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I believe we should fight for a stronger laws for food labeling.  There are
many people who suffer from various food allergies and intolerances.  I
cannot tolerate wheat and although I have not had a biopsy, I know I have CD.
I stopped eating gluten products because I developed adrenal problems which
are slowly subsiding after being gluten and soy free for several years.  This
combination makes it a nightmare to eat out.  A grocery store is also an
ordeal, reading labels that often don't have the information necessary to
make it safe to buy a product.

Restaurants are another problem.  Often those who work there don't know or
don't care what is in the food.  Even our local Health Food store stirs the
different soups, some containing pastas, with the same spoon and they know
better.  A friend died last year 40 minutes after consuming a desert that was
"guaranteed" by the shop owner not to contain nuts.  She was highly allergic
and even with an epi-pen could not make it to the hospital.  She died driving
there.  Her brother also was guaranteed that a cookie did not contain nuts,
but it did.  He survived.

Sixty percent of the food manufactured today contains soybean.  20 percent
of our population are know to be soy intolerant.  Labels contain information
such as could contain soybean, corn sunflower or other oils.  This makes it
impossible to tell what is in a food product.

My grandson is highly allergic to peanuts and possibly other legumes.
Peanuts make him go into anaphylactic shock.  Others I know have problems
with sunflower seeds, nuts, and dairy.  Two of my other grandchildren "go
bananas" when they eat anything that has bananas in them, even as little as
the banana flavoring of a fruit lollypop.  Another friend has a child that
exhibits the same ADD symptoms from apple products.

The point I am trying to make is that food labeling does not only effect
those of us with CD.  There are so many people out there who need to know
what is in the foods that they buy.  As Amy said in her post, people are now
eating foods that are not native to their countries of origin and are foreign
to our bodies.  With new foods coming from all over the world ,it is no
wonder so many of us suffer symptoms from the foods we eat.  I believe that
many of the Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia diagnoses are actually food
intolerances.  It is interesting to note that in many cases, people don't
want to change their eating habits so they are in denial that food may be
their problem.

In summary, I feel that we should join in with groups from other allergy and
intolerances to present the problem as a unified group, to the FDA or
whatever governing body that has a say in food labeling.  The "No Soy" group
is one of these.  Since I am new to the internet, I have not been able to
hook up with a chat group or forum such as this, but I will try.  Is there
anyone else out there who thinks this might be workable or knows of other
groups (like lactose intolerant, etc.)  who might have the same interests?

Thanks for reading such a long note:  Carol Lyd.