Hello & welcome! My name is Zoë, and I’m the food-allergic individual behind the blog & website Invisibly Allergic. I’m so glad you’re here! To give some back story, I have a life-threatening peanut allergy causing anaphylaxis. I’m cross-contact reactive & airborne reactive to peanuts. I’ve known about my life-threatening peanut allergy since the age of 2, and I am now well into my thirties and thriving. A little more to know about me related to allergies– I have eczema, autoimmune-related food sensitivities, and a couple dozen other environmental & chemical allergies, so I’ll be discussing those here on my website and blog as well.

What Is Invisibly Allergic?

Invisibly Allergic is a resource for everyone, food allergic or not. You read that right! If you’re here, I assume you are impacted in some way by a food allergy or would like to learn more about living with a food allergy. Food allergies vary and fall across a large spectrum, so there’s no generalizing them, and each food allergy is individual. This can make discussing food allergies and conditions complex since no two are alike. However, there is of course some overlap in food allergy experiences! There are likely many common denominators and shared experiences you’ll find among food-allergic individuals & this blog was started as a place to connect with others who are on this food allergy spectrum or are caring for someone on the food allergy spectrum.

My Food Allergy Blog Mission

With my food allergy website and as a food allergy blogger, I hope to act as an authoritative point of contact for anyone looking to connect with someone navigating the world through a food allergy lens. I aim to spread food allergy awareness, peanut allergy awareness, and food allergy anaphylaxis awareness far and wide. I love sharing what I do to stay safe, how I’ve successfully lessened my food allergy anxiety, and how I’ve completed life milestones that work for me and my body. I also want to share what inspires me, infuriates me, and makes me passionate about advocating for positive improvements in areas such as disability accommodation and better food labeling laws in the United States.

Right now, there are 32 million+ Americans with food allergies, and that’s just people who have been formally diagnosed. We’re in the middle of a global food allergy epidemic, and there’s currently no known cause or cure for food allergies. I’m happy to report that between diagnostic research and new technologies, the field is evolving in ways to support individuals with food allergies each year. Does this mean I feel enough is being done to support the food allergy community? Absolutely not, and that’s another reason I started the Invisibly Allergic Blog- to share my perspective as a person with a food allergy on what societal and policy changes I want to see and help make happen.

Invisibly Allergic’s Top 3 Food Allergy Priorities

• 1. People In The U.S. Deserve Transparent Food Labeling Laws
  • Everyone deserves to know what they’re ingesting and putting in and on their bodies, food allergy or not. The U.S. is decades behind other countries, such as the E.U., in terms of food allergy transparency and labeling laws. This is a problem because it impacts citizens’ overall quality of life. People are dying due to a lack of transparency about food allergens in and around food products, and in the U.S., we are more reliant than we should need to be on using life-saving medications.
• 2. We Need Universal Healthcare
  • In 2023 and beyond, I’ve made it a goal to volunteer more with organizations working towards granting universal healthcare in the U.S. because I believe healthcare is a human right and everyone should have access. I live in Kentucky, so I specifically support KYHealthcare – Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care & also Medicare For All. Each time epinephrine is used to try to prevent anaphylaxis, a hospital visit is necessary to monitor oxygen levels and a possible secondary reaction. People in the U.S. shouldn’t have to decide not to seek medical care for financial reasons. I believe it’s morally wrong that people are going bankrupt and struggling to pay for ER visits, doctor visits, cancer treatments, etc., in the only industrialized nation without universal health insurance.
• 3. Big Pharma Price Gouging Needs To Be Stopped
  • Spreading awareness around greedy big pharma companies like Mylan (epi-pen) and kaléo Cares (Auvi-Q) is vital; the general public needs to know the lengths that pharmaceutical companies are going to make it hard for people to get life-saving drugs. Not to mention, these large pharmaceutical corporations are profiting greatly from the growing number of food allergies and illnesses occurring globally. Check out my 2022 blog post dedicated to raising awareness about big pharma exploiting us here.

