Healthy Eating

By lo

April 28, 2006 10:33 AM | Link to this

Good morning. I am allergic to Cinnamon and I usually ask the wait staff if a particular dish uses that in it. I remember a few years ago we had company holiday dinner and they had wonderful sweet potato dish and I asked the food service staff if it has Cinnamon in it. They said no, so I asked for an order. Needless to say I tasted Cinnamon on the very first bite and my dinner was pretty much ruined. The worst was when I started to develop a rash on my arms and face and I started to itch. Luckily I was working in a hospital so I just went to the ER and got everything undercontrol after a few hours. Another allergy story that I have was when I went with my best friend to a steak house and I asked for a plain baked sweet potato with my t-bone. My best friend immediately advised/scared our waitress that I am allergic to Cinnamon so please make sure my sweet potato has no Cinnamon on it or I would die. LOL The look of horror on our waitress’ face was priceless. Poor thing now she thinks that my health is in her hand. Seems like sweet potato always get me in trouble. I better cook it myself at home to avoid future mishaps.

By

April 28, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this

Thats cute lo. I might try that some time with the waitress scare. I am alergic to dairy products. But I love them all. I am lactos intolerant. But I always make myself suffer anyway. (And I really shouldn’t) While I know milk is good for you, I’ll treat myself to it and stay off in a room by myself for a day or so to get over it. My poor husband would only be so happy about the latter. :-)

By Carolyn

April 28, 2006 11:11 AM | Link to this

Cinnamon…now that’s an interesting one! and an ingredient not often listed on menu descriptions. Lactose intolerance is very common; is it fairly easy to avoid dairy?

By DB

April 28, 2006 11:22 AM | Link to this

My six year old son is fatally allergic to peanuts. We carry two epinepherine injections with us everywhere we go. Eating out is tricky but we have handled it well so far. It is really troubling to hear people use allergies as a “cute” way to have their food prepared a certain way. Please be careful playing around with this. It is scary to think that food service workers could begin to blow off allergy issues because they think it is just a ploy.

By Oddman

April 28, 2006 11:30 AM | Link to this

Okay, I developed an alergic reaction to Turkey in my early 40’s. Go find someone else who can claim that one. Kinda odd, started mildly enough, but now if I have a bite my throat starts closing, my head floats and neck turns red. I have to be very careful in some “earthy” eating joints if I order bacon…. My last big scare happened that way.

By asleep

April 28, 2006 11:39 AM | Link to this

I developed an allergy to meat (all meat except seafood) in my early 30s. I was skeptical about the initial diagnosis but after numerous ER visits I have become a believer and only eat seafood.

By Bill

April 28, 2006 12:15 PM | Link to this

Has anyone ever experienced this? There are some foods that I cannot eat raw, but I can eat cooked. Two examples for me are broccoli and cauliflower. If I steam broccoli, I can eat as much as I want. If I try it raw, I have an allergic reaction - which for me is vomiting.

There are other foods that I just can’t eat such as cabbage and melons, but the raw/cokked idea puzzles me with the broccoli and cauliflower.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bill

By Rajah

April 28, 2006 12:19 PM | Link to this

Here are 2 very interesting allergies.. haven’t found too many people like me.. Saffron… it’s the world’s most expensive spice, lucky for me, it’s not abundant but it will show itself in a Thai dish now and again.. and the second i most recently discovered is anchovies.. you would be surprised where those little things turn up…yuk…

By Julie

April 28, 2006 12:34 PM | Link to this

I am allergic to seafood, which is great for me, cause I don’t like it. The hard part is that fish is an airborne allergen and walking in to the grocery stores can cause me problems at times.

By Zletr

April 28, 2006 01:48 PM | Link to this

No Caroline, it is not easy to avoid dairy products and I just simply have to suffer with it. As I am an older women, I know how important milk consumption is and how it is good for the bones, and forget soy, but I’d just rather suffer with the symtoms than not drink my milk.

