Allergy list

People often ask me to dinner, and ask me about my allergies. They're complicated enough that even I forget, sometimes. Here is the list.

  1. Peanuts, walnuts and all other nuts (except macadamias, almonds, pine nuts, and chestnuts).
  2. Soya beans, protein or protein isolate (soya sauce is ok, as is teriyaki sauce, as is soy lecithin or soy oil---in all of these last, the proteins are processed right out). Soya flour and soy protein isolate cause me the most difficulty of all my allergies---they put SPI on many cold cuts of meat nowadays to make it look better when they add water.
  3. Lentils, chickpeas, peas, snow peas, etc. Ordinary garden peas I can eat if they are raw, but I am quite allergic to lentils and chickpeas. Most beans are fine.
  4. Couscous.
  5. Raw egg (hardboiled, fried or scrambled, overdone souffles and omelets are all fine---but not chocolate mousse, for example, or some kinds of ice cream)
  6. Raw oatmeal.
  7. Alfalfa sprouts.
  8. Bananas.
  9. Some kinds of beer, especially Heineken (I don't know why). I don't regret the Heineken, but some of the exotic Belgian beers are another story. I am allergic to wheat beers (weise) as well.
  10. Some molds, and therefore some moldy cheeses (including, alas, Stilton).

What happens to me if I eat something I am allergic to:

My lips, tongue and mouth swell up and itch; if I have eaten enough of something I am quite allergic to (say peanuts) I will feel nauseous and my throat will be closed and painful---but it is a purely local reaction, not anaphylactic; and my reactions have been decreasing over time. Usually the swelling occurs within 3 minutes of my sampling something, and I have developed the habit of eating only a small taste to start, and waiting. Then I just stop eating it, and am usually fine even without medication. I use an oral antihistamine for the times when I am hit with soy, lentils or peanuts.

So if you have to be allergic to something, this is the kind of allergy to have---fast enough to know when to stop eating, and slow enough not to kill you.