I'm torn, and I am very severely allergic to peanuts and peanut products. I've had one run-in with the light at the end of the peanut tunnel, and I was an adult then (accidentally ingested a sliver, spit it out, then ended up a puffer fish version of myself in the ER shot full of prednisone and other fun things while I passed out). It can happen even to those of us who are always on guard.
And it isn't just ingestion. If I smell it, I feel the symptoms coming on. Touching it - forget it. My hands swell. Though not fatal, on a plane I once touched the arms of my seat, not thinking about how someone may have eaten the peanuts who'd sat there before me, then rubbed my eyes. That was a LONG flight home with my eye swelling up and drying out, scaring me to death. I traveled with baby wipes from there forward so I could wipe my seat down before I sat down.
And I remember cookie days at school where teachers handed out peanut butter cookies to everyone, and me, never having had one but thinking they looked like cinnamon cookies, unsuspectingly made myself sick. Luckily, nothing worse, but as severe as these new strains of the allergy seem to be, I can see erring on the side of caution and banning stuff.
Ok...I'm not so torn now. Thinking about all of this, ban the hell out of this demon seed!!
Truth is, I do hate the whole, "it's not good for me, so no one can have it" mentality, because it's a perfectly normal part of lunch for everyone else in the world, and I get that. And there are scary, life-threatening things all around us, and junior better get used to dealing with that sooner than later (obviously, I learned my lessons and am here to talk about it because I curbed my behavior based on my experiences, without having to change anyone else's lives).
Truth is, I do hate the whole, "it's not good for me, so no one can have it" mentality, because it's a perfectly normal part of lunch for everyone else in the world, and I get that.
Not to mention that a lot of 'free-from' stuff tends to be made of one allergen or another anyway - lactose-free stuff generally subs in soya, and soya/nut-free stuff tends to be full of wheat, and so on and so forth. You can't really make completely allergen-free food, except by saying 'this allergens count, the rest don't' - which seems to be what's trying to happen currently, with nuts being the allergen popularly concieved as being really especially bad.
Which, most nut alergies seem to be worst than wheat allergies, so that's some truth. But the other comments on this post already show that nuts aren't the only thing that kill people quickly.
And it isn't just ingestion. If I smell it, I feel the symptoms coming on. Touching it - forget it. My hands swell. Though not fatal, on a plane I once touched the arms of my seat, not thinking about how someone may have eaten the peanuts who'd sat there before me, then rubbed my eyes. That was a LONG flight home with my eye swelling up and drying out, scaring me to death. I traveled with baby wipes from there forward so I could wipe my seat down before I sat down.
And I remember cookie days at school where teachers handed out peanut butter cookies to everyone, and me, never having had one but thinking they looked like cinnamon cookies, unsuspectingly made myself sick. Luckily, nothing worse, but as severe as these new strains of the allergy seem to be, I can see erring on the side of caution and banning stuff.
Ok...I'm not so torn now. Thinking about all of this, ban the hell out of this demon seed!!
Truth is, I do hate the whole, "it's not good for me, so no one can have it" mentality, because it's a perfectly normal part of lunch for everyone else in the world, and I get that. And there are scary, life-threatening things all around us, and junior better get used to dealing with that sooner than later (obviously, I learned my lessons and am here to talk about it because I curbed my behavior based on my experiences, without having to change anyone else's lives).
So...torn again. Gah! This is such a weird issue.
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Not to mention that a lot of 'free-from' stuff tends to be made of one allergen or another anyway - lactose-free stuff generally subs in soya, and soya/nut-free stuff tends to be full of wheat, and so on and so forth. You can't really make completely allergen-free food, except by saying 'this allergens count, the rest don't' - which seems to be what's trying to happen currently, with nuts being the allergen popularly concieved as being really especially bad.
Which, most nut alergies seem to be worst than wheat allergies, so that's some truth. But the other comments on this post already show that nuts aren't the only thing that kill people quickly.
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