#And make food that people with dairy allergies can fucking have

[spiritwildheartofachild]

Roasted chicken is 1000000000000x WORSE than fried chicken but all the fried fucking chicken has fucking dairy except for one type from KFC but the last time I ate there I found mold in my iced tea.

I have had the worst fucking day.

[licensed-fisherman]

"we are allergy friendly"

>ask if they're accommodating all allergies or just peanuts

>they dont understand

>i show them the list of allergies that they have from people filling out the sign up form

>they laugh and say "we have allergy friendly options"

>i have a whey protein allergy

>the options are peanut free

[unhonestlymirror]

I've seen meme made by @flashlight-sticker and I wanted to remake it based on my real life experience (with explanations):

1. Every Eastern European country is very good at cooking - but the first place is shared between Ukraine and Latvia.

In Ukraine, I recommend you to visit "Flagman" restaurants (expensive), "Dary morya" seafood store (affordable, may have delicacies like escallops or pike caviar by a pretty good price sometimes), and of course Silpo (used to be hella expensive but worth it, idk for now, GO BUY THEIR BUCKWHEAT BREAD AND PIZZA!!) and Puzata Hata cantine net (pretty affordable but very good quality).

In Latvia, it's Lido. Just go there, you won't regret it, the staff speaks English. They also have very nice dairy products and ice cream in Rimi shops. Latvia is fucking awesome at cooking, literally nothing's ever disappointed me there.

Belarus is also very good cook, especially when it comes to potatoes, ofc, but their meat and meat products are too extravagant for me... but it's definitely worth trying! People often bring chocolate sweets, birch juice and dark bread from there as souvenirs because they're pretty delicious, too.

Lithuanian food is also amazing, especially if you're a sportsman or student (someone who got used to burn lots of calories on daily basis). Biržų Duona bakery, Iki shops, Maxima shops, Lido shops, Charlie Pizza and Fokus Pizza (serve non-pizza nice business lunches), CAFFEINE - these are some delicious and affordable options, I don't go often to restaurants. Lithuanians tend to like pretty spicy hot soups (India's nephew, afterr all XD). My only advice to you: if you visit Lithuania and you don't feel like you're gonna drop dead if you don't eat something right goddamn now - DO NOT GO TO FAST FOOD POINTS. Literally go anywhere else but McDonald's, KFC and Hesburger. There are so many finger-licking options, don't waste your time on some average hamburgers.

Turkey is good at cooking (they're Ukraine's neighbours after all). Especially at local sweets and French creme soups. I recommend you katmer (sweet hot pistachio lasagna) and grilled seafood.

2.

Spain didn't impress me with its cuisine. 90% of tourists who praise it are Germans - and whatever Germans eat on daily basis would make any Eastern European miserable and depressed. In Spain, it seems like they drink fresh orange juice only, which is not bad unless you have citrus allergy. Then it's gonna be a serious quest, especially if you're out of funds (still water is more expensive than orange juice). Also, Jordan makes paella better.

Never been to Belgium so idk.

Never been to Bulgaria either but they're Ukraine's cousin so their food must be good. Thus, I place them higher.

Finland is Okay cook, definitely better than the rest of Nordics, so I place them higher.

France is pretty good cook, but even with their huge food diversity, they still don't have affordable good quality cantines. Some of them tend to close cafes and restaurants during lunch time?? Thus, I place them lower.

3.

Sorry, Greece, but never in my life I've been served with unpeeled deep fried microshrimps... Karavidopsiha is pretty nice, tho. Potatoes are meh. I recommend you to order fish and seafood. I usually order non-spicy fish because it's cooked really fast and it's hard to hide bad smell&taste in case it's rotten.

Literally every restaurant in the center of Rome!! will serve you with black-peppered pasta carbonara... In many cases, it's also not boiled enough - and in all cases, it costs too much for its quality! Wtf, Italy, that's your capital, the face of a country! You better book in an apartment with kitchen because small local shops have some nice fresh products which you will definitely have to cook yourself in order to stop being depressed. You also need to have a guide or a good old friend who lives here for a while, who can recommend you some nice restaurants (in most cases, far from the center). If you're a very rich& influensive guest visiting Italy, in ALL 5 starts restaurants, they're gonna serve you with Tiramisu (not bad, just keep it in mind). Also, DON'T order pizza here without a guide - better go to McDonald's.

4.

Hugary is good at cooking meat.

Egypt is good in everything which isn't European cuisine.

Switzerland has nice warm spinach bakery in Migros. McDonald's there fucking sucks!!!!

Never been to Canada and USA so idk.

Liechtenstein idk, Poland... overall has nice cuisine but almost every time it's a bit too burnt and/or oily to my taste. If you're from USA/Western Europe, you'll find it amazing anyway.

5. Norway trying very hard but still can't cook for shit. They don't even have salted salmon in shops, wtf! Vegetables and fruist costs like they're made from gold. Bakery's tasteless, but I give kudos for the visual appearance. My favorite pastime there became eating sugar substitute. Idk how non-fishermen live there, if I had to eat like this everyday, I'd hang myself.

6.

