The Food Allergy Brain Episode 6: Congressman Maxwell Frost

This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Congressman Maxwell Frost, who represents Orlando, Florida, and is the youngest member of Congress and its first Gen Z representative. What many people don't know is that Congressman Frost is a lifelong food allergy kid with severe peanut and tree nut allergies.

He shares his personal journey, including a terrifying near-fatal anaphylactic reaction at a potluck, the panic disorder and eating disorder that followed, and the coping strategies that helped him recover. The conversation explores what it's actually like navigating Washington, DC, with severe food allergies, from the House cloakroom that used to stock bags of peanuts, to unmarked meals in the Capitol, to flying twice a week, and how he turned those everyday frustrations into real institutional change.

They also discuss the Epinephrine Pharma Inflated Price Ends Now Act, his bill to cap the cost of epinephrine auto-injectors at $60 for a pack of two, why these devices are so expensive in the US, and what listeners can do to help get it passed. The episode closes with his vision for the ideal food allergy support system, centered on community, organizing, and accessible mental health resources.

Congressman Maxwell Frost's Instagram: 

Personal: @maxwellfrostfl 

Official: @repmaxwellfrost

Find Mia Silverman (Allergies with Mia): 

Instagram & TikTok: @allergieswithmia 

Website: allergieswithmia.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Food Allergy Brain. I'm your host, Mia Silverman, Food Allergy Advocate, Content Creator, and Master's student in clinical psychology. This podcast explores the mental and emotional side of living with food allergies through conversations with experts and people doing important work in this space. Before you begin, please remember that everything discussed on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. For questions about your own health, food allergies, or treatment, always consult with a qualified doctor or medical professional. For today's episode of the Food Allergy Brain, I'm so excited to welcome Congressman Maxwell Frost, a Florida representative, activist, and fellow food allergy kid who has been incredibly open about his own journey with severe food allergies and the mental health challenges that came with them. In this episode, Congressman Frost shares what it's really like navigating life in Congress with food allergies, the personal anaphylactic experience that changed everything for him, and the legislation he's fighting to pass that could make epinephrine more affordable for millions of Americans. Without further ado, let's get into today's episode. Congressman Maxwell Frost, it is such an honor to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to be here today to talk about food allergies.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, thanks for having me on and appreciate all the work that you do on this issue.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Thank you so much. So for those that don't know who you are, and this is their first time hearing about you, could you just share a little bit about yourself and you know where you represent as a congressman and all that?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, so I represent Orlando, Florida, Central Florida. I was actually born and raised in the area that I represent. Uh my father's a musician, my mom's a school teacher. I grew up as a musician. Obviously, something messed up happened because I went into politics instead. Um, but music was always the biggest part of my life. I went I went to school for jazz drums. And it was when I was 15 years old when the Sandy Hook shooting happened that I started to get involved in politics. I I just honestly became obsessed with learning about how could something like that happen. And and then finding out about laws in this country and advocacy and activism and organizing. And I ended up going to the first vigil for all victims of gun violence in DC and meeting those families was my call to action. And I went back home and started organizing and figuring out, you know, here's a problem that I've identified that I want to help solve in this country. And I saw the people around me as part of the solution, my peers, my friends, the people I went to school with. And so it was the first time in my life that I became an organizer because that's what organizing is. You know, you see a problem, and the people around you are the folks you want to bring together to solve it. And so that's what got me involved in politics. And really, ever since fresh out of high school, I started working full-time on political campaigns across the state of Florida, worked at the American Civil Liberties Union for about two years, and then after that uh became the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, which is the uh massive youth-led movement that came after this shooting that happened at Marjorie Stone and Douglas. So, you know, I'm really proud that throughout my life, really, and and since I was 15, I've been focused on trying to figure out ways to make our country safer, make things more equitable, right, where where everyone has a fair shot, everyone has opportunity. And having the audacity to ask for more in a nation with so man so much resources and figuring out ways that more and more people um don't have to fight for crumbs, right? And um and there's a lot more work to do because there's massive wealth inequality in this country, but I'm really proud to be a small part of such a big puzzle.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I know I mean your journey is absolutely incredible, and I really just want to thank you for all the work you're doing for our country. I feel like, you know, a lot of the politicians that we have in our country are not really doing their jobs and are standing up for what's happening, at least in this current administration. And it brings me a lot of hope that someone like you is doing such incredible work, um, not only just for people with food allergies, but just the general Americans. So just thank you for all you do. I'd love to kind of segue more into your personal life because you have food allergies yourself, correct?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

