I'm one of the 12 million peeps in America that suffer from a nut allergy. Even though so many of us suffer from it, people think it's odd & don't believe it. Well, it's real & pretty damn bogus. What's helluh dangerous about this allergy, is that it likes to slip into food that doesn't actually have nuts in it. If food was made in the same area or made on the same equipment, as nuts, then you're in trouble. Cross contact is just as ugly, as ingesting nuts. Another scary reality , with this allergy, is inhaling nut dust. Weird as hell to hear, but it happens & I experianced it the worse way.
It was my husbands birthday & he wanted to go to big bowl. I'm not keen on asian food, but it's where he wanted to go , so I figure I'll find something to pick at , or just starve for a few hours later. When we walked in, with in a minute, my throat was itchy. It was incredible odd to me, since that only happens when I come into contact with nuts. When we sat down, I examined the menu & saw that in TINY print, it was informing nut allergy sufferes that EVERYTHING on the menu comes in contact with nuts. Well, what the shit. Fine. It wasn't the first time.
I began to hurt in my stomach, my saliva was getting thick & my throat was itchy as hell. I was having a reaction & I couldn't understand why...until the waiter informed me that Big Bowl grinds their own nuts, so nut bits are in the air. I snapped,' well that fucking explains everything!' In my angry stupor, I rushed out past the kitchen & my body went into shock outside the restaraunt . What did the waiter say? What did the manager say? ' sorry'. Thanks for that compensation, it made my insides reconsider going into self destruct mode. COME ON! Apparently, a little boy went to eat there a week ago & he passed out, because he suffered from a nut allergy.
Long ( horrendous ) story short, I ended up recovering after being incapacitated for 2 days. Big Bowl had nothing to say & don't want to put a sign up to warn people. As of jan. 1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration is required BY LAW to have food labels clearly state if food products contain any ingredients that contain protein derived from the eight major allergenic foods. So WHY IN THE HELL not posted on the entrance doors at a restaurant?? ALSO, WHY THE FRICKIN' HELL do they say that there are nuts in food in TEENY, FRICKIN' TINY words?? I guess all these places only give a goatshit about bringing people in...dirty crab bastards.
So, my rant actually starts all because of a chocolate bar. I rarely eat candy. Im not into sweets, but once in a while, I get an itch in my tum that needs a good scratch. Usually, I'll have a cookies & cream hershy bar. It's always been ' safe' , because on the label the only warning it informs us of, is milk. Even though I know things are ' safe' I ALWAYS check the lables, beause I have been tricked before. of course, what the hell does this label tell me? It says this damn candy bar has traces of almonds. Fuck to you, almonds!! Anyone who relates to this situation, READ THE LABELS always...even if you just looked at it last week when you went food shopping, check it again.
http://www.peanutallergy.com/