Germany is famous among Eastern Europeans for having really bad taste in food. They really believe pop tarts are delicious, and that coffee&croissant is a rich man's breakfast, poor guys... Every time I go there and pick a random cafe, I order a soup and it's ALWAYS inedible. If you can't even cook a normal soup, then what can you cook at all?... Bakery's also tasteless. They drink so much beer it leaves me speechless. McDonald's and Chinese cuisine will be your calm island in the middle of a stormy sea.

In UK, the only dish I remember as good was street food (fresh strawberries in chocolate). And they were made by Polish girls. Fish&Chips isn't even worth trying. Literally every country cooks better English breakfast than England. Just go to McDonald's, don't torture yourself/your family&friends.

[squid-socks]

Just to vent.

I hate my food intolerances why?

If people know I can’t eat that food they act like they caught me red handed lying if I eat that food. SOMETIMES I CAN CONSENT TO THE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS✨

Easy meals are dead. I can’t eat pasta and bread and cheese and cream. Any wheat really. So whilst everyone can get a sandwich or a pastry on the hand when out and about I CANT. I have to cook my breakfast lunch and dinner 😭 it’s just annoying and I don’t have the energy for it. (And why are all the “easy meals” on Pinterest just fucking pasta??)

People treat me like I have a silver spoon in my mouth bccs I eat vegetable rich and protein rich clean foods. WHEN I ASSUE YOU THE STARBUCKS COFFEE AND TREATS THEY EAT IS HIGHER IN COST.

I can’t eat fast food - basically at all. So people hate eating out with me bcs if I say nothing and go to the fast food place with them and eat a bland salad they feel like I’m not participating or something. But if I say I can’t eat that - I’m being too prissy or picky! IM NOT TOO GOOD FOR FAST FOOD IT SEEMS TO BE TOO GOOD FOR ME 😭😭

Everyone has some alternative to recommend I probably can’t eat anyway. No gluten free pasta does not work for me. No lactose free dairy is not solving the issue. Oat milk makes my joints hurt. No fake cheese tastes like shit and is full of even more crap than the regular cheese.

Every food I can eat is now “wrong” in other people’s eyes. Oh if I can’t eat dairy due to inflammation I now also can’t cook with ANY oil except bla. Oh how DARE I eat cabbage - so so inflammatory!!🙄🙄

Servers will lie to your face about what’s in a food if you don’t look sick enough or don’t state “allergy”. I don’t have an allergy bcs I won’t die if I eat pasta. But I will feel like shit for a fucking week so don’t lie to my face and act like IM THE PROBLEM!

In my house - if you cook you HAVE to cook for everyone. But my family never wants to buy MY needs in grocery so I always have buy EXTRA for them bccs im not allowed to just cook my own tolerance meal. WHEN ALL THEY FUCKING EAT IS BREAD. 😭

Ok so clearly my main problem is; other people up in my fucking business. 👀👀

[rainbow--skies]

I don't talk about my food allergies much on here because them being the One Thing half my classmates knew about me growing up and the excessive paranoia my parents shoved on me about them genuinely makes me hate doing so, and I also don't really PERSONALLY consider my allergies a disability (but I have no problem with other people doing so).

However I have noticed that whenever they get included in disability posts on here, it's always by people without food allergies who have barely any idea what the fuck they're talking about. So many people (including people with allergies!) are SO uninformed about how they work and it's worrying so here's some stuff I wish more people knew:

An Epi-Pen does not cure you it helps with some of the symptoms so you can get to the fucking hospital. You still need to go to the fucking hospital.

Food allergies CAN kill you- many people's are not that severe but they CAN kill you. Take them seriously please

Your little "haha people with food allergies are the weakest link" jokes are harmful and offensive and part of why so many people don't take allergies seriously. Stop it. You're not funny. Find a better joke. So many mainstream TV shows even do this it's disheartening

Many people with food allergies also have eczema (I used to when I was younger) or asthma (I don't but I know people who have both), the comorbidities are very common, but not universal

Airborne allergies are not very common at all and usually do not cause severe reactions and it's weird to me that people act like this is common (it kind of feels like excuse to isolate people with food allergies when food is being served sometimes) but if someone has said they do not want to be near their allergen at all you should respect this you do not know what someone's symptoms are

Cross contamination is also something not everyone suffers from (some people have low level allergies) but many of us do (including me) and you should not get offended if someone doesn't accept food they can't see ingredients/health info for or homemade food for that reason

You can be allergic to any food to any degree- people seem to have this weird misconception that it's just peanuts, nuts, dairy, eggs, and other more publicized foods but that's not true at all

If it's possible, ask people what they would prefer as an accommodation when food is being served PLEASE. Some of us would rather eat before, some would rather bring food, some would rather alternative options be offered or restaurants they can eat at be chosen. Some are fine sitting near people eating stuff we can't, some would rather sit in a separate space, and some would rather if the food was just not eaten when they are present at all. Myself and many others that I know actually would rather sit next to someone eating something we can't because it doesn't actually affect us to be near them if we're careful enough not to touch it than to sit at separate "allergen free" tables and such because it's a socially isolating experience, but there are people who would feel more comfortable eating away from others and this is okay too.

