Bleah...I'm pooped. Catching up from traveling both for business and pleasure, and jumping back into the hamster wheel of life, the FAQ has been finding herself eating a lot of takeout food these past few weeks. How, do you say? By following some of the rules that I've posted earlier: being creative, eating ethnic food, and now I'm adding a new rule -- make up stuff as you go along, you might just invent something fantastic!
Thai food: can be wheat-free, dairy-free and soy-free. I don't order rice (they always look at me funny, esp. since I'm Asian!). Thais use coconut milk instead of dairy in most cases. Not a good choice for peanut or seafood allergy sufferers because there is a lot of potential for cross-contamination with peanut oil and fish sauce. This picture is of a green papaya salad (tiniest bit of lime juice) and green curry with eggplant and pork. Guess I was having a green-themed lunch that day.
Restaurant food: I had a GI-normous steak at Croce's in San Diego, where I was there for Comic-Con (for my day job, don't ask). I think there was a little dairy in my mashed potatoes, but luckily chowed on the asparagus and all the little appetizers instead.
Bar beverages: I don't think I mentioned this in my list, but I'm also allergic to alcohol. (It put a serious crimp in my college social experimentation.) So I'm constantly mixing things around depending on my mood and if the bartenders are nice. Plus in THIS town, half the people are recovering AA members, so it's not as big a deal anymore to ask for non-alcoholic drinks! This is just cranberry juice and seltzer, but oh so refreshing on a hot day in Pasadena. I took off the lime wedge after I shot this, no worries.
Junk food: my co-workers just scratch their heads whenever I do this. They look at my snacks, scratch their heads and say "How can you be allergic to lemonade, but not Diet Coke?" I usually reply "I don't know. It's a mystery." Lays potato chips are not fried in soy oil, and Diet Coke may ultimately be toxic -- but I'm not allergic to it, thank goodness. Because it is THE rocket fuel of choice (along with its cousin, coffee) necessary for this girl. Besides, since I have to always be so careful, Diet Coke feels like such a VICE. Bwah ha ha.
4 comments:
lol, funny post but i wanna hear more about comic-con!
I've been reading your blog for a while and I feel so much more reassured knowing there are people out there with just as many food problems as me! Glad you've been seeming well lately.
I nominated you for an award over at my blog, congrats!
http://yummysmells.blogspot.com/2008/07/look-at-babies.html
I've started to notice my 3 year old seems to get a lot of redness around the face when she comes into contact with some foods. I was trying to find out what was in Lemonade that might cause this type of reaction and your blog was the only place I found any reference to lemonade allergy.
Are you able to shed any light on what it might contain to cause this reaction?
Hi Jacqui, thanks for writing. Most likely the culprit is the citric acid in the lemons itself. If your daughter has reactions in her mouth, it's called Oral Allergy Syndrome and is caused by some fruits. If it's not the citrus, it could also be an artificial sweetener, chlorine or some other additive in the water. Keep notes of what she eats and what the reactions are, that will help diagnose the culprit.
There are lots of readers here with citrus allergy, you can see some of the ideas on this post. http://www.foodallergyqueen.com/2009/03/citrus-allergy-question.html
Hope she feels better, and you'll feel better knowing what to avoid.
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