I know it sucks having an allergy to food but in my opinion it's worse to have an intolerance (well unless you are deadly allergic then that is defiantly the worst). There is a difference between them even though some people don't know that. An allergy can make you itch, tongue/throat swell, red splotches appear on your skin, maybe upset you stomach a little, etc. An intolerance is your stomach feeling like someone is stabbing it repeatedly (at least in my experience).
You all have heard of lactose intolerant I'm sure and luckily that's not what I have my problem with. But I have problems with seafood and ham. I know seafood is common to have problems with but ham? Come on who, besides me and my mom, has a problem ham? Even the slightest bit of ham or juice from it and I am basically laying in my bed/sitting on the couch all day when not in the bathroom. I'll spare you the details. But when this happens, if it's a school day, it makes me miss 2 days worth of instruction (1 class period has 2 days worth of learning in there). And I have 2 classes a day that actually have instruction (2 aiding periods) so I miss a lot, especially since I have 1 AP class a day (I will explain those in another blog entry).
Anyways, allergies from what I can tell can be taken care of with medicine, or in my grandmother's case (deadly allergic to fish and antidote) drinking lots and lots of water to flush it out of their system. Intolerances are a little harder to control since I don't tend to feel the affects until the next day, if I know I ate ham or took something with seafood in it I can drink lots of liquid and it helps a little.
If you are going to hold a pot luck or just a dinner party make sure to let people know if their is something high on the food allergen list like peanuts, fish or wheat. Know the ingredients in the food you make so when people ask you can answer and if you are absolutely not sure what to do ask your guests if they are allergic or intolerant to any food.
