75% of people who say they have food allergies are neurotics

BREAKING NEWS: SOME PEOPLE DON'T LIKE CERTAIN FOODS
Erroneous references to dislikes as "allergies" risks levee collapse

There are a couple of Jeffrey Steingarten essays about this.

Or maybe a few.

It's controversial.

My friend, who was (and maybe she still is?) anorexic blamed much of her eating "style"' on milk/butter/cream allergy.

Nabisco: then why not just say they don't like the food rather than cop a plea?

Stevinixed: otm

UPDATE: Bear shits in wood

My aunt claims she is allergic to coconut "because it makes her gag." Which is fine, if a little silly. The downside was that she made her daughter completely paranoid about even TRYING coconut because, of course, her daughter would be "allergic," too. Daughter finally tried coconut in college and LOVED IT.

Nabisco: then why not just say they don't like the food rather than cop a plea?

People who say they don't like foods are seen as childish.
Saying you are allergic sounds more important.

my friend has coeliac disease, and she bears the brunt of this kind of behavior. it's a serious condition for her, but she's often taken less seriously because of people who go around whining that they can't have bread.

xpost - Nick got this already

Reasons people might call dislikes allergies:

1. everyday mild exaggeration
2a. to convey that it's not just a taste issue, and that the thing just physically doesn't sit well
2b. to convey 2a specifically to forestall people telling them it's an acquired taste or saying maybe they should try just a little or generally trying to talk them out of it
3. because they imagine the strong negative reaction they have to something must be what "allergies" are like (but of course there's no reason to see a doctor about it, because they can just not eat the thing, which is simpler)

To be fair about 2a, there are foods that create reactions in people that aren't just about tasting bad -- say, something that makes your throat go all phlegmmy, or always gives you bad indigestion, or whatever. These may not properly be "allergies," but saying "allergies" at least communicates that it creates some kind of negative physical reaction.

Real food allergies can be deadly serious, of course. But, like being a vegan, they usually used as a vehicle for eating disorders/food neurosis. I've long suspected this and it's interesting to see some data that backs that up.

xpost to Nick That's the most hilarious thing I have ever heard. You don't like it, you don't like it. Like I would consider you a child if you disliked something? I would consider you silly if you hadn't tried it, but if you have, then why would people think you're a child?

I can sort of understand (seeing how people reacted to my friend claiming she had a milk/butter allergy): people immediately shut up.

lactose intolerance is very very real

^^^true

That's the most hilarious thing I have ever heard. You don't like it, you don't like it. Like I would consider you a child if you disliked something? I would consider you silly if you hadn't tried it, but if you have, then why would people think you're a child?

I agree it's silly, but it's happened to me plenty of times. I don't say I'm allergic to things, but I've had people tease me (albeit usually good-naturedly) because there are lots of "normal" foods that I don't like (tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt, milk, etc.)

I have stupid food allergies - to lettuce and kiwi fruit, primarily, both of which make my mouth itch and give me abdominal pain for several hours afterwards. It does mean, though, that I don't have to ever eat salad.

Stevie I don't think Nick was trying to put any value on the assertion that you are seen as childish for not liking certain things, just that it's true. I also imagine there are levels of that, like

you don't like desserts in Indian restaurants = yeah, understandable

you don't like green beans = grow th' fuk up

xpost to nick exactly

also haha you don't like tomatoes nyah nyah

at this point, i don't think i know anyone who doesn't claim to be lactose intolerant. there's a big difference between intolerance and something being hard to digest, though.

(that's not directed at bell, btw. just a general observation.)

i'm sort of lactose intolerant? i don't know what that really means. it means i can eat a bowl of ice cream and usually be okay. cheese is okay, too. but a glass of milk is fucking disgusting, hard to digest, etc.

> tomatoes, cucumbers

You are living 1/4 of a life, at best. OTOH, I'm sure many would say the same about my aversion to mushrooms and olives.

xpost like crazy

He's too young to remember it consciously, but Nick was scarred deeply by this movie

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/142722~Attack-of-the-Killer-Tomatoes-Posters.jpg

(my wife laughs at me when i claim lactose intolerance, but i don't mind.)

being able to eat ice cream and cheese without a problem undermines your case a bit.

HEY GUYS WAY TO PROVE MY POINT ABOUT PEOPLE MAKING UP SHIT ABOUT ALLERGIES BECAUSE PEOPLE MAKE FUN OF THEM FOR NOT LIKING CERTAIN FOODS

GOOD JOB

Sometimes I wonder if I am "lactose intolerant" because I have never liked milk, even as a baby, but then I remember that I eat like 4 lbs of cheese every day.

