From the age of five, I was nearly trained to read any food label placed in front of me and ask people whether the food they made contained any peanuts. While this may seem like a daunting task for a small child, it was an absolute necessity in a world still not adapted to accommodating those with food allergies. However, as I learned to become more comfortable with meeting my needs regarding my allergy over the years, our society continued to not include allergy sufferers.
Early in my life, I realized the exclusion and barriers I would face because of my allergy. Although I had a very severe nut allergy, I could be around other students as long as I did not eat any product containing peanuts. Despite this, I was placed alone at the “peanut allergy table,” which caused anxiety and fear about explaining my allergy to others out of concern I would be further ostracized in group settings. During classes, my teachers would also suggest that only peanut-free snacks be allowed because of cross-contamination concerns with students touching communal supplies and not washing their hands afterward — something that consistently causes outrage across the country for parents who do not have children with peanut allergies.
Oftentimes non-allergy sufferers will never be able to understand the struggles individuals with allergies go through and unless they know someone with allergies they tend to lack empathy for the condition. Additionally, despite some progress being made in the food industry, eating out in restaurants and bakeries has always served to be a challenge. Altogether some food chains and or specific types of restaurants have to be completely avoided because of the high inclusion of nuts in products or the possibility of cross-contamination. Unfortunately, many workers never know what their products contain and therefore I am unable to eat them. At places like ice cream shops, I always have to ask for a “clean scoop,” meaning grabbing a brand new ice cream scoop and possibly using an opened tub of ice cream if possible. While most workers are very accommodating, I too often get eye rolls or attitudes from employees who believe I’m being dramatic; however, this incessant care for myself comes from a very severe reaction I once had after a chain did not wash their cooking equipment. In the past few years, I have also had multiple restaurants completely dissuade me from eating there because they have extreme cross-contamination issues and could not guarantee my safety.
In a similar regard, having to explain my allergy to friends and their parents caused feelings of guilt. Many times I would be offered something to eat and would have to ask if the product contained nuts, and a lot of people did not understand that peanuts and peanut butter were the same product and could both cause me to react. While this caused many jokes over the years in my family, it caused many close calls that could have ended in dangerous situations if I had not been so well-versed when it came to voicing my allergy concerns. On the opposite end, if someone brought out a peanut product and offered me some and I explained my allergy the reactions could be so intense that they would freak out and offer to put the product away, which was thoughtful but unnecessary in this situation.
It’s important not to assume that people who ask for ingredients or say they have an allergy or trying to participate in the newest diet craze but rather ask to ensure their safety while trying to enjoy a fun activity like going out to eat. Trying to lessen the stigma around allergies is the best way for companies to begin taking different steps to create allergen-free products, better labels, and help limit the amount of cross-contamination as a personal safety measure for all individuals.