Is it possible to crave what you're allergic to?- Page 2

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 3:18pm

I have had milk before, but not for a long time. I don't remember what it tastes like, but I know it tastes good... does that sort of make sence?

Most of my recent cravings revolve around edamame though, so no worries there.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 3:20pm

Yeah. So you remember that you liked it? Which, I guess would explain why you'd want to. I don't remember liking it at all, or disliking it... consciously, at least.

[CJR]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 3:20pm

Im highly allergic to garlic (no, Im not a vampire -- no jokes please) and even though it makes me really sick, I still eat foods containing it from time to time.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 3:25pm

Sometimes if I'm craving something I'm allergic to, if I eat something that is similar to it, it helps...

luvtheemcee I know of a brand of food that makes dairy free pizza and it's really good :)

I'm also kind of curious, since I don't really know anyone else with food allergies... do you have to be compleatly dairy-free, or can you have things that say in the ingreadiants "this food made on equipment that also processes milk/peanuts"? I'm too scared to eat those foods lol.

[CJR]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 4:01pm

Two of the little girls I babysit for are highly allergic to peanuts. Sometimes they can eat foods made with peanut oil and they're alright.... sometimes they have a reaction. It depends how much is used and unfortunately from the ingredients you never know exactly how much.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 4:04pm

That kind of peanut allergy also depends on the processing. There are two types of peanut oil that differ by the way they're processed, and many people who are allergic to peanuts are only allergic to one kind, and can eat the other without any issue.

abba, I've had the dairy-free pizza, but something tells me it's not the same.

It blows my mind that people would voluntarily eat something they know they're allergic to, but maybe that's just becuase the reactions I could have would be so severe. I mean, I don't understand why people can be like "well, I may not be able to breathe, and my throat MIGHT close, but you know, I just really want to eat this anyway." I mean, isn't that kind of scary?

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 4:16pm

I don't understand that either, emcee...
I know someone who is allergic to strawberries, eats them, and right after, sticks himself with en epipen... isn't that bad for you to use that thing that often? i think ive only used mine once.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 4:20pm

Well, like any drug, you can become immune to it if you use it too much. You're also supposed to get your ass to a hospital as soon as you use an Epipen. Using it too much isn't great for your heart rate, either; epinephrine is basically adrenaline.

Updated On: 4/13/05 at 04:20 PM

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 4:41pm

i knew that about the heart rate thing... that's why i've only used mine once... i used it and had an (almost) worse reation then i did from the food (i have arrhythmia)
I'm supossed to take benedryl and i wear a medic alert ankle bracelet incase anythign ever happened.

the strawberry guy i was talking about, he's not really all there mentally... :P

[ashley0139]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 7:22pm

This is quite the interesting conversation. I am actually allergic to a lot of things so I know how you guys all feel. Although I can't really say about the craving thing because, although many times I crave something I have never had- like pizza- they have great substitutes for it so I just eat that. I wonder if it's more like, when everyone around you is eating it you crave it but if you're alone it's not such a big deal. Maybe not. But I'm definelty feeling you guys because I know exactly how it is. Hope to talk more about this...

EDIT: About the whole, eating things you know you shouldn't eat thing, I think everybody knows their body's limitation depending on how serious their condition is. I personally, will not die if I eat something that I shouldn't, but I do get sick. But sometimes I can eat a very little and it won't do anything, and sometimes it will. It just depends. I try to eat the very least amount possible.

Updated On: 4/13/05 at 07:22 PM

[Liam]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 7:27pm

im alergic to posin ivey i know what your thinking evry one is but my eyes swell up when i get it

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 7:28pm

This topic made me want pizza.... I made it without cheese :P
I drink soymilk and I have been told that the SilkMilk Un-Sweetened tastes almost just like milk.
I have alot of recipies witout milk eggs and peanuts/peanut oils so if anyone is interested in them, you can send me an IM. :)

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 8:06pm

I was diagnossed with the milk/egg/peanut allergy last year, but even befor that i wasn't eating those foods since they made me so sick. I have two kinds of allergies: anaphelexis (sp?) and allergic colitis. the milk/egg/peanut thing is allergic colitis. the peppers and fish, my throat closes up, need bottled oxygen, yadda yadda yadda, not a fun time.
the pepper and fish things both happened after I ate them and in my cousin's words, my "face inflated" when i was 11.
That's when they gave me the epipen.

bmeonbway2, i went though a thing like that, where they didn't know what I had and tested me for EVERYTHIGN, so if you want to talk about thayt with someone you can send me a PM.