Many of us are only allergic to one or two things, some are allergic to a ton

There are less common types of allergies that don't follow the typical pattern of food allergies- as an example I have some allergies that come from oral allergy syndrome, which basically means that my seasonal allergies to certain types of pollen makes me slightly allergic to some fruits and vegetables too

Food allergies can sometimes randomly develop in teenagers and adults, they are not always there from birth or early childhood like many people think (though it's incredibly common for them to start that early). There is not a guarantee you will never get one but your chances are higher if your family has a history of them. Sometimes they can go away or decrease in severity over time too, though, but that does NOT happen to everybody

Lactose intolerance and Celiac Disease are not food allergies! They are separate conditions with separate symptoms and needs! Please educate yourselves about those too and not assume they are synonymous with food allergies

[jellybeanium124]

I still cannot get over how so many restaurants in 2024 don't have milk alternatives. apparently around 68% of adults are lactose intolerant. that's the MAJORITY!!! most adults cannot process milk, but all you have for my diner coffee is dairy?? ok maybe most people don't get as sick as I do. I've voluntarily cut quite a lot of dairy from my diet and do not drink straight milk or eat ice cream anymore because it will put me in that much pain, but the majority of adults experience some form of discomfort and you have no alternative for us?? NADA?? how is this acceptable??

I'm so glad we're not longer in the 2014 making-fun-of-people-who-get-starbucks-with-milk-alternatives era, but I feel like the effect of that era still hasn't worn off, because I am genuinely more concerned about my request for a milk alternative in my coffee to be ignored than my request to keep my food away from tree nuts at restaurants, even tho the former will just make me sick and the latter will potentially send me to the hospital/kill me. Like at a coffee place I triple check that my order was made with almond milk when they hand it to me, versus at a restaurant I never feel the need to ask the server if my food was kept away from nuts when it's served to me. It's probably because people know nut allergies are serious that I feel safer, versus the fact that society doesn't take lactose intolerance seriously in any way.

also, and I am the wrong person to talk about this but I feel like I can't bring up the lack of accommodation for people with lactose intolerance without mentioning it... is this racist? google tells me only ~20% of white adults are lactose intolerant, while like 70-90% of adult people of color are. it also makes me wonder about the fact that the image in the public consciousness of the 2014 era people-who-get-milk-alternatives-from-starbucks-to-be-trendy/frivolous is a 15-25yo white girl/woman. anyways like I said I am not the right person to be leading this discussion but I just felt like I couldn't ignore it.

anyways in conclusion if you're an establishment that serves milk get at least 1 fucking alternative, and preferably get the main three so people can have options (for some reason oat milk also makes me sick, so if the only alternative is oat milk I'm still kinda fucked, and my preference is almond. I'm sure other people have preferences for soy or oat of course so I think all 3 should be available for the 70% OF US WHO CANNOT DIGEST MILK!!!).

[lifblogs]

There’s barely any food to eat, and not just because of my allergies. My mom has so far decided to not go grocery shopping for me and Archer. She’s only buying food for herself, and then seems surprised when I don’t want to eat rice for every meal, as if eating good food isn’t part of being alive and wanting to stay alive, as if good food and nutrition hold no sway over anyone’s life, as if I can actually want to live when I’m just living off of rice. We’re almost out of rice anyway. Same with bread. I’ve been eating cheese (non-dairy) past its recommended date because there is literally no other option. But seriously, how does she think this is okay? It is not okay I spent all my settlement money the last year or so on food because she refused to buy any for me as soon as I developed lactose intolerance. She’s so lying when she says she can’t provide me with food. She did it before! Where the fuck is that money going??? She goes out to eat, shares our food with her boyfriend who can buy and eat whatever the fuck he wants, and won’t stop buying clothes. I literally had to ask people on Instagram to buy my cats food because she wasn’t going to fucking do it. I want to scream at her so badly. She doesn’t even care that I’m in eating disorder recovery, that I have ARFID which makes this situation even worse. I mean, I guess, what should I expect from the woman who literally starved me when I was a child because of having an eating disorder? I just can’t believe I’m in this fucked up situation. I want a way out so badly, and there is none in sight, save for… well… Yeah. Fuck my life.

[mishafletcher]

hi, and welcome to the 'frequently asked questions about cooking is terrible' post! some of these are scattered in other places around my blog, but i figured i'd collect them for ease of reading. if you want to read the promo post about the book, you can go here.

as always, purchase links are collected here, or you can go directly to the amazon listing.

is cooking actually terrible/how can you say you hate cooking/cooking is an art form and you're disrespecting it see, the thing here is that i'm actually a good cook! i've cooked for a living before, i'll happily pull together a meal for fifty with twenty-four hour notice, and i love a cooking project. i love cooking for community. what i fucking hate, though, is having to somehow produce food for myself, and then consume it, multiple times a day, every day, for apparently the entire rest of my life.

some people love cooking, and i genuinely admire you. sometimes i don't mind it or even enjoy it, and on those nights, i don't need this book. sometimes i'm too tired or in too much pain or too busy playing a video game or too depressed, though, and the idea of spending thirty minutes making food i don't care about makes me want to walk into the sea, and on those days, yeah, cooking is terrible.

