I hate how my allergies make me seem like a republican.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

I hate how my allergies make me seem like a republican.

Can't eat sunflowers so people think I hate "seed oils" (the other ones are fine, it's just the sunflowers they are deadly)

Can't eat most vegan meats because these people always want to put sunflowers 'n nuts and chickpeas in them.

Generally suspicious of vegan food because of the whole nut issue, even though I really like it when there are no nuts.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

What makes this worse is restaurants who can't tell you their ingredients lists. I just give up and get the most basic foods.

Then there are the things that no one believes: like the "shelled peanut problem"

I can eat peanuts, love them! but not if they have been shelled in a "facility" because whatever they do it gets some kind of other nut dust on them and down i go! Toss me the epipen it's gonna be a long night.

Allergies are so odd. Obscure but serious ones are annoying.

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@futurebird Sympathy from here but I shall wager folks don't confuse you for a republican.

[aredridel@kolektiva.social]

@futurebird SERIOUSLY. The human immune systems are _so weird_.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@geonz

IDK I've had people try to bond with me on the evils of seed oils and I'm like "please stop. it is not that deep."

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@futurebird OK, good point :( :( but that's people making ass-umptions.

[jonquass@techhub.social]

@geonz
I hadn't heard about the Republican obsession with seed oils before, but I can't ever figure out the logic of what's good or not to them anymore. The splinter groups keep forming, with their own kinks.
@futurebird

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@aredridel

I really want to know if I was born this way or if it is caused by what foods I ate when I was young?

My husband can't tolerate apple peels. Just the peels, the inside is fine. I wonder what the strangest food allergy must be?

[jeremy_list@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird I avoid shrimps and prawns: not allergic to them as such but I am allergic to whatever gets fed to them in Thai shrimp farms.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@jonquass @geonz

It's like the thing with soy I think. Which I also do not understand.

[aredridel@kolektiva.social]

@futurebird So just the peels: probably oral allergy syndrome; there's a lot of pollen proteins on the surface.

In general pollen exposure at formative moments seems to have a huge impact.

It's regional too: peanut allergies are way more common in the US than in Europe. Sesame allergies are vanishingly rare the US, but common in MENA.

And then I think a hidden component is a general sensitivity in the form of subclinical MCAS, and new immune learning caused by stressors and viral illnesses. Suddenly new allergies pop up, either real ones (due to inappropriately large IgE production in response to something) or MCAS-like ones (where normal-high amounts of IgE inappropriately trigger mast cells.)

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@futurebird

it really bothers me when you say "i can't do this, it will kill me. dead.", and people somehow hear "i hate this thing".

[geekdad@twit.social]

@futurebird no worries - that just makes you seem like someone who has figured out their sensitivities! I just can’t do almond products anymore. But it’s always refreshing to go to #disneyland where they really take that kind of thing seriously.

[aburka@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird there are restaurants that won't tell you the ingredients?! that seems like it should be a legal requirement

the best was when I went to Germany and if you ask for the "allergy menu" the most hole-in-the-wall place in the middle of nowhere will have a big spreadsheet with all the menu items and the government mandated list of allergens

[aredridel@kolektiva.social]

@futurebird I've got friends with corn allergies and that one fuckin' sucks. It's in everything in the US. And nobody knows how to read labels for it. And one had to move out of Arizona because the pollen was so bad.

[silvermoon82@wandering.shop]

@futurebird
Oh good grief, the shelled peanut thing sounds so annoying! Like, in and of itself, but also you have to try to explain and convince people over and over.

[psistarpsiii@tacobelllabs.net]

@futurebird @aredridel birch pollen, maybe? Are cooked apples safe?

[aburka@hachyderm.io]

@aredridel @futurebird I thought the peanut allergy thing was largely caused by a misguided pediatrician who said let's keep infants away from peanuts so they don't develop allergies, and it became a recommendation but it turned out to be totally wrong and the opposite is true

[frazzledbrynn@glitterkitten.co.uk]

@futurebird I have to reassure suspicious people when I admit I can't eat much soy without a toilet apocalypse occurring lol

I'm like I'm sorry, I would actually love to eat tofu I just cant, it looks delicious tho

[aredridel@kolektiva.social]

@aburka @futurebird Made worse, but the actual reality is complex and we're still learning all the situations that can lead to sensitization, and how to desensitize. We're getting there but it's definitely not a simple single factor thing.