Posted: 4/13/05 at 8:17pm

Thanks abba! I'm not pm-ing this b/c I'm curious to know others' symptoms from their food allergies (if it developed later in your life.. relatively writing)?

I have a strange reaction. It begins with my pinky and ring finger in my left arm (I use this now as a signal to find Benadryl... quickly). I then start feeling a weird sensation on my head. Shortly after, my throat feels like it is about to close up, sometimes I get very sick (I'll leave it at that). I met one other people whose symptoms developed the same exact way. However, when I went to an allergist (who was completely useless) she could not help me.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 8:38pm

mine always start with my throat... it feels like it is closing before it actaully does. I take half a dose of benedryl then, and wait 5 minutes. if it doesn't get better, i take the other half. (i take the kids liquid benedryl)
if that doesn't help, i have oxygen and my dad is an EMT so he knows how to set it up for me and everything.
I hve only had to go to the ER once for it, but i was in the hospital for 6 days and on an NG (feeding) tube for three months from october to december because i was getting sick from everything (i had surgery to fix that though...)
I am seeing an allergist soon... there isn't one at the children's hospital so we have to go somewhere else.

[Falsettoland]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 9:04pm

My allergist was useless too. So I still don't know what I'm allergic to.
I get an itchy scalp first, then break out in hives, then my lip, eye, tongue or throat, or a combo of all, swell up. It's sexy as hell!
But I seem to be building a tolerance to whatever it is cause it rarely happens anymore.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 10:36pm

I was diagnosed when I was three so I haven't really known anything else. I was really sick when I was little and my mom took me to a bunch of doctors and it took a really long time to figure out what it was. They had to do lots of tests and stuff. My mom thinks that it why I am now deathly afraid of needles. Anyways, fortunately, if I eat something I am not supposed to, my throat doesn't close up or anything but I get very sick sometimes.

[Aigoo]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 10:37pm

My dad's allergic to peaches...I feel really bad, they're so good.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 11:16pm

bme, my parents found out when I was a little bit over a year old. Apparently they gave me yogurt or cottage cheese or something, and I was constantly throwing up. Food allergies are usually tested by bloodwork, so I was tested for all of the "common" allergies.

If it's bad enough, I can have anaphylactic reactions, but Benadryl usually does the trick, though I still use liquid because it doesn't have to be broken down, so it can get to work faster. Throat swells, eyes itch, skin itches... whole nine yards.

Posted: 4/14/05 at 8:42am

Thanks for posting your reactions . Food allergies are so serious and they generally don't get the attention they deserve. For example, I used to eat this great low fat muffin from the coffee place at my university. A few times, I started feeling the reaction come on, but I ignored it... I mean, it was a muffin. It definitely got worse as I continued to eat it (I'm so stupid sometimes, but it was a great bran muffin) and finally, I got really sick after the last time I ate it. I asked the people who worked there about the ingredients and of course, they had no idea. There was no place I could search to find the ingredients. After emailing some people at UM, someone replied with the list. Turned out, there was soy flour in there. I asked why they couldn't make it available, in addition to the ingredients in other food items. They said it was too much of a hassle. Typing that to the wife of an attorney was probably not a smart idea... I informed them of the liability w/ regard to having less than knowledgeable people selling the items and no reference available to consumers. They replied that it was too large an undertaking to list everything and I should stay away from foods that I suspected to contain allergic ingredients. So circular... had I suspected soy flour in a bran muffin, I would have never had it in the first place!

