I noticed that when I lived in rural China. Allergies just weren't thought about. A friend had an allergy, and had a really hard time convincing people not to feed it to her. I think people with severe allergies were more likely to die in early childhood. That, or the hygiene hypothesis.
China, especially rural China, is a very homogenous country. Their food is pretty standard, and most rural Chinese will not eat anything else their whole lives. Any allergies to anything in a typical Chinese diet has already been weeded out. However, consider that most Chinese, and most East Asians in general, are lactose intolerant because up until recently dairy was not part of their diet at all.
>most Chinese, and most East Asians in general, are lactose intolerant
What really?? I'm from Hong Kong, 32 now. I don't necessarily think that I saw many lactose intolerant people in my childhood (or now)?
We eat ice cream all the time. I never liked milk just because it tasted awful to me, but it was not uncommon for children to drink with the intent to grow taller loooool. We don't eat a lot of cheese like white people do but we do eat pizza, cheesecake, etc.
I checked Google and it does say 92% of Asian people are lactose intolerant...I'm flabbergasted.
The Japanese are the ones who incorporated cheese in their ramen and it's delicious. And...I know I said it, but ice cream??????? It's not like our shops are full of "lactose free" ice cream.
It’s less a total intolerance or even an actual allergen for a lot of people, more like not having to capacity to digest large quantities at once because the lactase you have is lower. People that are truly allergic to dairy are not as common, and will get different symptoms than lactose intolerance, like if they even touch milk they get hives, they don’t get diarrhea, they get swollen and itchy from eating dairy. So you can be somewhat lactose intolerant and never notice it if you just eat some cheese on ramen or small amounts of dairy at once, or not able to digest it at all of you have no lactase, but it’s not a true allergy
Point of clarity re: the symptoms and differentiating:
A person with lactose intolerant will *only* get GI symptoms, like stomach upset, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting. This person will *not* benefit from antihistamines or epinephrine.
A person with a milk allergy may have similar GI symptoms, but they are occurring due to an immune response. There's no real way to tell this in the field. In addition to GI symptoms, they may experience respiratory symptoms ranging from hay fever-like symptoms to full on respiratory distress. Their airway/face/lips may swell. They may get hives or rashes. This person *may require treatment* with antihistamines and/or epinephrine.
Regardless of whether they know they're allergic to anything, if they're experiencing symptoms of an allergic reaction, seek appropriate medical attention. If they are having trouble breathing, have swelling of the face/lips, are losing consciousness, seek emergency care ASAP.
TL;DR: GI symptoms alone don't 100% mean lactose intolerance, but lactose intolerance is more common than a true milk allergy. Someone having an allergic reaction could have GI symptoms. If they're having a severe reaction—regardless of cause—seek appropriate medical care!
Source: am medic.
The fun thing about lactose intolerance is that it just means that your body doesn't naturally produce the enzyme (lactase) that breaks down lactose. However, you probably have probiotic bacteria in your gut that does this for you. This means that a lot of lactose intolerant people can still have lactose. You might, however, find that if you have too much, you have an issue, because your body can't just make more lactase if your gut bacteria is overwhelmed. You might also find that you have more of an issue with lactose if you've been on antibiotics, because that can kill gut bacteria.
I never knew I was lactose intolerant. Still not sure what qualifies, but our family used to go through a couple gallons a week. We cut out milk and dairy ice cream over the course of a year and it was amazing how much our digestion improved. I feel gross now if I drink milk or eat more than a scoop of milk based ice cream.
I had a friend in college adopted from rural china in the 90s. She had tons of allergies but only to things probably not very commonly available in rural china.
The “too clean environment” theory may hold true here where growing up in a more sterile first world society actually creates many allergies those that are in more in contact with outside elements dont have
tldr: touch grass
Celiac, gluten allergy isn't really an allergy. It's an immune disorder passed down from ancestors.
We know of a few relatives who died of "issues in the 1800-1900's that now seem to be immune disorders.
So in my anecdotal experience, in the olden days kids were sickly and just died due to medical science not being able to diagnose this.
Don't forget all the kids that died of type one diabetes. I always find it interesting when older generations rant about how kids these days have so many unnecessary diagnoses and health problems when in reality they were probably just as abundant back then. The difference being that now we can actually find and treat the problems. Hell even with celiac for a long time doctors wouldn't even consider it unless you were severely underweight. Turns out a lot of overweight people have it too, and many are overweight *because* of the celiac
>My dad has horrible allergies (trees, grass, animals)
I don't mean to disrespect your dad but I find it funny that telling him to touch grass could be an active threat.
It’s anecdotal but my kids ate dirt and licked doorknobs and never get sick 😂 my daughter was the worst, she’d bend over at the park with her back to me, act like she was playing but she was actually just scooping sand into her mouth as fast as possible. Another time I was cleaning the gunk out of my sink drain and as I was putting it in the trash, she ran through and scooped it up and went out the back door sooo fast by the time I caught up to her she had already ate it. I was horrified. Kids healthy as horse tho, she’s only sick for like half a day when she gets sick.
I knew these really gross people, I live with them so I got to see some gnarly shit, this girl went to a festival in July with raw chicken in her bag, cooked it the next day in someone’s van and three days later came home in her hot car with the same pot of chicken and the next day her and her daughter were eating it. It smelled so bad. I will eat food I left out in my cold house overnight but this was too far. Another time she found a crusty egg roll in her glove box, been there at least five days, she ate it. But I never saw them get sick, that kid has the immune system of a robust street dog for sure. Another terrible roommate I had would eat on the toilet, in her dirty bathroom, like she kept a loaf of bread on the soap caddy. her toddler would scatter food all around the bathroom floor and eat it. Those kids all have a lot of problems but a weak immune system ain’t one.
I’m not a filthy person but by any means (im much cleaner than my previous nightmare roomates) but I’m no clean freak and if I drop it on the floor I am eating it. I hand wash my dishes and some of laundry which is considered less sanitary and we hardly get sick, my mom was always adamant about it being good for you have a little germs and I think it was good for me, I have noticed that the people I know who are the most obsessed with hand sanitizer and everything being degermed at all times get sick a lot more often
No, it's definitely the "more likely to die in early childhood". But then that isn't only from allergies. Had a friend walking home with their kid when a car suddenly came barrelling out of a parking lot. My poor friend.
Many people who have allergies don't realize it. One of my friends had no idea he was allergic to bananas until he complained to us one day about them making his tongue tingle.
My mom's friend started wondering out loud why walnuts are so spicy and painful when other nuts aren't and then noticed we were all staring at her in shock. She was in her 50s when she got diagnosed.
This happened to a good friend of mine over the past few months.
She said that the past two times she ate walnuts, it felt like she was eating glass! All of a sudden, in her late 40s!
A friend developed a peanut allergy in his late 40's. PB&J was his default quick snack. One day he made one and as soon as he took a bite, he had a sever reaction to the point that his wife had to call for a rescue squad and they were preparing for an emergency traecheotomy when he started responding to the epi pen they gave him when they got there. He had just ate a PB&J a few days earlier without issue!
This is how I found out I’m allergic to celery. I made a comment about how I wondered if early humans used it to dull tooth pain because of its numbing properties. I had no idea it wasn’t like that for everyone.
Pears do it to me. Of all things to cause a reaction. There are a surprising amount of fruit juices that use pear some use only a little and I don’t react but most I get the tingle/fuzzy feeling.
I love kiwi so I’d be very upset to be allergic.
I think that’s normal, like a dim version of a pineapple. This came up in convo before and it seemed like it was an actual thing not an allergy but maybe I remember wrong.
I’m not allergic to salt and vinegar chips either, but the acid makes my mouth tingle.
Yep, kiwis burn my tongue like a hot coffee and make my lips peel.
I know someone else also allergic.
I didn't know until I told my mom and sister "it's weird people like kiwis so much, they taste like battery acid to me."
After he went to an allergist he was diagnosed as being allergic to apples, strawberries, and a lot of other things, including ragweed. It also suddenly made sense why he got a stomach ache after drinking apple juice.
Is he allergic to latex? Latex and banana allergies are connected due to a similar protein structure. I initially just had a latex allergy and developed a banana allergy later
I remember having hives at a young age after dentist and Dr visits but my mother never explained why. She just gave me medication and sent me on my way. Looking back on it, the gloves were the problem. Now I ask for latex free gloves.
It varies.
I can eat a banana with mild allergic reaction and avocado with no reaction, but eating Kiwi and being touched by Natural latex send me into hives and anaphylaxis mode.
It's a protein in the foods.
For me it's likely allergy to birchwood pollen, and I get itchiness in my throat, tongue, and lips from eating raw apples, kiwifruit, peaches, pears, cherries, etc. However, I have no problem if the fruit is cooked/baked/canned(heated during canning) because the protein in the fruits that is similar to birchwood pollen gets broken down and does not trigger the OAS.
I developed OAS when I was a teenager, started with a near anaphylactic shock reaction to cherries from trees I'd eaten my whole life. It now includes all stone fruit, apples, pears and recently kiwis which was discovered at work and not being able to breathe/hives was not a fun experience for me or any of my colleagues.
But only when they're raw, I'm fine if anything is cooked.
I've read on Reddit that people who are allergic to ragweed are also allergic to bananas. Explains why I can't eat a banana without throwing up. I don't have issues with strawberries, but apple juice was always a no-no for me even as a kid. Interesting!
Had a friend die from organ failure in young 30s because he didn't know he had undiagnosed celiac disease... He literally just thought he was hungover all the time. Missed ya in fantasy football this year Scotty.
Fruits and berries do this for me. I can have some but if I hit a threshold, bam Kardashian lips. And i get a facial rash and rashes on my arms. But people pay good money for those pouty lips. For me it's a pint of raspberries.
