Allergic

via Daily Prompt: Allergic

“What do you mean? You can’t eat lettuce!? Salad is healthy!”  or “What? Green smoothies are healthy and full of antioxidants! You’re diet is too restrictive!” I’ve heard a lot of things regarding my food choices.  People often assume I refuse to eat certain things because I believe that are not proper nutrition, on the contrary, I love bananas but they cause an allergic reaction when I eat them!  Believe it or not, people make food choices on things other than, “it tastes good” or “I think this is healthy.”

I have some very stupid allergies to things like green beans, lettuce, bananas, wheat, barley, rye, quinoa, and turkey.  It’s very difficult for my friends to cook for me and so often I go uninvited to parties and an informal get together because people are afraid that if they can’t remember my list of “no’s” I will be offended.  In actuality, people that I count as a friend are not my ‘friend’ based on the food they offer but because I value their person-hood in my life much more than a few groceries.  I’d much rather receive an invitation that has a little note saying, “please bring yourself a little something so I don’t feel bad if you get into an allergen,” than find out from mutual friends that my list of allergies has caused me to be missed.

Living with food allergies isn’t exactly easy, especially when there are more than one to work around!  However, I have found with the proper planning and tools such as the Saratoga Jack, I’m not limited to just my own house for socialization.  When we decide to take a day trip, a vacation, or even  a picnic to the park I can easily pack a few things in a thermos or a thermal cooker and have a awesome meal ready to eat with everyone else and be sure I won’t be in pain.

If you know someone that lives with food allergies, don’t be afraid to invite them over, just let them know sweetly, you’d like them to bring their own food so they can enjoy a good time as well.  Likewise, if you have food allergies, don’t expect everyone to cater to you just because you can’t eat certain things, be willing to bring your own food along and enjoy time with people you care about.  Although we certainly must eat to live, there is more to life than food itself.

Until next time,

Davi

3 Replies to “Allergic”

  1. I recently invited my writing group over for lunch. One person RSVPd the they will come but bring their own lunch due to “many” allergies as she put it. I asked her to please tell me what I can provide but she didn’t want to inconvenience me. She came with her own tupperware, but she found that she could actually eat a few things from my spread.

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