Instead of claiming allergies to food they don't like, people should burst into tears and claim sexual abuse.

xpost Cheese doesn't have very much lactose, unless it's like cottage cheese or something.

seriously, if i drink a glass of milk, i will die.

i also heard ice cream doesn't have much lactose?

Most older children and adults do not have to avoid lactose completely, but people differ in the amounts and types of foods they can handle. For example, one person may have symptoms after drinking a small glass of milk, while another can drink one glass but not two. Others may be able to manage ice cream and aged cheeses, such as cheddar and Swiss, but not other dairy products. People can also tolerate more lactose by having smaller amounts of it at one time. The level of dietary control needed with lactose intolerance depends on how much lactose a person’s body can handle.

Ha! From this website:

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/lactoseintolerance/

lactose intolerance is very very real

So is anorexia. Refering to my friend here. I do hope she managed to battle it, but I doubt it as both she and her parents were in complete denial of her condition.

The ability to digest milk into adulthood is basically a freakish mutation of European genetic stock, isn't it? We're not supposed to be able to do this. (Most other people around the world who drink milk would seem to be either cooking or cheesing with it, or else doing things like drinking camel milk because there's not much else around.)

i also heard ice cream doesn't have much lactose?

less per unit than milk, but I imagine only because there's other stuff mixed in it other than milk

If my wife drinks milk or eats certain cheeses, cream, or ice cream, she gets pretty sick. Like rolling on the couch, painful cramps, groaning, cold sweats sick. This is often followed up by violent burping. So she usually skips out on the diary products, or takes a pill before eating ice cream. Her mother and brother are the same.

I don't know if it's allergies, but eating green chilies usually does the same thing me a couple hours later. Red ones to a lesser degree, and the hotter they are the less problems - probably because I eat less in terms of volume.

if i eat ice cream i throw up.

You need a hug.

i don't say "allergic" though, i say "intolerant"
the food aversion thing doesnt apply cos i fucking love ice cream/cheese etc

"I'd never join a religion that restricts my diet. I don't want to get to Heaven that way." - Guillaume Fontaine Delatour Dauterive (aka, Fat Bill the pitiable divorcee)

there was one tribe (iirc) in africa that evolved to be able to digest cow's milk, but otherwise my impression is that it's pretty much only caucasians that can handle it well.

quick search found this bit:
<i>Lactase persistence, i.e. the ability to digest milk and milk-products as a grown up as effectively as children do, has evolved several times independently in human populations such as many African peoples, in central and northern Europe and in central Asia. The corresponding mutations, found by genetic and computational analysis, are also evidence that humans are still evolving and even more so, they do so at a surprising pace.</i>

I don't like cucumbers either, but I'd never claim to be allergic to them.

I am however intolerant to onions, which fucking sucks because I love onions and practically all my favourite food has onions in it. Anyone who thinks I'm making it up is welcome to eat my shit.

One thing that's clear from this thread is that nabisco lies about having allergies.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/LacIntol-World2.png

I don't think I've ever claimed to have an allergy! For a while when I was maybe 10, any colored soda got me all choked up with phlegm, but that's the only thing that's ever given me specific physical troubles.

I know a Puerto Rican who drinks a ton of milk.

sorry, nabisco, just funnin' ya.

Actually, I think back then I would have said something like "I might be allergic to caramel color or something," in kind of a hand-wavy way.

So THAT'S why there's no cheese in Chinese food...

I used to be allergic to aspartame, I'm pretty sure, but I have had some in the past year or so without serious issues. But, drinking it REMINDS me of when I was allergic to it so I always get really dread-filled after drinking it, expecting the black spots in my eyes + churning stomach aches. I guess I contribute to the "neurotic," then.

it's weird that india and italy are both 50% lactarded, both cuisines seem to have tons of dairy in them!

I've never thought of it as an allergy, but hot black tea makes me barf. Which is really weird because I can drink iced tea just fine. But every time I think, "Oh, what's the big deal? This time I can handle it" and have a cup of black tea, minutes later I get sudden and intense waves of nausea and have to throw up pretty much where I'm standing. Green tea is fine, so is red or white leaves.

it could be the tannins.

But all tea has tannins, and for it to make me sick it has to be black and it has to be hot. Also, red wine is much with the tannins and I am much with the red wine.

Maybe you're right, though... maybe it's the tannins. Maybe the concentration of tannins in black tea and black tea alone is high enough to trigger that response. And iced black tea is way thinner.

it's weird that india and italy are both 50% lactarded, both cuisines seem to have tons of dairy in them!

i dunno, considering northern italy and northern india are essentially the "same" people, and southern italy and india were/are different entirely

Kenan, maybe you just had a really bad experience after you drank black tea once, like you came down with the flu or food poisoning or smething, and you've forgotten but you still can't have hot tea.

it happens to me to a lesser degree. plain black tea (hot or iced) makes me nauseated.

