May 19 through the 25th is National Eosinophil Awareness Week.
Last week I blogged about the "Eat Like Us" challenge that I hope you have decided to take part in this Friday. I will be drinking only Alimentum formula for the day and eating a lot of dum dum suckers to disguise the taste. I realize there is some milk derived product in Alimentum, but my access to Neocate and other truly hypoallergenic formulas isn't what it once was; and since I've done the 8 food elimination diet in my life, I wanted to kick it up a notch and see what life on these not-so-tasty formulas is like. No offense to Abbott Labs, but this stuff leaves something to be desired.
Why beat around the bush about it? |
I hope you'll join me on Friday for the challenge, whether it's eliminating the top 6 foods from your diet to sustaining for a day on formula. Let's put on the shoes of those who live with EGIDs and experience first hand what life is like, if only for 24 hours.
EGID factoid of the day:
The first study to mention eosinophilic esophagitis, a case study in the journal Gastroenterology, was published in 1978. Over the next 20 years (1979 - 1999) a total of 150 studies were published on EGIDs. Since 2010 alone, 593 studies have been published. However, only a handful address the emotional and social issues EGID patients face, but we're working on increasing that number as we speak.