About & FAQ’s

Willowtree provides information and inspiration to people with all types of food sensitivities and intolerances to help them live a hopeful, healthy and informed life.

About Jackie & Tina

We are sisters. We have been struggling with food sensitivities for most of our lives. We are first-hand, front line, food sensitivity mavens. We believe in eating whole foods, local where possible, and organic if given the choice. And now that we’ve trudged through the mud and reached pure food bliss (a.k.a. we know what our bodies are sensitive to – wahoo!) we want to share what we’ve learned so you, too, can be in tune with your body, its food sensitivities, and the food you choose to eat.

Willowtree began as one of those piping hot conversations between sisters Jackie and Tina in 2009; the take over the world kind; the limitless in opportunity kind. “Why wouldn’t we do this?” we kept asking ourselves. We couldn’t think of a good reason not to. And so, Willowtree was born! Providing a Recipe of the Week; multiple articles each week about our experiences with food sensitivities including cooking, dining out and more; as well as a location-based farmers market & grocery store finder, we are dedicated to giving our readers inspiration and information on how to live a healthy and manageable life with food sensitivities.

FAQ’s

What is a food sensitivity, you ask?

Sometimes called a food intolerance, but very different from a food allergy which has a very clear, easily defined reaction to a food (think of someone’s reaction of asphyxia when they eat shellfish). We define food sensitivities as something that can make you feel bloated, nauseous, or lethargic; something that can give you a headache, migraine, fainting spell, or sinus infection; but generally food sensitivities can make you feel all-round yukkie. Things like lack of sleep, alcohol, stress and anxiety can make it worse, and adding to the muddiness of it all, food sensitivities can change in severity over time. Food sensitivities can be different from person to person and therefore are such a difficult thing to pinpoint. Common food sensitivities include (but are not limited to): lactose/dairy/casein; gluten; wheat; caffeine; alcohol; chocolate; soy; acidic foods (i.e.-tomatoes); sulfates; food additives, preservatives & chemicals…and the list goes on.

What makes us the right people for the job?

First-hand knowledge. Living with food sensitivities for nearly 30 years. However, we want to make it clear that we are neither doctors nor your health practitioner, and are not offering you a diagnosis of any kind; we are simply sharing what food sensitivity related information & resources we have experienced in the hopes that they will help you, too. We are however both studying to become Registered Holistic Nutritionists to give you even more knowledgeable advice in the future!

Do we get paid for writing about products?

Yes, it’s called advertising and we’ll always tell you. But yes, we’ll also review a product, a cookbook, or a recipe as one of our weekly posts – we love doing this for our readers! If you have something you’d like us to write about on Willowtree fire us an email to inquire if your product meets Wilowtree’s criteria. Everything we post on Willowtree, whether it’s a recipe, or a product review, or a weekly article is honest and based on Willowtree’s values, so our readers can expect to get a true, first-hand opinion on how your product can help them better live with their food sensitivity.