BREAKING NEWS: SOME PEOPLE ARE NEUROTIC

i am "allergic" to peanuts

A friend of mine lectured me recently for referring to her lactose intolerance as "an allergy to milk" because it's not physiologically the same as an allergy attack and lactose is not the same as milk. Okay then! Makes you sick = close enough to an allergy for my purposes.

Kenan, maybe you just had a really bad experience after you drank black tea once, like you came down with the flu or food poisoning or smething, and you've forgotten but you still can't have hot tea.

:P

But I like tea! I want to drink it, really I do! I know perfectly well how good a nice cuppa Earl Grey with a spot of milk can be. Which is why, every so often, I try to drink it again. And I make a mess. :(

i am fine with a lot of people's neurotic stuff
tho i wld never say i'm allergic to something i don't like or am just sensitive/'intollerant' to or just y'know, don't feel like eating
xpost

i am "intolerant" of gravy made with very little salt

high-tannin stuff does often give me a headache + nausea, it seems, but who knows what's to blame really - could be preservatives or chemicals or wahtever else is in that tea/wine/etc?

I was told in my anthro 101 class that northern europeans evolved a higher lactose tolerance because milk supplies vitamin D and aids in its absorption; exposure to the sun causes the skin to naturally produce vitamin D, but in northern europe there's less sun so milk was used a dietary supplement.

when I was a kid I said I was allergic to things because I really didn't want to eat them, and didn't want to deal with ten minutes of "just try it! you'll like it!" especially after immunizations and blood tests and whatever (I hate all orange products with a passion).

I was just reading some Wodehouse in which someone had bad things to say about orange juice, and I was kind of taken aback until I imagined what orange juice would be like in 1930s Britain.

or 2007 britain

unless you live in california i don't see how it'd be any different than being in the US.

orange juice is from florida stupid britisher

ZANG

TANG

The ability to digest milk into adulthood is basically a freakish mutation of European genetic stock, isn't it? We're not supposed to be able to do this.

COMMIE PINKO

they eat lots of dairy in Northern India though - ghee, paneer, not to mention all the lovely sweets

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/54/54_images/noir_chinatown3.jpg

those people in that car are about to be underwater, if john huston has his way

UMMM you may also have noticed various technical advances in the transporation of perishable goods since the 1930s which MAY be relevant to my statement

orange juice is gross you guys, just deal. MILK FOREVER.

MILKS SUCKS

OJ RULES

reefer car madness

my mom and sister are obsessed with "creamsicle martinis" or vanilla vodka, oj, and cream. maybe we can all agree on this being gross.

sounds like it has potential, but it ain't no martini

(The US orange juice market has changed a crapload just in my lifetime, actually, though I think it's about changing standards: for most of the 80s, so far as I can tell, even upper middle class families seemed to buy the same frozen-concentrate OJ as everyone else -- maybe just a nicer brand -- and cartons of Tropicana were a luxury item. Now cartons of Tropicana seem like the middle-class baseline, and frozen concentrate goes in the bargain aisle.)

alcohol + cream is a bad combination, in my experience.

if it comes with a popsicle stick instead of fancy toothpick i will say it is both clever AND gross
xpost

xx post
we had to settle for Sunny-D which was gross

we grow oranges in the uk, though. have since about the 17th century.

there's a lazy zing somewhere inside nabisco's interest in and knowledge of american orange juice consumption history.

orange juice is from florida stupid britisher

yeah there are no oranges in CA

especially in Orange County

Technically not settling, though -- no way was Sunny Delight cheaper than the frozen concentrate!

I did kinda enjoy the part where you had to MAKE the juice from concentrate, maybe in a blender, and it would develop a rich, foamy head, which was interesting. But the market success of Tropicana here is clearly and honorably related to a superior product.

xpost I don't even know why you're arguing about where OJ comes from in the US, my point was that Bertie Wooster was all "Ick, OJ!" and I thought "nooooo, OJ's delicious," and I had to remind myself dude was not sipping no-pulp Tropicana in 1930s London!

P.S. I don't think remembering my own childhood constitutes an interest in the history of US OJ consumption, really.

we grow oranges in the uk, though. have since about the 17th century.

if true, nabisco, there goes your whole point, because he could have drinking fresh squeezed. This Wooster joker just didn't like orange juice, and you do, and you're going to have to live with your differences.

;)

florida produces ~90% of US orange juice

brazil > florida for OJ production & export

Trendy food allergies are pervasive in Los Angeles.

