Many times we have no control over things in our lives.
If you’re like me, sometimes you are dealt shitty genetic codes, like being allergic to peanuts.
And just not get-a-rash-and-feel-sick-to-your-stomach allergy, rather have your-throat-swell-shut-and-go-into-anaphylactic-shock-and-die kind of allergy. Thanks fate, I really appreciate that one.
Though to be honest, I haven’t really let that fact change how I live my life in any way shape or form, except that I generally avoid Thai restaurants.
Until I almost died in Dublin and I started writing about my food allergy and sharing with the world, I haphazardly assumed that other people dealt with food allergies in the same way. Talk about being naive!
You see, I forget I have a food allergy all the time. Never in the forefront of my mind, it only occurs to me when something triggers it, like eating a certain type of food or if I smell a dreaded peanut.
Since I shared my story here and on CNN, the response has been surprising, to say the least, and not always in a good way. I’ve gotten an overwhelmingly negative response from people telling me they wish they could travel but are way too afraid because of one food allergy or another. Oh, and they think I’m crazy.
Well let me let you in on a little secret, I think anyone who doesn’t travel and cites having a food allergy as an excuse is crazy. Boom. In fact, those are the type of people who would probably not travel anyways.
While having an allergy that might potentially snuff out your life can be a pain in the ass, letting it dictate how you live is another matter entirely.
After around 7 years of traveling and living abroad, with very few peanut incidents and only almost one fatality, I’ve come up with my 5 best reasons why having a food allergy shouldn’t keep you from traveling.
1. Traveling teaches you to not be uptight or picky
I used to be really picky with foods. Then I moved to Spain, land of random pig parts and octopus, and that quickly went out the window.
Over the past few years I’ve noticed an alarming trend among travelers – picky eaters. “oh, I’m sorry, I don’t eat gluten. Oh, I can’t eat red meat. Whole milk will kill me.” You know who I am talking about. Those people annoy me to no end.
There is a difference between “can’t eat” and “won’t eat,” right?
Unfortunately, those kinds of people are also ruining it for the rest of us who have serious and/or fatal food allergies. While I might not be a fan of beets and they make me gag uncontrollably, they won’t kill me or make my throat swell shut, where there IS a strong likelihood I’ll snuff it if I eat peanut butter.
This means that I have to be extra careful when explaining to waitstaff about my allergy, and I also make a point to say that my allergy could kill me, you know, so they can’t mistake my message.
I also try to explain it in a way that is not condescending or arrogant, instead I try to be very apologetic and friendly. A smile and an “I’m sorry to inconvenience you but…” gets you so much further than a pissy, self-entitled proclamation that the restaurant staff should bow down before your dietary requirements.
Trust me on this one. You want those people on your side.
While I still take my peanut allergy pretty seriously, I have also learned to not let it control me while traveling. A lesson I couldn’t be more thankful to have learned.
2. No one is trying to kill you on an airplane, unless you’re Qatar Airways
So this one time, Qatar Airways tried to kill me with peanuts. Twice.
Once is forgivable. Twice gets you on the top of my shitlist.
As a general rule, over the years I’ve learned the best way to manage my allergy on flights is by notifying the airline in advance so they can make sure not to include peanuts as a snack on board – they all have chips or secondary snacks to serve.
Locked in a tin tube with no way out while hundreds of other people snack on peanuts around me is a disaster waiting to happen, and one that can be avoided with a little preparation and people doing their job.
Unfortunately, while I held up my end of the bargain, Qatar Airways failed to do so. Twice.
I was flying Qatar Airways to Europe from Australia in October and I called them a week in advance as soon as my ticket was booked to let them know I had an allergy, since this was over 20 hours of flying time with them. Then when I arrived at the airport in Melbourne, I informed the staff when checking in and, surprise surprise, they had no mention of it in their system.
Do you know how long it takes to get hold of an agent when phoning an airline? Forever! So glad I wasted 30 minutes of my time a week before calling them.