I do. I'm an allergy kid.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So take us back to when you first discovered you had food allergies and how did that shape your childhood?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, well, when I was a kid, my my parents like fed me one of the allergens. Um, and you know, I started puffing up and went into anaphylaxis as like a toddler. And so then they found out, oh, well, he's allergic to this, and then you know, I did the allergy test and would do it every once in a while and found out how many things I was allergic to, which was quite a few. And you know, you know, funny enough, I actually didn't experience my first anaphylactic attack as like uh by myself until I was an adult, and I didn't really have any of it when I was a kid. I think because there was a lot of measures taken to make sure that I was okay. Obviously, it was around my parents all the time. Um, I remember at lunchtime when it was peanut butter day, I would sit out outside, I would sit like not with everybody, which sounds bad, but I actually got to pick like four friends to go with me, and it was everyone was always like biting at it to like they were always like, pick me, pick me. But um, you know, for me, I uh have always had very severe allergies. Yeah, my my entire life.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Wow, thank you for sharing that. And if you're comfortable sharing, how has having severe food allergies kind of affected your mental health, if it did at all?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

You know, for me the mental health part really came um more recently. Um, you know, the the quick story is I I almost died at a potluck about it was in 2017, I think, 2016, 2017. And um, you know, potlucks are scary for people with a lot of allergies sometimes. And so, you know, I make my grand announcement to let everyone know what my allergens are and to let me know what I could and could not eat. And you know, people are half paying attention, and I go to one of the one of the safest things for the person with my allergies, which is cheese pizza, you know, I was like, let me just eat some cheese pizza. So I eat a bunch of this cheese pizza, and I like, you know, mid-bye, I'm like, this is so good, dude. Like, you know, and then he goes, This is a family recipe, you know. There's uh uh tree nuts in the crust, you know, and I'm just like, oh my god. And um I know and puts tree nuts in pizza, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