BUT CALI AINT SHIT

OMG PEOPLE WTF

Of course he was drinking fresh squeezed, they certainly weren't shipping concentrate in the 1930s so Aunt Dahlia's maid could nip down to the supermarket and whip some up in the blender

Point-missing extravaganza -- anyway, British orange-cultivation or not, I'm willing to take a guess here that hand-juiced British-grown oranges of the immediate pre-war period did not taste quite like the sort of orange juice I enjoy

This should not be complicated

BAN BERTIE WOOSTER

I'd read this thread but my throat is currently squeezing shut.

Citrus production by crop, 2005/06:
FL – Oranges, 6.656 million tons
CA – Oranges, 2.156 million tons

yeah but that includes lemons. and limes. and non-juice oranges.

no, it includes onifly oranges

only

Florida oranges are more commonly used for mass juice production because they have more juice and fewer seeds. California oranges are better to eat.

oh yeah you're right. i was looking just at "citrus"
xpost

Wow, guys, I'm really glad my comment could provoke such a scintillating debate over whose orange-related zing was more correct -- it's going to be a tough decision with the Hstencil Awards today

i am tempted to continue in debating this just to make nabisco more flustered

Keep going, he's getting cattier and I like it.

these are the kind of hilarious back-and-forths that make me wish ilx were actually live in a bar somewhere

i'm starting to suspect that nabisco is allergic to OJ and made up the Wodehouse thing to divert attention

enough with the navel-gazing!

navel-gayzing

Has he said how he feels about dairy? I missed it.

make me wish ilx were actually live in a bar somewhere

So I'm not the only one who thinks that conversation on ILX is like one huge group date and the only thing that really changes is which date it is, usually hovering around the third.

Well I might be the only one who thinks that, exactly...

That depends. Have we had sex yet?

If you think that's going to make ILX respect you... um... I've got news.

"OJ, sex, buy buy buy."
http://www.wisebread.com/files/fruganomics/wisebread_imce/trading_places1.jpg

No, seriously -- I think I just blacked out. What are we doing in this storage closet?

I like dairy, but I don't enjoy or feel so great in the stomach when it comes to drinking milk. Not unless some sort of baked dessert is involved.

tho prob if it were live in a bar i'd be saying these are the kind of frustrating debates that make me wish ilx were just on the internet so i could ignore it. but then there wld also be the possibility of getting drunk and having orange juice booze drinks contests/debates just to prove some kind of point

http://images.quizilla.com/H/highwaytokel/1036810926_ulttequila.jpg

lol

Except on cereal, I hated milk my whole life until maybe 5 years ago, then a switch flipped and now I think I can take you all on in the Drinkagallon Challenge.

rrrobyn: plus there are like 68 other conversations going on elsewhere in the bar. You can always go talk about Peak Oil over by the Golden Tee.

http://www.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/orange/images/procesofcoj.png

i wld prob be talking about tv and drinking beer by the jukebox
or talking abt fashion and drinking g&ts around y'know a table
or standing outside and smoking weed

and making people drink orange juice against their will

You can't talk about much of anything near the jukebox because ILM is over there going apeshit over the selection, complaining about all the songs that can't even be downloaded, etc.

Can you smoke in this bar? I need to know.

So you can use that, "Even though it's prohibited, you're smokin'" line again? *groan*

So THAT'S why there's no cheese in Chinese food...

A friend of mine married a woman he met while living in China and they both moved back to the US. She thought cheese was hands-down the most disgusting thing she'd ever run into in her whole life. The concept, the taste, texture, everything just totally disgusted her.

You have to admit, taking the liquid out of an animal's teat and mixing it with an enzyme from inside that same animal's stomach until it solidifies, then fermenting the results is kind of gross. But it's so delicious.

i think you can smoke in this bar but only as long as you can blow it in noise enemies' faces
xpost

xplol, whatever, bird's nest soup.

I long suspected those food allergy people are full of it. Chris Rock called it a long time ago in "Bring the Pain."

May 11, 2010
Doubt Is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies
By GINA KOLATA
NYT
Many who think they have food allergies actually do not.

A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results.

While there is no doubt that people can be allergic to certain foods, with reproducible responses ranging from a rash to a severe life-threatening reaction, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one.

Dr. Riedl does not dismiss the seriousness of some people’s responses to foods. But, he says, “That accounts for a small percentage of what people term ‘food allergies.’ ”

Even people who had food allergies as children may not have them as adults. People often shed allergies, though no one knows why. And sometimes people develop food allergies as adults, again for unknown reasons.