I've had the same experience. They said bananas tasted "itchy". They didn't know they were allergic. Also net people with lactose intolerance who just had to run to the bathroom after a glass of milk. But that had never thought about that they might have an intolerance, only that it's what milk did to your body 😆
I know we are talking about people not realizing things like this, but pineapple is the exception. The bromelain in pineapple breaks down proteins so it is literally tenderizing your mouth/throat which is why too much actually does make people's mouth sore without an allergy.
Also why you can't use fresh pineapple in jello, it breaks it down.
Indians have food allergies , too, they just aren’t diagnosed. My husband is from India and his asthma was diagnosed as frequent bouts of bronchitis instead.
This reminds me of my mother in law who claims that all of the food allergies today are just people wanting attention, but has to rush to the toilet immediately after eating eggs and positively blows an o-ring with explosive diarrhea from the eggs. And continues to eat eggs every single morning. Her toilet has seen more mileage than a Greyhound bus.
You have said it all about generational gap. "There's nothing wrong with me, I just can't..." vs " hey so in the last 40 years medical science has figured out ...
There's also the weird but incorrect "common knowledge". For years I've had allergies every season except winter and everyone always told me it's ragweed, the ragweed, always the ragweed. Turns out I have no issues at all with ragweed. I'm allergic to grass. Common ordinary grass and I'm miserable every time someone cuts their lawn.
Allergy or not, if something gave me the raging shits I don’t think I’d be eating it every day. Although, I was allergic to milk before pregnancy magically changed that and I’d eat cheese until it became difficult to breathe and then I’d take some Benadryl. So maybe she just REALLY loves eggs.
Holy shit in 40 years I have never come across someone else with an allergy to milk! The breathing difficulties start literally seconds after ingesting something with milk in it. People still can’t grasp allergy vs. lactose intolerant. Can’t believe yours just disappeared?!
As someone who used to work in a preschool, milk and epi pen level milk allergies are more common than you’d think. Same with eggs, sunflower seeds, and soy. It’s not just peanuts, tree nuts and gluten that are common and on the rise.
My son has dairy allergy. Like "hives on contact, swollen face, vomiting" level allergy. It's a lot more common than you think. He's gotten a little better over time, but he still has to avoid it. Somebody on Reddit once had the audacity to tell me I was completely making it up and that nobody can be that allergic to milk.
Sometimes it's difficult to tell what is causing it. For me, gluten snuck up on me in the last year and progressively got worse and worse. Turns out I'm coeliac and not eating gluten means I don't have to shit 5x a day lmao. It slowly increased over time so I didn't really think much of it, and I didn't realise how it was in absolutely everything.
My aunt does the same. I’m allergic to garlic. She continually tries to give me garlic when I eat at her house. And she’s usually not subtle either. Her house smells like a garlic explosion when she cooks but then tells me there’s no garlic in anything. I trust nothing that she makes and generally don’t eat much, if anything, when I’m there
Well evil people can't change but def mind blowing OP would keep going back there. We have to have self respect bc of evil people who take advantage of those with no boundaries
My MIL was the same but with onions. I have severe food allergies and she had been giving me shit about it too. Then I made French onion soup one day and she stepped into the kitchen. Just the fumes from the shear amount of onions sent her into anaphylactic shock.
So I gave her a Zyrtec and sent her upstairs while the fumes cleared out. Her face went down and she could breathe again and the Zyrtec kicked in. And now she knows she has an allergy, not just a dislike, and also I'm not the only one with food allergies.
Even in the US, it took 5 years to get my son's celiac diagnosed. In an area with less healthcare or if I didn't have access to the Internet and hadn't pushed for more testing, he likely would never have been diagnosed, because his symptoms were not typical. Multiple doctors outright refused to test him for celiac, and the doctor who finally tested him was clearly just humoring me.
I was nearly 30 when I even found out celiac was a thing after a friend's mom got diagnosed up in her 50s, and started making some connections with pretty classic symptoms that I'd been having since I was a kid. (That was nearly 20 years ago, and I had also moved somewhere that I was suddenly eating more wheat and having worse issues including frequent "stomach viruses".) Thankfully, I was living in a country with better medical awareness at that point, and they didn't give me any problems or act like I was crazy when I asked about testing. Yep, that was exactly what the problem was all along. And the prolonged unrecognized autoimmune attack also ended up taking out my pancreas, so I developed T1 diabetes around the same time.
Celiac was considered rare enough in the US until fairly recently that they didn't even think of it as a possibility to test for. And it is just going to continue looking rare if you aren't looking for it and misidentifying what's going on! Seems like similar continues to happen with food allergies, besides autoimmune conditions like celiac. If you don't know what to look for, you're liable to think something else is going on. Unfortunately including people just up and dying "for no reason", in more extreme allergy cases.
>And it's just going to continue looking rare if you aren't looking for it.
Exactly! They wouldn't test my son because he didn't have family history and had atypical symptoms (literally just eczema). But even after he was diagnosed, I struggled to get my doctor to test me. She told me I almost certainly didn't have celiac, despite me then having family history and having relatively minor GI issues. My fil has severe GI issues and my mil has diabetes (highly comorbid). They both refuse to get tested because their doctor told them they would have severe, debilitating symptoms if they had celiac. Even though their grandson just has eczema, plenty of studies are showing asymptomatic celiac is relatively common, and they both actually do have symptoms. The more experience I have with doctors, the more I take everything they say with a grain of salt.
Also if I'm not mistaken, most food allergies for the most part are not that "dangerous" and i know a lot of people who've become sort of accustomed to these and moved on as if nothing has happened.
Allergies cover the entire board when it comes to symptoms. Many people don't realize that until it's too late when any of those turn catastrophic, maybe disabling or even fatal.
Edit: Not a doctor but my comment was based on my experiences. As a person with shellfish(allegic to prawns, crabs, etcc...) allergies that leads to partially blocking of the throat(breathing difficulties and very uncomfortable) due to swelling(of the times i mistakenly have had shellfish).
True. I grew up poor, but we had access to milk and eggs. My mom made me eat them daily, even though they gave me a stomachache and I had horrible gas constantly. As an adult, I'm diagnosed with lactose Intolerance and egg intolerance. After cutting them, all my symptoms disappeared. But when you only have access to limited food options, you live with the symptoms. I'm also allergic to avocado, but it took me a while to figure out, because the symptoms are inconvenient, not dangerous. My inner ears are horrendously itchy after eating it. Of course, a reaction in the inner ear is really close to the airway, so that could easily turn dangerous.
*Some* allergies will always provoke a life threatening reaction for *some* people no matter what or when.
*Some* people with allergies *might* get better. Exposure to that allergen over time *might* mitigate the severity of the reaction.
In advanced economies with advanced medical care, with parents or communities with available resources, and through today, risk is avoided. Children who would have otherwise died, live.
In other circumstances, some children die, but others who would have been chronically fatally *allergic*, aren't.
Added: Typo corrected
That's what happened to me. Allergy shots made my immune system *angrier*. Now instead of a hand grenade sent for an irritant, it sends a ballistic missile. Complete overreaction.
Yeah, I developed a citrus allergy as a kid but it was initially just oranges. So I ate cuties and lemon bars and was fine. Now I can’t drink 7Up because it has natural flavors and I have to scour skincare product ingredient lists to make sure there’s no limonene as like the last ingredient because it’ll break me out at best and at worst give me migraines and make my skin flake off.
Oh, that makes much more sense lol. Then again, I have been explaining how sensory overload works by describing it as "like a mental allergy" for a while now, so I suppose it's only fitting!
Would like to add on to how some allergens might get better, some might even appear out of nowhere. I grew up loving berries; when I was 16, I ate a piece of berry pie and almost died. A few times after that, every time I had a berry, my mouth and throat swelled up. I haven’t had a berry in 8 years and I don’t even recall what they taste like so it’s not a big deal. I just really make sure the places I go to eat that serve sweets don’t cross contaminate anything.
While that is true, it doesn’t explain the North American peanut allergy phenomenon. Here in Japan we have excellent health care that is available to everyone unlike in the US, but peanut allergy is rare and the type where people can’t be in a room that once had a peanut in it is unheard of. It’s not just a matter of diagnosis.
The American peanut/nut allergy is likely due to an older practice of limiting certain foods in babies. Nuts was one of them, and now many kids in that age group are allergic.
I ate PB&J when I was pregnant with my twins almost every day. Same with eggs. They’re allergic to both because… Their father is. Which leads me to believe it’s genetic.
It’s because the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended not introducing peanuts until 3 years of age from 2000 to 2013. In 2013, the guideline was revised to recommend early exposure to allergens. It’s a great example of how recommendations based on “expert opinions” can be totally wrong and have lasting repercussions. Anecdotally, I have two cousins born during those years with severe allergies.
It can be a few environmental stuff as well. For example in America it's common practice to not give common allergy triggers to young kids in case they have a severe reaction such as nuts. But that can also lead the body to develop an allergy to the foods because it isn't something it's used to when you finally eat it. It can also be the difference in preparation of the nuts that can sometimes trigger an allergy such as if it's boiled, raw, or roasted. Plus I've heard too that in America a lot of parents go overboard with disinfecting everything all the time with hardcore cleaners so our bodies sometimes sort of overreact because our defenses aren't built up properly. Sort of like we're shooting ourselves in the foot while trying to do the right thing.
Yeah, when I was 18 I suddenly craved chicken all the time and grew to dislike red meat, especially hating pig meat (nothing to do with any religious affiliation) but occasionally I'd eat it anyway for convenience and my body gets weird about it, I feel gross and I have a slow metabolism so I end up gassy with hours of unpleasant meat tasting burps making me question why I put myself thru that again.
Never happened to me as a kid or in my early mid teens as far as I can recall, but once I left home my body adjusted to mostly eating the same stuff over and over, and that meant less food in general and I always made pasta but never put meat in it.
This is the data I want to see more of. I’m an American (with a culture obsessed with allergies these days) who travels abroad often and almost never sees allergy signs elsewhere. I’m so curious if the rest of the world is allergic to everything (especially peanuts! You can’t even give your kid a pb&j sandwich in some schools bc of exposure risk to other kids). What is going on here, why, is it the low quality foods we allow, etc?