I thought he was joking at first because I thought I he had heard my announcement, number one, so I thought it was a like a sick joke. And uh which I don't appreciate those jokes much anymore, but I'll get to that in a sec. And so I I I like run off and grab my backpack and get like a bunch of beta drills and like take like three or four beta drills because I start freaking out. Um and then I run out to my car and I grab my EpiPen, which had been, you know, expired for five years or whatever it is. Um and then I run into the bathroom and I'm just sitting I sit on the toilet because of the mirrors right in front of it, and I'm just staring at myself in the mirror. Because I know that once I hit that epinephrine, the night is over like it's the night is over, everything, you know what I mean? And I um I didn't want to cause a scene or anything. And so I was looking at myself in the mirror trying to figure out am I going into anaplaxis? And then it started to happen, and I went out and told everyone, and and when I, you know, I waited so long, which you shouldn't do, you know, I really should have gone with it immediately. And I waited so long that my throat really did close and I was choking. And so I used the epi pen and I got a little relief, but not a ton. And uh I remember thinking, like, I'm gonna die, like I'm about to die. And it was after I used the epi pen that I was thinking that because I didn't get as much re I I didn't I didn't open up as much as I thought I would. And so because of that, I was like, oh well this was this is like the thing, this is like the hell Mary. And the EMTs walked in like right when I had that thought and saved my life pretty much. They had more epinephrine, they brought me to the hospital. I had like a secondary reaction four hours later, um, and had to get another shot of epinephrine, and the entire night was very traumatic. And um, I ended up developing some serious mental health issues, panic disorder, a lot of anxiety, and essentially I would have these kind of phantom pains when I'd eat because I'd think I was going at an anaphylactic shock or having an anaphylactic attack. And so there was like nine times in a year where I would call the ambulance while I was eating at like Chipotle, which doesn't have any of my allergens there really, um, because I was convinced that I was dying. And so I developed an eating disorder and I lost a lot of weight and I stopped eating because I was scared of eating. And it took me a while to get through that, um, because it would just be that whatever I'd eat, I'd have a panic attack, and it would be really bad, and I thought I was dying. So um the you know, that took a serious toll on my mental health. Honestly, I still I feel like I'm a lot, I'm way better right now. I'd still struggle through and still working through, but it was very difficult and introduced stuff in my life I had never dealt with before.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Wow, that's so scary, and I'm just so thankful you're okay. Um, because going into anaphylaxis is so traumatizing, especially your situation. That just sounds so scary. Um, and so you know, obviously it's been almost 10 years since that has happened. What are some ways you kind of learned to cope with having a food allergy-related anxiety and then having, you know, this previous like disordered eating behaviors and and things of that sort, if you're comfortable answering that question?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Honestly, it was a lot it was a lot of things. Um I got a therapist that I started seeing, um a um psychiatrist that um I started seeing as well. Lots of different kinds of medicine, to be honest, and trying to see what worked for me, whether it was more of a maintenance situation, like a Zoloth or something, or I found that because my panic attacks were so intense and it was so real, like I really felt like I was having anaphylaxis, like I really felt like I couldn't breathe, and we all know panic attacks will do that. That I had to uh be prescribed some you know, pretty serious medication that would kind of be as needed, you know. So when I was having the panic attack, I could take it and then like be able to be a functioning human right after. And I never dealt honestly, I never dealt with panic attacks in my whole life until that. I never really dealt with it. Of like normal anxiety I would deal with, but even as a kid when I was around people having a panic attacks, I didn't really understand it. Um and so it was very new to me. The whole thing was very new to me. And um, so it was honestly a lot a lot of like medicine therapy, um, going online and figuring out what do people do, you know, when they're having a panic attack and how do they deal with it. And then it came to the point, and I still carry it around to this day, because just in case, but I literally carry around the um the thing you put on your finger that tells you your vitals everything.