not easy, but not impossible either. For every excuse you can come up with, there are a dozen solutions for any said excuses. 

Point #02 is all about starting with all the products you have been using, looking at your allergy trigger list, and doing a massive purge or phase out while phasing in a new product or habit, protocol, whatever the case, I’ve had to start doing a lot of product creation for myself. A lot of products I could not just simply replace overnight and my topical skin reactions could be tolerated for a time so many lotions and body washes I slowly phased out to more natural options or homemade products. I am airborne, gut, and topically reactive to corn – all 3 reactions vary for me though. The bucket theory applies to my situation heavily. If I consume too much corn byproduct and then get hit with a Febreeze cloud or glade air freshener – I might actually pass out. I might actually get a migraine with nosebleeds that won’t budge for 3 days straight. It really depends on a lot of factors for me.  It’s just best for me to avoid it as much as possible all the way around, air, skin, and food. Food is the biggest one for me to avoid. After all, the gut when taken care of will ultimately take care of everything else a lot better with your mind and your body. When my gut is weakened, I am weakened all the way around. 

I started in my pantry, purged about everything out, and slowly started introducing some foods back in. I quickly found out that I cannot get away with many, if any, packaged or pre-made meals. Recipe bookmarking started becoming a whole thing for me. Learning how to cook, food canning, dehydrating, baking, preparing and salvaging, all that good stuff. It’s all part of Point #02 from me about this allergy life: Independence, making it yourself. I’ve had to even learn how to make my own body sprays and perfumes using essential oils.  

I can’t get through this point without at least acknowledging the facts that there are levels of overwhelming and absurd emotional whirlwinds we go through. For me, at the time of diagnosis, I was emotionally out of it. Neurological inflammation is also a form of allergy response. This affects the brain, your serotonin and dopamine levels as well as hormones and so much more. If you’re on birth control, this could be a factor for you. I remember when getting off birth control altogether, within a month I stopped having the outrageous week before and of my period, mood destabilization. PMSing is one thing, but that was like PMSing on Hulk status or something. Naturally, I’m not like that at all. Add in the plethora of corn byproducts in food and sleep medication on top of chemical-laden birth control that switches to a corn sugar pill one week out of the month – There’s your bipolar Ginger right there. It was absolutely jaw-dropping for me to realize this in 2019 – my birth control was the last corny thing I was on. Once off of it, things really got a lot better. Aside from the fear of getting pregnant, things are great. Vasectomies are something you can ask your man to get through, ladies, I highly recommend it! Unless you want kids, they’re expensive though. This allergy lifestyle is pretty expensive and frustrating, additional expenses and frustrations if avoidable, should be avoided. 

Getting down to the bare basics is the sheer bottom line for Point #02 from me on label reading. Get your product selections to the most natural and simple products available to you. Organic vs Non-organic is also IRRELEVANT to being corn-free. Just because a product is labeled organic does not mean it is any safer than a non-organic item. Processing and chemicals used can be just as corny as non-organic items. Do not sidestep reaching out to producers and manufacturers for information. If you have an adverse reaction to a product they claim to be corn-free, they can become liable for any medical expenses you incur from ingesting something you were told was free of your allergen trigger. 

Keep your products simple, food to hygienic. Research. Research. Research. Adjust your research settings. Use different search engines. Know that your searches get tailored specifically to you, especially Google. Not a bad thing, but it can be limiting to what beneficial information you find. I’ve personally found that I can do store-bought fruits and veggies still and I make a lot of home meals from scratch. Meat has become a debacle for me – FDA guidelines and requirements for acid washes are rather unavoidable and corny. I’ve found you can’t even get a local butcher to sidestep these acid washes for you. Something about legalities. I’m still learning here as my allergy levels get more sensitive to such things. 

This allergy life can be really humbling and very educational on what worked before science took over the industry. Try to keep an open mind as you go through your experience and journey. Look for the positives and not the mountain of things you’re losing out on. You’re really not losing out on anything except getting suckered into a system designed to keep you in a pill and health debacle Rolodex. Just look around America. You’ll see it pretty plainly if you look hard long enough, you don’t even have to look that hard to see it.

As you’re shopping, always have your list on hand, and an extra too in case you find a good-hearted soul that is willing to help you look for stuff if you’re out looking for new items. I’ve found it easier to shop at home online. It takes the element of people pestering me about why I’m sitting on the ground, going product to product with a list in my hand, comparing and reading, putting things back on the shelf, and moving to the next item. 

