At the Expo

B. and I recently attended the THRIVE Allergy Expo. Held at Chicago’s McCormick place, the event featured a number of allergy-friendly and gluten-free exhibits, as well as talks on a variety of applicable subjects.

We had only one afternoon at the show -- unfortunately, we had learned about the Expo just a couple days before the event and already had plans for the rest of the weekend. I wish we had had more time, but we did accomplish and learn a lot in the time we had.

Some of the great things about an expo like this are the opportunities to learn about new products, get lifestyle tips like gluten-free baking, and meet the people who produce allergy-friendly products that make life easier. I'm relatively well-informed about available gluten-free products and services, but I was quite pleased to find a number of companies new to me. It also was fun to visit booths of favorite companies and let them know how much I enjoy their products.

We truly enjoyed talking with Michele Fellows, owner of Sweet Alexis, a dairy-, egg- and nut-free (please note, not gluten- or soy-free) wholesale bakery. While I could not partake of samples she offered, B. assures me that they were excellent.

We were pleased to meet the mother-daughter team from 1-2-3 Gluten Free and hear how the company got its start. Like many gluten- or allergen-free food manufacturers, having family members affected by celiac disease ultimately prompted the creation of the family-run business. I'm very excited by 1-2-3's baking powder biscuit mix AND now there's a new devil’s food cake mix available –- I cannot wait to try it.

It also was great to meet the good folks of Edward & Sons. I am a huge fan of their plain Rice Snaps – these crackers have a great crispy texture and are a staple in my pantry. At their exhibit, I picked up an alfredo sauce mix from their Road's End Organics line -- it's gluten-, dairy-, and soy-free -- that I’m looking forward to trying.

Lisa Williams from Lisa Cooks Allergen Free also was present. She had worked with the food providers at McCormick Place to make sure there were allergy-friendly options at the Expo food court. Among the other opportunities at her booth was a raffle for an allergen-free dinner for six.

We stopped by the booth of Andrea's Fine Foods Gluten Free, a St. Louis-based bakery and store. The company creates gluten-free baked goods and other foodstuffs. The pumpkin muffin samples I tried were great! If you can't visit the bakery in person, ordering can be done from Andrea's Web site, where there is a helpful allergen information chart, indicating which products contain dairy, soy, tree nuts or corn. Everything is gluten- and peanut-free.

Perhaps the biggest personal surprise for me at the show was that I became a beer convert. It’s true. I had never been a beer lover before being diagnosed with celiac disease, so it wasn’t something I missed when I adjusted my diet. I always, however, have liked hard cider, so when I saw a booth with gluten-free cider, I thought I’d investigate further. Green’s Gluten-Free Beers was offering tastings at its exhibit. After I sampled the cider – mm, good – I decided to try the beer as well. There are three types of Green’s Gluten-Free Belgian ale, and I have to say, I enjoyed all of them. These truly are the best gluten-free beers – beer in general, actually -- that I’ve ever tried. Very drinkable. In fact, I even can see myself, on a hot Chicago summer day, reaching for one of these ales as a beverage of choice in lieu of my standard chilled white wine. If you are someone who is gluten-free and misses a good beer, I strongly suggest you try Green’s. If you are someone like me who never really cared for beer but wanted to, I suggest you give it a try, too. Green’s Gluten-Free Beers are available at Binny’s, Sam’s Wine and Spirits, and Whole Foods.

There were a couple gluten-free flours I discovered at the Expo:
Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, a flour mix that creator Jules Shepard says can be used in gluten-free baking as a direct 1:1 substitute for regular wheat flour; and AgVantage Naturals Sorghum Flour, a sorghum-based gluten-, dairy-, soy- and nut-free flour produced in a dedicated facility. I'm excited about both. Maybe I'll start baking more from scratch again.

Another happy find was Toro, a gluten-free brand from Norway that's available in the United States through Tastes Like Real Food. Toro offers flour mixes for bread, waffles and the like. According to Jenny Bosking, president of Tastes Like Real Food, Toro has been producing gf products in Norway literally for decades. B., a non-celiac, noted that the samples were quite good, and I hope my local markets will start carrying the brand.

One of our last stops was at the booth of Sweet Margy, Confection Diva, a candy purveyor based in Chicago that produces gluten-free toffees. I have it on very good authority that the candy is exceptional. My family is big on toffee, and I've filed away a mental note about the confections for future gift ideas.

At the show, I was primarily interested in learning about gluten-free brands and products -- if they also were dairy- and soy-free, bonus! -- but the allergy-friendly aspect was well represented, too. The event organizers did a good job of balancing the interests of attendees. In addition to the range of exhibits, there was a complete slate of lectures and demonstrations both days. The sessions were categorized according to healthy living, marketplace or cooking themes, and they covered topics such as traveling and eating out safely with celiac disease and food allergies, getting diagnosed, quick gluten-free meals, allergen avoidance, gf bread baking, anaphylaxis and much, much more. So whether people attended because they were gluten-free or because they had food or environmental allergies, there was plenty by way of exhibits and demonstrations to satisfy curiosity for both groups.

One remarkable aspect of the expo was how willing attendees were to share their stories and swap recommendations with each other – strangers who, recognizing significant common ground, quickly became acquaintances. We struck up some very interesting conversations on the show floor as we toured the booths.

In short, we were so glad we attended.

The organizers of THRIVE Allergy Expo are planning their next event for February 2010 -- this time, in Atlanta, Ga. Stay tuned.