For their report, Dr. Riedl and his colleagues reviewed all the papers they could find on food allergies published between January 1988 and September 2009 — more than 12,000 articles. In the end, only 72 met their criteria, which included having sufficient data for analysis and using more rigorous tests for allergic responses.

“Everyone has a different definition” of a food allergy, said Dr. Jennifer J. Schneider Chafen of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Palo Alto Health Care System in California and Stanford’s Center for Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, who was the lead author of the new report. People who receive a diagnosis after one of the two tests most often used — pricking the skin and injecting a tiny amount of the suspect food and looking in blood for IgE antibodies, the type associated with allergies — have less than a 50 percent chance of actually having a food allergy, the investigators found.

One way to see such a reaction is with what is called a food challenge, giving people a suspect food disguised so they do not know if they are eating it or a placebo food. If the disguised food causes a reaction, the person has an allergy.

But in practice, most doctors are reluctant to use food challenges, Dr. Riedl said. They believe the test to be time consuming, and worry about asking people to consume a food, like peanuts, that can elicit a frightening response.

The paper, to be published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is part of a large project organized by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to try to impose order on the chaos of food allergy testing. An expert panel will provide guidelines defining food allergies and giving criteria to diagnose and manage patients. They hope to have a final draft by the end of June.

“We were approached as in a sense the honest broker who could get parties together to look at this question,” said Dr. Matthew J. Fenton, who oversees the guidelines project for the allergy institute.

Authors of the new report — and experts on the guidelines panel — say even accepted dogma, like the idea that breast-fed babies have fewer allergies or that babies should not eat certain foods like eggs for the first year of life, have little evidence behind them.

Part of the confusion is over what is a food allergy and what is a food intolerance, Dr. Fenton said. Allergies involve the immune system, while intolerances generally do not. For example, a headache from sulfites in wine is not a food allergy. It is an intolerance. The same is true for lactose intolerance, caused by the lack of an enzyme needed to digest sugar in milk.

And other medical conditions can make people think they have food allergies, Dr. Fenton said. For example, people sometimes interpret acid reflux symptoms after eating a particular food as an allergy.

The chairman of the guidelines project, Dr. Joshua Boyce, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard and an allergist and pediatric pulmonologist, said one of the biggest misconceptions some doctors and patients have is that a positive test for IgE antibodies to a food means a person is allergic to that food. It is not necessarily so, he said.

During development, he said, the immune system tends to react to certain food proteins, producing IgE antibodies. But, Dr. Boyce said, “these antibodies can be transient and even inconsequential.”

“There are plenty of individuals with IgE antibodies to various foods who don’t react to those foods at all,” Dr. Boyce said.

The higher the levels of IgE antibodies to a particular food, the greater the likelihood

I do have a friend who has almost died due to peanuts in food, so I don't treat the subject lightly. Thinking about some family members of mine, though, I am pretty sure a fair amount of it is psychosomatic. (I've had a lactose intolerance myself over the past few years, though it seems to have eased somewhat.)

Yes, but as the article points out, an intolerance isn't an allergy.

Link? I'd love to email this to my sister in law with a note attached saying YOU ARE A MASSIVE HYPOCHONDRIAC.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?ref=health

People just use allergy as a colloquial term to say they can't or shouldn't eat a certain food.

I seem to have a moderate reaction to some food certain nuts and apples, cherries and kiwi fruit I tend to get an itchy mouth and ear canal.

yeah i don't think it matters to people who have them whether their thing is an allergy or an intolerance

very important for others to judge them with tho, in fairness

the world wouldn't listen to chris rock :(

There should be a special category for "Parents who think their children have food allergies." Bringin' a special kind of crazy . . .

not-allowed-munch by proxy

Hee.

Bf breaks out in itchy hives almost every night?? He says he's sensitive to "preservatives" and we try to make all our food from scratch/reputable sources and not repeat-order from restaurants that give him problems...but he still takes some kind of generic anti-allergen pill every night. What the hell??

He's remarkably blase about being a human canary-in-the-coal-mine but an unpleasant number of otherwise-normal food and personal care products do terrible things to his skin.

It's amazing how many people I know who have children with potentially deadly allergies to peanuts, and at the very least bad allergies to dairy, eggs and sometimes wheat. I don't remember any kids when I was little with similar allergies - maybe they all died? - but I do know food allergies in kids are mysteriously more prevalent than ever. Some theories include how obsessively over-sanitized we've become, but who knows.

Weirdly, I've never met an adult with serious food allergies to anything but shellfish, and in those cases I know at least three people who phased in and out of the allergy. Long stretches allergic, long stretches not. And by allergic, I mean their face inflates like a balloon, so it's not psychosomatic crabs=yuck. It's the real deal. I do know several adults and children who are lactose intolerant - including my daughter - but that's not an allergy.