Store clerks and other customers will see this and get nosey, which is fine of course if you’re not irritated about not finding anything and having to put the 500th item back on the shelf. I’ve had a gentleman in Target try helping me for over an hour in finding a shampoo or conditioner that would be less than 10 ingredients and maybe even minimal on the corn byproducts. Bless that man’s soul, by the end of the hour he gave up feeling horrible “Ma’am, I don’t know how you’re gonna live like this.” he said to me. 

I didn’t either, but here I am. I still haven’t found a hair product that doesn’t cause dandruff and a rash AND works for my textured hair. It’s just not out there right now. Until I become anaphylactic, I’ll continue using what works for my hair and having to wear it up off my neck/back all the time, keep it off my face as much as possible to minimize the rash on my face, neck, and back. Luckily it’s just an inconvenient and uncomfortable mild rash I can live with. I’ve gotten used to the itchy scalp. Sucks but Tea Tree Oil doesn’t help me. I’ve tried several things. I’m just kind of screwed between finances and product availability, and moreover because of the water hardness and lack of a water softener system. I can’t avoid the corny tap water yet. We’ll get there. 

Point #03 on label reading? It’s pretty simple: Keep your food choices simple, from label to item itself. Label and allergy  list comparison is mandatory but keeping your products simple is pertinent. Financially speaking this is the best bit I can end this with. It’s emotionally taxing, physically exhausting, and painful when trials fail. I’ve been stubborn one too many times in grabbing a product off the shelf that has only maybe 2 corn ingredients in it such as Xanthum gum or Yeast*, maybe just a little Citric acid*…not worth the gut reactions and migraine for days after. If something else happens to bombard my system too, it could cause me to get sick with flu like symptoms as well as acting like MS. I’ve had days where it takes me a good hour to get moving out of bed due to pins and needles throughout my legs and feet. This only happens when I’ve been corned super bad. 

I’ll end this with a few key things that work for me. 

When I’m getting sick, my go to is Oil of Oregano drops in a shot glass of water or some kind of high packed vitamin C juice such as Ceres Passion Fruit Juice or Martinelli’s Glass Jarred Apple Juice – the plastic bottles are corny so avoid those if you’re sensitive to that degree. Oil of Oregano acts as an antiviral and anti-bacterial agent in your system and will do nothing but boost your immune system. Elderberry is another great one, making elderberry syrup is easy as well. I do A LOT of loose leaf herbal teas on a weekly and daily basis. My daily tea mix has Siberian Ginseng (eleuthero root), Ashwagandha, Sencha Leaf and Yerba Mate in it. Ashwagandha has many benefits to it for both mental and physical health, if taken consistently. Same goes for St. John’s Wort. I highly recommend getting back to human roots in herbal remedies – they work. Where do you think science and big pharma gets the ideas they do to tear apart chemical compounds in plants and animals to make the medications they do in labs, to then turn around and market to you at hellacious prices and unknown consequences? Trust me when I say RESEARCH and Knowledge is key to wealth. It really is. You’ll save a lot of money, time, pain, grief and so much more by simply taking the time to stop and read, read, read. I can’t stress this enough. It’s overwhelming and time consuming but so worth it in the end. 

So herbs, herb knowledge or understanding is something that plays a huge roll in my nutritional balancing, gut recovery when I get corned, immunity boosting to avoid COVID and other ailments as well as so much more. Turmeric, when used consistently, works wonders on battling inflammation in the joints. It can be used in cooking and supplemented into drinks such as Golden Moon Mylk – it’s delicious and easy to concoct at home. A great bedtime beverage! 

CBD and THC are great for pain management, I use them for a few things. It started off as a sleep assistant for me, getting me off of Trazodone. I always had a stigma against marijuanna growing up due to the stigmatization around it from the area I grew up in. It is not the devil’s lettuce. I’ve been proven wrong on that. I however will preach that it is NOT for everyone and does NOT work the same way for everyone. I have found that it affects people with PTSD a lot differently than those who don’t have PTSD. I personally know the effects of it on my own PTSD symptoms and it has been a life changer. Maybe a life saver really for me, sleep wasn’t something I could obtain easily. Now it’s no longer an issue. 