is this book vegetarian friendly? yes! there are a handful of recipes where the point of it is meat, but probably 90% of the book is either vegetarian or has options to make it vegetarian. i was a vegetarian for about a decade, and still tend not to cook a ton of meat because the cost of messing it up is so high. there are a number of recipes that call for things like 'chunks of chicken or tofu', but tofu is cheap and delicious, so i'm just as likely to use that as i am chicken.

is this book vegan friendly? maybe. if you're comfortable with things like vegan cheese and plant-based yogurt, the answer is probably yes. the biggest issue for vegans will be dairy, but there are a lot of good vegan dairy replacements out there.

is this book friendly for [basically any other dietary restrictions]? yes again! everything is designed to be pretty flexible. if you're comfortable with the basics how to substitute things for your specific needs, you should be fine with this. (by 'basics of how to substitute', i mean 'tamari instead of soy sauce' or 'gluten-free noodles' or 'sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter' level of substitutions.) i have severe food allergies, so am very much on board the substitutions train.

is this book useful for people with chronic pain and/or mental health issues? you are very literally the target audience, because i, too, am a disabled person with chronic pain and adhd and other assorted mental health issues. when i started writing this book, it wasn't a book—it was a text file that i could read over when my brain wasn't working well enough to provide me with instructions for complex tasks such as 'make sandwich'.

is this useful for people living in [almost literally anywhere in the world]? unless you live in a place where you can't buy staple foods like rice, beans, and vegetables, it's probably useful. i've personally bought everything mentioned in the cookbook at stores in the us and australia, and have also checked availability at tesco and rewe. there are sometimes minor differences in what things are called, and occasionally one thing or the other is entirely unavailable, but probably 99% of ingredients can be easily purchased in most supermarkets.

do i need to have fancy appliances for this to be useful? hard no. there is zero slow cooker, instant pot, stand mixer, or even rice cooker content in this.

i assume that you have a knife, a bowl, and a source of heat. some things are easier (or nicer) if you also have a $20 immersion blender (mine's from kmart), but that's as fancy as we're getting. i wanted to keep the barrier to food as low as possible.

is it easy to modify recipes in this? yes, and a bunch of recipes are either lists of suggestions (sandwiches! rice toppings!) or have variations listed.

what kind of recipes are in this book? there's a range of them.

stuff that needs no cooking at all—sandwiches, dips, smoothies, salads, etc.

bowls of stuff: pasta, rice, soups you can make in ten to fifteen minutes, oats, etc. using ready-cooked rice or pasta is 100% fine by me, so this focuses pretty heavily on quick and easy toppings.

stuff you cook while you watch netflix, like 'throw this into the oven and then ignore it for an hour'. more importantly, lists of ideas for how to use the things you cooked.

baking and desserts, none of which require more than about five minutes of hands-on work.

if this list is insufficiently convincing, i've also put up a couple example recipes here.

which storefront/format is best? honestly and truly, on my end, it doesn't matter that much—after various fees and things come out, it's within about 50c of each other for ebooks, and maybe a dollar for physical books. amazon currently nets me slightly more than other retailers, but that's changed in the past and will likely change again.

on your end, amazon is probably the cheapest way to get a print copy (and—in the interest of full disclosure—is slightly more money for me, as well). amazon's printing costs are significantly less than anyone else's are, so the book is cheaper there.

why are there so many price points? this is partly because publishing at this point is several business models in a trenchcoat, and partly because retailers can set their own prices and discounts. if you see very low prices, especially at big vendors like amazon, they've decided it's worth it to sell the book at a loss. i have no idea why, but i get the same royalties from it.

if you see very high price points—like $40+ for the paperback version—it's because the vendor is using a traditional-publishing business model and pricing accordingly. please do not buy this book for forty dollars. anywhere in north america and europe, the paperback should be between 10 and 20 of the local currency (dollar, pound, or euro); australians might see it as high as $22 because it costs more to have things printed here.

i want to reiterate: please do not buy this book for many tens of dollars. one, maybe two tens, fine. but forty is as many as four tens, and that's terrible.

is there a print version of this book? i used to get this a lot, and then there was an amazon-only paperback version and i got it less, and now there's a paperback version that you should be able to buy anywhere you buy books.

worth noting is that the available print versions are not spiral bound. if you would like a spiral bound copy and you feel strongly enough about this that you'd like to have it printed and bound yourself, the digital versions (most usefully the pdf from gumroad) have an explicit 'please feel free to print or have this printed' release.

and again—because i get called out for this not infrequently—purchase links are collected here, or you can go directly to the amazon listing.

[trannydean-moved]

something that really upsets me is when people don't take their friends' or families' food allergies/intolerances into consideration when they're dealing with food. i myself have none, but my dad has a lethal intolerance to gluten due to his many health problems, as well as a lesser intolerance of dairy and many other things. we're unable to keep gluten in the house. my dad can't even smell it in the air without getting sick. we have to go to great lengths to make sure we don't somehow cross contaminate anything--we spray down our groceries with vinegar before putting em away, anyone who comes to our house has to spray their hands of, if any of us go anywhere and touch anything, we have to spray our hands off. my mom literally had to come up with so many ways to convert regular meals into gluten and dairy free varieties. it was extremely difficult at first, but she's literally a genius for being able to do all she's done to make sure we can all eat together, and eat good food. so when i see people who have food allergies or intolerances and their family and friends don't care enough to be fucking normal about it. we barely have anyone over and no one in the household have many friends anymore because no one wants to go through the hassle of taking my dad's condition into consideration. i have kinda accepted this since it's been like this for us for so long. but i see other people talk about how their families don't give a shit about their condition. and it upsets me so much because my guy??? this is shit the person can't help whatsoever. just have some human decency, get your head out of your ass, and take the person's needs into consideration.

