One of the main reasons that I wanted to start this blog was to educate people on the craziness that is having a food allergy. While many may know about food allergies, or know people with food allergies, it is very difficult to truly understand what it is like unless you have an allergy yourself. So, this group of blog posts are designed to put you I my shoes. This post will be dedicated to teaching you all of the different places that allergens can be found in.

A lot of people look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them that I can’t have the food they’re offering me. They say things like “What? It’s not peanuts!” or “That’s crazy! It doesn’t have peanut butter in it!” The reality is that someone like me with a nut allergy has to avoid more than just bags of salted nuts and jars of peanut butter. To put things in perspective, I am going to list some foods or products, and I want you, my readers, to guess which one’s, if any, might be unsafe for someone with an allergy to peanuts and nuts, like me.

Pizza, hand lotion, dynamite, pretzels, bread, spaghetti sauce, ant traps, milk, soap, pepper (as in salt and pepper, not chili peppers), alcoholic beverages, and chili.

All right, of the products that I’ve listed above, the ones that could contain things that are unsafe for me are (drumroll please): all of them! That’s right, not only do I have to avoid a bunch of food products, but also a bunch of things that have nothing to do with food at all! For example, hand lotion and soap commonly use shea butter, which comes from nuts. Ant traps have food inside of them (which is how they poison the ants). That food commonly contains nuts. Dynamite is literally 2% peanuts! Not that I’m planning to eat dynamite or anything, but it just shows how many places allergens can hide.

If you are still in disbelief, feel free to contact me and ask about something on the list and I will be happy to explain why it is on there. I hope this opens your eyes like my eyes were opened when I first got my allergy.

Until next time!

Gary