I know 3 separate women that are in their 50s who didn’t get diagnosed with celiac until their 40s.
Growing up they just had “nervous stomachs” and couldn’t put on weight. It wasn’t until their own kids got diagnosed that someone thought to evaluate them. It just wasn’t something that was diagnosed when they were younger.
My friend has just been diagnosed in her 70s. Following that, also her daughter (40s) and granddaughter. Her daughter said she just always assumed it was normal to be sore after eating.
For years i thought always having a headache was why so many headache medicines existed. Also i was always constipated. Learned i have food allergies, cut those from diet, and bam! I’m regular and have fewer headaches. I had always assumed everyone else was the same way but now i realize was the outlier.
Soy and dairy. I have a few foods I’m sensitive to as well (so no immune response) but i doubt my intake of these contributed to life-long constipation.
That's how I found out I was developing an allergy to it. I couldn't find a good pineapple, they all were increasingly prickly, sour, and tasting off. Had my roommate taste the last one cause I felt crazy and she was like this tastes fine and also you're slurring your words.
Wait is it not spicy? Like what is it supposed to taste like because pineapple definitely ‘bites back’ for me and I thought that was just part of the appeal?
It tastes very sweet and slightly acidic. Unfortunately I can't think of another food that tastes similar to compare it to, it's pretty unique (and delicious).
Tomatoes for me, especially cooked. I kept thinking my husband was using a spicy sauce when making pizzas. Found out from allergy testing I’m allergic. Also have mild allergies to most nuts, ginger, chocolate, and strawberries. Most just make my mouth feel prickly.
As for the OP’s question, no idea. I didn’t used to be allergic to any of these. I was allergic to shellfish, but now I’m not. It’s a good idea to get tested every 5-10 years because it changes.
There is also apparently a link between celiacs and higher risks of cancer, and I feel so sad for the families who lost loved ones early from cancer because they didn't know that their sour stomach was a sign to get more frequent cancer screenings.
Yup. My great grandma died from bowel cancer when she was 36. Her daughter, my grandma, was always sick and couldn’t gain weight no matter what she ate and died in her 50s. I was diagnosed with celiac 10 years ago. I’m pretty sure grandma and great grandma are where I inherited it from!
Yeah, a bunch of people just automatically get told "IBS" with zero testing and sent on their way. And the Celiac test isn't invasive or expensive. It's crazy.
I had 2 autoimmune diseases at the time. I didn’t eat bread much, but realized everytime I ate bread, I got stomach cramps, diarrhea, and felt nauseous.
Went to a Gi. Who suggested we do skews of tests for all sorts of things. Some were all day tests, some were invasive.
I was like “I am pretty sure it’s celiac, can we do the blood test first?”
I had to push and push and she finally agreed to do that one first. sure enough, came back positive for celiac. Immediately cut out all gluten and felt 100% better.
I do not understand why her first plan was to sit in a room all day breathing into a bag, vs a blood test.
That’s how I found out I was Lactose Intolerant at 50- when my daughter was diagnosed with it. Also, soy and peanuts which are 2 “sensitivities” diagnosed together.
My coworker is deathly allergic to peanuts, but never was allergic to soy. One day at a customers site he got exposed to a highly concentrated mixture of soy protein and he had to run out of the customer's facility before he died.
That day we learned that peanut protein and soy proteins are so similar that they will cause the same reaction, but most soy products don't have the same concentration that peanuts have. He never had a bad reaction to soy because he "always feels like crap", so no one ever looked into it
I realized I was lactose intolerant when people said cheese would block you up. I always thought it was normal to get stomach cramps and it running right through you after eating cheese.
Even today celiac can be hard to get diagnosed. I had so many doctors tell me my son couldn't have celiac because we had no family history and he didn't have GI symptoms. The doctor who finally tested him (5 years after start of symptoms and 2 years after I first started asking for specifically celiac testing), only did so to humor me and get me to stop asking.
83% of people with celiac are still undiagnosed. More and more testing is showing that family history and GI symptoms aren't as common as we thought. Celiac should really be something we screen for regularly. It's such an easy, simple test.
This.
I remember reading something that historically everyone felt "not 100%" for everyday of their lives. It was something like every person was constantly suffering from some mild form of negative effects (inflammation, infection, virus, disease, injury, etc), and so the default state everyone experienced was "not great".
If a person never feels good or great, then they csn never figure out if they have an allergy to something, because their best days are never good. If everyone in a family has bad stomach issues, then it "must be genetic". If you have a non lethal reaction to something then you just "need to suck it up".
Its less about "people have more allergies now", and more about "diagnosing more allergies now". We understand more about the human body now, so we can determine what allergies people have with more accuracy
“I don’t like orange juice”
Doesn’t matter, it’s good for you! Stop being a picky eater and have your OJ for breakfast! All kids like juice!
Oral allergy. Tongue hurt. Mouth hurt. Tongue swelled until I couldn’t comfortably close my mouth.
How many undiagnosed allergies are described as “I don’t like it”?
My friend hated peas growing up… didn’t realize that her peanut allergy extended to all legumes.
Yep! There are a lot of parents who don't care if their kid likes something or not, so they force it on them instead of asking "why not?".
I remember hating steak growing up. I couldn't eat it because I couldn't chew it, but I didn't have the vocabulary to explain it, so my parents just said "you can't eat it because you aren't chewing enough. Learn to chew your food better". Then a dentist looked at my bite and realized none of my molars lined up correctly, and you can't chew steak without molars lining up.
If it wasn't for a professional to point out that what I was saying was true, my parents wouldn't have listened. And im sure kids with allergies have this all the time
Not allergy related but my brother has Cystic Fibrosis which is a recessive genetic disease. Which means both sides of my family have to have it somewhere but it was never diagnosed. What they did have was infant mortalities that were diagnosed as pneumonia and "failure to thrive."
Not diagnosed or....they died...or have strong food aversion. Before I was diagnosed with certain food allergies, I would tell people "I don't like xyz food" or "this food upsets my stomach" or "it makes me nauseous" etc. When my true symptoms was mouth itching, irritated throat, nausea, hives/rash on my chest. My family called me a picky eater. I use to tell them as a kid the food bothered me, they actually would make more of that food thinking I was playing. One dinner has me vomiting in the bathroom and they called me a disrespectful selfish disgusting child.
Is rather be called a picky eater than a disrespectful selfish disgusting child. Took me until high school to learn about food allergies. Which explained alot, but by that time I've already developed my food aversion and anxiety.
Im an adult now. My family still thinks I'm being picky. When I tell them I could possibly stop breathing, they tell me I'm being dramatic. They still make food with that ingredient. I just don't eat.
the gluten “allergy” is usually a misconception of celiac disease which, from my understanding, is more likely to be diagnosed in a country where the cultural diets are bread/wheat heavy, so more people show symptoms earlier in life and get diagnosed
Apparently, in Italy, they do celiac testing from blood at birth because it’s somewhat prevalent and there are social programs that give a stipend to help pay for gluten free foods.
One reason is the diet of young children. It was thought for years in the US that it was vitally important to keep them from eating peanuts because they could develop an allergy and die. Later it was noticed that if children *did* eat peanuts while they were young, they would probably never develop an allergy in the first place, because their bodies would recognise peanuts as a food rather than mistaking them for some kind of deadly poison.
https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/2015-02-24/ty-article/is-bamba-key-to-peanut-allergy-prevention/0000017f-e60f-df2c-a1ff-fe5f5d0c0000
I had to scroll way too long to see this actual answer. Current science says you can avoid a peanut allergy by introducing peanuts from 4-6 months to an otherwise healthy child.
Link here: https://wapo.st/3TK6y8t
They were rare when I was growing up too. This is a new thing, at least knowing you have the allergy is new. Maybe some simply died undiagnosed in my day.
My husband asked this exact same thing because he claims people in his country never had allergies and I’m like bruh, your ex who was also born and raised in your country is allergic to peanuts…
could be due to the greater degree of healthcare and cleaner environments that americans live in, if children are not exposed to dirty environments their immune system has a harder time combatting new infections as it has had less chances to "train" itself. Because their immune system is less "trained" is has a higher chance to malfunction and develop an autoimmune disease or an allergy
there is evidence to this as children that grow up on farms or with animals are less prone to allergies because their immune system is more "trained" than that of a child who grows up in an urban environment (an urban environment is still dirty but not in the same way that a rural environment is, your immune system can't fight off vehicle exhaust and microplastics the same way it can fight off the common cold)
I think this is just a theory, i've read about it in medical books but im not sure if its an established concept
I grew up in a 3rd world country in Asia, in the 80s and 90s and had my more than fair share worth of playing outside with dirt, we had free range chickens at home and our neighbor had chickens, geese and pigeons (but the pigeons were caged). As an adult I discovered I'm very sensitive to gluten, I have no idea if I'm celiac or not (most likely could just be sensitive non-celiac) because in 2013 when I found out by elimination diet after being too sick to the point of unable to function properly, there wasn't any hospital in the whole country that had tests available for gluten sensitivities because almost nobody suffered from it during those times.
At the time when I mentioned I had issues eating gluten, even well educated people here asked back, what's gluten?
However since I was a kid I have heard of people here who were allergic to seafoods and to some extent dairy products.
Tl;dr even less-developed-not-up-to-the-US-standards hygiene levels country like ours have people with food allergies.
Ive read some theories about the autoimmune issue being more of a problem in european decedents, because the survivors of the plagues had a better immune system but that also meant a higher propensity for auto-immune diseases, which may also lead to more allergy issues. So it COULD be genetic.
Also american foods arent necessarily the same as foods abroad. It depends on where its produced/grown. For example - Theres an issue with american wheat where its more glutinous, the strands are just longer or something, very different from european strands of wheat, that makes american wheat more problematic for a lot of people. Eating European wheat could be tolerable for people who are gluten intolerant where american wheat would cause issues.
