Food Allergies, And The Gluten-Free "Movement," Oh My!

Who doesn’t remember the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire”?  A family film about a couple divorcing, the dad attempting to spend more time with his children by dressing in drag and posing as a housekeeper/nanny, who learns how to be the man he wasn’t when Sally Field decided to leave him.  Then the dreamy Pierce Brosnan comes in the picture, and Robin Williams/Mrs. Doubtfire tries to sabotage the budding relationship between him and his ex-wife… Do you remember the scene in the restaurant when Mrs. Doubtfire makes her way into the kitchen and dumps pepper on Pierce’s dinner after he specifically states that he is allergic to it, and then later causes the guy to choke on his shrimp, using the Heimlich maneuver to save him?  It’s a funny scene, but it is a completely inaccurate Hollywood portrayal of the seriousness of food allergies.

Where do I start?  I haven’t always had food allergies, but they reared their ugly head in 2001 when I was at a restaurant, celebrating a friend’s confirmation.  As a Native Californian, avocado was basically a part of my regular diet.  Whether it was enjoying a couple of slices on a sandwich, in a salad, or just cutting the darn thing in half and eating it with a spoon, avocado was never anything I had to avoid.   While my friend was celebrating a milestone in her life, my life took its own unexpected twist, creating my own milestone that forever changed my diet and the way I look at food.

After eating half of the turkey sandwich (with 2 slices of fresh avocado) and taking the rest to go, I said goodbye to my friends and started to drive home.  Before I even left the restaurant, I noticed that I started to get a little tickle in my throat.  I didn’t think much of it at first.  The restaurant was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from my home (4.21 miles, to be exact – Thanks MapQuest!), but on the way to my house, I noticed that the tickle was getting worse and that it felt like one of my contacts was becoming aggravated.  Needless to say, those six minutes it took to drive home seemed like forever as I started becoming more and more uncomfortable.  When I came home, I went directly to the bathroom to take my contacts out and switch to glasses.  To my surprise, when I looked in the mirror, I found that the whites of my eyes had bubbled up like speed bumps.  It was at that moment that I KNEW something was very wrong.  Thankfully, my mom was home, and she was able to drive me over to the ER immediately.  By the time we made the even shorter drive to the ER, the tickle in my throat seemed to be swelling and breathing was becoming more difficult.  Long story short, we discovered that I was having anaphylaxis, and had we waited even another ten minutes to get to the ER, I could have died!

Since the avocado incident, I have also developed other allergies to foods that I have been able to eat in the past (i.e. cucumbers, strawberries, celery, etc.).  Since 2001, I have had to read labels like crazy (celery is used in pre-made chicken stock and most soups!) and worry about cross-contamination (my last allergy related ER visit was due to cucumber cross-contamination). 

This brings me to the latest craze in the “gluten-free” way of life.  I hear a lot of people going on a gluten-free diet in order to lose weight, and as a way to just get healthy.  While a gluten-free diet can help some lose weight, and there are healthy benefits, I worry that people don’t realize why gluten-free is important to those who suffer from real diseases, allergies, and sensitivites.  To the typical person who doesn’t suffer from any food-related ailments, simply taking the wheat bread (or in my case, avocado) off the sandwich is sufficient.  If you’re just following a gluten-free diet to drop some weight, the fact that your lunch meat touched the offending food won’t matter a bit.  To those of us who have these problems, even just a trace can cause some type of reaction, whether it is mild, or extreme (think of my experience with avocado).

I say all of that to say this:  Please take people’s dietary needs seriously.  Know that if someone tells you that they can’t have gluten, sugar, avocados, etc. due to an allergy, it’s not because the person is a “picky eater” or just trying to be difficult.  If you work in a restaurant, if you accidentally put the avocado in my salad, please do not be offended when I ask you to toss it out and start over.  While you choose to go on a gluten-free diet to lose those extra pounds, keep in mind that there are some people who don’t have that choice and do it out of necessity.

Last but not least, while he has not been diagnosed, we are pretty certain that Tim has a gluten sensitivity.  So, in support of him, I’ll be trying out new gluten-free recipes and working on converting some of our favorites meals to gluten-free as well.  Check back for the recipes that turn out tasty, and if you have any suggestions or recipes, leave me a comment!  J