[kintatsujo]

The worst part about how hard food allergens are to avoid in the US market is food allergies and sensitivities really are just scary, though

I can eat eggs but they have to be cooked a certain way and can't be too high in sulfates

One time before I'd really figured this out I happened to have a quiche for lunch

And my left leg went weird and dead feeling from my hip down about an hour later, like if you just filled it with mercury and told me to keep walking on it

I stopped eating strawberries after having an anaphylactic reaction in my throat, which meant I couldn't breathe or swallow right (fortunately it was mild by comparison)

Found out I can't eat cashews anymore by paying for it with a week of miserable stomach pains

Dairy is my mildest one but sometimes it flares up when I'm in the middle of eating and I just break into a sweat out of nowhere, like I'm having an anxiety attack

And none of my food allergies are the kind that just drop you dead

All you can think is "this is supposed to be a social bonding activity and it's supposed to nourish me, not fucking kill me" but there you are, eating celery plain in the next room while the other kids have peanut butter

Like it just sucks, guys, I can't even count all the ways it sucks, I don't even have it that bad compared to other people.

And then the food market makes it desperately difficult to avoid most of these foods and the alternatives cost twice to five times as much as what everyone else gets to eat.

[artforsimps]

Do vegans think we’ll just make a big grave yard for animals that died at old age? Do they think we’ll rip up forests and dig individual graves for each animal on earth with a head stone? They’d love that. They already don’t have a problem with habitats and rainforests being ruined for agave and whatever vegan “alternative” is popular. They don’t even bother with the cruelty of humanity being abused to produce their almond milk and raw sugar and chocolate

When do we stop farming? We make enough food to feed everyone on earth as is the only thing stopping us is the price. When we stop farming animals there won’t be leather that will last decades compared to fast fashion coats that rip within a single year of ownership. We won’t have wool either. What will they feed their precious rescue animals? Or should they be let loose to rip up some wild animals for fun? Loose dogs probably cause more harm to farm animals than the fucking butcher. A dog will get in the pen running around ripping out fur until they find one weak enough that they can tear into. They won’t even eat it. It’s entertaining for pets. The farmer is forced to kill the dog so it won’t get loose again because the owner won’t discipline it. Sure the dairy industry has its faults it produces green house gases and there are bad farmers but the same goes for the vegan food industry. who’s going to root for the vegan calling for the starvation of species and supports pets which literally kills hundreds of animals a year. When should vegans stop the death of animals? It’s part of a natural cycle. We’re born, we work, we eat, we die and mushrooms eat us. Animals are born they make milk they have kids they die we eat them then we die. Our pets eat meat and they can’t eat anything other than that and live off of it. Eating vegetables would make them slowly starve to death. A pet would eat their dead owner out of desperation we can’t just feed them every dead person on earth they’d get sick and die. By regulation and rules around raising and eventual humane slaughter we reduce suffering. Meat is a way of life.

Don’t even get me started on how vegans appropriate cultural foods as alternatives or hop onto whatever knew food is cool and claiming they invented it or how exclusionary it is for people with allergies or eating disorders or the fat phobia and entitled-ness or the wealth gap from how expensive their appropriation makes everyday food.

Mug you wnat to reduce harm to animals raise them yourself so you aren’t the one creating a demand for abuse or sorce your products through your own research. If you wnat happy chicken eggs raid happy chickens they’ll lay as much eggs as they are wel taken care of. Take. A class on how to butcher humanely without drawing it out. Use every part of the animal. Leather can last shears longer than plastic. Sheeting wool in the summer prevent heatstroke on sheep and creates sustainable clothing or even wall insulation. Milk can make cheese and butter to use as fat in cooking just like animal fat can be used kn cooking without needing to grow large plots of land for oil. Properly rendered tallow can moisturize the skin and be used for soap. Tools made form bone get stronger with age. Thousands of cultures have used bone tools for centuries for a reason. Plastic lasts for ever but breaks in a week. Bones are found thousands of years after the animal dies just imagine how long it could last after being processed into a tool. We have tools named after the use of bone as a material form how will it works like bone folders. If you want to be sustainable be sustainable but don’t creat an entire hierarchy of something as important as food to feel good about yourselves. It’s behind pay walls, it’s inaccessible to people with multiple allergies or eating disorders. Grandma and grandpa can’t raise a hoe and sow corn to survive winter. Don’t tell people they should starve because they can’t afford to and aren’t physically able to reach your “moral” high ground.

Build a fucking homestead and leave us alone

[thevoidisscreamingbackatyou]

this is SO fucking important. i remember seeing this post a few years ago and being horrified.

To add on another story to the many here; my parent has chronic gastritis, so basically their stomach makes too much acid.

