“What can you eat?” – Living with Food Allergies.
There was this one point in time, a pin point really, were someone who knew me would not have recognized me. I love cooking, have been doing it for all my life. I was probably 5 years old when I made my first complete meal for my family. Yet, at that moment, I was crying, curled up on my couch, because I could not answer a question I get allot. “What can you eat?” I am happy to say that today this is a much easier question for me to answer, though the answer is different than it will be 1 month from now, or was 2 months ago, or 2 years ago.
Let’s move to another point in time, one that is all too familiar. I am in a coworker’s office for a meeting. She has a stash of common junk food left over from a moral event. Among the food is Cheez-Its, Doritos, and different kinds of candy bars. She offers me something from the stash. I say no, showing disinterest in my body language. She asks me why. I tell her I have food allergies. At that time, I had to avoid dairy, eggs, almonds, beef, and pineapple. She looks at me in disbelief, and asks what I eat. I laugh a little. She repeats herself “No, seriously, what can you eat?” She was unable to think of the food world I live in.
It is a running joke. “Claire is allergic to food.” When you look at what I have removed from my diet at one point or another, you start to see why. Every time, the food removed had been in response to a doctor’s advice, directly related to my food allergies. It is easier to cover the foods I have not had removed from my diet: all vegetables and herbs, most fruit, rice, chicken and pork. One thing you will notice missing from that short list most kinds of protein. Yah. That’s a problem. But let’s back up for a moment.
As it turns out, allergies change over time. You might have noticed this when you moved to a new place, and suddenly had more or less hay fever. Or your son may have outgrown his dust mite allergy. Your daughter may have become allergic to a pet over time. Food allergies are similar. According to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, most children outgrow their food allergies by age 10. I did not. Further, if you ignore a non fatal food allergy, or have too much of an allergen, a food that did not bug you before might start bugging you. For me, milk and eggs are permanently off my diet, and I try to make sure I am careful with other protein sources.
Since I do not classify my allergies as life threatening, there have been times in my life where I have ignored my allergies. Early on, these times were due to lack of knowledge. Later, they had been driven from having a hard time. I have strong willpower up to a point, at which time I lose all willpower. When this happens, I tend to go to my current doctor for support. I am much healthier and happier when I am careful.
What happened that day, where I was curled up on the couch, crying when all I wanted to do was eat? My doctor, who I worked well with, had stopped seeing patents. At this time, I was off red meat, eggs, and dairy. I went to a new doctor, who took one look at me, and told me to pull gluten. It was still early on, when I was learning to deal with my food allergies effectively. And this wasn’t a test either; she wanted me off gluten, permanently. (Food tests are common.) Well, it turned out that I was not emotionally prepared to remove the grain group so soon after removing the dairy and meat groups from my diet. Especially based off of a single look, not data whatsoever, just a look. I decided to add gluten back to my diet, and went looking for a new doctor.
Today, I have a much better answer for the question “What can you eat?” Today, I would say, most foods, as long as they are home cooked, and I don’t overdo it. I can make scalloped potatoes, egg rolls, and cake. And they taste pretty good, I must tell you. I try to keep my protein mixed up a bit, and enjoy all of it. My love of cooking has been a godsend, now that I have learned that living with food allergies does not mean living without food.