Apparently my boss almost died at a business lunch once when she ate something that had come in contact with a strawberry. Fortunately her dining companion had an Epi-Pen on hand for her own allergies, so juiced her up and bundled her into a cab to the hospital. Crisis averted!

Don't ask me, I just work here....

I get a tingling feeling on my tongue every time I eat kiwi, is that an allergy?

holy shit - strawberries?! i had no idea.

A good singing friend of mine will likely die if she eats pine nuts.

Aside from that one person, most of the "allergies" friends of mine have are really nothing. Some things, like "dust allergies", I've never understood.

i have a dust allergy! officially diagnosed by a doctor and everything. i mean it's not serious, i just have to not let my room get super-dusty. i don't get why people seem keen to denigrate other people's allergies?

It's amazing how many people I know who have children with potentially deadly allergies to peanuts, and at the very least bad allergies to dairy, eggs and sometimes wheat. I don't remember any kids when I was little with similar allergies - maybe they all died? - but I do know food allergies in kids are mysteriously more prevalent than ever. Some theories include how obsessively over-sanitized we've become, but who knows.

this is because of vaccines, duh

The reason I don't understand dust allergies is because the most common reaction I've seen from people who say they have them is that dust makes them sneeze, which.... well, you can see why that would be confusing.

Actually, for "most common" read "only"; there are no hives or swelling or anything similar, just sneezing, which kind of happens to everyone, so I don't get where the allergy actually comes into play.

Well, if you're talking about non-food allergies, that's different. My wife is all but incapacitated seasonally by ragweed and tree pollen.

Bf breaks out in itchy hives almost every night?? He says he's sensitive to "preservatives"

Sorry for bringing non-food allergies into this.

I used to think that strawberries caused hives on my tongue but I believe it actually was me biting my tongue in the same spot whenever I ate strawberries. Go me!

I sneeze up a storm (as in so much that I have to stop what I'm doing so that I can stop sneezing and start breathing normally again) and my eyes and nose run like mad if I'm dealing with a lot of dust. Or even going through boxes of old books or something.

I heard a really interesting Radiolab podcast in which some people theorized that the prevalence of allergies is due to a reduction of parasites. One guy actually went to various countries in Africa and walked barefoot through their latrines to intentionally contract hook worm, which he now, um, harvests and sells to people who would like to have hookworm instead of allergies. He says it works for autoimmune disorders like Crohn's disease and type I diabetes, too.

uh

re: dust allergy - it's not so much an allergy to clouds of dust as waking up every morning sneezing uncontrollably if you don't hoover for a couple of weeks. and the eyes watering, and the sneezing for ages after being affected. and occasionally hives, though tbh i have no idea what caused those or what, for that matter, made them stop. it's obviously not that serious but it's discomfort-beyond-the-norm.

One guy actually went to various countries in Africa and walked barefoot through their latrines to intentionally contract hook worm, which he now, um, harvests and sells to people who would like to have hookworm instead of allergies. He says it works for autoimmune disorders like Crohn's disease and type I diabetes, too.

.....

I think we can all agree that that is fucking crazy

Friend of mine who is "allergic" to "dust" is actually reacting to the saliva and feces of the DUST MITES that live in the dust in your house. Which is totally disgusting if you think about it too much.

Basically I think it gives her asthma.

Is he French?

No, but he is Southern European/Mediterranean.

yeah "dust allergy" = "dust mite allergy" and yeah, disgusting

xxp yeah that's what all dust allergies are. the real question is, why are the rest of you not getting sick?

lol n/a

i don't get why people seem keen to denigrate other people's allergies?

this is why i'm always kinda ehhhh when papers write this kind of stuff up, because as anyone who works in health care knows, yeah a good percentage of claimed "allergies" are either intolerances or just imagined, but that doesn't make the real ones any less real. when people have this kind of attitude and don't take allergies seriously, that's when a kid who's truly allergic eats a peanut or something when he shouldn't have.

okay that makes more sense, I think I had completely blocked out the "mite" portion of that (isn't that also the reason why ppl are allergic to cat and dog dander?)

(xp - Sorry Laurel, just making a bad condom joke...)

xp re: hookworm guy - He claims that it cured him of his debilitating seasonal allergies. They interviewed a doctor who agreed that there is a strong correlation between hookworm and other parasitic infestations and non-incidences of allergies and autoimmune disorders in various populations, but I don't think they cited any causation studies. It's interesting to consider though.

Oh I guess I don't know that backstory to that joke, so....