They can't eat gluten, dairy, tomatoes, onions, etc and they're vegetarian. Sometimes they can't even eat vegan food.

And the problem is, that literally everyone we know just says "oh, they can take medicine and be fine, just eat what you want" and then there are also times where their food restrictions have simply been ignored and they can't eat *anything*.

If they do, they get migraines and can't get out of bed for days. Hell, once they fainted and had a huge lump on their head and we had to take them to the doctor it was *fucked*.

Don't ignore food restrictions or allergies or diets. It's fucked up, not funny. You don't know people's stories or lives.

DO NOT DO THIS.

This makes me so angry.

If you work in a movie theater and you do this I have no respect for you.

My younger brother is Type 1 Diabetic.

When we go to a movie theater, we always get him diet soda. If he were to get regular when we asked for diet, we would not give him the insulin he would need for it. If that happens, his blood sugar level could go so high he could go into a coma, go blind, or even die.

If somebody gave him regular soda instead of diet without telling us, that person could be responsible for a nine-year-old being killed or blinded.

Just thinking about that makes me so angry. I get scared every time we take him to a movie in case the people working there saw this picture and decide to do the same thing.

Please signal boost this so people know.

[tandytoaster]

Here's why I'm trying to make non dairy condensed milk:

My aunt has this recipe that we call skor squares, I think I've seen other people call them 'white trash bars'- thye're super fucking simple if you don't have allergies to most things, BUT, my girlfriend Does have allergies to most things and I want her to be able to have regular food and treats in a form that won't hurt her so I regularly attempt to reinvent the wheel and alter recipes to make them safe for her. I've had a lot of success for the most part but these fucking skor bars have given me beef for the past 5 years, so much so that I don't even wanna THINK about them if I'm not in the right mindset.

The normal recipe is absurdly simple, literally just a pack of skor bits, a can of condensed milk, and a box of ritz crackers. Mix that all together, bake it at 350 for 10 minutes and let it cool then cream cheese frosting on top (if anyone is interested in the recipe actually i'll give u the detailed version).

But I'm fighting against dairy and gluten, usually it's the gluten people warn bakers about because working with GF flours can be difficult. I consider myself lucky that this has not been my experience with gluten free baking (president's choice gluten free flour has not failed me [but also fuck loblaws]). Gluten is also not the villain of this recipe either, the only ingredient that has gluten in it would be the ritz crackers, and the brand Schar makes a nice alternative to ritz crackers that they call 'entertainment crackers' and they're a very similar taste and texture- so they're a damn good substitute.

It's the dairy, the lactose, it's that damn milk. Our first obstacle with milk is the skor bits, they're basically little toffee bits so I have to create my own toffee using lactose free butter. Which isn't too big of a task but it's an entirely separate treat I need to make in order to make the treat I initially set out to make, while also dirtying several dishes in the process. I have not been able to find nondairy / lactose free toffee around here, otherwise I would 100% be taking that shortcut.

The worst offender though, is the condensed milk, this shit is the bane of my fucking existence. The only nondairy condensed milk around here that we can buy is made from coconut- I have not used this for these skor bars because I feel like the coconut taste will heavily overpower the taste of everything else and that's not a good enough compromise for me- this needs to be as real as real gets and there's no coconut in the original recipe. I've tried the coconut stuff in a different recipe that did have a lot of coconut in it- but it did not work for me, I created goop, not a bar.

I have attempted to condensed the milk of regular oat milk, I failed at this. It did not condensed in the slightest. We like oat milk because it's a very neutral alternative, it usually acts very similarly to regular milk and it doesn't have a strong taste, so I thought I might have some success there, but I didn't

So I was like ok whatever that's a waste of milk and money let's not do that again, so I did some more searching and seen that you can kind of have a similar outcome with whipping cream- or like... I somehow got it in my head that whipping cream would be the next course of action. So throw back to like, a year ago or something, I attempted this recipe with the whipping cream and some icing sugar instead of the condensed milk and I baked it and I got scared because it came out goopy but I let it cool, I THINK i probably put it in the fridge after it cooled and then I put the icing on it and it held together kind of okay!!! Like you had to eat them a little chilly, which isn't what the original recipe calls for, but that's okay, it worked. So I tried this again today,,,,, but I think it's too goopy. I might not have let it cool long enough, or maybe I should have put it in the fridge for a bit before putting the icing on- but I made goop. We have goop. Skor goop, white trash goop.

A really interesting side note, is that I've been making the regular recipe since 2015 with no issues, but my mom has NEVER had it work for her?? Like follows the recipe to a T and it's either goopy, or too hard, or it's way too chewy, or it's sticking to the pan and we have no idea why it's never turned out for her.

