The Diagnosis
Recently I found out that I am allergic to gluten, dairy, and nuts. The common response when I tell people this is, “what do you eat?” or “you poor soul!” For those wondering what the freak I eat….it is a lot of veggies, meats and rice. I was crushed when I had to change my diet, because my diet before the diagnosis consisted of pizza…pizza and more pizza along with ice cream. I used to have a username that said, “pizzalover” and I had papa johns on speed dial. I have always known that I was allergic to nuts since I was in middle school, but realizing I had gluten and dairy allergies was a hard pill to swallow. I discovered I was allergic to gluten and dairy, because every time I ate it I would be sick as dog throwing up and getting bad acid reflux. I was miserable for months. Sorry if that is TMI (too much information) for anyone. I had a blood test that confirmed I was allergic to dairy and gluten. I have been gluten, dairy, and nut free for four months, except for cheating on thanksgiving (it was a bad decision…it involved one angry tummy).
After the diagnosis, you must teach yourself what your allergy is and where you can find it. Fun fact: gluten and dairy are in almost everything. I made the tragic discovery yesterday that there is dairy in almost all chocolate bars. I say almost all because I have not lost hope of finding one without dairy. Chocolate is like kryptonite for me. One unusual place you can find gluten is in ketchup and soy sauce that seemed so strange to me, but flour is used in a lot of sauces as a thickening agent. If you are 21 and are gluten free you should stay away from beer, because it is literally made from gluten. There are some gluten free beers, but I prefer wine. Also, if you are allergic to butter like me (yes it really does suck) you must tell restaurants or you will be one sick puppy, since butter is the staple in almost every dish at all restaurants. I have learned over the past four months to not care about the judgmental faces of restaurant staff when you list your gigantic number of allergies. From my experience waiters and cooks are unaware of how severe allergies can be. Often, they think it is just a diet preference. No, it is not a diet preference I get physically sick. When I have nuts, I go into anaphylactic shock (yes, it is terrifying and yes it has landed me in the hospital). I may not die if I eat gluten or dairy, but my stomach feels like I have swallowed explosives (I know I am dramatic, but that is how it feels).
I once ordered a salad and told them about my allergy when ordering. The salad came out with nuts on it. I told them that I couldn’t eat it and needed a new salad. They brought it back within minutes and I saw that they had just picked the nuts off the top and there were still parts of nuts on my plate. I was so mad I said, “You need to make me a new one and not pick the nuts off, I will go into anaphylactic shock if I eat this!” If you are a waiter or cook reading this, please be considerate and kind to your allergy customers (life is already rough finding things you can eat). I mostly cook at home, because I get sick at almost every restaurant I go to. There are two sweet spots that have not made me sick, Hopps Burger Bar and Bravo in Greensboro. I wanted to start this blog to inform people and to encourage those allergy sufferers that you can eat yummy food without getting sick. My mom and I are continually coming up with allergy free recipes to indulge in.