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah. I liter I then I bought like a bunch of those and started carrying them around because I w I needed to I went to my doctor and I said, How can I without a shadow of a doubt know I'm not dying? Like what what are the things I can do to know, okay, this is a panic attack or this is anaphylactic shock or anaphylactic attack. And so he talked about vitals, he talked about, you know, if I could take a very deep breath in and very deep breath out, I'm most likely not having airway, uh my airways are not being constrained, and things like that. And so I would have a you know, and I I didn't trust every any one of them. So I would do like all five to six of them every time. And the finger thing, though, honestly, provided me with a lot of mental relief. I would carry it everywhere, like I wouldn't eat unless I had my epi pen or my finger thing to check my vitals. And then afterwards, if I was having a panic attack, I would I would check that and I would like keep it on my finger for like a while to make sure that I wasn't dying. So it was really difficult. I was I was throwing everything I had at it to figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Well, I mean, no shame in having to do whatever you need to do to bring yourself like at least some peace of mind. I think that finger, whatever it's called, like the vital check, I think is honestly kind of a genius thing because then you have like visual confirmation, like I'm not dying, this is just a panic attack. So again, like whatever does bring you peace of mind, I feel like as long as you're not hurting yourself, that's what matters. So that's really been able to kind of figure out ways to kind of cope with it and navigate it because it's so hard. Um to kind of segue more into you being a congressman and having these food allergies. As someone that has food allergies, what does an average day look like for you as a congressman like navigating DC dinners, hill events, campaign stops, kind of things of that sort?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Yeah, so I'm gonna do a few things, but like the main thing for me are you know, peanuts and tree nuts. Like that's like the the worst one. Those are the ones that put me in anaphylactic shock, those are the ones that can kill me. And so um I was shocked at how many events there are around DC that have a lot of nuts at them. Um, you know, now like I'm in my fourth year, we do a good job, and look, I know how like I'm an adult, you know what I mean? I know how to deal with that kind of thing. But I'll tell you something that almost no one knows, and actually a lot of my colleagues don't know about this. And I I kept it a secret for a while because I don't want people to think I was like a like a buzzkiller or anything, but it was really important. So when I first got to Congress, you have the house floor, and then behind the house floor you have something called the cloakroom, which is kind of our break room where you can go in between votes, you can talk, and there's couches back there. There's like a snack bar, like a hot dog stand in there. There are little phone booths where you can like have a conversation on the phone privately. And then there's usually a free snack. Um, and up until about a year into my me being in Congress, the free snack was a bag of peanuts. And uh, yeah. And you know, at first I was like, oh okay, you know, I just won't eat 'em. But as you know, and like my my food allergies pretty serious. I mean, I can't smell it. I can't have pot, like I can't really touch it. And so it made my job really hard because in Congress, one of the only pla really the only time you are with everybody, all the people you need to talk to, the people you need to get, you know, voting on your bills, the people you need to come to your press conference. The time where we do a lot of work is on the house floor while we're voting. That's where we talk to each other. And it was damn near impossible when I'm walking around and like everyone has like peanut dust on their hands. I'm trying to have a and like these conversations are like you're close. I'm trying to have a conversation with somebody on the floor and they're just completely wreaking up like peanuts on their breath. So I have to pull like one of these where I pretend that I can't hear what they're saying, and so I move my ear close to them so my I'm not breathing, you know, my allergen.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Smart.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yeah, yeah. But that that's what I do when people have bad breath or have peanut breath. And so, um, not all the time for people listening. I do sometimes I have tinnitus, so I do sometimes need to hear. But um, it made it like actually made my job hard. It wasn't just an inconvenience. It made it so I really had a hard time having conversations with people. I would have awkward interactions when someone went to shake my hand and they had a bag of peanuts and a mouthful of peanuts and stuff, and it became difficult. So we did some like lobbying and we got it changed, and so the there we the peanuts were removed, and so then it was like either bags of Skittles or pretzels, which honestly I think are better personally, but I don't know. And so we changed the snack in there, but that's just like an example of like a little a little thing that for people who don't have allergies or serious allergies, they might not think it's a big deal. Like, oh it's just peanuts don't eat them. But like that's you know, it's a real like you know, that's a real example of how it like actually made my work more difficult. Another one is like flying all the time. I mean, you know, I um you know, there's some airlines that like give out pistachios or peanuts or this and that still to this day. And some of them are good with creating buffer zones, some of them are not. So it came to the point where I just started carrying around like a very serious mask. Like you're you know, remember during like COVID or during lockdown, like there would be like there's like levels of mask.