But this is kinda why I say this is my bean soup moment, you can't make bean soup without beans but I'm fucking determined as all hell to make something that's comparable to the original, because I don't think people with allergies should have to settle for less or for a shitty version of something good- I am NOTTTT settling for goop. We have goop today but it's my life's mission to one day not make this goop, on god this will be a solid bar you can hold in your fingers

[ i stop talking about baking here but i didn't wanna make another post lmao ]

This is a whole other tangent but the whole bean soup thing does piss me off like if it were me I would not point and laugh at someone asking for a weird substitute, how can I make bean soup without beans- let's find something that's like beans but isn't beans!!! If it's someone who is like, bitching at the recipe author because their own substitution didn't work- that's different, but if it's someone simply asking, "Hey do you think this would work instead" I think it is so easy to either give a polite yes or no answer with light explanation and NOT be a bitch about it ! I don't know maybe it's because I was born with the patience of a saint but I don't care about people being 'stupid', I just don't. I don't care about learned helplessness, I don't care about 'whataboutism', and words cannot even begin to describe how much I loathe the whole "we don't talk enough about how difficult halloween is for people with adhd" "omg you people can;t do anything", it's almost like it's a disability or something omg....! It's almost like something that is simple for someone with regular brain chemistry, is difficult for someone with a different brain structure!!! I can't believe having a mental disability effects how you interact with the world, that's crazy, omg. I don't care how stupid it seems if it's something you struggle with I think it should be met with kindness and compassion, perhaps it cannot always be accomodated but I think it can always be handled respectfully. There was this poor girl on tiktok some time ago crying her eyes out about how she struggles so hard with time blindness and she has set timers and reminders and everything she can think of but it's still getting in the way of her job and causing her issues there, and the vast majority of the people commenting on her video were saying shit like, "You're just using adhd as an excuse", "You're not trying hard enough stop blaming it on adhd" maybe I'm being overdramatic but it was sickening to see everyone dog on her like that. Sickening to see self proclaimed neurospicy users gang up on a girl voicing her struggle with her disability, just to tell her the same shit I'm sure those users have been told before, 'you're not trying hard enough', 'its your own fault'. It truly would not surprise me if the group of people blaming that girl, had the mindset that autism and adhd are just when you like something a little too much and are a little awkward, just like fundamentally misunderstanding the disorders and using them as a quirky label. Like usually I don't say shit like that but if you're going to be ragging on someone for being disabled while being disabled yourself, idk like look inward? Understand why I'm skeptical of a rando on the net saying they haa disorder but failing to understand key aspects of said disorder. IM SORRY this started as a goop rant but it turned into me being mad about other shit

[glorioustidalwavedefendor]

Eating at the Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant in October with her husband and mother-in-law, Jackie Piccolo, court documents claim she told staff of her severe nut and dairy allergies multiple times, with them reassuring her they could make some of the food allergen-free. They got confirmation that the food would be safe to eat numerous times, the lawsuit said: “When the waiter returned with [Tangsuan’s] food, some of the items did not have allergen-free flags in them and [Tangsuan] and [Piccolo] once again questioned the waiter who, once again, guaranteed the food being delivered to [Tangsuan] was allergen free.” Shortly after finishing their meals, Piccolo went back to their hotel room while his wife and mother went shopping. After splitting up to go into different stores with the intention of meeting up afterwards, Tangsuan collapsed on a shop floor struggling for breath, around 45 minutes after having eaten. She self-administered an epi-pen before she was rushed to hospital, but tragically died. According to the legal suit, her death was confirmed by a medical examiner “as a result of anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.”

-> And that is the reason why it's NEVER O.K. to just give someone allergic, something they told they are allergic against just to "proof" they are making a big deal

that's why I want to fuck staff with a chainsaw if they don't comply with allergic accomodation

which seems to be very common

-> This isn't the first story like that I heard though I think the first one with a murder

becaue there are people out there who think they can decide who does and doe snot look like they are allergic

and like

“When the waiter returned with [Tangsuan’s] food, some of the items did not have allergen-free flags

so the kicthen staff made VERY sure to comunicate that it was not safe to eat

but the waiting stuff just decided that they knew better

FUCK THEM

I mean fuck disney sure, they are the worst

But also fuck this waiter in particular becasue they are a murderer and I hope they never again find peace

Like I bet they watched her eat, and since she didnt have an imidiate reaction they where like, see? made a big deal about nothing

they don't understand that you can have a reaction up to 48 hours after eating something you are allergic to

AND THAT'S WHY THEY DON'T GET TO MAKE THAT CALL

[meditating-dog-lover]

Skin flareup - nightshades

I just had another flareup. I had itchy hands yesterday and the day before and I had tomatoes on each day. It's my hands that are itchy and not my mouth. I've been taking flaxseed oil.

I am 100% sure it's because of tomatoes. End of story! Sometimes after having something with paprika I will itch (like tenders) but not as bad as tomatoes. I have a nightshade sensitivity/allergy. People with eczema tend to have a food sensitivity/allergy. I can eat nuts, wheat, dairy, fish, eggs, caffeine, and sugar without any problems (these can be trigger foods for other people with eczema). But tomatoes will make my skin flare. My hands flared up badly and my scalp and face are itchy now (by my temples, not my mouth) as well as my wrists. These itchy areas besides my hands aren't eczema though. I've been using dandruff shampoo to combat my scaly scalp, but perhaps I do experience inflammation (seborrheic dermatitis) there.

The following is a photo representing plants of the nightshade family:

Here's a comprehensive list:

I doubt everything on this list will give me a flareup, but tomatoes do. Even paprika to a degree.

