The Seated View

I spent over 30 years of my life being nauseated. It arrived along with my juvenile arthritis, and stayed put until 10 years ago when I started Biologics. One of the best and incompletely unexpected add-ons to my disease being controlled is a humongous reduction in nausea. An unfortunate and unexpected (likely coincidental?) increase in food allergies has prevented me from taking advantage of my new-found ability to eat yummy foods. These food allergies are probably also the only reason I am not as big as a house. Silver lining, right? I love food. I love trying new things (especially when no longer constantly queasy), and I live in a multicultural city that has foods from all over the world. You’d think that would be heaven, but you’d be wrong. Many parts of the world don’t have labelling laws, or fully comprehend the possible consequences of cross-contamination. So instead of trying a new restaurant every week as I’d like to do, I’m careful about what and where I eat...

Eating out when you have food allergies is an adventure akin to playing Russian roulette.  Funnelcake at the fair. Thankfully, no nuts in the booth. It's not Russian roulette because restaurants don’t try to accommodate you — they do – but because the staff in restaurants have a varying understanding of what food allergies mean. Just for fun, I’ve gathered three examples from recent experiences at restaurants to illustrate my point. If you are a restaurant owner, chef, or server, feel free to use these as educational materials for your colleagues. Know the Ingredients of the Food I don’t eat out often, but when I do, I tend to go to one of a few restaurants in my neighbourhood where I’ve found a dish or two that I can eat. One of these dishes is a very yummy calamari that is normally served with a small container of hot sauce and a similar container of garlic mayonnaise. When I order food, I always tell the server that I’m allergic to eggs and nuts and they...

I have what can best be described as a crapload of allergies. Some of them have been around since I was a kid — if I ate too many grapes or apples, I’d get hives — but others are new additions. First came kiwi, then 15 years ago certain kinds of nuts arrived, taking with them all other kinds of nuts due to the risk of cross-contamination (I miss nuts…). Then came Enbrel, which made me allergic to what seemed like the entire world. Since I started Humira, I’ve gradually added back foods, but still have a number of interesting limitations, what between cross allergies — did you know that if you're allergic to kiwi, you probably have a cross allergy to melon? I found out the hard way — aggravated histamine levels thanks to Humira and my body’s just plain persnicketyness. Living with a crapload of allergies is a pain in the arse, particularly nut allergies. Because of the cross contamination issue, having a nut allergy means being pretty paranoid about other kinds of foods. Yo...

A couple of months ago, there was a bit of a thing when someone said that the concern about nuts and nut-free zones was showing all signs of flirting with mass hysteria. Dr. Nicholas Christakis, who himself allergic to nuts, was quoted as saying that the efforts of schools to declare themselves completely nut-free, including banning nuts and peanut butter from the school, as well as homemade goods and foods without detailed ingredient labels were a "gross overreaction to the magnitude of the threat". Comparatively, the 150 people who die of food allergies and 2000 hospitalized patients due to food allergies every year in the US are a tiny amount compared to say, brain injuries acquired while playing sports, car accidents, etc. And it's possible that we're not all as allergic as we think - just recently, I read an article (I forget where exactly) about how children who’d been diagnosed through allergy tests with e.g., six food allergies requiring a diet free of such ...