Though it gets even better.
Superficially apologetic, the check-in staff made a bunch of phone calls and tried to sort it all out. Then they tried to blame me, telling me I needed an official doctor’s note and a bunch of other nonsense. I’m sorry, but no other airline has ever asked me for that in almost a decade of near-constant travel, and if that was a requirement, surely they should have informed me of that when I took the trouble to call them in advance.
They then proceeded to tell me that if I did in fact have a severe allergy, I wasn’t allowed on the flight due to liability.
You have got to be kidding me!
Giving me a look, I had to decide whether to say “oh my allergy isn’t so bad,” or wait a day for the next flight, spending another night in Australia, losing the London-Dublin flight I booked on a separate carrier, my first hotel night in Dublin, AND missing the first day of a conference which was the only reason I was going halfway across the world. Oh, and I flew over from New Zealand just for this as well. So, did I really have a choice?
No.
So thank you Qatar Airways for putting me in the worst position in the entire world.
I had to bring all my own meals on the flight with me, and I took sleeping pills the whole way and slept with a blanket over my head looking like a hobo so I wouldn’t smell peanuts.
Of course, any notes they made were lost in transit in Doha, so the second flight in London had no information about any of this even though I was told they would be informed. Fabulous. And when I tried to explain to the Qatar staff in the airport about my allergy, their exact response was “What do you expect me to do about it?”
And the best part? The EXACT same thing happened on my return from Rome a month later, even though I notified them twice by phone.
Moral of the story? Don’t trust airline customer service to do their jobs and double check any special allergy requests by phone in advance, ask to speak with a supervisor and follow up at check in. Oh, and don’t fly Qatar Airways if you have a peanut allergy.
End rant.
3. Eating like a local is one of the best ways to experience a new place
One of my favorite ways to experience and get to know a country is through the food. You can learn a lot about a culture through taste and smell, and I would definitely be missing out on those learning experiences if I refused to eat like a local when traveling.
In my opinion, as long as you are careful and conscious, you can still eat what you want when traveling even if you have a life threatening food allergy.
Personally speaking, the food that is most prevalent with peanuts nowadays is in Asia and in hipster English-speaking places. This means I am SUPER careful around any sort of Asian food or restaurants where the staff have beards and serve drinks in mason jars.
My mantra is sniff before you eat. Peanuts have a distinct smell. Sometimes I make my friends eat something before me, or I even take a tiny bite and don’t swallow, just in case, though I don’t recommend that way for everyone.
Brown noodles? Eyebrows raised. Asian soup that’s not pho? Maybe not. Hipster burger joint? Definitely not.
In all my years around the world, my worst peanut incidents were in foods where peanuts are not usually, if not ever, present. In a banana smoothie in Dublin and on a gourmet pizza in New Zealand. I should also add that my very worst incidents all happened back home in the US. Glean from that what you wish.
Research the foods of the countries you plan to visit and see if whatever you are allergic to is common there.
To be honest, peanuts are not common in most of the world. In Spain, they don’t know a peanut from a walnut and they certainly don’t cook with them. This means it’s worth researching a place before writing it off.
Personally, I can’t wait to visit Thailand one day, and I won’t let having a peanut allergy that could kill me keep me from going.
4. Life is about taking risks
I know that is a bold statement, and I do not make it lightly.
I think people are taking their food allergies and blowing them out of proportion nowadays, especially moms. They are using it as an excuse to control or as a justifier for fear. And while it certainly shouldn’t be ignored or forgotten, it also shouldn’t control your life. Maybe this will change if I become a mom one day, but I can only speak for myself and my experiences in the present.
I am sure this opinion will get me hate mail, but I don’t care. I have one of the worst cases of food allergy out there but I will not let it stop me from following my dreams around the world.
At the risk of sounding cliche, I am much more likely to be killed in a car accident than by a rogue peanut. Am I more cautious around cars than food? Probably not but I should be.