By ATLChica

April 28, 2006 02:55 PM | Link to this

I have a strange one too. I’m allergic to pesto. Whenever I eat it, it causes me to swell up, have shortness or breath and break out in hives. I’m not for sure if its one of the herbs in it that bothers me or the tree nuts.

By ATLChica

April 28, 2006 03:00 PM | Link to this

This reminds me of that Sex and the City episode where Carrie claims to be allergic to parsley because she doesn’t like it and Berger gets all mad at her. Me and my boyfriend argued for like two hours about that because I thought that it was okay for her to tell the waitress that and he didn’t.

By Carolyn

April 28, 2006 03:13 PM | Link to this

Yes, one of the ways we all can help people with serious true allergies is to avoid telling the servers we are “allergic” to “insert any food item here.” My concerns go out to those of you do deal with life threatening food allergies. The airborne food allergen is a new one on me…if that happens near the seafood section of a supermarket, what do you do when you go to the beach? I am allergic to asparagus. It gives me asthma like symptoms which go away when I take Benadryl. And then sometimes it doesnt seem to affect me at all. I wondered..is it a certain kind of asparagus? Does frozen asparagus not cause the reaction because freezing changes something? But, I’m not willing to experiment anymore ( even though I love asparagus!) because the true allergic symptoms will WORSEN with exposure. Be very careful.

By Judy

April 28, 2006 03:17 PM | Link to this

My husband is allergic to both onions and mushrooms. Eating out can sometimes be an overwhelming challenge (and don’t get me started on reading food labels at the grocery store). However, more and more, wait staff are being sensitive to his requirements. We even found a restaurant which can put an allergen into the menu computer and verify acceptable dishes right away. No more asking the busy chef! (P.F. Chang’s was the restaurant)

By tiffany

April 28, 2006 03:57 PM | Link to this

I have a 5yr old, who is allergic to soy and peanuts. when he started pre-k it was hard because he wanted to eat lunch with the other kids, and eat what they was having and i tried that for a week until the school said he was hard for them to to read each label and cook food just for him. so he has to bring his lunch. so its hard for him because he doesn’t understand. he wants to spend the night out at his friends house and i won’t let him… any suggestions?

By Kim

April 28, 2006 04:32 PM | Link to this

I have Celiac Disease (an autoimmune condition where I must avoid gluten, found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats.) I actually write restaurant reviews as part of my freelance writing career, so that makes things interesting. Online menus are a godsend. I try to research and narrow down my choices to a couple of things before I even enter the restaurant. Servers and chefs are generally helpful, and I always tip really well for their trouble.

Probably the biggest headache for me is soy sauce. It often contains wheat, and is in everything from Asian cuisine to meat marinades to barbecue sauces.

I spend a lot of time on a message board for those with Celiac, and there are many people who have given up on going out to eat altogether because of the terrible experiences they’ve had. I can only hope that it doesn’t get to that point with me.

By Nicole

April 28, 2006 05:05 PM | Link to this

I am allergic to shellfish, and chocolate, sadly I passed that on to my son who is allergic to all seafood and all milk products, he is allergic to eggs, too. he has asthma really bad and my parents when they cook at thier house they always say oops we forgot he is allergic to seafood and they cook fish and shrimp all the time, me and my son can not go see them on those days or we both will wind up in serious condition at the hospital. neither of us can even smell it without our throats closing, breaking out in hives and loosing our breath.

By Heather

April 28, 2006 05:22 PM | Link to this

I am allergic to fish, not seafood. I have to be very careful when going out to eat. My husband scared a waiter one time with an allergy story. Luckily the waiter was nice and asked what went into a seafood dish for me. Unfortunately there were anchovies, so I was not able to get that dish. I did however order a hamburger and by the time my family and I returned home I had to spend about an hour in the bathroom because I was sick. Luckily the restaurant was 15 minutes or so from home! I think that the grill had some fish on it (the restaurant offered grilled fish). Because of this allergy I have problems eating: bbq, anything with cheap soy sauce, anything with Worcestershire sauce, and a lot of white (wine) sauces at seafood restaurants and some italian places.

