There are some people out there who are incredibly healthy and never have to take sick days. To you I say: bravo (or brava, depending on your gender)! I've also learned that the hyper-healthy don't usually seem to have either sympathy or empathy towards those who do get sick; that somehow those who "claim" to be sick are somehow faking it or...something.
I have no answers on how to help someone who is never sick to believe someone else who is. I probably don't have enough sympathy for the unsympathetic mostly because I'm trying not to be annoyed at people who think I fake MY illnesses. Amongst other health flaws, I've had food issues since high school and it's taken me a good bit to try to figure out what will set me off. Once I learn what each thing is I either try to work around it, avoid it, or eat it anyway. Sometimes I look at a food choice that I know will make me ill (either immediately or a few hours later or the next day, even) and I weigh its deliciousness with the future pain and/or discomfort. Some things are no longer worth it, like packaged name-brand Rice Crispy Treats. Don't get me wrong, I used to love them, but now I associate the taste with feeling bad, and that's hard to get over.
I once got a reaaaaaaaaallllly bad case of tonsillitis the same night I'd had fish at a family reunion. Even though the fever and sickness had nothing to do with fish, my mind still associated it together. It took me years before I convinced myself that not eating fish, which I used to love over almost anything else, was just silly. I'm back to loving fish and am glad that I got over that. Whew! Sorry, Charlie. Ha ha.
But back to Rice Crispy Treats. I can eat Rice Crispies for breakfast and not have a problem, as long as it's not what I eat every morning. I can also eat the homemade kind of treats if I wanted to, but the prepackaged kind has preservatives and I apparently can't abide them. Also, hydrogenated oils. I can't gorge myself on Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Pieces, or anything made with modern peanut butter (and, really, I should never be gorging on anything). However, I *have* learned that I have no problems whatsoever with natural peanut butter. Yea! I would miss not being able to have a pb&j when I want one. ...Or a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, which tastes an awful lot like a peanut butter cup.
Sugar substitutes give me heartburn. How frustrating do you think it is that when you try to eat Quaker's Weight Control oatmeal when it just makes you feel nauseated and burn-y in that region between your throat and stomach. Sigh. Oatmeal with actual sugar--NO PROBLEMS. It's like my body only likes natural stuff on one hand, but not too much (I won't over share my issues with fiber as it's not for polite company).
It makes me laugh when I see the commercials for the new sweetener from a different plant. The catchphrase involves going back to nature for sweetness. Um, isn't sugar from plants? And corn syrup comes from plants. How is that different? Are you trying to do a bait and switch? Or a shell game in the hopes that we'll be distracted by your rather offensive song about sugar making your butt fat that we don't notice that other sweeteners are also "natural?" Sheesh. Is anyone really falling for that? Sugar isn't really the culprit, despite the hype. It is the overindulgence of sugar that is the real problem.
So, yes, I'm sugar-substitute-sensitive. A whole bunch of diet stuff is out the window for me. Ahem, but too much sugar and being hot temperature-wise will lead me to a whole lot of ickiness. So I have to be careful about my sugar intake on hot days. And I can't eat any recipes that cook chicken with the rest of the ingredients, and I have to pat the grease off of my pepperoni pizza, and french fries did make me ill for awhile when all the fast food places switched their frying oil to, I think, canola, but now they use something different and fries are no longer toxic to me (in the short term). And I can't eat at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida anymore. At all. And I can't eat too many eggs, or at least the yolks, but I will sometimes feel rebellious and eat deviled eggs anyway!!!
Sadly, I could continue my litany of food issues. But guess what? Despite all of that, I still enjoy eating out. Sometimes it's worth the risk of what might happen later, but usually I can find something that won't cause me any troubles at all. I am just more selective now than I used to be. Hopefully I will stop accidentally finding more food problems. I'd like to think I've discovered them all, but I hear as you get older and your body starts falling apart faster than you can repair it that you get food issues. I have enough, thank you. No more. NO MORE, I say!
Do you think defiant denial will work?
Me, neither.
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