Allergies and personal food choices are legitimate

On Sept. 16, I was accidentally served a beef patty after ordering a veggie burger from my work. I hadn’t eaten red meat since my freshman year of high school and my digestive system made sure to remind me of that. I just about passed out from stomachache-induced overheating in my graphic design class the next day (and anyone who has set foot in Lab A of Springfield Hall knows that it is bone-chillingly cold).

My reaction was just from a dietary choice. Although it sucked, I wasn’t at risk of being hospitalized. For others, like junior Jaxon Adams, it’s a health concern that is too often taken as a joke.

“I’m now down to dairy, nuts and fish,” Adams said. “Nuts and fish honestly aren’t that bad because most of the time you can avoid them… Dairy’s an absolute nightmare.”

“People just aren’t used to hearing it. I can eat pizza, I just can’t eat the cheese on pizza. So when I order out, say I’ll take a meat lover’s pizza without cheese. It just won’t register,” he continued.

“Their shorthand to make sure they don’t get something is to say ‘I’m allergic,’” Adams said. “That experience has become so widespread that people just won’t believe me. They say ‘oh, you’re lactose-intolerant, you’re just not eating dairy right now.’ Like no. If you don’t know, it’ll kill me. My allergy is deadly.”

However, he doesn’t pin the blame on vegetarians, vegans, or any other self-imposed diets. There are plenty of horror stories out there of vegans getting tricked into drinking milk or eating meat because someone didn’t agree with their decision.

“It’s a self-perpetuating cycle,” said Adams. “And the sad thing is, the only way it’s really broken is when someone with allergies has an attack.”

He recounted an incident his freshman year at the Commons after asking if a food item had dairy. The server told Adams he was all clear, but the dish was covered in a cheese sauce.

“Fresh Ideas is mostly really good about knowing what’s cross-contaminated, which I’m eternally grateful for,” Adams emphasized. “If I couldn’t eat here, [college] would be a very different experience, probably a worse one.”

“One of the side effects of having food allergies since birth is there’s a lot of things you just don’t recognize,” he explained. “I did not recognize that as cheese sauce.”

The fact would only become apparent after a friend at his table told him it was dairy.

“I wake up six hours later in the hospital on death’s door,” Adams said.

He continued, “It was like a wave of awful. Like, ‘I’ve made a horrible mistake…’ I’ve never felt more of a hurricane of emotion. It’s like knowing you’ve strapped a time bomb to yourself. And also just, pure anger at how did they not know the cheese sauce had dairy in it?”

Regardless of if a restriction is self-imposed or a medical issue, messing with someone’s food or not listening to their requests can lead to serious consequences. The rise of milk alternatives and meat substitutes may seem like a hipster trend to some, but it offers more choice for those who deal with allergies, too. Ultimately, an individual’s statement on what they can and cannot eat should not be treated as a hassle, a challenge or a personal attack.

Article written by Maclen Johnson.