PKU (Phenylketonuria) Event

PKU (Phenylketonuria) 

In the United States, about 1 in 10,000 to 15,000 babies is born with PKU each year. The illness happens in all ethnic groups. But it’s more common in people who are Native American and Northern European than those who are African-American, Ashkenazi Jewish or Japanese.Phenylketonuria (also called PKU) is a condition in which your body can’t break down an amino acid called phenylalanine. Amino acids help build protein in your body. Without treatment, phenylalanine builds up in the blood and causes health problems.

What causes PKU?

PKU is inherited. This means it’s passed from parent to child through genes. A gene is a part of your body’s cells that stores instructions for the way your body grows and works. Genes come in pairs—you get one of each pair from each parent.

Sometimes the instructions in genes change. This is called a gene change or a mutation. Parents can pass gene changes to their children. Sometimes a gene change can cause a gene to not work correctly. Sometimes it can cause birth defects or other health conditions. A birth defect is a health condition that is present in a baby at birth.

What kind of treatment does he need?

 your baby is ready to eat solid foods, she can eat vegetables, fruits, some grains (like low-protein cereals, breads and pasta) and other low-phenylalanine foods. If your baby has PKU, she should not eat:

• Milk, cheese, ice cream and other dairy products
• Eggs
• Meat and poultry
• Fish
• Nuts
• Beans
• Food or drinks that contain aspartame. This is an artificial sweetener that has lots of phenylalanine in it. It’s sold as NutraSweet® and Equal®.

So are you wondering why this blog? 

This weekend I and a number of other students had the privilege of working with Chef Payne and Chef Kevin Brown at a PKU Event. The event was held at L’Ecole Culinaire for about 30 attendee’s some attendees have PKU and some have children that have PKU. If you see above the types of food that those who where attending cannot eat, it includes most things that we are here learning to prepare. What a great opportunity to work Chef Brown to help them cook foods that are appealing to the eyes, tasted pretty good and can fill those voids of food groups above. Chef Brown has a vested interest in making the challenge less challenging, two of his three sons have PKU.

This time I forgot to take photos, it was yet again another great learning experience. This was certainly not something that we would have covered in class...

Thank You Chef Payne