Hi there! My name is Emily, and I’m a 24-year-old young adult who has lived with severe food allergies my whole life. I was born and raised in Pleasanton, California and call the San Francisco Bay Area home! I graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, a suburb of Los Angeles, where I played collegiate water polo and majored in Public Policy and Economics. Since then, I’ve been working in corporate America and spent two years living in San Francisco before moving to New York City in the summer of 2024. In my free time, I love to explore the amazing New York food scene, run (I’ve completed several marathons!), hike, ski, and spend time in the outdoors. When I’m not working or running, I’m creating content for Em’s Nut-Free Eats and can usually be found at the nearest allergy-friendly bakery or testing new dessert recipes in my apartment.

I was born with severe food allergies to peanuts and most tree nuts. Despite having multiple anaphylactic reactions during my childhood, I was fearless with food and rarely let my allergies hold me back. However, in high school, I began experiencing stomach pain and chronic fatigue almost daily. After months of what seemed like countless elimination diets and doctors visits, I was diagnosed with a severe gluten intolerance and told to remove gluten from my diet entirely. While I was relieved that eating gluten-free alleviated my symptoms, I was frustrated at how difficult it was to find gluten-free recommendations that were also free of nuts. Dining out guides on popular gluten-free blogs featured restaurants with many nuts, and what seemed like every certified gluten-free product had a may contain nuts warning label.

Then, right before my 18th birthday, I suffered a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction to peanuts at a restaurant with my friends that left me feeling perpetually cautious around food. Leaving for college made things worse, as I abruptly had to learn how to navigate the dining hall, find new restaurants, and communicate my food allergies to a new set of friends. Throughout my first semester, I struggled managing anxiety around food that morphed into a pattern of disordered eating and led me to pursue professional help. (You can read more about my experience with anxiety and therapy in Allergic Living Magazine here.) After months of intensive EMDR therapy that helped significantly improve my anxiety levels, the idea for Em’s Nut-Free Eats was born. I wanted a place where I could share my experiences dining out at restaurants, traveling, and managing my food allergies throughout my adult life, as well as continue encouraging myself to try new foods and heal disordered eating. I launched my Instagram page @emsnutfreeeats in 2020 and this website in 2021, and my blog has grown from there!