Anyone else had experiences like that?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 9:42am

Since I literally grew up with this, my parents were very involved when I was young, and have always been really vigiliant about keeping me on my toes. From the time I started reading, no joke, they had me learning to read ingredient labels, so by the time I was about five or so, I knew *exactly* what was safe and what was unsafe. They also taught me, and I still hold to it, NEVER to eat anything that doesn't have an ingredient listing. I mean, why risk it? I COULD have a bad enough reaction, that it's not worth just going "oh, man... that looks REALLY good, I think I'm just going to eat it anyway and see what happens." I don't know... I just think that's really stupid, and unnecessarily putting yourself in danger. Why would you want to just try it and see? I've had things get screwed up and cause problems, mostly with mislabeled ingredients, and in restaurants when people screw up cooking, but mostly with cross-contamination issues.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 10:43am

I had a cross-cantamination thing once... I was at this Japaneese resturaunt, Ginza, and I ordered a shimp roll, figuring I would be safe, since the shrimp was cooked and fresh... little did I know, they would be cooking it on a grill that was greased up with butter...
I hate it when places won't give you the ingredients to something... I have experienced that quite a bit at Price Chopper... is it really so hard to stop what you're doing for 30 seconds to hand me a sheet with ingredients on it?
I like to go to Wild Oats alot and there is this great vegan cafe near my house, but I'm still a little weary of stuff from there, becaused just because vegans don't like to eat dairy and eggs, nothing bad will happen to them if the do eat something that accidentally has milk in it. (like the so-called vegan carrot cake... )
Alot of resturaunts will make a special dish for you if you explain your allergies to them... Chili's did for me
I go to the food allergy network site alot, because they always have recalls on there of foods that have un-listed ingredients.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 12:28pm

FYI that y'all might be interested in if you aren't already aware of it: as much as I dislike President Bush, back in January he signed a bill that will make it absolutely imperative for all food labels to be COMPLETELY 100% accurate. I forget exactly when it's going to be fully enacted, but I think it's January of '06. Food companies are now not allowed to hide any ingredients, no matter how small the amount used, and they have to label things exactly as they are, no ambiguities.

A lot of vegan stuff is still kind of sketchy, because even though they say they don't use dairy, unless it's VERY strict, there's a strong possibility they still could. Milk goes under over 25 different names, so not only are they all hard to catch and fully avoid, but many times the protein casein will be used separately from *actual* straight milk, or lactose will be used as a sweetener, even though there isn't technically any "milk" in something.

[camerangel]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 12:34pm

Em, Abba..

"It blows my mind that people would voluntarily eat something they know they're allergic to, but maybe that's just becuase the reactions I could have would be so severe. I mean, I don't understand why people can be like "well, I may not be able to breathe, and my throat MIGHT close, but you know, I just really want to eat this anyway." I mean, isn't that kind of scary?"

I can't really explain it. I dont know why people do it.. Hell I did it last night and made myself soo very sick. I dont do it very often and everytime I do I swear I wont do it again. One of these days I will learn..

As for the milk thing.. I never crave that because although I am allergic to it (not as severely as EM, but enough to make me very ill) I have tasted it. And frankly its nasty..

Posted: 4/14/05 at 1:12pm

With the muffin, I had no clue I was allergic to it. Yes, I should have stopped when I felt the symptoms, but I denied it b/c I didn't think that it could possibly make me sick.

I'm glad to read that about Bush- it really is so important. I found out some sad news recently about someone I went to college with. He was doing very well, working in NYC (I think in investment banking, but I'm not sure) and went out to eat one night. Apparently, he had a peanut allergy and was not aware that it was in his meal. He tragically died that night. I don't know about all of the circumstances, but this was definitely a tragedy.

I had an experience where I told the waiter I was allergic to ginger and soy (I always begin my ordering with that spiel) and he assured me there was nothing in the salad. This was the same restaurant where we had our engagement party and knew the chefs, waiters, managers, chefs, etc. very well. As I began to eat, I started feeling very sick. Fortunately, I had a benadryl and took it immediately (stopped eating too). My husband and I left and the manager and chef ran over to inform my parents there was ginger in the salad. The waiter seriously f-ed up. They were very lucky that I didn't have to go to a hospital (fortunately, my reaction is not that severe yet, but continual exposure will make it worse). Gotta love incompentence!