What I mean is that when people hear that I can't eat something, they become defensive about it, and that often makes a little thing into an ordeal. I get so tired of my spiel, asking specific questions about the ingredients and cooking method, that dining out isn't any fun. (Aside from my options being extremely limited once I apply my two filters to the menu.)
While I can't say "I've heard it all," I've heard plenty of hurtful, thoughtless, and stupid things, and I wish people could spend a day in my shoes to understand what it's like.
Comments and actions that haunt me at night, weeks and months afterwards are:
"May I see your allergy menu please?"
"What are you allergic to?"
This restaurant manager's friend's mom eats gluten free, so this makes him an expert on the subject. I replied that my food allergies are complicated and hard to work around, and asked for the menu again, which he held in his hands and asked again to know my personal food issues. Not cool, not professional, and I cried in front of him. Then I sent a carefully written email to the franchise owner who apologized and promised to send me a gift card to try them one more time. The gift card never arrived, so I am not going to try them ever again.
"Are these dairy free?"
"There's only a little bit of dairy in them."
I was at a party with another gluten free person, and the hostess had baked gluten free treats for us. When I asked if they're dairy free, she and the other host kept telling me that there's only a little bit of dairy in them. This is the same as saying, "There are only a few teeny glass shards in this," or "There's only a little bit of rat poison in this." I actually use the rat poison remark as my standard reply when people try to tell me that there's only a little bit of wheat or dairy in something. As if the amount of these two determine how sick I get.
The amount doesn't matter. In my body, it's poison.
"I'd like the burger with sauteed onions, but are the onions sauteed in oil or butter? I can't have any dairy and need to make sure they're safe for me."
"They're cooked in oil. Do you want cheese on that burger?"
This is just plain stupidity. Why don't people know where food comes from? Don't answer; that's a rhetorical question. But why don't people know where their food comes from?
"No toast for me, thanks. I can't eat wheat." (This was said to a college roommate. She was in her 3rd year studying to be a nutritionist.)
"Just have white bread instead."
Incredulous look, facepalm.
"May I have mayo on that lettuce wrap?" (This was after I explained that I can't have cheese.)
"But mayo is dairy."
This prompted a brief and polite education on the lovely sauce from France (or Spain, depending on who you ask) called Mayonnaise, and that it is primarily egg, mustard, vinegar, and oil. And then the gal who thought mayo was dairy exclaimed,
"But eggs are dairy!"
Oh dear lord... why don't people know where food comes from?
Cows = mammals = live birth = milk
Chickens = birds = eggs
I learned this in 3rd grade, and this kind of conversation was a regular kitchen discussion with my mom, learning about what we eat, why we eat it, and where it comes from.
Sigh.
End rant.
Image credit to: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/technologies/marsh.html
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