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Like the N95, the KM5, like that was exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah, there's like there's levels to this thing. So I have like some of the like duck ones, you know, like the really good ones, and I carry those when I fly in case I encounter someone who just doesn't give a damn and is like I'm gonna do what I want. That way I can, you know, have a little bit of a peace of mind. Because um one of the fears that took me the longest to get over after my anaphylactic attack was flying, because I was so scared of for a while I wouldn't eat a damn thing. Like I would only drink water in a plane because I was scared I'd have an attack on a plane and like die on a plane, which has happened. And so um I uh flying is like another thing because I do it twice a week that you know sometimes there's issues of not not all the time, but but a good amount of times.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Wow, so it seems like you know, just in at DC, the work you do, they're not they're not like allergy friendly or aware, but now because of you, you know, with you lobbying and changing the snack option with this situation, like you now feel like safer, I'm guessing, which is good. Um, but obviously traveling with allergies is a very valid year. I also wear like one of those crazy masks on the plane because it's a concern, and I think you have to do it to protect yourself. So thank you for sharing that insight because I had no idea what it was like having allergies and working as a politician. So that was really insightful and really interesting. I'd love to kind of segue more into your politics, specifically the Epinephrine, Pharma Inflated Price Ends Now Act or EpiPen Act. And for listeners that might not be familiar with this, can you break down what this bill does and who it will help?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, so this has to do with something I think a lot of us aren't used to, which is the fact that EpiPens are too damn expensive. Um, and it is a a life-saving device that if you need it, you should have it. And cost shouldn't be a barrier. And there's so many reasons too. It's not even just about the fact that it's too expensive, it it's that, but it's because it's too expensive. Number one, a lot of people ration out their insulin or not their insulin, sorry, that's true too. A lot of people ration out their epi pens, and what I mean by that is they will keep epi pens that have been long expired, which is a very normal thing with people with allergies, especially if you speak with folks. I mean, a lot of people, the epi pen that they have in their backpack that's supposed to save their life if they eat an allergen is two, three, four, five years expired because they're so expensive, and so people will keep it with them until that liquid turns like brown in the little clear thing. Um, and that's not safe. I mean, we should really have up-to-date epinephrine always on us that is not expired um because it is not worth the risk or your life. And I always bring up my own allergen attack that I had, and I had one that hadn't expired for a while, and how whenever I tell this story to doctors, they say, well, you should have felt like a little bit more relief than like what you felt, and and I I think it really has to do with the fact that I had an expired epi pen. Then the other thing is if because epipens are so expensive, people either don't buy them or don't have them, um, which is a huge risk, or they don't have them in all the places they need them in. And really, you should be able to have um epinephrine in all the common areas that you visit, on your person when you when you go around. And like my rule, I don't eat unless I have my epi pen. Like I just don't consume any kind of food because unless you're cooking it, and even then, you're it can't be a hundred percent sure, even at you know, at a restaurant where there's a lot of you know servers who don't take allergies seriously, they take it more of a you know, you like you don't like something versus I will die if I don't eat this. And like sometimes you have to really explain that to people. And so you really have to protect yourself. And so um because epi pens are so expensive, a lot of people just you know just have one, and and that one stays home a lot of the time. A lot of people um um have expired ones, and a lot of people just don't have them. And so this makes things a bit more equitable where it cops it caps the cost of EpiPen at sixty dollars for a pack of two. Um, so that you know, which is a lot cheaper than the two, three, four hundred dollars this stuff cost, and depending on where you're at in the country as well. People in uh rural communities with smaller clinics a lot of times don't even have access to a lot of the generic brands that a lot of people use to have some cost relief, although it's still expensive. And you know what the crazy thing is, Mia? I actually my health insurance didn't fully cover my epi pens until after I almost died. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, it's insane. I my family used to. pay a lot more for epipens, you know, 100, 200 bucks, whatever it is. And it wasn't until like after I had my anaphylactic attack that then they were like, okay, we'll cover the cost of your EpiPen now. And so then I had like, you know, a certain amount of refills where we didn't pay anything. That's wrong.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