MEAT PROBLEMS? I have problems finding safe meats, acid washes are hard to avoid. I have found the best success in hunting down and cleaning my own sources of meat. Not into killing animals? Find yourself someone who doesn’t mind. Do the work needed to get your protein or go vegetarian. Meat is actually not necessary in every single meal – if you research hard enough on human diets, we’re not supposed to eat as much red meat or meat in general as you see in your average American diets. Get off of the poor animals people, it’s criminal how meat gets to our dinner plates anyway. We need to change up our purchasing habits and stop these large industrial food industries from some of the criminal treatment of our precious livestock we call food. They deserve respected lives too before they go to the slaughter for our lives. Tyson Chicken and the whole FOOD Inc documentary, everyone should have seen this documentary by now. If not, you should go take the time to watch it. I believe the best way to combat meat problems is finding and sourcing either locally or raising or hunting your own food. 

This is something I’m still exploring and learning on. I’ve just now discovered that I can no longer have beef from the stores or even our local butcher. I’ve began fishing for my own food and in doing so, discovered that store bought fish causes me reaction. Wild caught, regardless if it’s stocked trout that has been eating corn meal or whatever – I don’t react to those fish. I react to the ones at the store though. The only thing I can chalk it up to be is the chemical washes. A package does not have to reflect the chemicals used in the washing and processing either. Trace amounts of anything can be left off of labels, so label reading doesn’t help you here. 

Store bought produce can be tricky sometimes. Washing things in apple cider vinegar is a sure fire way to clear off chemicals but it will also change the flavor of your berries sometimes. I’ve found cooking things into compotes or jams are a great way to get them safe for me. I add it to rice a lot of the time. To make compotes you simply need a safe source of honey or sugar, water, arrowroot powder and 15 or 20 minutes of cooking. They’re easy, delicious and a great way to make a base for fruit roll ups if you have a dehydrator handy. 

What has worked for me the best is acquiring and learning how to be really independent in creating my own foods and products. This is extremely overwhelming, expensive and difficult depending on what it is you’re doing and where you’re located at. I’ve had to jump off my carer train to really focus and hone in on the activities required to prepare myself or even manage myself. I have enough to manage on my own emotionally, so the physical tasks are very taxing. Many of you just starting probably feel like you’re at war against the world, that you’re no longer allowed to live life. I get it. I’m there every day with you. Just pull up out of that hole of lies though, we’re being forced to live a different lifestyle or suffer through one that doesn’t work for anyone in all real honesty. A lot of these corn byproducts we have to avoid – aren’t good for anyone. There are one too many articles linking corn to a plethora of health issues. You don’t have to be corn allergic to see the problems it causes. My husband can attest to the difference in eating a clean diet then having your normal american convenient diet back – it’s an instant ‘ugh, i feel like garbage’ transition for him. I’ve seen the same out of many other corn free households who have a similar setting to mine: We’re living with someone who isn’t allergic to corn at all but they’re eating what we eat too so we’re not alone. 

It’s really hard for me to find a easy way to explain all of this, in summary and in short the best advice I can give is if you can’t make it in your own kitchen without a lab, don’t buy it. Don’t waste your money on products that you’re not willing to take the time to research first – save your money and yourself the frustration and pain. 

Medication – get your doctor and pharmacist on the same page with you. Get them your allergy trigger list. Double and triple check or verify the ingredients they use in your medications. I cannot stress this enough from my own personal experience. The OTC medications and their inactive ingredients as well as even doctor prescribed and standardly filled medications – they’re laden up with all kinds of corn. It will affect your health and cause counterproductivity for the medication. 

Food and other products: Reach out to manufacturers if you are going to try anything questionable to cover yourself but for the most part you absolutely need to print out your allergy trigger list, have it on your person at all times and an extra copy available for anyone else. Be on the constant comparison, check, double check, triple check label to list. Keep it on your phone home screen, lock it in your images or something. Do not go anywhere without it. Give a copy to your doctor, your pharmacist, your husband, your teacher, your coworkers, your manager, do not expect them to memorize it or yourself to do that either. Do not get mad when people do not care but you need to keep it on hand and remember this is your battleground. Make it very obvious that this is important to your health and wellbeing. Stick to your guns, your health depends on it. If you say no to a food or item, do not get pushed into a yes. Stick to your guns. This is a battleground of education, choices and isolation from normal society. You’re going to win so many battles once you’re sick of losing days to the allergy setbacks. 