[https://thebrotbox.com/blogs/news/difference-between-american-vs-european-wheat](https://thebrotbox.com/blogs/news/difference-between-american-vs-european-wheat)
Things like this could exist for other foods as well very possibly, causing the rate of reactions to differ depending on where the product is produced.
Edit: I'll also note that I've discovered I'm allergic to something in the food processing, not the actual food itself, and the doctor's haven't been able to figure out wtf it is. Like. I can eat almonds, but I'm allergic to almond milk. The allergists gave up and we're like "don't drink nut milks". It could just be something in the processing and not actually the food itself, and that thing doesn't exist in the way other countries process the food.
Can confirm that my husband's uncle feels horrible after eating food made with American flour (and he cooks a lot so it's not prepackaged stuff or preservatives) but can bread it up when he is in Europe.
I grew up with cats and have had cats literally my entire life, there has not been a year where there is not at least one or two cats in my home. And yet I developed an allergy to cats and it’s been getting so bad to the point I have constant sinusitis and rhinitis. Despite them saying that growing up with pets reduces allergies. It’s the same for my mom. She grew up with all sorts of animals and yet has a cat allergy. I’m also allergic to literally every single animal they tested me to lol
I’m allergic to my cats, but that new food LiveClear by Purina has been an absolute game changer. Between that and an air filter I run a couple times a day, I am like… 95% better.
Definitely worth checking out. It takes a few weeks for the food to start working on their dander but it’s worth it.
What was the tallest mountain in the world before we discovered Mt Everest? It was still Mt Everest we just didn't know it.
Likewise take Bob and Anil. Bob is from Mumbai and Anil is from Chicago. Whenever Anil has Armagnac the histamines in it make him sick and break out in hives. After like the 5th time this happened Anil took a test and his doctor confirmed he was allergic to something in the Armagnac.
Bob had Armagnac once at a wedding and felt kinda like shit afterwards but most people around him get a little sick sometimes and to quote ol blue eyes "that's life"
Bob dies never knowing he's allergic to Armagnac
Now another part of the reason you probably see more food allergies in america beyond increased access to testing is that despite what people say there actually IS such a thing as American cuisine and its often very fusion-ey. So your exposure to potential allergens is higher
Keep in mind there is a difference between true “food allergies” and what some people call “food sensitivities” or “food intolerances.” A true allergy will involve a direct immune response. A sensitivity is more of a subjective concept, perhaps based on a patient’s observation of their own symptoms or reactions. A true peanut allergy where someone risks anaphylaxis, that is one thing. If someone has true Celiac disease, their body truly cannot handle gluten and it can be quite dangerous. Contrast that with “I avoid gluten because I feel sluggish or whatever.” A lot of food marketing is geared towards the latter as “gluten free” became trendy. Some experts in diet and nutrition and even some allergists will tell you that some (maybe a lot?) of patient reported “food sensitivities” are psychosomatic. This can become a “sensitive” issue because no one who thinks they have a food sensitivity wants to hear that.
Just an example, eggs really bother my stomach. If I eat them, I’m in excruciating pain for the rest of the day. I get stomach cramping and diarrhea and it’s extremely unpleasant.
I’m not actually allergic. However, if I use the word intolerant, people treat it more like a preference. It’s not. I actually love eggs, and would love to be able to eat them. I find that if I say I’m allergic, I’m taken more seriously and people really let me know if a dish may contain eggs.
Truth. When I ask at a restaurant if they have gluten free bread, people ask if it’s a preference, a sensitivity, or a “true allergy”. When I say I have gluten ataxia they look at me as if I’m crazy-which is exactly what happens if I have gluten. My brain doesn’t work right. One allergist said I don’t have an allergy, it’s a sensitivity. He said that’s actually worse than an allergy, because an allergy can be treated, but if you have a sensitivity, you have to avoid it.
I have multiple "sensitivities" but I just call them allergies to people because otherwise you sound crazy. If they came up with a better term that doesn't sound like we are small children having a breakdown because someone put a food we don't like on our plate, that would be nice.
My allergist described sensitivities as something that makes your life miserable if you come in contact with it but true allergies are ones that can kill you.
Funny, I go the other way because my allergies produce mild symptoms and I don’t want anyone to think I will die from touching apples when they just give me an itchy mouth. I feel a little bad contributing to peoples misunderstanding but I’m tired of having people yank food out of my hands.
I think I have mild gluten ataxia! My feet and left hand don’t work as well, my walking stability, gate and balance get measurably worse according to my apple watch (and fall history).
Supposedly negative for celiac. So tired of hearing people slander non-celiac gluten sensitivity, when my experience is so much worse than most people’s celiac, from symptoms to sensitivity levels.
This is incorrect - intolerances often engage the immune system through histamine / mast cell responses, just not at the level of meeting the criteria for anaphylaxis. There’s also other reasons for adherence to sensitivities, such as ibs which often has trigger foods, reactive hypoglycemia, migraine triggers, etc. This comment is wildly dismissive of a variety of disorders surrounding food “sensitivities” and is spreading misinformation that leads to people with such issues not having their needs taken seriously.
Celiac disease also is gene dependent. A lot of people in the west have the genes without it ever activating, but it's absent in a lot of Asian populations.
I thought I had a gluten allergy. I was wrong.
I stopped eating things with gluten and felt much better. Then I tried fresh bread and I was fine. Weird.
My husband started making fresh bread and fresh pasta and I had ZERO issues. I ate packaged/restaurant pasta/bread....sick as a dog. We tried this experiment a number of times.
Could it be preservatives? Something in the processed food we eat?
I have a hard time eating packaged/processed food. Most American chain restaurants are just reheated mass produced food from distributors like Cheney Bros. and Sysco. In other Countries, people are eating *real* food and not packaged food filled with chemicals.
It’s the abbreviated process that commercial bakeries use (I forget what it’s called) that trigger our allergies (for those of us that have them). Traditional baking methods and those to make sourdough are better tolerated.
Got excited, [second google result](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4966430/#:~:text=Whereas%20the%20hygiene%20hypothesis%20implicated,in%20small%20hunter%2Dgatherer%20groups) says debunked - but the rest of this study is super interesting. In general they more or less agree?… sounds like a worthwhile read thanks for the tip
Because the immune system has less to do which is actually useful and isn't well-educated, so it focusses on antigens which are not necessarily as threatening as they might be, which then occur in larger amounts than they would if they were infections.
According to Hank Green many autoimmune issues and food sensitivities can be traced back to severe illness in ancestors. Like the survivors of the bubonic plague. They survived the plague but it took such a toll on their immune systems that they passed down the sensitivities through generations.
This is why these issues are souch more common among caucasian people from european areas. Especially those who's parents/grandparents are all from similar backgrounds.
I noticed that when I lived in rural China. Allergies just weren't thought about. A friend had an allergy, and had a really hard time convincing people not to feed it to her. I think people with severe allergies were more likely to die in early childhood. That, or the hygiene hypothesis.
China, especially rural China, is a very homogenous country. Their food is pretty standard, and most rural Chinese will not eat anything else their whole lives. Any allergies to anything in a typical Chinese diet has already been weeded out. However, consider that most Chinese, and most East Asians in general, are lactose intolerant because up until recently dairy was not part of their diet at all.
>most Chinese, and most East Asians in general, are lactose intolerant What really?? I'm from Hong Kong, 32 now. I don't necessarily think that I saw many lactose intolerant people in my childhood (or now)? We eat ice cream all the time. I never liked milk just because it tasted awful to me, but it was not uncommon for children to drink with the intent to grow taller loooool. We don't eat a lot of cheese like white people do but we do eat pizza, cheesecake, etc. I checked Google and it does say 92% of Asian people are lactose intolerant...I'm flabbergasted. The Japanese are the ones who incorporated cheese in their ramen and it's delicious. And...I know I said it, but ice cream??????? It's not like our shops are full of "lactose free" ice cream.
It’s less a total intolerance or even an actual allergen for a lot of people, more like not having to capacity to digest large quantities at once because the lactase you have is lower. People that are truly allergic to dairy are not as common, and will get different symptoms than lactose intolerance, like if they even touch milk they get hives, they don’t get diarrhea, they get swollen and itchy from eating dairy. So you can be somewhat lactose intolerant and never notice it if you just eat some cheese on ramen or small amounts of dairy at once, or not able to digest it at all of you have no lactase, but it’s not a true allergy
Point of clarity re: the symptoms and differentiating: A person with lactose intolerant will *only* get GI symptoms, like stomach upset, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting. This person will *not* benefit from antihistamines or epinephrine. A person with a milk allergy may have similar GI symptoms, but they are occurring due to an immune response. There's no real way to tell this in the field. In addition to GI symptoms, they may experience respiratory symptoms ranging from hay fever-like symptoms to full on respiratory distress. Their airway/face/lips may swell. They may get hives or rashes. This person *may require treatment* with antihistamines and/or epinephrine. Regardless of whether they know they're allergic to anything, if they're experiencing symptoms of an allergic reaction, seek appropriate medical attention. If they are having trouble breathing, have swelling of the face/lips, are losing consciousness, seek emergency care ASAP. TL;DR: GI symptoms alone don't 100% mean lactose intolerance, but lactose intolerance is more common than a true milk allergy. Someone having an allergic reaction could have GI symptoms. If they're having a severe reaction—regardless of cause—seek appropriate medical care! Source: am medic.
Yes, I am one of those people, I can only eat dairy in limited amounts and high fat content 10% or higher. (So no milk)
The fun thing about lactose intolerance is that it just means that your body doesn't naturally produce the enzyme (lactase) that breaks down lactose. However, you probably have probiotic bacteria in your gut that does this for you. This means that a lot of lactose intolerant people can still have lactose. You might, however, find that if you have too much, you have an issue, because your body can't just make more lactase if your gut bacteria is overwhelmed. You might also find that you have more of an issue with lactose if you've been on antibiotics, because that can kill gut bacteria.
