It will KILL ME! But I'll eat it anyway!

[AnqeiicDemise]

The Op's story reminds me of when my neighbor went out of her way to teach Dunce ( a rather 'me me me' "friend") on how obviously fake her allergy to cheese was. (See, Dunce developed food allergies after she found out that I, like my roomate, had severe food allergies and that people often accomodated our needs.)

She too made a HUGE stink about how she couldn't eat tomatoes... and proceeded to bombard her burger with ketchup while explaining it was okay because ketchup was processed and thus, no longer a tomato product.

-eyeroll-

Dunce still didn't get it...and would continue to eat Kraft singles and cheetos because they were processed and it didn't bother her. She also wouldn't touch a brand new, sealed jar of clam juice because she was allergic to shellfish but stuff her face full of shrimp flavored fries. Y'know... fries *I* can't eat because I can really die, despite the tiny trace of shrimp paste/powder in it.

But then again, it didn't matter. Shrimp flavored fries were --say it with me -- processed .

[Apathy]

Perhaps his life is empty and meaningless and he fills the void by inventing lame drama.

Hey! I know people like that! Lots of them, in fact.

[mattm04]

I think the burger guy may have been just a weeeeeeee bit dramatic. They kitchen screwed up all he had to say was "I ordered it with no tomato because I am allergic, can you make a new one please?" Any restaurant would gladly comply.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

I hate the taste of dill pickles. And, I hate raw tomatoes. So, I _always_ order burgers "xxxx with no tomatoes and no pickles, please". When I have to send them back and they invariably ask "why?" ... I say "because I ordered this without those items".

And, no, I'm not going to scrape them off. Flavor is already there. Your mistake is not my problem. If you fix the mistake graciously, I'll likely tip you more for your good attitude.

I hate onions soooooooo much. If I get a burger with onions on it, I take it back. Because it's not like tomatoes, tomatoes barely have a taste, onions on the other hand stain everything with their foulness(not sure if that's a word). If something has been sitting next to an onion for too long, I can taste it.

[Becks]

I almost wish I was allergic to seafood so my fiance will stop making fun of me for not eating the stuff.

I just don't like it.

[Metody]

To play devil's advocate -

My father has Crohn's disease - basically, his immune system is attacking part of his intestine. It got bad enough that for a two year stretch, he was in the hospital for a week at a time, every three months. He was incredibly sensitive to foods with seeds or hard to digest parts (and, sigh, just about any seasoning, but that's another issue). A stray tomato seed could be enough to send him into an attack that featured fainting from pain, vomiting, and another happy shiny trip to hospital land.

Ketchup was just fine, provided it wasn't too spicy.

Now...you get into a line, and you try explaining that if tomato so much as touches the food and leaves a single clinging seed, there might be a hospital trip in your future. The guy in front of you really doesn't want to hear about your medical history, the people behind you just want you to hurry up and order your food, and you, you just want to eat. In the interest of brevity, Dad usually just tells them that he's allergic to raw tomatoes. It isn't accurate, and he still eats ketchup, but its the easiest way to deal with the whole problem.

[AnqeiicDemise]

I almost wish I was allergic to seafood so my fiance will stop making fun of me for not eating the stuff.

I just don't like it.

Yeah... my mom learned that lesson fairly quick. She made me eat octopus once, despite my adamant "I don't want to try it, it looks gross!" comment.

The texture and pungent flavor made me throw up.

On her lap.

And we were in the car too.

-shiver- I don't like octopus. Fried calamari is different, though, maybe because its tiny and not so chewy.

[Apathy]

It isn't accurate, and he still eats ketchup, but its the easiest way to deal with the whole problem.

I'd just not eat out. There's no way I'd trust people to make my food correctly if I was that sensitive.

[AnqeiicDemise]

[QUOTE=Metody;310584]To play devil's advocate -

My father has Crohn's disease - basically, his immune system is attacking part of his intestine. <snip>[QUOTE]

I feel ya. Mommy has the same problem and it breaks my heart because she can't eat any of the foods she grew up with. She can't have rice, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelon (unless she's very careful with spitting out the seeds), spices...

