spices?

[Therese's Mommy]

How careful do I need to be with spices? My allergic dd has never had any spices that I can think of. I really want to start making her some food that is a little more fun. I found this recipe for making mac n cheese. I guess I could leave out the spices, but I thought it would be nice if this were something we could all eat together. I would probably replace the arrowroot with cornstarch just because I am sure it is safe and also would replace the nuts with more oats as we are avoiding nuts for now. I would be a bit surprised if she were allergic to garlic as I eat so much of it I would think there would be some indication by now.

Anyway, just looking for some opinions on this. Thanks!

[txtarheel]

How are you on seeds? If seeds are an issue, mustard can be a problem. I'm guessing they aren't since it's got sunflower seeds as a large component.

[Therese's Mommy]

She eats sunbutter, and flax seeds and drinks hemp milk. We have never had a problem with the seeds we have tried, but we are careful. We are unsure about sesame. She had a couple hives at a friend's the other day. She may have come into contact with some sesame seeds, but when you are at someone else's house you never know what they could be coming into contact with.

[Chinese Pistache]

Make sure the spices are clean. McCormick's spices are fine, as long as they are single spices, not mixtures.

[Therese's Mommy]

I just heard this the other day. I always use single spices, but a friend of mine said that she uses some kind of taco seasoning that has several spices in it and it has flour in it. She couldn't believe it. Anyway, she told me to be on the lookout. So, are spices generally ok? I imagine the onion powder is ok as well, as she is always rooting through my onion bag and peeling them and has never showed any reaction. And I just remembered one day she carried around a clove of garlic like it was a long lost friend. She bit into it a couple of times with no incident so that is probably safe. So, I guess we are just talking mustard and paprika.

[xekomaya]

The only big thing to worry about in single spices is anti-caking agents. It usually means corn but you mentioned corn was okay so, you should be fine

One of the common brands of onion powder has a starch for anti-caking.. I'm thinking it was Mccormick brand but I really can't remember. You can google for SCD safe spices if you're concerned because many people on SCD have taken the time to get letters back from the manufacturer guaranteeing there is nothing but the single spice in the bottle.

Taco seasoning is pretty much always going to have crazy stuff in it to thicken the sauce so its not really that surprising. The good stuff usually has cornstarch, the bad stuff is worse.

And if you just meant in terms of introducing them, we're allergic to a LOT of stuff (or at least we were, but we're healing and never had an issue with spices. Just pay attention to what you introduce so you can back track if needed.