("preservatif" = French for "condom")

xpost I wonder if this relates somehow to that whole fermented-shit-in-a-jar-huffing craze which was a major meme a couple of years ago...

okay that makes more sense, I think I had completely blocked out the "mite" portion of that (isn't that also the reason why ppl are allergic to cat and dog dander?)

yeah i'm allergic to cats too (MUCH more so than to dust mites) and was reading up - it's sort of alarming how little anyone actually knows about allergies. it could be the saliva, their hair, some people are allergic to some breeds but not others - personally there are some cats who give me mild asthma, streaming eyes and uncontrollable sneezing, all of which can last for 24 hours afterwards, if i'm even in the same room as them. and there are other cats i can play with for hours and not suffer a bit.

There is quite a bit of legitimate research on helminic therapy which has nothing to do with this guy. (I believe they're currently trying to isolate the chemical in certain parasites that causes the helpful effects. )

Hookworm guy used to be based here in Santa Cruz. Before he fled the country with the FDA in pursuit.

I heard a really interesting Radiolab podcast in which some people theorized that the prevalence of allergies is due to a reduction of parasites. One guy actually went to various countries in Africa and walked barefoot through their latrines to intentionally contract hook worm, which he now, um, harvests and sells to people who would like to have hookworm instead of allergies. He says it works for autoimmune disorders like Crohn's disease and type I diabetes, too.

I remember hearing this. Still can't get past the "harvesting the hook worms" part of his story.

Seems to be a trend for people wondering whether they have food allergies/intolerances (I blame shitty magazines) and complaining of "feeling tired all the time" (normal ime?) then going to some quack who confirms it. This definitely happened to a friend of mine, he went to a chinese medicine specialist who tested a strand of his hair and came up with a loooong list of foods he should cut down on/avoid and see if he felt better - he was veggie and it restricted foods like tomatoes. He went on a strict diet for about a year and afaik it didn't do anything other than the obvious benefits of being strict about what you eat. Meanwhile I tried to keep my objections re this sort of test (p sure it doesn't work) to myself.

yeah i'm allergic to cats too (MUCH more so than to dust mites) and was reading up - it's sort of alarming how little anyone actually knows about allergies. it could be the saliva, their hair, some people are allergic to some breeds but not others - personally there are some cats who give me mild asthma, streaming eyes and uncontrollable sneezing, all of which can last for 24 hours afterwards, if i'm even in the same room as them. and there are other cats i can play with for hours and not suffer a bit.

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, May 13, 2010 2:31 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

iirc the new theory is that cats generate little tiny cats ("kittens") that get into your nose and lungs and tickle them with their whiskers

i've never read anything on it, but i always wonder if more people today are allergic to stuff cuzza the pesticides involved. they spray the crap out of most produce with some serious deadly stuff. would almost make more sense that small children were allergic to the crap coating a strawberry than the strawberry itself.

i get the spring allergy thing. started in my early 30's. mostly itchy eyes and sniffles. but sometimes it can give me flu-like symptoms for a day or two. it can get bad after a heavy rain in the spring. living on martha's vineyard i always felt like i was getting stuff from nature. so many weird mold strains there and crazy pollen and stuff. i got a christmas tree rash on the island! a rash on your chest that resembles a christmas tree. had it for six months. and it was just from inhaling weird old dust or mold or something. doctor didn't know where the hell it came from.

i used to be lactose intolerant. it went away when i stopped drinking two six-packs of beer every night.

he went to a chinese medicine specialist who tested a strand of his hair and came up with a loooong list of foods he should cut down on/avoid and see if he felt better - he was veggie and it restricted foods like tomatoes.

Well you can tinker with your diet infinitely, to an incredibly restrictive degree if that makes you think you feel better. Pretty much none of us eat at anywhere near our optimum level for physical health and future well-being. (See certain posts & links on the Nutrition Nazi thread for proof of greater and greater levels of obsession.)

Protein is the building material of cancerous cell growths, so if you only eat BARELY enough to supply your body's baseline needs, you'll be helping starve cancer cells. Tomatoes are a nightshade, can cause inflammation responses in certain people, and are prohibited in a macrobiotic diet along with pretty much everything else that doesn't taste like shit. Dairy products will surely kill you, and sugar becomes a deadly toxin once ingested.

So there's really no end to the perfectionism of the self through diet, but it's not the same as whatever specific reaction indicates "allergies".

unless your head blows up like a balloon when you eat something then what you have is, you know, not bad. maria sneezes a lot when she drinks certain beers. do you think that's gonna stop her? hell, no, she's a trooper!

xp Sure, I mean he had specific complaints like itchy flakey skin that he was trying to clear up. I'm all for being a nutrition nazi but due to the rise of "food doctors" on TV there's this attitude that whatever's wrong with you is caused by you not eating organic nuts or something. /bengoldacre

best to eat nothing but kale and air

Laurel, seriously you are full of so much shit.

uh...