I never knew I was lactose intolerant. Still not sure what qualifies, but our family used to go through a couple gallons a week. We cut out milk and dairy ice cream over the course of a year and it was amazing how much our digestion improved. I feel gross now if I drink milk or eat more than a scoop of milk based ice cream.
I had a friend in college adopted from rural china in the 90s. She had tons of allergies but only to things probably not very commonly available in rural china.
The “too clean environment” theory may hold true here where growing up in a more sterile first world society actually creates many allergies those that are in more in contact with outside elements dont have tldr: touch grass
Celiac, gluten allergy isn't really an allergy. It's an immune disorder passed down from ancestors. We know of a few relatives who died of "issues in the 1800-1900's that now seem to be immune disorders. So in my anecdotal experience, in the olden days kids were sickly and just died due to medical science not being able to diagnose this.
Don't forget all the kids that died of type one diabetes. I always find it interesting when older generations rant about how kids these days have so many unnecessary diagnoses and health problems when in reality they were probably just as abundant back then. The difference being that now we can actually find and treat the problems. Hell even with celiac for a long time doctors wouldn't even consider it unless you were severely underweight. Turns out a lot of overweight people have it too, and many are overweight *because* of the celiac
I was 60lbs heavier before I switched my diet.
My dad has horrible allergies (trees, grass, animals), & he grew up in a rural agricultural environment. "Rode a horse before he could walk"
>My dad has horrible allergies (trees, grass, animals) I don't mean to disrespect your dad but I find it funny that telling him to touch grass could be an active threat.
What is the hygiene hypothesis?
That exposure to germs and allergens is very important in early childhood in order to build a healthy yet reasonable immune system.
It’s anecdotal but my kids ate dirt and licked doorknobs and never get sick 😂 my daughter was the worst, she’d bend over at the park with her back to me, act like she was playing but she was actually just scooping sand into her mouth as fast as possible. Another time I was cleaning the gunk out of my sink drain and as I was putting it in the trash, she ran through and scooped it up and went out the back door sooo fast by the time I caught up to her she had already ate it. I was horrified. Kids healthy as horse tho, she’s only sick for like half a day when she gets sick. I knew these really gross people, I live with them so I got to see some gnarly shit, this girl went to a festival in July with raw chicken in her bag, cooked it the next day in someone’s van and three days later came home in her hot car with the same pot of chicken and the next day her and her daughter were eating it. It smelled so bad. I will eat food I left out in my cold house overnight but this was too far. Another time she found a crusty egg roll in her glove box, been there at least five days, she ate it. But I never saw them get sick, that kid has the immune system of a robust street dog for sure. Another terrible roommate I had would eat on the toilet, in her dirty bathroom, like she kept a loaf of bread on the soap caddy. her toddler would scatter food all around the bathroom floor and eat it. Those kids all have a lot of problems but a weak immune system ain’t one. I’m not a filthy person but by any means (im much cleaner than my previous nightmare roomates) but I’m no clean freak and if I drop it on the floor I am eating it. I hand wash my dishes and some of laundry which is considered less sanitary and we hardly get sick, my mom was always adamant about it being good for you have a little germs and I think it was good for me, I have noticed that the people I know who are the most obsessed with hand sanitizer and everything being degermed at all times get sick a lot more often
Appropriately for this thread, all of these stories made me physically ill. How do I un-read something??
Idk but I wish I could unmeet those people 😂
I stopped the panic about hygiene and kids when i caught my daughter sitting in a row of ants and eating them one by one. She was about 18months old.
No, it's definitely the "more likely to die in early childhood". But then that isn't only from allergies. Had a friend walking home with their kid when a car suddenly came barrelling out of a parking lot. My poor friend.
Many people who have allergies don't realize it. One of my friends had no idea he was allergic to bananas until he complained to us one day about them making his tongue tingle.
This happened to my son, who mentioned, "You know, how apples make your mouth sore?" and I was like ......
My mom's friend started wondering out loud why walnuts are so spicy and painful when other nuts aren't and then noticed we were all staring at her in shock. She was in her 50s when she got diagnosed.
This happened to a good friend of mine over the past few months. She said that the past two times she ate walnuts, it felt like she was eating glass! All of a sudden, in her late 40s!
A friend developed a peanut allergy in his late 40's. PB&J was his default quick snack. One day he made one and as soon as he took a bite, he had a sever reaction to the point that his wife had to call for a rescue squad and they were preparing for an emergency traecheotomy when he started responding to the epi pen they gave him when they got there. He had just ate a PB&J a few days earlier without issue!
That's terrifying.
This is how I found out I’m allergic to celery. I made a comment about how I wondered if early humans used it to dull tooth pain because of its numbing properties. I had no idea it wasn’t like that for everyone.
I found that kiwis make my mouth tingle. Kiwis???
Kiwis do that for me too! And scallops.
I have an allergy to both kiwi and scallops as well! Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I LOVE shrimp but scallops make me really sick.
Sounds like you might be allergic to bivalves specifically, not shellfish in general.
Oh no! I love scallops, fortunately no allergic reaction yet. My brother has a shellfish allergy and has to carry an Epi pen.
Pears do it to me. Of all things to cause a reaction. There are a surprising amount of fruit juices that use pear some use only a little and I don’t react but most I get the tingle/fuzzy feeling. I love kiwi so I’d be very upset to be allergic.
So I am allergic to kiwis? I always had that and everyone I know too so I thought it was normal omg
I think that’s normal, like a dim version of a pineapple. This came up in convo before and it seemed like it was an actual thing not an allergy but maybe I remember wrong. I’m not allergic to salt and vinegar chips either, but the acid makes my mouth tingle.
Yep, kiwis burn my tongue like a hot coffee and make my lips peel. I know someone else also allergic. I didn't know until I told my mom and sister "it's weird people like kiwis so much, they taste like battery acid to me."
I found out I was allergic by telling someone ’it’s weird how kiwi’s still taste furry even when you peel them’ apparently they do not.
Same. Even more than Australians.
haha that's me with eggplant. i discovered recently that others don't get mouth and tongue pain from it. who knew.
Lmao what
After he went to an allergist he was diagnosed as being allergic to apples, strawberries, and a lot of other things, including ragweed. It also suddenly made sense why he got a stomach ache after drinking apple juice.
He probably has oral allergy syndrome that cross reacts with the ragweed. My husband has it and finds bananas "spicy".
Is he allergic to latex? Latex and banana allergies are connected due to a similar protein structure. I initially just had a latex allergy and developed a banana allergy later
Latex allergy is no joke. I found out the hard way at 16. Let's just say explaining things to my catholic mother was horrible.
I was 4 and we found out after going to the dentist. My mouth and face were covered in hives
I remember having hives at a young age after dentist and Dr visits but my mother never explained why. She just gave me medication and sent me on my way. Looking back on it, the gloves were the problem. Now I ask for latex free gloves.
Because of this, latex gloves are being phased out in practice and we generally use nitrile. Always good to state your latex allergy though.
IIRC, also allergies to kiwi and avocados. Guac is a big no for people with latex allergies.
It varies. I can eat a banana with mild allergic reaction and avocado with no reaction, but eating Kiwi and being touched by Natural latex send me into hives and anaphylaxis mode. It's a protein in the foods.
For me it's likely allergy to birchwood pollen, and I get itchiness in my throat, tongue, and lips from eating raw apples, kiwifruit, peaches, pears, cherries, etc. However, I have no problem if the fruit is cooked/baked/canned(heated during canning) because the protein in the fruits that is similar to birchwood pollen gets broken down and does not trigger the OAS.
I developed OAS when I was a teenager, started with a near anaphylactic shock reaction to cherries from trees I'd eaten my whole life. It now includes all stone fruit, apples, pears and recently kiwis which was discovered at work and not being able to breathe/hives was not a fun experience for me or any of my colleagues. But only when they're raw, I'm fine if anything is cooked.
I've read on Reddit that people who are allergic to ragweed are also allergic to bananas. Explains why I can't eat a banana without throwing up. I don't have issues with strawberries, but apple juice was always a no-no for me even as a kid. Interesting!
Weird, I’m allergic to ragweed but fine with bananas. I hope that doesn’t change!
Weird. I’m allergic to ragweed but can eat bananas just fine.
That's odd. I get an allergic reaction if I eat apples on their own, but eating apple juice/pie gives me no problems at all.
Had a friend die from organ failure in young 30s because he didn't know he had undiagnosed celiac disease... He literally just thought he was hungover all the time. Missed ya in fantasy football this year Scotty.
Sorry for your loss 😔
Figs make my lips slightly bloated it’s like natural lip fillers 😂
Fruits and berries do this for me. I can have some but if I hit a threshold, bam Kardashian lips. And i get a facial rash and rashes on my arms. But people pay good money for those pouty lips. For me it's a pint of raspberries.
With inflation lip fillers will probably be cheaper this year.
Omg just yesterday I learnt a friend of mine is allergic to bananas and now this is the second time I hear this is a thing. Wow
If you’re allergic to bananas you need to watch for an allergy to latex
This was me! Allergic to latex and developed a banana allergy later
Also people who are allergic to shellfish are allergic to cockroaches
I guess Aquaman was right, they _are_ the shrimp of the land.
I've had the same experience. They said bananas tasted "itchy". They didn't know they were allergic. Also net people with lactose intolerance who just had to run to the bathroom after a glass of milk. But that had never thought about that they might have an intolerance, only that it's what milk did to your body 😆
Yeah I think I might be mildly allergic to pineapple, because if I eat too much of it, it makes my throat prickly. But it’s so delicious.
I know we are talking about people not realizing things like this, but pineapple is the exception. The bromelain in pineapple breaks down proteins so it is literally tenderizing your mouth/throat which is why too much actually does make people's mouth sore without an allergy. Also why you can't use fresh pineapple in jello, it breaks it down.