By CVS

May 1, 2006 08:50 AM | Link to this

I’m allergic to corn and it hides in everything… most glucose, dextrose, and citric acid is commercially produced from corn. Get an IV at the hospital? Odds are it will contain dextrose or glucose. Then there is the corn syrup, corn oil, corn meal, corn starch, ect. which hides in many processed foods.

By Rachel

May 1, 2006 08:54 AM | Link to this

I have a strange allergy. I am allergic to carrots (raw, cooked, whatever). Several years ago, I took one bite of a carrot while preparing a salad and earned a trip to the ER. I immediately started itching, had difficulty breathing, my eyes swelled shut, my ears swelled up huge, etc. It wasn’t pretty. Even the allergist couldn’t believe it until all of the bloodwork came back.

Anyway, carrots are stuck in everything as a filler. Spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, spice packs, alot of salads at restaurants, even apple cider donuts!!

I have the problem at restaurants that I tell them I cannot have carrots in any dish or anywhere on my plate and they will bring me a side of mixed vegies on my plate with carrots. Then, I have to explain that they have to redo my dish (and not just scrape it off the plate), because if it touched my food I cannot eat it (yes, I am that allergic).

We have gotten to the point that we only eat out at a very few restaurants, because it gets embarrasing and is a pain. I have “safe dishes” at certain places and pretty much that is where we go. Trying to find a salad at a restaurant that doesn’t have a carrot stuck in it is almost impossible (there were two restaurants in our area that I used to order salads and sure enough, they now stick carrots in them).

By Nancy

May 1, 2006 09:31 AM | Link to this

I have food allergies to all egg, chicken and turkey products and it has become very tough over the years. You know find chicken broth/stock in mashed potatoes, vegetables, rice, soup and the latest were the chips at a Mexican restaraunt. Needless to say egg products are in just about everything! Any suggestions, or is anyone out there have the same allergies?

By

May 1, 2006 11:18 AM | Link to this

I used to think that poultry allergies were unusual, but several others have mentioned them. When I was young, I never liked eating chicken, but I don’t remember why. In my twenties, it actually became uncomfortable to eat it because I would itch and my throat would start to close up. Now, I can’t eat any chicken, turkey, duck, or other birds without following it with an injection of epinephrine and trip to the emergency room. Strangely, I am able to eat eggs. My doctor told me the proteins in eggs are different from those in poultry meat, so no problems there. I actually had my first flu vaccine this past December (the vaccine is manufactured inside eggs, so I was always told to never get one).

In my mid 30s, my list of food allergies expanded to include beans and tuna (and a couple other fish I’ve never had). Blood tests also confirmed allergies to beef, tomatoes, mustard, peanuts, and a few other things, but I’ve never had any problems with those.

I learned something interesting this year that is probably related to my food allergies. I was diagnosed with GERD/acid reflux several years ago, and I’ve had endoscopies done in each of the last two years to check on its progress. They did a biopsy this past year and found very high levels of eosinophils (a type of white blood cell related to allergies) and diagnosed my with eosinophilic esophagitis. This is something that in the last few years is being diagnosed more and more. Doctors aren’t completely sure, but they believe the eosinophils grow uncontrolled and attack the esophagus. (This makes sense since those foods that don’t cause external reactions are still passing through my esophagus.) This, in turn, may cause scarring of the esophagus lining and difficulty with swallowing, which is what brought me to the doctor and the eventual GERD diagnosis in the first place.

Here’s a link to a good article about eosinophilic esophagitis and its relation to food allergies: text to be linked

By Toni

May 1, 2006 11:33 AM | Link to this

I have life threatening allergies to milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts (peacans, walnuts, etc), peanuts, strawberries, apples bananas, cantaloupe, celery, and green beans. I was 37 when they developed. It has been hourrible. Reading labels is a 10+ plus job in the grocery store and a lot of places put labels on over the ingrediant listings(meat depart) whihc doesn’t help. the best place I have found to eat out is the local Waffle House. Mainly becaused you can supervise from the boothes or counters.