I...am?

I'll go ahead and SB myself.

Well, not just here, to be fair. But generally.

iirc, due to the length of the small intestine all of us are full of shit

Except for the breathatarians.

They are full of hot air! *rim shot*

I totally get the assist on that.

I think we can all agree that that is fucking crazy

― Have a slice of wine! (HI DERE), Thursday, May 13, 2010 1:23 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

no it isn't. while it's by no means totally mainstream, the idea that worms distract what would be an otherwise hyperactive immune system is pretty common---we talked about it in my immuno class and it was floated as a v legit hypothesis iirc.

anecdotal evidence: friend of mine in med school had a bout of scleroderma, which is an autoimmune disorder. however, since a trip to ecuador a few years ago, he hasn't had any recurrence and has seen an almost complete reduction in seasonal allergies.

moreover, he eats like a football player and is rail thin.

is he magic?

I think what people consider crazy is that hookworm is considered a better alternative to having allergies?

worms are people too

tspeworm?

x-post

people used to swallow tapeworms on purpose, right? to lose weight.

they still do!

I mean you can distract yourself from a headache by constantly punching yourself in the balls but it's not considered a viable medical treatment

I think what people consider crazy is that hookworm is considered a better alternative to having allergies?

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, May 13, 2010 2:24 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark

well it would be for some ppl. but i think hookworm would def be better than, oh, i don't know, diabetes. or lupus, or w/e other autoimmune syndrome you have that ~might~ be treatable with helminth therapy

What is crazy is just willy-nilly giving yourself and other people hookworm.

iirc the biggest problem with hookworm is the possibility of anemia

xp - dude was desperate (reallllll desperate) and gave it a shot. here is the thing you guys: hookworm is like 100% treatable/eradicable, iirc. if someone wants to inoculate themselves with worms from another man's butt to see if it'll fix their incapacitating AI disorder, then fine! it's not like giving yourself cancer or punching yourself in the balls, even!

Can you "manage" the hookworm population inside you somehow? I'm not sure I'd ever STOP being freaked out by finding the dead worms/segments in my uh waste, but I guess it beats going blind and having your feet chopped off, for instance.

well, guessing management would be -azole tx that kept juuuuuuust enough worms around to keep IgE/mast cells busy and not fighting self, but not so many that you'd go anemic

See, and this ^^^ is the difference between an unorthodox clinical treatment and some dude selling people hookworms over the Internet.

yeah, did a bit more reading on hookworm---while not seriously dangerous in most cases, there seem to be enough caveats that just buyin em off the internet and self dosing is probably foolish for all but the most dedicated/informed.

or punching yourself in the balls, even!

we had a thread on this, even

not its health benefits per se

bit of research revealing that this is indeed an actual legit thing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

the dude harvesting hookworms from himself is still o_0 in the extreme though

he should get together with frozen peas girl and they can live on pantry food and worms

"fattening up our tapeworms.."

http://img.youtube.com/vi/_W2fDGM1IRU/0.jpg

stumbled upon this when searching for that one food allergy thing that generally well-to-do people are all about, that one where they have to have a special kind of bread/flour/beer etc, and found this

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-some-food-can-make-us-sick.html

Scott I had christmas tree rash once too! Mine was mostly on my back. Until I found out what it was, I was convinced it was flesh eating virus.

Seriously, though, are any of you parents? The peanut allergy thing is relatively new but totally out of control and everywhere. It's a real issue. My kids' preschool has or had kids allergic to peanuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, even mango. Mango!?

Christmas tree rash is pityriasis rosea, right?

100% of people have Morgellons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtAxrL7NgCI

Yep, pityriasis rosea. Pityriasis Scaretheshitouttaya more like.

My wife is slowly, over the course of weeks, getting over pityriasis rose, but no Christmas tree for her. She got an itchy chicken pox-like rash over her entire body save (to her relief) her face. No one knows how you get it, but at least you can't give it to anyone else!

Sometimes my allergies make me so miserable I consider the hookworm thing, especially the year before last that was horrific.

gonna mention the hookworm thing to my allergy-besieged wife and see how many punches I can dodge

you should just surprise her with a gift box full of them

I'll combine this with the chocolate vs cheese thread and just get her a hunk of that maggot cheese

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/a-cure-for-the-allergy-epidemic.html?hp&rref=opinion

cure: chill w/ cows, or amish

i think i saw a disney movie abt. this research once