I mean it shouldn't even be that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah, like people should have to almost die to have their epi pens covered. And so the EpiPen Act caps the cost of EpiPens and uh we're working hard to get it passed and we could use everyone's help. Everybody has a congressperson if you live in the United States and so um reach out to your congressperson, try to get a meeting to tell your story to say, explain why it's important to you. And you know a lot of these Congress folks a lot of my colleagues have either siblings, cousins, grandkids that have food allergies and I always ask them to think about them and how they go throughout life and figuring out how can we ensure that they have the life-saving medication they need for this really what is a disease that prevents them from eating things and and in many cases you know it will kill them. And so the EpiPet Act caps the cost of EpiPens.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

That's amazing I was going to ask like what should my listeners like do to help with that just answer that question. So that's perfect. And I think this is definitely a need because I know that in the UK epinephrine devices cost I think like under $70. Why do you think I mean this is probably an obvious answer but why do you think the US is so far behind? Like why is it EpiPence? Because at least for me like my insurance covers it thankfully but it costs six hundred dollars for a pack of two which is like stupid. That's outrageous.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So why do you think that we're so far behind with this so many reasons we we kind of have to take a step back and look at our healthcare system as a whole which we do have a really broken healthcare system that values profits for a few people over the health of our people and and health care in this country is really more of a commodity than something that's seen as essential to everybody. And it's always the blame game right big pharma uh blames the PBMs the big pbms uh blame big pharma you have health insurance companies you have providers you have people who say well why is the actual thing that expensive the procedure this and that and the fact the truth is is it's everybody everybody is trying to squeeze every dollar they can get out of us and when you combine those things it creates a a country where number one we have tens of thousands of people who die a year because they're not insured and then the people who are insured most of the time have health insurance that they're paying too too much money for and it doesn't really cover everything they need to cover and they can't see the doctor they need to see when they need to see him. And then when they need life saving medication or they need maintenance medication it's so damn expensive because of the cost of that medication and then also the health insurance companies that are screwing us over. So it's like from A to Z, we have a huge problem and there's a lot we need to do. I mean I I advocate for a single payer healthcare system. You know we're the only major nation in the world that does not guarantee healthcare to our people and it's not just about universal health care because I could give everybody crappy health care, right? But it's about high quality healthcare because the fact of the matter is in this country many people who do have health care don't like it or it doesn't cover everything they need to get covered. And this is part of the reason why we have a primary care uh crisis in this country especially with young people who don't have a primary care doctor that they see on a regular basis to keep themselves from getting very sick. And so because we don't really invest in preventative health care in this country where we have a problem where people most of the time end up in the emergency room with insane medical debt. And so I I talk about the full healthcare problem because this is part of the reason why PBMs, Big Pharma try to squeeze every dollar they can out of us through things like epipens, insulin, things that people need to live and life-saving medication. So we have to both figure out the root causes of why does medicine cost so much? Why do medications cost so much in the first place? Why is it six hundred dollars that your insurance company pays? And then also why is health insurance so damn expensive and why doesn't everyone why isn't everybody covered?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I mean this is just proof that healthcare is political like it is a pe a serious political issue. I mean I do think not to get off track but if we can afford to send bombs to other countries I think we can probably afford to make healthcare at least very affordable and accessible to those that need it. So yeah I'm glad we could agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah it it's not it's not a it's not a question of like do we have the resources? I mean we we're we have we're the richest country on the face of the earth. And it's funny because in politics they never ask how you're going to pay for it unless it's like healthcare or housing. You know when we're talking about our our budget for the Department of Defense which is now over a trillion dollars which is important that we have a strong national defense of course and I I come from an Air Force family and um it is important that we fund the military. However 75% of that money is going towards military contractors and the DOD hasn't passed a uh an audit in the last like dec a few decades. So I mean we there it's a not a question of does do we have the resources, it's a question of priorities and what we prioritize as a country and how we use our taxpayer dollars to make life easier better more affordable for everybody no matter who you are no matter where you're born especially given the fact that we're dealing with hu a huge crisis in this country um in our economy and wealth inequality and it doesn't matter what party you are right and the numbers show it every year that goes by there's fewer people who own more of our nation and that's a that's a national security threat but it's also it's a threat to our our our people working people everybody and I'm not talking about millionaires or multimillionaires we're talking about you know billionaires and the biggest corporations it's it's such a small group of people a lot of folks would be surprised and that really creates issues where we're we're not able to build wealth. You know I'm a progressive and sometimes people are like hey you don't want people to make money I want everyone to make money. That's the thing I I don't want just a few people I want us all to make money. I want us all to have resources and build wealth that we can pass along to our kids and future generations but I'm and not to get off track but I'm really concerned that especially our generation and young people are going to have an ownership crisis where we won't own a damn thing. We won't own our house we won't really own our car. Less and less people own their phone because of these plans that they're stuck in forever you just won't own anything. And that even like movies to pay subscriptions like monthly you brought up what I always bring up I always say we don't own the movies we watch anymore we don't own the songs we listen to anymore you won't own a thing. Everything will be subscription based or you'll be renting it and that that right there I think is one of the greatest crises facing young people especially because it means in 30 40 years we won't have a damn thing to pass along which means our kids will be even worse off. And and so that is like the real crisis in this country that I always try to pull things back to because healthcare is a big part of that as well and I I'm glad you healthcare is political and there is there are tens of millions hundreds of millions of dollars that flood our political system to influence both parties to essentially influence how politicians vote on bills having to do with healthcare and so we should ask questions with both parties. We should criticize the fact that there's so much money within our political system and it makes it so that way politicians are not making decisions based on what's best for you and I and working people and everybody but what they're being told by some lobbyist.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Amen to that 110,000% agree. I asked this question to all my guests I'm super curious to hear what your thoughts are on this. If you could design the ideal emotional and medical support system for food allergy patients and their families what would that look like to you well number one I think a big thing is community and like and having a network of folks who are dealing with what you're dealing with.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