The corn allergy support groups are great go-tos for information and support. It can also be very overwhelming there too though. There are a lot of nuances to this allergy that are hard to cover in simple ways. I like to think of it as a beautiful challenge to modern day society though. I often challenge people to a week of living corn free. I often get rhetoric of how impossible it is. I can’t help but laugh.

Look at us out here, living corn free. It is possible. The more we educate the world about how ingrained corn is – more possibilities will arise. So please don’t stop asking and pushing questions to these companies. Calling them out on the corn and chemicals used in our foods. If you look hard enough, a lot of corn byproducts and chemicals used in America are banned in many other well developed countries around the world. Gee… I wonder why? What health problems do they possibly cause that are so unethical that they must be banned…?  We should all care a little more, if not for ourselves, maybe for our children and theirs? I don’t know any easy way to get everyone’s attention on this because so many people will keep stuffing their face with antifreeze laden candy after being educated on it and then go to the doctor for the problems it causes, get medications with unnecessary fillers that just kind of bind up and add to the issues what you’ve been eating are causing, get sicker and wonder why even though someone has educated you and then boom. 6ft under before the age of 60. 

I don’t understand this at all but it is more common than you would think. It’s sad. It is annoying and infuriating if you sit under a certain perspective about it too long. Reality is though we have to focus on ourselves and our health. The rest of it will fall in line eventually, but what we must do as individuals is take care of ourselves and safeguard our own health. This gets complicated and complex with no FDA labeling requirements for a Corn allergy. It is also especially difficult with all the loopholes and items on the shelf that have corn byproducts in them such as Orange Juices – it’ll say 100% orange juice on the label but it is not. There are additives a lot of the times that aren’t required by law to be on the ingredient label. 

I hope this article helps, it’s a little long winded. I’ve been juggling a lot with fishing for food and cleaning them getting added to my list of things I must do. Currently the Garden start up challenge is in full swing and due to COVID, a lot of things are hard to get our hands on or find the time to do. Learning new things and having to kill living things to sustain myself has been difficult, time consuming and hard to juggle with finding time to make extra income from me for my husband to help pay the bills. Money is an ever revolving cycle of issues when it comes to this allergy and its lifestyle requirements that become more and more evident over time. 

I am facing over $500 in bills from my surgery still, and that’s just what has come in. To avoid this situation again, I must get my own food growing and get used to killing and cleaning my own meat. I don’t have anyone I know who butchers and would be willing to break rules for me nor would I ask them to. I also don’t know anyone who hunts nor do I know how to, so, fishing is where I’ll start. I’ll eventually get up to hunting quail or dove for other meats. It’s going to be a new experience. Not a hassle. Choice of perceptions when it comes to this allergy life will make you or break you. Make sure you choose to see the world through some rose colored lenses or you’re going to be one dark gloomy sad lump of human existence with a lot of whining and woahways me’s going on. 

So in summary: 1) Assemble your allergy list and have it on hand, provide to medical and pharmacist. 2) If You Can’t Make it in your own kitchen based off the ingredients, DO NOT BUY IT. 3) Keep things simple and do plenty of Research. Learn, get independent. Spread awareness while at it too. Stand your ground. Do not poison yourself to fit into the crowd or family. 

The last little bit of advice I can give everyone: Keep your food items and hygiene items simple in terms of ingredients. More than a handful of ingredient items in a product might should raise a question, especially if it’s a bunch of scientific lab looking stuff. Just avoid that kind of stuff if you don’t have time to research it and find out what it’s from. Be aware that not all products have everything labeled that is actually in it – you’re going to find out things like Orange juice and berries get sprayed with chemicals or have things mixed in that are in such ‘dilute amounts’ that it isn’t required to put it on the label. Sometimes those ‘trace amounts’ are just enough to cause someone like me a week in bed. Corn allergy triggers are hard to dodge. The corn allergy free life is hard, not impossible, but it is hard. I hope this helps simplify a few things for a few people out there. I apologize for the long article, I know we already have so much to read though…but from what one corn allergy person to another like me: It’s worth the read for the tips? Right? Don’t stop just because you don’t see what good you’re doing.

Send me a message if you see anything that needs corrections or would like to add to it! Conversations and critique is always welcome, feedback and more. Don’t be afraid to reach out to me with suggestions, corrections or any of the above. I am a hobby helper! Here at your service.