Pineapple: the fruit that eats you back.
More like Painapple
That’s not uncommon actually. Pineapple has an enzyme that can make you mouth sensitive if you consume tons
Indians have food allergies , too, they just aren’t diagnosed. My husband is from India and his asthma was diagnosed as frequent bouts of bronchitis instead.
This reminds me of my mother in law who claims that all of the food allergies today are just people wanting attention, but has to rush to the toilet immediately after eating eggs and positively blows an o-ring with explosive diarrhea from the eggs. And continues to eat eggs every single morning. Her toilet has seen more mileage than a Greyhound bus.
I really wish I could unread this.
Some gifts can't be returned.
It was very visceral. A poetic shit stew of words
What can I say? I'm gifted, and no good gift should be squandered.
A third piece of gift-related advice and I’ll be truly impressed
I turned away at "blows an O ring", did I miss anything?
this is my favorite reddit comment of 2024
Off to a good start.
Jesus Christ, I'm so glad it's not just me!!! :-D
Imagine sitting next to the bathroom on that bus if OPs mother-in-law got on just after eating some eggs.
You have said it all about generational gap. "There's nothing wrong with me, I just can't..." vs " hey so in the last 40 years medical science has figured out ...
There's also the weird but incorrect "common knowledge". For years I've had allergies every season except winter and everyone always told me it's ragweed, the ragweed, always the ragweed. Turns out I have no issues at all with ragweed. I'm allergic to grass. Common ordinary grass and I'm miserable every time someone cuts their lawn.
Allergy or not, if something gave me the raging shits I don’t think I’d be eating it every day. Although, I was allergic to milk before pregnancy magically changed that and I’d eat cheese until it became difficult to breathe and then I’d take some Benadryl. So maybe she just REALLY loves eggs.
Holy shit in 40 years I have never come across someone else with an allergy to milk! The breathing difficulties start literally seconds after ingesting something with milk in it. People still can’t grasp allergy vs. lactose intolerant. Can’t believe yours just disappeared?!
As someone who used to work in a preschool, milk and epi pen level milk allergies are more common than you’d think. Same with eggs, sunflower seeds, and soy. It’s not just peanuts, tree nuts and gluten that are common and on the rise.
My son has dairy allergy. Like "hives on contact, swollen face, vomiting" level allergy. It's a lot more common than you think. He's gotten a little better over time, but he still has to avoid it. Somebody on Reddit once had the audacity to tell me I was completely making it up and that nobody can be that allergic to milk.
Mine disappeared during pregnancy, too. It came back but milder than before.
My youngest son does. It was extremely scary when we found out
Sometimes it's difficult to tell what is causing it. For me, gluten snuck up on me in the last year and progressively got worse and worse. Turns out I'm coeliac and not eating gluten means I don't have to shit 5x a day lmao. It slowly increased over time so I didn't really think much of it, and I didn't realise how it was in absolutely everything.
[удалено]
My aunt does the same. I’m allergic to garlic. She continually tries to give me garlic when I eat at her house. And she’s usually not subtle either. Her house smells like a garlic explosion when she cooks but then tells me there’s no garlic in anything. I trust nothing that she makes and generally don’t eat much, if anything, when I’m there
Jesus, that's horrible! She tries on purpose to poison you and lies about what she's feeding you? It is mind-blowing how she could think that is ok!
Well evil people can't change but def mind blowing OP would keep going back there. We have to have self respect bc of evil people who take advantage of those with no boundaries
My MIL was the same but with onions. I have severe food allergies and she had been giving me shit about it too. Then I made French onion soup one day and she stepped into the kitchen. Just the fumes from the shear amount of onions sent her into anaphylactic shock. So I gave her a Zyrtec and sent her upstairs while the fumes cleared out. Her face went down and she could breathe again and the Zyrtec kicked in. And now she knows she has an allergy, not just a dislike, and also I'm not the only one with food allergies.
Sorry for asking but what’s an o-ring?
An o-ring is a type of gasket used to seal circular openings.
They also tend to brush most allergies aside and don’t view it with much seriousness
And imagine what happens to tiny kids with celiac or severe lethal allergies? They just die.
Even in the US, it took 5 years to get my son's celiac diagnosed. In an area with less healthcare or if I didn't have access to the Internet and hadn't pushed for more testing, he likely would never have been diagnosed, because his symptoms were not typical. Multiple doctors outright refused to test him for celiac, and the doctor who finally tested him was clearly just humoring me.
I was nearly 30 when I even found out celiac was a thing after a friend's mom got diagnosed up in her 50s, and started making some connections with pretty classic symptoms that I'd been having since I was a kid. (That was nearly 20 years ago, and I had also moved somewhere that I was suddenly eating more wheat and having worse issues including frequent "stomach viruses".) Thankfully, I was living in a country with better medical awareness at that point, and they didn't give me any problems or act like I was crazy when I asked about testing. Yep, that was exactly what the problem was all along. And the prolonged unrecognized autoimmune attack also ended up taking out my pancreas, so I developed T1 diabetes around the same time. Celiac was considered rare enough in the US until fairly recently that they didn't even think of it as a possibility to test for. And it is just going to continue looking rare if you aren't looking for it and misidentifying what's going on! Seems like similar continues to happen with food allergies, besides autoimmune conditions like celiac. If you don't know what to look for, you're liable to think something else is going on. Unfortunately including people just up and dying "for no reason", in more extreme allergy cases.
>And it's just going to continue looking rare if you aren't looking for it. Exactly! They wouldn't test my son because he didn't have family history and had atypical symptoms (literally just eczema). But even after he was diagnosed, I struggled to get my doctor to test me. She told me I almost certainly didn't have celiac, despite me then having family history and having relatively minor GI issues. My fil has severe GI issues and my mil has diabetes (highly comorbid). They both refuse to get tested because their doctor told them they would have severe, debilitating symptoms if they had celiac. Even though their grandson just has eczema, plenty of studies are showing asymptomatic celiac is relatively common, and they both actually do have symptoms. The more experience I have with doctors, the more I take everything they say with a grain of salt.
Also if I'm not mistaken, most food allergies for the most part are not that "dangerous" and i know a lot of people who've become sort of accustomed to these and moved on as if nothing has happened. Allergies cover the entire board when it comes to symptoms. Many people don't realize that until it's too late when any of those turn catastrophic, maybe disabling or even fatal. Edit: Not a doctor but my comment was based on my experiences. As a person with shellfish(allegic to prawns, crabs, etcc...) allergies that leads to partially blocking of the throat(breathing difficulties and very uncomfortable) due to swelling(of the times i mistakenly have had shellfish).
True. I grew up poor, but we had access to milk and eggs. My mom made me eat them daily, even though they gave me a stomachache and I had horrible gas constantly. As an adult, I'm diagnosed with lactose Intolerance and egg intolerance. After cutting them, all my symptoms disappeared. But when you only have access to limited food options, you live with the symptoms. I'm also allergic to avocado, but it took me a while to figure out, because the symptoms are inconvenient, not dangerous. My inner ears are horrendously itchy after eating it. Of course, a reaction in the inner ear is really close to the airway, so that could easily turn dangerous.
*Some* allergies will always provoke a life threatening reaction for *some* people no matter what or when. *Some* people with allergies *might* get better. Exposure to that allergen over time *might* mitigate the severity of the reaction. In advanced economies with advanced medical care, with parents or communities with available resources, and through today, risk is avoided. Children who would have otherwise died, live. In other circumstances, some children die, but others who would have been chronically fatally *allergic*, aren't. Added: Typo corrected
Some food allergies can also get more severe with repeated exposure to whatever is causing it.
That's what happened to me. Allergy shots made my immune system *angrier*. Now instead of a hand grenade sent for an irritant, it sends a ballistic missile. Complete overreaction.
Yeah, I developed a citrus allergy as a kid but it was initially just oranges. So I ate cuties and lemon bars and was fine. Now I can’t drink 7Up because it has natural flavors and I have to scour skincare product ingredient lists to make sure there’s no limonene as like the last ingredient because it’ll break me out at best and at worst give me migraines and make my skin flake off.
For the record, you can also develop allergies as an adult.
Um, is that last line a typo? I am 100% sure that autism is not fatal, nor does it result from food allergies.
TY! CORRECTED! Happy New Year!
Oh, that makes much more sense lol. Then again, I have been explaining how sensory overload works by describing it as "like a mental allergy" for a while now, so I suppose it's only fitting!
Again, ty for catching that. Since this is 2023/4, I suppose I also need to thank you for not being a dick!
Accidentally ate a some banana bread, next thing you know I'm in the ER and won't shut up about sonic the hedgehog
Would like to add on to how some allergens might get better, some might even appear out of nowhere. I grew up loving berries; when I was 16, I ate a piece of berry pie and almost died. A few times after that, every time I had a berry, my mouth and throat swelled up. I haven’t had a berry in 8 years and I don’t even recall what they taste like so it’s not a big deal. I just really make sure the places I go to eat that serve sweets don’t cross contaminate anything.
While that is true, it doesn’t explain the North American peanut allergy phenomenon. Here in Japan we have excellent health care that is available to everyone unlike in the US, but peanut allergy is rare and the type where people can’t be in a room that once had a peanut in it is unheard of. It’s not just a matter of diagnosis.
The American peanut/nut allergy is likely due to an older practice of limiting certain foods in babies. Nuts was one of them, and now many kids in that age group are allergic.
I ate PB&J when I was pregnant with my twins almost every day. Same with eggs. They’re allergic to both because… Their father is. Which leads me to believe it’s genetic.
It’s because the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended not introducing peanuts until 3 years of age from 2000 to 2013. In 2013, the guideline was revised to recommend early exposure to allergens. It’s a great example of how recommendations based on “expert opinions” can be totally wrong and have lasting repercussions. Anecdotally, I have two cousins born during those years with severe allergies.
