Healthy-Family is celebrating our very first birthday this month. On July 1, 2007 we went on line with our first post, Attention and Behavior Problems can be Alleviated with Good Food and Supplements. Since that time we have provided over 135 posts from six different authors about varying topics such as eco living, parenting, health and nutrition, crafts, technology, education, and allergies. Over 118,000 folks have viewed our site and we have been privileged to have nearly 30 individuals subscribe to us as well.

As recently as January we launched our allergy specific forum, which now has 22 members and includes many free recipes within its pages. We hope to expand both the website and the forum in our second year and have plans for many more articles in the future. (more…)

Got a corn-allergic kid? How about educating him or her with an online game show?

The University of Illinois Extension has a game called the “Great Corn Adventure“ hosted by Zea Mays. It is part of a collection of educational games for kids.

Lovely Ms. Mays takes the viewer on a tour of the corn world, starting with the Native Americans in the valley of Tehuacan in Pueblo Mexico in 5000 b.c. (more…)

What do you do when you have a corn allergy and you want something sweet to eat? After keeping careful watch and reading labels for a year, I have come to the conclusion that our only best bet is to make our own ‘on the go’ snacks from scratch. And drinks? Just forget about them. As a matter of fact, I challenge anyone in America to read the ingredient listings on every snack product in their favorite vending machine. It would not surprise me if every item had some association with corn, however odd or far removed as it may seem. Heck, even the water bottles are more than likely made from a corn byproduct! I digress. I really want to focus my attention on America’s romance with sugar, corn sugar to be specific, its prevalence in our lives, and a little history about how we became so addicted to the sweet stuff that grows in abundance over our midlands, and now even clutters the landscape surrounding the rocky mountain region. (more…)

If you have issues with sensitive skin, and especially if you have recently been diagnosed with allergies or intolerances, you may want to take a long look at your soaps, deodorants, perfumes, and cosmetics bag and perhaps do a little purging this weekend. Many favorite name brand cosmetics and personal products are full of common allergens and known cancer causing toxins. After having had a few strange reactions after using popular drugstore brands over the years I finally switched to high end cosmetics only to find that even those irritated my skin. I soon became an occasional makeup wearer, but now there are better options available for women with sensitive skin and known allergies. Not only will your complexion improve, and your confidence, but you may actually feel healthier too. (more…)

Gluten is the term we use to describe the mixture of proteins, including gliadins, that are found in wheat grains, barley, and rye. Gluten, quite simply, means ‘glue’. And the term is appropriate because it is that glue-like quality found in these grains that make them ideal ingredients in our baked and prepackaged goods. The sticky quality of gluten has given it value in non-edible markets such as the production of paper and fabric glue. It is also used as cattle feed and as an initial ingredient in the manufacturing process of monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Most of us have a remote understanding of celiac’s disease, the seemingly rare autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that causes damage to the intestinal villi, thus triggering a whole host of health problems, nutritional deficiencies, and possible colon cancer if left untreated. (more…)

Wheat and Corn allergy sufferers need to be careful with the rice they buy. Most commercial brands are fortified with vitamins and minerals, also labeled “enriched”, and this is problematic for wheat allergy sufferers, but it is a double whammy for those that need to avoid corn too. For corn sufferers, ascorbic acid, derived from corn byproducts such as dextrose, is used in the vitamin compounds sprayed on the kernels to enrich the final end product. To bind the vitamin compounds corn or wheat starches are generally but not always used. (more…)

Bed-wetting, or Nocturnal Enuresis, is a nuisance when parents are starting to potty train. But for many families this inconvenience stretches for many more years. As bed-wetting children age it becomes even more apparent to them that there is something wrong.

There is a shame that runs deep among those that grew up with plastic mattress covers and a second set of spare sheets already underneath them. It is a secret society of members that hold on to their anonymity for life. As adults they remember sleep over parties and vacations that were always wrought with anxiety. A bed-wetter knows when they to go to sleep that more than likely they will awaken hours later wet and embarrassed, and it is completely out of their control. Or is it?

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Breast milk is best for a variety of reasons, but sometimes your baby weans early or the mother’s milk doesn’t get firmly established and supplementation is necessary. You resort to feeding your baby formula, and you are racked with guilt by this because the pressure to breastfeed is so strong. It is not so rare to have a baby exhibit colicky behavior when switching to formula (more…)

If you have found this page through a search engine then you have probably already learned that you are allergic to both wheat and maize. You have undoubtedly been suffering with some type of extreme allergic reaction, chronic illness, or auto-immune disorder for months, if not years. It is quite a shock when you discover that you or a loved one has an intolerance to both wheat gluten and maize, as these two ingredients are a staple in the modern American diet.

As a multiple allergy sufferer this poses quite a challenge for you when it comes to ingredient purchases and meal preparation.

I have devoted a special section of this website for people allergic to both wheat and corn, hoping to spawn a community of readers that will interact together with tips and recipes to share. (more…)