No more curry for mom.

It makes her sad.


... I miss my mommy...

-skitters back to her den-

[rerant]

I have a friend who is allergic to nuts and one night at dinner we were given free desserts because of terrible service and being forgotten about by our waitress (the kitchen was "backed up" even though the table beside us emptied, filled up, emptied then filled up again while we were there, but the truth was she was too busy dancing in a corner with a coworker and didn't put our orders into the kitchen).
The dessert he and I were going to share had pecans and I wasn't sure he could eat it so I asked if he wanted to switch desserts, but he declined and ate it anyway, saying he'd "chance it".

Well he didn't die and only ate a tiny bit, but after the first bite he was complaining about serious stomach pains.
Why he ate ANY I don't know, but I'm sure the terrible stomach ache he experienced was enough to teach him the lesson not to "chance it" on an allergy.

[Metody]

His insurance company finally approved the surgery when he was spending a total of two months a year in the hospital. This was back around 2000. Its pretty cool - they just open you up and take out the problem bit. He's got this hilarious scar now that goes down his stomach, taking a little detour around the belly button.

The only bad things are that he has to take a literal handful of pills a day, and that its starting to come back. Though eight years without it was pretty darned good.

[Lyra]

I too have this friend who is allergic to tomatoes, but can eat spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, etc.

I asked him about it when we first met, and it has something to do with the juice of an uncooked tomatoe that is the problem. Once it's been cooked (like ketchup, hot sauce, bbq sauce, etc) he won't have a problem, but he can't even cut up raw tomatoes. I'm always careful when preparing fresh veggies with him around to use a seperate cutting board for the tomatoes.

I've seen him have a reaction (raw diced tomatoes in tuna salad at a sandwich shop) and it isn't pretty. More like scary.

[draftermatt]

She also wouldn't touch a brand new, sealed jar of clam juice because she was allergic to shellfish but stuff her face full of shrimp flavored fries. Y'know... fries *I* can't eat because I can really die, despite the tiny trace of shrimp paste/powder in it. :

Should have told her that clams are not shellfish, they are a mollusk and not anyway related to shellfish, therefore she's not allergic to them if she's allergic to shellfish.

I'm allergic to latex, makes for a fun time at the Dr's office, hospital, dentist, etc. I thought for sure I was going to die in surgery based on the number of times I was asked "Are you allergic to latex?" - Nope, where the bracelet and arm band thingy because they look snazzy.

My sister is allergic to all seafood, my father shellfish. We're always careful when we go out to eat. My sister flat out refuses to set foot in a seafood restaurant because fish may have touched her food, can't really blame her though.

It bugs me though that people (without a good reason like Chron's, etc) will say "I'm allergic" because then it makes the people who really are allergic look like liars, and you get waiters who say "what will it hurt?" like we've read about in other threads. I ask for my food that I'm paying for the way I want it, if you don't comply it gets sent back plain and simple. You don't need to know why I don't want tomato but love ketchup, if something can cause me harm I'd stay away from it all together.

[Dreamstalker]

My mom would always tell me that "I wouldn't make it if it didn't taste good", which was true, I became very adventurous with food (I'd try anything once and discover "hey, I like this!"...still don't like lima beans however). My cousins on the other paw...9 and 12 years old, and still all they will eat is hotdogs and ice cream. The younger one used to actually throw up when faced with anything new...we think it was/is due to their mom making food decisions for them ("oh, that looks yucky", etc)...great fun if my mom was cooking the holiday meal.

[TheSnakeLady]

Actually, some forms of processing make a difference. If what you're allergic to is a protein, heating it enough will denature the protein and thus a properly cooked version might not trigger the allergy. Obviously this doesn't work with everything or everyone, but it does work in some cases.

Case in point: my mom is allergic to raw egg... but she can eat cooked eggs just fine. Same goes for raw vs. cooked potatoes.

Oddly enough, I seem to be sensitive to cooked spinach, but can eat it raw in salads... go figure.