My goal with Invisibly Allergic is to create a collective interest to help pass bills at the state and federal levels to update our food labeling laws to protect consumers. This would require companies label for “not suitable for/may contain” and follow specific regulated verbiage and practices, so the public knows what top allergens are in the facility and therefore may have trace amounts of their allergen due to cross-contact. This would allow the public to be empowered to make educated decisions around what they’re ingesting. I do not have a law or policy background, but I am working with FARE and others on how this would look in the U.S. and how it works with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) requirements. If you’d like to get involved, please contact me.

The Food Allergy Content Boom

As a teen in the 2000s and growing up as a young adult in the 2010s, I searched the depths of books and the internet for basic information validating my experience living with a life-threatening food allergy, specifically a peanut allergy. I struggled to find anything at all, causing me to go through a challenging period where I questioned myself, my food allergy, and my daily experiences. That lack of mistrust in myself is why I started this food allergy website because I no longer question my experience and don’t want others to feel the same way I did back then. If I can help even just one person feel less guilty, isolated, and like there’s something wrong with them, I’m happy I started this website. Plus, sharing my food allergy story and spreading peanut allergy awareness has been incredibly healing and therapeutic. With the support of friends and family and a lack of support from medical professionals in my city and online, I finally began trusting my own food allergy experience and stopped searching outward for validity. I began telling my own food allergy knowledge and found my inner food allergy wisdom that has always been inside of me. Now in 2023, there are many incredible food allergy bloggers, food allergy websites, and even food allergy books that are from first-person perspectives. I no longer struggle to find food allergy content online. I’ve even found food allergy content that resonates deeply in me and makes me feel connected to a person or community in ways I never thought would happen. Should out in particular to Shiv Sewlal @shivaika on Instagram for her hilarious and relatable content, and @EmsNutFreeEats helpful content and cheery personality! This access to content is a remarkable shift that I got to witness within the food allergy community in just one decade! To be honest, I wouldn’t spend time on social media without it! It’s one massive perk from social media booming, people from all around the world with shared experiences can now connect with one another in a way never before possible.

Follow Along With Invisibly Allergic

My aim here is to empower others with food allergies and/or food conditions to feel the same way I do and harness their inner wisdom on how to best live their life to the fullest with healthy boundaries around their food restrictions. Since no two allergies look alike, they will be customized and personalized. I do occasionally write allergy-related content for other sites & organizations, such as Food Equality Initiative (FEI). I am always interested in doing more partnerships, custom content with other bloggers, others, and meaningful organizations interested in helping improve the lives of food-allergic individuals.

I’m passionate about living life safely with what I call an “invisible allergy” because, as you may know, food allergy symptoms only present themselves outwardly when an immune-based reaction to a certain food is involved. I look forward to assisting here both practically and emotionally. I hugely appreciate physicians and those dedicating their lives to meaningful food allergy research, and I want to be clear, I’m not a doctor or researcher and am not claiming to be. There’s a place for experts of all kinds, and my area of expertise is from my real-life experience of having a food allergy. While I’m not giving medical advice to follow here (unless I’m citing a board-certified doctor or study) you’ll find many trustworthy sites, food allergy book recommendations, and more in my Resources tab & linked throughout my blog, because I do like to share statistics from reputable sources as often as possible for context and, you know, science!

Let’s Make the World a Better Place for All

If you have a child, friend, colleague, or relative avoiding food(s), I hope Invisibly Allergic will serve as a great resource to better understand their own life experience, individual needs, and preferences. Feel free to e-mail me any topics you’d like to see discussed on my blog or reach out with questions or comments! I’m truly honored to run Invisibly Allergic and be here as a resource & I love connecting with others. Lastly, you will see that I refer to my food allergy as a food allergy disability, and that’s because it is a disability for me. As I mentioned initially, it is a food allergy spectrum, so not everyone will feel their food allergy is a disability. Let’s celebrate our differences and similarities & do some advocating in a way that feels healthy and true to ourselves to help make the world better for all, shall we?

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