Crossing the Mountains of Allergies in 2016

It's a new allergen free year, and I hope you all are having a wonderful start to 2016.
The 2015 year provided our communities with considerable good and bad news which is laid out before you below.

The Good News:

1. The gluten and allergen free markets are seeing no sign of slowing down yet, meaning still more options are bounding their ways into our local stores and cities. 
2. The FDA is slowly amending the gluten free and allergen labeling law to try and cover a loophole or two.
3. Food Allergy safety in school and airlines is being spotlighted and a campaign is focused.
4. More studies on diagnosis, treatment, and public issues are being delved into with fervor.
5. Gluten sensitivity is being backed up and hopefully makes more strides sooner rather than later.

The Bad News:

1. The media is bent on making your gluten and allergen free diet to remain ridiculed and questioned on a daily basis with ever more candor. With every negative blog post and news article, the chances of our safe options are being diminished.
2. People are 10 times more likely to be vile in comments on blog posts and media articles.
3. Companies like General Mills and Quaker Oats are able to use their own internal testing methods which have been proven to have flaws.
4. Whether or not you agree with the P.F. Chang Asian Bistro lawsuit being waged, their legal team has chosen to use fairly offensive reasoning for fighting the lawsuit. These reasons are making fodder of the fact that celiac disease is a disability and that it is genetic.
5. Talk show hosts, advertisements, comedians and cartoonists are still taking potshots at gluten free or people with food allergies, and failing to be funny to the ever growing community.

Reading the lists above makes me only realize that we thought we had crossed the mountain of food allergies but still have so very far to go. Perhaps being a food allergy advocate should be more likened to hiking the Appalachian trail with hundreds of miles of mountains to traverse. We are likely only a quarter of the way there, or perhaps a third if you want to be a glass half full kind of person. Either way, we are getting there with every tedious step along the trail.

And the best news of all, I am right there with you!

Here's to a year full of successes - Happy 2016!