GFKC x ADINA

My Q&A with the amazing young woman behind the ADINA Act

As we continue Celiac Disease Awareness Month, I am very excited to share this important Q&A with Adina Togal. This week’s post is typically paid, but this information is so crucial to our GF community (and the allergy community), I’m removing the paywall so it can be shared far and wide.

I started to see the ADINA Act on Instagram not long after I started this GFKC journey. Over time, I learned more and more about it, and most recently saw that Adina took a trip to DC to advocate for allergen and gluten labeling in prescription and over-the-counter medications. Such labeling is required for food products but, shockingly, not for medications. She is a deeply impressive young woman, speaking out about a critically important cause, and I hope you will take some time to read through her story.

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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Adina Togal, I live near Minneapolis, Minnesota and I have a dog named Coco.  I really like to hang out outside with my friends and play sports. I play lacrosse and golf during the spring and summer, and during my free time I like to hang out with my friends, read, and watch my favorite show, FRIENDS! 

What prompted your work on the Adina Act? Can you explain what the Act is?
A couple summers ago I got sick with strep throat at my camp. The camp knew I had my dietary restrictions, so they took the initiative to contact my parents and ask them if the antibiotic was going to be safe for me. My parents did everything they could to find out if it was safe, by calling the manufacturer, multiple pharmacies, and my pediatrician but it was a Saturday afternoon, so of course everything was closed.

They decided to let me take the medication because the strep needed to be treated before it got worse. A couple days after starting the medication I began to feel out of the “norm”. I started to throw up and when that happened that’s when things started to unravel. I started to throw up constantly, I had severe GI distress, couldn’t keep in any fluids or food and wasn’t able to stand up. I later had to be transported to the hospital because my blood pressure was dangerously unstable.

After my parents found out what happened, they decided to contact our Representative, Dean Phillips, and talked to him about what is now the Adina Act, or The Allergen Disclosure In Non-Food Articles Act. The Adina Act is to ensure that all pharmacies in the US are required to label or tell us if the medication is free of the top 9 allergens and gluten. 

What have you been most surprised to learn about in your research and lobbying efforts?
I would have to say I was most surprised that most people don’t think about these kinds of things when they are looking for medication, especially for people who might have celiac disease or other food allergies like I do, or even worse.

Where does the Adina Act legislation currently stand?
Currently we have 38 cosponsors for the House of Representatives and we hope for more cosponsors by the end of this session so that way if it has to get re-introduced in 2025, we are starting off on a very strong starting point

It’s shocking that medications don’t need to be labeled for allergens, given the severity of some individuals conditions. What is the best was to check if a medication is safe?
So typically what my family will do is we will first look at the bottle of the medication because some brands are labeled, but it’s very rare and it’s not required. If we find that it is not labeled, then we go to the company website and we look there for any allergen disclosure.  If the medication doesn’t have a website, we call the manufacturer, but most of the time there’s only really a 50/50 chance of getting a real answer out of them. Most of the time they will direct us to our pediatrician who will try and give us information. But almost all of the time it can take between 1-2 weeks until you could get an answer.

What is something you would like someone new in the celiac/allergen space to know?
I would say that it may feel really hard in the beginning but I think that people with allergies are always the strongest ones and they become more mature because they become more aware of their own bodies.  So no matter how hard it may feel in this world right now, or no matter how angry you are, just know that you can do anything, and you are so much stronger than you think you are. No one should ever have to go through the things that people like me have to go through, and that’s why I think the Adina Act can change SO much for people with celiac disease and severe allergies, like me!

We’re all about delicious, easy, GF family recipes here. What is your favorite GF family dinner?
One of my favorite meals at home is beef ramen!  We use the Lotus Foods GF ramen noodles (from Costco), shredded beef, a bunch of veggies (zucchini, carrots, broccoli), and my mom’s secret homemade ramen sauce!

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Help support the ADINA Act and call your local reps to support this legislation! If you aren’t sure who to call, go to this website and enter your zip code. Sometimes when you call they will ask for the bill number, which is 4263. (I called mine recently - it took me 3 minutes!) You can call your rep at both their local and DC phone numbers.

To see more of the work Adina is doing, check out this video! And don’t forget to follow along on Instagram @the_adina_act_effort

Thank you Adina for helping our GF and Allergy communities!