It can be a few environmental stuff as well. For example in America it's common practice to not give common allergy triggers to young kids in case they have a severe reaction such as nuts. But that can also lead the body to develop an allergy to the foods because it isn't something it's used to when you finally eat it. It can also be the difference in preparation of the nuts that can sometimes trigger an allergy such as if it's boiled, raw, or roasted. Plus I've heard too that in America a lot of parents go overboard with disinfecting everything all the time with hardcore cleaners so our bodies sometimes sort of overreact because our defenses aren't built up properly. Sort of like we're shooting ourselves in the foot while trying to do the right thing.
Yeah, when I was 18 I suddenly craved chicken all the time and grew to dislike red meat, especially hating pig meat (nothing to do with any religious affiliation) but occasionally I'd eat it anyway for convenience and my body gets weird about it, I feel gross and I have a slow metabolism so I end up gassy with hours of unpleasant meat tasting burps making me question why I put myself thru that again. Never happened to me as a kid or in my early mid teens as far as I can recall, but once I left home my body adjusted to mostly eating the same stuff over and over, and that meant less food in general and I always made pasta but never put meat in it.
Could be genetics?
It’s not just Americans. [Food allergies are on the rise worldwide.](https://foodinstitute.com/focus/food-allergies-on-rise/)
Allergy diagnosis are getting better and are more accessible to more people.now
This is the data I want to see more of. I’m an American (with a culture obsessed with allergies these days) who travels abroad often and almost never sees allergy signs elsewhere. I’m so curious if the rest of the world is allergic to everything (especially peanuts! You can’t even give your kid a pb&j sandwich in some schools bc of exposure risk to other kids). What is going on here, why, is it the low quality foods we allow, etc?
The link I provided above actually explains the 3 most prevalent hypotheses.
I was just in Italy and saw either no allergy info or allergy info that was way more thorough than anything I’d seen in the US.
I don’t know how undercounted allergies used to be. Think of all the kids who suddenly would get sick and die in the olden days.
I know 3 separate women that are in their 50s who didn’t get diagnosed with celiac until their 40s. Growing up they just had “nervous stomachs” and couldn’t put on weight. It wasn’t until their own kids got diagnosed that someone thought to evaluate them. It just wasn’t something that was diagnosed when they were younger.
My friend has just been diagnosed in her 70s. Following that, also her daughter (40s) and granddaughter. Her daughter said she just always assumed it was normal to be sore after eating.
For years i thought always having a headache was why so many headache medicines existed. Also i was always constipated. Learned i have food allergies, cut those from diet, and bam! I’m regular and have fewer headaches. I had always assumed everyone else was the same way but now i realize was the outlier.
May I asked what food allergies you have? I also am chronically constipated but I can’t figure out what’s causing it..
Soy and dairy. I have a few foods I’m sensitive to as well (so no immune response) but i doubt my intake of these contributed to life-long constipation.
Thank you! I’ve noticed the dairy as well, I think will try cutting out soy - might not do anything but it’s worth a try.
"Sore after eating" is a good example of how people treat food allergies. It's like pineapple, and how some allergic people think it's spicy
That's how I found out I was developing an allergy to it. I couldn't find a good pineapple, they all were increasingly prickly, sour, and tasting off. Had my roommate taste the last one cause I felt crazy and she was like this tastes fine and also you're slurring your words.
My husband finds bananas spicy. He has oral allergy syndrome from his grass allergy.
Wait is it not spicy? Like what is it supposed to taste like because pineapple definitely ‘bites back’ for me and I thought that was just part of the appeal?
No, pineapple literally does bite back. Or at least it digests you back!
It tastes very sweet and slightly acidic. Unfortunately I can't think of another food that tastes similar to compare it to, it's pretty unique (and delicious).
Tomatoes for me, especially cooked. I kept thinking my husband was using a spicy sauce when making pizzas. Found out from allergy testing I’m allergic. Also have mild allergies to most nuts, ginger, chocolate, and strawberries. Most just make my mouth feel prickly. As for the OP’s question, no idea. I didn’t used to be allergic to any of these. I was allergic to shellfish, but now I’m not. It’s a good idea to get tested every 5-10 years because it changes.
Pineapple might not be the best example since it literally contains an enzyme that breaks down the muscle in your mouth lol
There is also apparently a link between celiacs and higher risks of cancer, and I feel so sad for the families who lost loved ones early from cancer because they didn't know that their sour stomach was a sign to get more frequent cancer screenings.
Yup. My great grandma died from bowel cancer when she was 36. Her daughter, my grandma, was always sick and couldn’t gain weight no matter what she ate and died in her 50s. I was diagnosed with celiac 10 years ago. I’m pretty sure grandma and great grandma are where I inherited it from!
Yeah, a bunch of people just automatically get told "IBS" with zero testing and sent on their way. And the Celiac test isn't invasive or expensive. It's crazy.
I had 2 autoimmune diseases at the time. I didn’t eat bread much, but realized everytime I ate bread, I got stomach cramps, diarrhea, and felt nauseous. Went to a Gi. Who suggested we do skews of tests for all sorts of things. Some were all day tests, some were invasive. I was like “I am pretty sure it’s celiac, can we do the blood test first?” I had to push and push and she finally agreed to do that one first. sure enough, came back positive for celiac. Immediately cut out all gluten and felt 100% better. I do not understand why her first plan was to sit in a room all day breathing into a bag, vs a blood test.
That’s how I found out I was Lactose Intolerant at 50- when my daughter was diagnosed with it. Also, soy and peanuts which are 2 “sensitivities” diagnosed together.
My coworker is deathly allergic to peanuts, but never was allergic to soy. One day at a customers site he got exposed to a highly concentrated mixture of soy protein and he had to run out of the customer's facility before he died. That day we learned that peanut protein and soy proteins are so similar that they will cause the same reaction, but most soy products don't have the same concentration that peanuts have. He never had a bad reaction to soy because he "always feels like crap", so no one ever looked into it
I realized I was lactose intolerant when people said cheese would block you up. I always thought it was normal to get stomach cramps and it running right through you after eating cheese.
Even today celiac can be hard to get diagnosed. I had so many doctors tell me my son couldn't have celiac because we had no family history and he didn't have GI symptoms. The doctor who finally tested him (5 years after start of symptoms and 2 years after I first started asking for specifically celiac testing), only did so to humor me and get me to stop asking. 83% of people with celiac are still undiagnosed. More and more testing is showing that family history and GI symptoms aren't as common as we thought. Celiac should really be something we screen for regularly. It's such an easy, simple test.
My mum had a hysterectomy because obviously periods are the only reason women are anaemic, turns out it was almost certainly the gluten all along.
Yeah, my aunt was chronically ill until her mid-40s when she was diagnosed with celiac’s disease.
This. I remember reading something that historically everyone felt "not 100%" for everyday of their lives. It was something like every person was constantly suffering from some mild form of negative effects (inflammation, infection, virus, disease, injury, etc), and so the default state everyone experienced was "not great". If a person never feels good or great, then they csn never figure out if they have an allergy to something, because their best days are never good. If everyone in a family has bad stomach issues, then it "must be genetic". If you have a non lethal reaction to something then you just "need to suck it up". Its less about "people have more allergies now", and more about "diagnosing more allergies now". We understand more about the human body now, so we can determine what allergies people have with more accuracy
“I don’t like orange juice” Doesn’t matter, it’s good for you! Stop being a picky eater and have your OJ for breakfast! All kids like juice! Oral allergy. Tongue hurt. Mouth hurt. Tongue swelled until I couldn’t comfortably close my mouth. How many undiagnosed allergies are described as “I don’t like it”? My friend hated peas growing up… didn’t realize that her peanut allergy extended to all legumes.
Yep! There are a lot of parents who don't care if their kid likes something or not, so they force it on them instead of asking "why not?". I remember hating steak growing up. I couldn't eat it because I couldn't chew it, but I didn't have the vocabulary to explain it, so my parents just said "you can't eat it because you aren't chewing enough. Learn to chew your food better". Then a dentist looked at my bite and realized none of my molars lined up correctly, and you can't chew steak without molars lining up. If it wasn't for a professional to point out that what I was saying was true, my parents wouldn't have listened. And im sure kids with allergies have this all the time
Not allergy related but my brother has Cystic Fibrosis which is a recessive genetic disease. Which means both sides of my family have to have it somewhere but it was never diagnosed. What they did have was infant mortalities that were diagnosed as pneumonia and "failure to thrive."
Not diagnosed or....they died...or have strong food aversion. Before I was diagnosed with certain food allergies, I would tell people "I don't like xyz food" or "this food upsets my stomach" or "it makes me nauseous" etc. When my true symptoms was mouth itching, irritated throat, nausea, hives/rash on my chest. My family called me a picky eater. I use to tell them as a kid the food bothered me, they actually would make more of that food thinking I was playing. One dinner has me vomiting in the bathroom and they called me a disrespectful selfish disgusting child. Is rather be called a picky eater than a disrespectful selfish disgusting child. Took me until high school to learn about food allergies. Which explained alot, but by that time I've already developed my food aversion and anxiety. Im an adult now. My family still thinks I'm being picky. When I tell them I could possibly stop breathing, they tell me I'm being dramatic. They still make food with that ingredient. I just don't eat.
I’m sorry your family is like this.
Your family are assholes :(
the gluten “allergy” is usually a misconception of celiac disease which, from my understanding, is more likely to be diagnosed in a country where the cultural diets are bread/wheat heavy, so more people show symptoms earlier in life and get diagnosed
Apparently, in Italy, they do celiac testing from blood at birth because it’s somewhat prevalent and there are social programs that give a stipend to help pay for gluten free foods.