And honestly I never knew there was a food allergy world until I got to Congress and then I get hit up by like Fair or some work or a different organization and and they invite me to speak at something and in my mind I'm like okay cool there'll be like 20 people at this food allergy thing you know and I show up and there's like hundreds of people from across the country who after I told my story come up to me and say I went through like the same thing and but but I handle it a little differently. This is what I did. And I think that's so important because a lot of times people feel like they're alone in something and they just resort to the internet which is important. The internet can teach us a lot but a lot of times there are people in our same community in our same neighborhoods in our same cities and towns who are literally going through the same thing who have perspective they can share with us and best practices which a lot of being somebody with food allergies is having this bank of best practices that you do in your day-to-day life to protect yourself or protect your child and a lot of people don't know about them they just think because it's so stigmatized they think well you just have to be like be careful or look out but there are actual things we can do to impact the institutions we interact with on a day-to-day basis to protect our lives and like the peanut thing I brought up is like one of them right another another thing when I got to Congress like every meal because there's a lot of meals served in the Capitol for different things there were the allergens were never listed on it. And I actually had an issue with the salad I ate that I asked like is it good? They said yes and I started eating it and then I see oh what's this you know there were like nuts in the salad but they were like shaved um and they didn't you couldn't really see it until you started eating it and I asked and they said it was fine and it wasn't so I had an anaplactic attack like right before a vote. And uh but now all the meals have all the allergens on it right it's like if that happened before it that would have never happened. So families parents everyone should know that like you don't have to just like bite your tongue and say man that's an annoying thing we have to deal with maybe that's an annoying thing that like doesn't have to exist anymore. Like and that you can organize with other parents at your school or other people in your life who feel the same way but have been told like you know it's just a slight inconvenience you need to deal with. No, it's a disease we need to make sure that people are protected from so either way that's my long way of saying that I really feel like being connected with a network locally is a very important thing. And of course having really good resources for mental health therapy different things like that and and we should really um it should be more accessible to people but I think the cut the connection part's very important I think that's a really great answer.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I think you know you you're throughout my gosh sorry throughout your your history and throughout your career journey you know you really prioritize or like organizing and community that's a very like a great answer. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you Congressman Frost for your time and for sharing your personal experience and your journey and just all the work you're doing for the allergy community and just for just Americans overall it really means a lot. For those that want to follow you and support what you do where can they find you on social media?

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Yeah you can find me at MaxwellfrostFL. Again that's at Maxwellfrost FL. I also have my official government account which is at Rep Maxwellfrost. So music and random politics is my personal one and like my government work is my government one. So follow both if you're so inclined. But thanks for having me on me and I really appreciate your advocacy and what you do to educate people and in a time like this like knowledge is power and it's so important for people to be educated and again to understand that they're not alone in this thing um and that their voice is really needed at this time. So I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

That really means a lot uh Congressman Frost thank you and to those that are listening thank you for listening to today's episode I hope you all have a great day afternoon wherever you're from and I'll see you next time. Bye