It’s funny how you can say “I can’t have gluten or dairy” and people just nod, but if you say, “I’m allergic to pizza, donuts, ice-cream and beer” they truly realize the implications.
This just happened with Ryan the other day. He was talking about how bad his stomach feels when he eats at certain restaurants, and they happened to be the same ones I have difficulty with, and I told him I have a processed corn allergy – I’ll flat out throw up if I get enough of it in my system, and when I haven’t had enough of it, I wish I had because it slowly moves through my system hurting like fuck when if I could just puke it would be over sooner.
So he was like “oh yeah that sucks but really how much processed corn is in everything?“ His eyes grew bigger the more items I named – corn flour, corn syrup (in a lot of candy and sugary foods), corn starch (cheap fast food), corn oil, corn tortillas, corn meal I CAN’T EAT CORNBREAD 🙁 and so many other things. A lot of companies are switching to corn-based products because it’s cheaper, so that sucks too.
When I said popcorn, he gasped and was like “POPCORN!?!!! that’s awful!”
And it just cracked me up because it’s like I just said corn products and you’re surprised at popCORN?! He gasped again and asked, “Does that include Corn Nuts?!”
And I don’t even think my allergy is that bad. I don’t swell up or have trouble breathing. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people that have major food allergies to multiple things.
As long as I stay away from watermelon and honeydew (I say that like I never eat them but damn sometimes it’s worth the swollen mouth and throat) and processed corn, I’m good 🙂