Dairy used to be an important food group for me until I met the mister. I couldn't imagine life with no cheese or chocolate before him. My husband, on the other hand, is allergic to dairy-- not lactose intolerant (that would just give him diarrhea) but allergic as in if he eats dairy he can go into anaphylactic shock.
As a baby he drank soy milk. As he got older, his mother taught him to check ingredients for M-I-L-K on anything he ate, making milk one of the first words he could read. His sister recounts how he'd watch his family eating ice cream, asking them what it tastes like. He pretty much could not eat anything fun.
When we started dating, his allergy hugely restricted where we could go to eat. He can never be at peace in an Italian restaurant. He is paranoid that the Italians put cheese in everything. He doesn't even touch the table surfaces for fear of crumbs. It's really a sad sight. But that's not all. He doesn't know what a tall milk shake feels like on a summer evening or how good cookies can be with some milk. He can't eat cheetos or other cheesy chips. We never order dessert at the end of our meal because almost every common dessert has dairy in it. He couldn't even really enjoy our wedding cake as he was intent on picking the icing off the cake.
Last night we ordered a pizza. I always want to be on the other end of the line to see the reaction when he asks for
one large, no cheese. (His sister is allergic to tomatoes-- so sometimes we get one pizza no cheese, and one with no tomato sauce, then I really want to see the buzz in the pizzaria.) For the first time I tried his pizza and I loved it. It's sweeter than usual because of all the tomato sauce, but we had a lot of meat toppings. It was so good with some chili flakes. Now, it has become a part of my life to see and eat things like this. It's suddenly and strangely normal.
Do you (or anyone you know) have a food allergy? How does it affect your life?
True
Comments (71)
Luckily, I have no close friends or families with food allergies. But I did know a (much younger) kid that was allergic to sugar. It was pretty bad. I think I remember him grabbing a handful of M&M's at a party once, and ended up having to say in the hospital for a week... at least.
My brother was allergic to red food dye.... no fruit snacks, koolaid, bbq sauce... anything with any amount of the red dye
oh wow, that sucks ! :(
I'll get the itches if I had too much seafood.
my son is not that allergic to dairy. cooking the milk/cheese usually breaks the proteins down enough so that he can handle him. he just gets a bad rash from it.
a lot of people in my family are extremely allergic to shellfish. they can't even be in the same room with it.
woah. interesting! i never knew ppl can be allergic to tomatoes. then again. someone told me that her frd is allergic to fruits (other than strawberries). that was interesting too.
that saucy pizza looks intriguing, but i think life would be too miserable without dairy :'(
oh man i love pizzas like that: vegan style. my friend, a vegan, introduced me to that will all the good veggies for toppings. but when we ordered on the phone, it was too much for the employee to fathom. "i'm sorry...what? that's---that's not possible!"
wowww i'm glad i'm not allergic to any food. when my sister was little she was allergic to all my favorite fruits, somehow, and i felt so bad for her. however, she got some shots and she's not allergic to anything now. yay! cheeseless pizza is not bad. tomato-sauceless pizza is also not bad =D i like both these varieties
i am a little allergic to certain kinds of fruit... my lips get bumpy/swollen and if i drink soymilk my throat starts to itchy and close up. nothing serious though
Omg that totally sucks! My fiance is slightly lactose intollerant...he can only have a glass of milk a day, or only have a spoonful of icecream before he gets a stomach ache. This doesn't really effect our diets much, but it does get kindof annoying when we can't go out for ice cream or something because he's already had milk that day.
My Step-father is allergic to chocolate, but that hasn't really affected us in anyway, even when he was a part of our lives.
Your story is pretty sad, thank you for sharing. I know I wouldn't be able to do what your husband does.
My boyfriend is extremely allergic to peanuts. I nearly killed him once when we started dating because I fed him a mushroom off of a piece of pizza that turned out to be thai pizza.
He never eats desserts at restaurants, can't eat any of the chocolate bars I like, and my entire family has to check ingredients on everything before family dinners.
It's a hassle, but it's been 2 and a half years so I'm fairly used to it now. Before him I've never had any family or close friends with life threatening allergies. But it's one of those things you just get used to, there isn't any other option.
@zinda@xanga - I weirdly enjoy their confusion.
@landlockedeyes@xanga - Since he was born that way, he doesn't miss what he never enjoyed. So it's not that bad for him. And even though he doesn't mind, I feel bad enjoying stuff that he can't.
@Lulabell_88@xanga - True, no other option.
I think I would go crazy if someone in my house had an allergy like that! I simply adore cheese! I would give it up for someone I loved, though!
Although, pizza would be a no-go for me. I dont like tomatoes! So the thought of a pizza where most of what I tasted was the tomato sauce? No thanks!
I'm allergic to blue mold (like in bleu cheese and penicillin), and tropical fruits (pineapple, kiwi and mango, as far as I know). I've always wanted to try a durian, but I'm too afraid of doing that now because my throat might close up. :\ I developed the severe tropical fruit allergy a few years ago after drinking pineapple juice almost every day. Kiwis and fresh pineapple (although not canned) always made my throat itch when I was young, but it didn't give me any other problems until recently. It sucks, too, because I love tropical fruits.
I can't eat dairy, so no-cheese pizzas are familiar to me.
I've had to learn to stay away from packaged food (or at least read the labels really carefully) since so much stuff has hidden dairy ingredients.
Vegan in tha house xD
Seriously, it sucks because it's not his choice, but being vegan and all I see all the plus sides about no dairy. You should totally explore all the vegan choices (nix the vegan cheese, tried and nearly barfed, tofutti spread is good though).
In any case, as a substitute to milkshakes you could try smoothies with banana, i personally think it tastes way better than any milkshake i've ever had.
personal tip: vegweb.com (lots of dairy-less pies/cakes/milkshakes)
I have a milk allergy too and know what a pain it can be. Unfortunatly, or fortunately, it didn't really start until I was about 12 (23 now) though I was always lactos intolerant. That being said, I could see how it'd be easy to miss things like ice cream and cookies with milk, but if someone never had something it's hard to miss it I think.
Also, check this out: http://kidshealth.org/teen/misc/milkallergy_cutout.html it has a list of other foods that have milk contents that may not be labled as 'milk'.
Thanks for the add!
I don't. Thank god. But I have hay fever. Ughh.
I'm not allergic to anything but my mom is allergic to almonds (face gets all swollen and eyes swell shut) and to a lesser extent other tree nuts and then peanuts make her itchy. My roommate is the one with all the allergies though, she is allergic to eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, beef, and then she is lactose intolerant as well, so when we cook together we make sure everything is free of all those things and wasn't made in a facility where those things are used as well. It's not too difficult for us to avoid those things though anyway because one of my other roommates is a vegetarian and then another roommate and myself are both vegans so a lot of that food is cut out in our cooking anyway. It just sucks for her because we choose to not eat most of that stuff (except for the nuts) and she doesn't get that option. We all learned how to use a epi-pen and she always has them with her just in case.
Oh and I love cheeseless pizza! Yum.
Not allergic to any foods (plenty of environmentals) but I do have to watch my sugar intake (hypoglycemia), and my dairy (lactose intolerance)...and now I think I might have to monitor for gluten. Oh and I don't like meat. It sucks trying to find food to eat.
there was this kid my brother used to go to school with allergic to almost everything. no joke.
like...when he goes out he needs to bring his own special food lotions etc...
poor kid.