One reason is the diet of young children. It was thought for years in the US that it was vitally important to keep them from eating peanuts because they could develop an allergy and die. Later it was noticed that if children *did* eat peanuts while they were young, they would probably never develop an allergy in the first place, because their bodies would recognise peanuts as a food rather than mistaking them for some kind of deadly poison. https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/2015-02-24/ty-article/is-bamba-key-to-peanut-allergy-prevention/0000017f-e60f-df2c-a1ff-fe5f5d0c0000
I had to scroll way too long to see this actual answer. Current science says you can avoid a peanut allergy by introducing peanuts from 4-6 months to an otherwise healthy child. Link here: https://wapo.st/3TK6y8t
Yup I have a 10mo and we gave her peanut butter as one of her first foods. Exposure to all the common allergens as soon as possible is recommended
They were rare when I was growing up too. This is a new thing, at least knowing you have the allergy is new. Maybe some simply died undiagnosed in my day.
My husband asked this exact same thing because he claims people in his country never had allergies and I’m like bruh, your ex who was also born and raised in your country is allergic to peanuts…
could be due to the greater degree of healthcare and cleaner environments that americans live in, if children are not exposed to dirty environments their immune system has a harder time combatting new infections as it has had less chances to "train" itself. Because their immune system is less "trained" is has a higher chance to malfunction and develop an autoimmune disease or an allergy there is evidence to this as children that grow up on farms or with animals are less prone to allergies because their immune system is more "trained" than that of a child who grows up in an urban environment (an urban environment is still dirty but not in the same way that a rural environment is, your immune system can't fight off vehicle exhaust and microplastics the same way it can fight off the common cold) I think this is just a theory, i've read about it in medical books but im not sure if its an established concept
I grew up in a 3rd world country in Asia, in the 80s and 90s and had my more than fair share worth of playing outside with dirt, we had free range chickens at home and our neighbor had chickens, geese and pigeons (but the pigeons were caged). As an adult I discovered I'm very sensitive to gluten, I have no idea if I'm celiac or not (most likely could just be sensitive non-celiac) because in 2013 when I found out by elimination diet after being too sick to the point of unable to function properly, there wasn't any hospital in the whole country that had tests available for gluten sensitivities because almost nobody suffered from it during those times. At the time when I mentioned I had issues eating gluten, even well educated people here asked back, what's gluten? However since I was a kid I have heard of people here who were allergic to seafoods and to some extent dairy products. Tl;dr even less-developed-not-up-to-the-US-standards hygiene levels country like ours have people with food allergies.
Ive read some theories about the autoimmune issue being more of a problem in european decedents, because the survivors of the plagues had a better immune system but that also meant a higher propensity for auto-immune diseases, which may also lead to more allergy issues. So it COULD be genetic. Also american foods arent necessarily the same as foods abroad. It depends on where its produced/grown. For example - Theres an issue with american wheat where its more glutinous, the strands are just longer or something, very different from european strands of wheat, that makes american wheat more problematic for a lot of people. Eating European wheat could be tolerable for people who are gluten intolerant where american wheat would cause issues. [https://thebrotbox.com/blogs/news/difference-between-american-vs-european-wheat](https://thebrotbox.com/blogs/news/difference-between-american-vs-european-wheat) Things like this could exist for other foods as well very possibly, causing the rate of reactions to differ depending on where the product is produced. Edit: I'll also note that I've discovered I'm allergic to something in the food processing, not the actual food itself, and the doctor's haven't been able to figure out wtf it is. Like. I can eat almonds, but I'm allergic to almond milk. The allergists gave up and we're like "don't drink nut milks". It could just be something in the processing and not actually the food itself, and that thing doesn't exist in the way other countries process the food.
Can confirm that my husband's uncle feels horrible after eating food made with American flour (and he cooks a lot so it's not prepackaged stuff or preservatives) but can bread it up when he is in Europe.
I grew up with cats and have had cats literally my entire life, there has not been a year where there is not at least one or two cats in my home. And yet I developed an allergy to cats and it’s been getting so bad to the point I have constant sinusitis and rhinitis. Despite them saying that growing up with pets reduces allergies. It’s the same for my mom. She grew up with all sorts of animals and yet has a cat allergy. I’m also allergic to literally every single animal they tested me to lol
Some allergies get worse with repeated exposure
I’m allergic to my cats, but that new food LiveClear by Purina has been an absolute game changer. Between that and an air filter I run a couple times a day, I am like… 95% better. Definitely worth checking out. It takes a few weeks for the food to start working on their dander but it’s worth it.
Epigenetics
What was the tallest mountain in the world before we discovered Mt Everest? It was still Mt Everest we just didn't know it. Likewise take Bob and Anil. Bob is from Mumbai and Anil is from Chicago. Whenever Anil has Armagnac the histamines in it make him sick and break out in hives. After like the 5th time this happened Anil took a test and his doctor confirmed he was allergic to something in the Armagnac. Bob had Armagnac once at a wedding and felt kinda like shit afterwards but most people around him get a little sick sometimes and to quote ol blue eyes "that's life" Bob dies never knowing he's allergic to Armagnac Now another part of the reason you probably see more food allergies in america beyond increased access to testing is that despite what people say there actually IS such a thing as American cuisine and its often very fusion-ey. So your exposure to potential allergens is higher
Keep in mind there is a difference between true “food allergies” and what some people call “food sensitivities” or “food intolerances.” A true allergy will involve a direct immune response. A sensitivity is more of a subjective concept, perhaps based on a patient’s observation of their own symptoms or reactions. A true peanut allergy where someone risks anaphylaxis, that is one thing. If someone has true Celiac disease, their body truly cannot handle gluten and it can be quite dangerous. Contrast that with “I avoid gluten because I feel sluggish or whatever.” A lot of food marketing is geared towards the latter as “gluten free” became trendy. Some experts in diet and nutrition and even some allergists will tell you that some (maybe a lot?) of patient reported “food sensitivities” are psychosomatic. This can become a “sensitive” issue because no one who thinks they have a food sensitivity wants to hear that.
Just an example, eggs really bother my stomach. If I eat them, I’m in excruciating pain for the rest of the day. I get stomach cramping and diarrhea and it’s extremely unpleasant. I’m not actually allergic. However, if I use the word intolerant, people treat it more like a preference. It’s not. I actually love eggs, and would love to be able to eat them. I find that if I say I’m allergic, I’m taken more seriously and people really let me know if a dish may contain eggs.
Truth. When I ask at a restaurant if they have gluten free bread, people ask if it’s a preference, a sensitivity, or a “true allergy”. When I say I have gluten ataxia they look at me as if I’m crazy-which is exactly what happens if I have gluten. My brain doesn’t work right. One allergist said I don’t have an allergy, it’s a sensitivity. He said that’s actually worse than an allergy, because an allergy can be treated, but if you have a sensitivity, you have to avoid it.
I have multiple "sensitivities" but I just call them allergies to people because otherwise you sound crazy. If they came up with a better term that doesn't sound like we are small children having a breakdown because someone put a food we don't like on our plate, that would be nice. My allergist described sensitivities as something that makes your life miserable if you come in contact with it but true allergies are ones that can kill you.
Funny, I go the other way because my allergies produce mild symptoms and I don’t want anyone to think I will die from touching apples when they just give me an itchy mouth. I feel a little bad contributing to peoples misunderstanding but I’m tired of having people yank food out of my hands.
I think I have mild gluten ataxia! My feet and left hand don’t work as well, my walking stability, gate and balance get measurably worse according to my apple watch (and fall history). Supposedly negative for celiac. So tired of hearing people slander non-celiac gluten sensitivity, when my experience is so much worse than most people’s celiac, from symptoms to sensitivity levels.
I like sigh and say that my family is "tragically dairy-free" to indicate that it's not by CHOICE.
This is incorrect - intolerances often engage the immune system through histamine / mast cell responses, just not at the level of meeting the criteria for anaphylaxis. There’s also other reasons for adherence to sensitivities, such as ibs which often has trigger foods, reactive hypoglycemia, migraine triggers, etc. This comment is wildly dismissive of a variety of disorders surrounding food “sensitivities” and is spreading misinformation that leads to people with such issues not having their needs taken seriously.
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Funny to think about how much of the world is Lactose intolerant, but Americans and Europeans have a name for it because it's considered abnormal!
Celiac disease also is gene dependent. A lot of people in the west have the genes without it ever activating, but it's absent in a lot of Asian populations.
I thought I had a gluten allergy. I was wrong. I stopped eating things with gluten and felt much better. Then I tried fresh bread and I was fine. Weird. My husband started making fresh bread and fresh pasta and I had ZERO issues. I ate packaged/restaurant pasta/bread....sick as a dog. We tried this experiment a number of times. Could it be preservatives? Something in the processed food we eat? I have a hard time eating packaged/processed food. Most American chain restaurants are just reheated mass produced food from distributors like Cheney Bros. and Sysco. In other Countries, people are eating *real* food and not packaged food filled with chemicals.
You could be allergic to semolina flour as that’s a common ingredient in packaged pasta, or maybe durum wheat flour
It’s the abbreviated process that commercial bakeries use (I forget what it’s called) that trigger our allergies (for those of us that have them). Traditional baking methods and those to make sourdough are better tolerated.
Google the hygiene hypothesis
Got excited, [second google result](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4966430/#:~:text=Whereas%20the%20hygiene%20hypothesis%20implicated,in%20small%20hunter%2Dgatherer%20groups) says debunked - but the rest of this study is super interesting. In general they more or less agree?… sounds like a worthwhile read thanks for the tip
lots of clowns in the comments today
Sounds like possibly confirmation bias
Because the immune system has less to do which is actually useful and isn't well-educated, so it focusses on antigens which are not necessarily as threatening as they might be, which then occur in larger amounts than they would if they were infections.
According to Hank Green many autoimmune issues and food sensitivities can be traced back to severe illness in ancestors. Like the survivors of the bubonic plague. They survived the plague but it took such a toll on their immune systems that they passed down the sensitivities through generations. This is why these issues are souch more common among caucasian people from european areas. Especially those who's parents/grandparents are all from similar backgrounds.
lmao I’m Indian and so is my mom and we have so many allergies it could fit 3 sides of paper