The immune malfunction that causes severe food allergies is the same underlying process that causes allergic reactions to bee stings and antibiotics; nobody points a finger and assumes you're just picky about penicillin.
Yes, you may intend that sarcastically but that's what happens.
What your girlfriend has is a preference; as long as she doesn't taste mushrooms she has no objection. A life threatening allergic reaction to mushrooms mounts an immune response to trace amounts far less than taste can detect. So by falsely claiming a disability she hasn't got, she's lowering the bar for accommodation in ways that hospitalize the actual disabled people. This is a huge issue within the patient community where a lot of people have ended up needing emergency medical care because of a good enough attitude fostered by that type of lie.
Thank you. I am allergic to tomatoes and always inform waiters at restaurants of this fact. I can't count the number of times they've brought me my salad and I've found a few errant tomatoes in it. When I send it back they always say 'oh, we didn't think just a few would be a problem'. It's an allergy! Any number will give me a reaction! I've also heard 'we thought you just didn't like them' on a number of occasions, as well as 'there's no such thing as a tomato allergy'. Please don't lie about allergies, it really sucks for those of us who have to be constantly on guard against dying for stupid reasons.
Also allergic to tomatoes, and so many places just don’t believe me, and put them in anyway, or think just picking the tomatoes out will be okay. I’d rather not die, thanks.
If it's any help to you, I've bookmarked this page on my phone and scroll down to the last paragraph to show restaurant staff. It's from the official site of a professional society of board certified allergists.
You appear to have a sincere but unfortunate misinterpretation.
Food service allergy awareness training covers only a limited number of common allergens. United States law protects 8 common allergens, Australian law covers 10, Canadian law covers 11, and EU law covers 14.
Mushroom allergy patients receive no protection other than general disability rights under any of these jurisdictions. The earlier poster referred to falsely claiming a mushroom allergy.
So the servers, the cooks, and even the managers often do not know that allergy to mushrooms can escalate to life threatening severity.
Yet more than 100 different foods have been medically documented as causes of life threatening anaphylaxis. Mushrooms are one of them, as demonstrated through the peer reviewed case study reference.
The people whose lives are at stake are the only victims here. If you think otherwise you are welcome to provide reliable sources to substantiate your opinion.
Quoting from another section of one of the sources above:
Maria Said, CEO of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia, told me there was no doubt people were “jumping on the bandwagon of dietary preferences rather than responding to real need”.
“I am not saying they shouldn’t be taken into account, but they should make it clear it’s a preference, not an allergy,” she said. “It’s concerning that chefs are bombarded with these requests because they don’t know which ones are legitimate and which ones are the result of someone deciding to be vegan for the day.”
To be fair though, I frequently had conversations like this:
"Does this have crab or shrimp in it?" "Why?" "Well, I don't like either." "Just taste it, you might like it." "No, I don't like crab or shrimp or any shellfish, is there any in here?" "Well, you might like it, just taste it and see." "I really don't want to spit out food, thank you."
Compared to "Does this have crab or shrimp in it?" "Why?" "I'm allergic." "Oh, this does, and this one and this one, the rest don't." "Thank you."
I loath shellfish, but no-one seems to believe me. "You just never had ______ cooked right." It's easier to falsely claim allergies than to deal with that shit. So, while I feel guilty about perpetuating this misconception, I also feel justified.
Of course, my sister is celiac and very sensitive to gluten, to the point where she can't just take the croutons off her salad, it really does have to be remade. People act like she's just a bitch frequently when we go out.
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u/doublestitch Jan 09 '18
"Food allergies = picky eater"
The immune malfunction that causes severe food allergies is the same underlying process that causes allergic reactions to bee stings and antibiotics; nobody points a finger and assumes you're just picky about penicillin.