One of my friends just found out she's allergic to a long list of foods (please read details inside) How can I help her to cope?

Please read the details before answering, thanks in advance.

One of my close friends has had a severe peanut allergy since she was a kid. She’s now 38. She has always been very diligent about what she eats, because she has to avoid peanuts, peanut dust, and any other foods that may have been processed in the same place, or on the same equipment with peanuts. This involves most other nuts, and many processed foods including ice cream and candy. Subsequently, she has a very healthy diet. She is also a vegetarian.

She’s been hospitalized several times over her lifetime with anaphylactic shock, because of inadvertently coming into contact with peanuts, mostly in her younger years, before peanut allergies were well known. She carries an Epi pen everywhere she goes.

Recently, over the last six months or so, she has had mysterious gastric problems including diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, and abdominal pain. As of this week, though, she also has broken out into hives along with the gastric issues.

She had been seeing a gastroenterologist who apparently misdiagnosed her (not sure with what) but gave her medications and a special diet that seem to have made matters much worse, including some specific antibiotics that just about ruined her stomach lining.

Today she went to an allergist, who was quite alarmed to hear what the G.I. doctor had recommended. It turns out that she is now (and probably has been for some time now) allergic to a whole long list of other foods, including a bunch of items that are in her already limited (due to being a vegetarian) diet.

She had blood drawn today and they are doing more tests, but as of today, they told her she needed to avoid soy, tomatoes, lima beans, green beans, bananas, and cinnamon (and of course all nuts) to name a few. Oddly enough, wheat and dairy seemed to be fine.

Right now, she’s a little panicky, but I told her I’d check in with you guys to see if you had any advice or coping skills for her.

I guess what she needs to know is, how does one deal with having such a limited diet? She and I and several of our friends are vegetarians, so we already know how to deal with having a somewhat limited diet, and California is a pretty good place to live, regarding how people perceive and treat you if you have food restrictions, although there are still a few people who think we’re Satanists or witches or something, but this new situation has just drastically put a dent in the number of foods that she can eat. She doesn’t even have the full list yet.

She’s already about 30 pounds underweight, but I just chalked that up to her nursing her big second baby. Turns out, it is all related to this food allergy situation.

I know one of our Jellies (but I’m forgetting which one, so please forgive me) has a similar problem. If you know who it is, it would be great if you could forward this to them.

Anyway, any advice that I can pass on to her regarding how she can proceed (and cope) would be much appreciated.