Intolerances for Food
Hello fellow sufferers. I believe my intolerances are as bad as many an allergy. Apart from medicines, I have two main food problems soya and lactose i.e. all milk products from cows and goats. It took years of suffering before I realised my problem when my doctor was actually visiting as everying swam around and around at that time. This past week I got caught out again and I thought I had got all things nailed. In a public house - I am English - I had a dessert of blackberry and apple crumble and as the custard was off for me, it was suggested the ice cream was okay ... oh Nooooo it certainly was not and after many hours I developed the ultra hot feeling, tummy pains and bathroom rush. This lasted several hours and once over the worse, I was exhausted. I find the reaction can commence just minutes or maybe 24 hours later! I learned that it was an intolerance when I was the sweet age of 61 after a few years of suffering and I am now 92. I have learned that I can eat most cakes and biscuits but avoid any cream with them, In those days, I could eat goats cheese and I have always been a lover of cheese. These days, many items are offered "free from" but you need to read the ingredients carefully - glace is usually soya based etc. Restaurants and pubs are getting a little more conscious of us with intolerances but sadly only offer a limited menu for us. If I can help in any way, please respond. Ann
Hi,
(Ann)!
I know I replied to a previous comment you made about your experience at a public house, but I thought I would pop in here as well. I do hope you get some feedback from other community members with some helpful suggestions. I wanted to share some articles written by our health leaders on the topic of eating out with food allergies. I hope you are able to glean some possible ideas to try so you can eat out with less fear of adverse reactions. Here's one that is a little more geared towards individuals with life threatening allergies, but I wanted to include it, just in case you might find it helpful -- https://allergies.net/living/chef-card. And here's one that have some more tips that you can consider -- https://allergies.net/food/dining-out. Some of the best advice I have come across is to plan ahead and to maybe find some tried and true restaurants and go to those as much as possible. Read the menus online ahead of time (this may not be as easy with small mom-and-pop type establishments) or even talk to the kitchen staff. All of these tips work better when you can do these things ahead of time or when a restaurant is not super busy. And, while this article is geared towards eating gluten free, I found her suggestions helpful for other food allergies -- https://allergies.net/living/restaurant-gluten. The best you can do is plan ahead and communicate with the staff. Some of it is up to trusting the restaurant and I know that didn't work out so well for you on this most recent dining out experience.
Again, I hope you get more helpful suggestions and that your nnext dining out experience is much more enjoyable!
Best, Erin, Team Member.Thank you so much for your response. I am fortunate to have a wonderful granddaughter, mother of my 13 yr old great grand daughter. She always either phones or goes persnally to kitchens to check they have food suitable for me.
In fact, we have found the best place to dine and to find a dessert suitable for my intolerances was wonderful. You see, I can read from my 27" monitor for online, but menues are blank pages for me, so I need family to read and request the intolerance tablet. When my husband was alive, he would read ingredients when we food shopped, but now son and I can read the ingredients online from supermarkets. Right now my dear son has spent past 3 months in hospital and has a way to go yet, so I am enjoying spending many hours checking ingredients and saving groceries in baskets for when I need to restock. Worse for me living alone is the minimum order mostly £60 and so many items do not keep for longer than three days and a weekly shop is pretty difficult to reach £60. One does deliver free for £40 shop but they do not sell lactose free cheese etc. Once again, I enjoy visiting here. Ann