This is going to be tough as I like tomatoes and spicy stuff. I don't like eggplants, I like red pepper and chilli pepper seasoning, as well as paprika and cayenne. I don't really eat peppers (sweet and green) so I don't know how I would react to them. I like potatoes but I haven't eaten them in a while. Apparently peeling the skin off reduces the nightshade content in it. I prefer sweet potatoes anyways. So it's not as bad and inflammatory when it's skinless.

Here is this also worth reading:

I need to find a way to cut these out of my diet. And when ordering out to choose smart options. Because my skin is currently fucked. I'm going to consider this as well as do the allergy test on Tuesday and ask my allergist about nightshades.

Here's an article written by someone who had eczema triggered by white potatoes and his eczema disappeared when he cut potatoes out of his diet:

So for now I'm going to cut out tomatoes and peppers and seasoning and sauces that contain a pepper source (like buffalo). Let's see how that works out and I will update. I don't like eggplants so I'm not going to have a hard time avoiding it. I don't normally eat white potatoes, but peeling off the skin will make it safe to consume.

[enbyhyena]

my wife was recently diagnosed with alpha-gal (and dairy allergy but that's not what i'm focused on here) and can't eat fucking ANYTHING without getting horrifically ill. and its not just mammalian meats; it would be bad enough if it was. even carrageenan, a common vegan substitute ingredient, comes from a red algae that produces alpha-gal. many medications also make them horribly sick, because many capsules and casings are made from gelatin sourced from bones and fat. it's been shocking going to the store with these new limitations in mind, reading all our usual labels, and realizing just how small their life has become. they can't even consume eggs or meat if the chickens were fed ingredients containing alpha-gal, because it'll pass onto it.

even product/food labels can be misleading when companies aren't legally required to disclose certain information. did you know that traces of whale and dolphin meat can occasionally be found mixed in with canned tuna? even brands that boast being "dolphin safe"? yeah. "it's illegal!", you say, but if the fisherman say it was "accidentally caught", it's technically completely legal. dolphins and whales are mammals, so even eating a pescatarian diet can be dangerous for someone with alpha-gal.

going to any restaurant is also a major risk for these reasons, both due to lack of education/awareness on where ingredients are sourced from and because i've heard plenty of horror stories of people having their allergies disregarded by wait staff, sometimes leading to medical emergencies. it's CRAZY how normalized apathy towards allergens is in our society, especially since it can be literal life or death for some people. even moreso because it can happen at any time for reasons completely out of your control.

alpha-gal comes from tick bites, and has no cure. you know who is more statistically likely to be bitten by ticks? rural poor people. your body begins to produce antibodies towards anything with alpha-gal in it, and the symptoms can get worse and worse the more you expose yourself to it (the allergen OR subsequent tick bites). from nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea all the way up to anaphylaxis.

diet/fad culture making it "sexy" to eat the foods some people need to survive—often even at the physical detriment of the people who DON'T need it—also definitely doesn't help things. it makes the food become so incredibly expensive. one time years ago my mom sent me to the store to buy some gluten free hotdug buns for her friend who was coming over for a cookout party. 4 buns was $8 (a normal bag of 8 buns typically ran $2 or less). this friend wasn't dieting though; she had celiac disease.

now imagine having to spend that much money for every single meal you eat. forever. assuming three meals a day, you will eat 90-93x a month. it rapidly gets so, so expensive. putting even more financial strain on people who are already—more often than not—financially strained.

so yeah. the callousness needs to end, literally for the sake of innumerable people who had absolutely no choice in this, and were just unlucky. we need more anti-gouging protections on food in general, but doubly so for allergen-free foods. and we need more transparency and regulations on what foods have in them, and in the case of slaughtered animals, information on what those animals were fed.

i want to take the time to talk about a series of disabilities that no one takes seriously or even recognizes as a disability, which is food intolerances, and allergies. if a person can get sick if they eat the wrong foods, they are disabled, as this illness will make them unable to function all because they ate the wrong food. it's not okay to guilt someone for seeking foods that won't injure them.

in 2022, i began to lose my ability to digest land meats (pork, chicken, cow, etc.), animal milks, and eggs. it started slowly but quickly progressed to every type of land meat. i am only able to digest seafood, plants, nuts, seeds safely without becoming horribly sick. i tried to buy cow's milk because it is cheaper recently and became so ill it was genuinely traumatic. i have never been that sick in my life before. i cannot safely ingest cow's milk, the cheaper option, because it will injure me for several days or even weeks at a time. this happens to me with all land meats as well.

i cannot eat eggs. i cannot fried rice that has egg, i cannot eat most sauces like mayo or ranch dressing because of their high egg content. i cannot eat anything dressed in mayo as a sauce. anything that is baked or brushed or washed with egg is a risk. my digestive system really hates eggs in particular and they are inescapable.

people who can't digest or process lactose, gluten, meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, fiber, certain fats, proteins or sugars don't have their needs considered very often, nor taken seriously, especially when that person is poor. people with digestive issues need to be able to eat foods that don't hurt us- it's not our faults that alternative milks, breads, pizzas, snacks, sauces, dips, spreads, meats and more are significantly more expensive. we still need to be able to eat foods that don't harm us regardless of how much money we make.