How to Live With an Allergy to Shellfish

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I am going to talk to you about how to live with an allergy to shellfish. Living with an allergy to shellfish is relatively easy. The main sources are any type of shellfish whether that is clams, oysters, shrimp, crab, lobster, the main thing again is just avoid any sort of shellfish. The other possibility is going to be some calcium supplements. Sometimes there will be a supplement that will use the shell of various shellfish as a calcium source so that is another thing you want to check for. Look and see if you see the word Kitacin, that means it actually contains shellfish in it as the calcium source. Often times supplements if they do use that it will be in big letters and it will say contains shellfish so that is something that is pretty easy to avoid you just have to look for a supplement that does not have Kitacin in it as a calcium source. One of the areas to be cautious with is with gelatins. Sometimes gelatins will use proteins from shellfish as well so that would be another thing to check out but other than that as long as you are avoiding actual shellfish it is a pretty easy allergy to take control of because you are only avoiding actual shellfish, being cautious with supplements and also being cautious with gelatins. Other than that it is pretty easy to live with a food allergy to shellfish so those are your basic tips to avoid eating shellfish."