At the end of the day I would have preferred getting to spend a week in Ireland with my best friends, even though I almost croaked, than not getting to go to Ireland at all. Is that horrible to say? I hope not, but that’s how I feel.
I just wish I had thought to smell my smoothie first. But rest assured, I always smell my smoothies from now on, and I am deathly frightened of bananas in liquid form.
On taking risks though, while I don’t think we should let fears or food allergies get in the way of travel, I do think we ought to be clever and pay for travel insurance, in case anything unexpected happens. At least you won’t have to pay for medical treatment! I’m amazed by how many people don’t give a rat’s ass about travel insurance. I use World Nomads, whose policies are customizable AND affordable. They can also be altered easily online. 100% recommended! Especially for adventure travel!
5. Travel is the best
No two ways about it, traveling is one of the most fulfilling experiences you can have in the world. It’s something I recommend to anyone, and I have no shame in admitting it has, and continues to shape and change my life. Usually for the better.
I would never be where I am today if I didn’t take risks, culinary, physically, or emotionally, and I owe a huge part of it to travel.
By its very nature, travel yanks you out of your comfort zone, and if you suffer from a food allergy like me and your comfort zone is already smaller than average, that pull can be a hard and challenging one.
But rest assured it’s for the better. At the end of the day, any travel experience is worthwhile, even the bad ones, and it can make you a better person, in more ways than one.
Do you have a food allergy or know anyone with a food allergy? How do you cope?
More resources for people with food allergies:
- 5 Tips For Traveling Safely With Food Allergies on Care2
- Food Allergy Research and Education
- IAMAT – Traveling with food allergies
- Trouble-free Travel for Families with Food-allergic Children
- Allergic Living
- Allergy Safe Travel
- Allergy Translation Cards
About the author
I’m not sure if I am perhaps misunderstanding you but I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of days. I’m moving to Madrid in August and just happened on this article in my roving.
I do not have a food allergy (that I know of…I guess I could end up being allergic to something random someday down the line…but let’s hope not)
..but I am a strict vegan. You often cite “trendy” diets, be it gluten-free, dairy-free, etc., with what seems as extremely harsh criticism. Someone could avoid gluten and/or dairy because of health reasons unrelated to allergies, just being more health conscious for instance. Someone can also avoid all things animal due to religious or personal beliefs.
My beliefs are not, I repeat, not going to cause me to die if I ingest animal by-products (or else China would have killed me long ago) but they are very, very strict and ingrained in me. It is not a “trend” or me being “picky”…I have a set of beliefs. I have a strict diet. It is one of the most important parts of me. It has not stopped me from traveling the world or being a complete foodie. Your assertions that my diet are adversely affecting people with “real health problems” is incorrect and quite rude. Of course, I could just be misunderstanding you, which is what I am hoping.
I may not die but my beliefs are extreme and I have gotten sick from accidentally eating meat (the scallop really, really looked like a potato). Some people do not take diet restrictions such as veganism seriously and it is very harmful, mentally and physically. It is not a trend.
Whoa Lindsay… I think you’re getting a bit defensive. If you look, I commented about how difficult it can be to travel as a vegetarian (i eat eggs and dairy sparingly… my daily diet is a vegan diet). I’ve been a vegetarian almost all my life. She’s not holding us out as an example of what not to do or as a “trend”. I can’t eat meat. End of story. She’s not faulting us for our diets. She’s talking about those people who send food back and act like brats to the waiters because a week ago they started a GF/DF diet since their coworker did it and lost 5 lbs. Now someone with Celiac, Hashimotos, Lactose intolerance, etc. is not under fire in this post. Clearly some people get sick when eating certain foods, like you and I with meat.
I’m not trying to start an argument or dismiss you, but I seriously think you should re-read the post. If it’s still boiling your blood, then maybe take a hard look at how you treat waitstaff when you’re out at a restaurant and see if it’s just hitting a nerve…
Exactly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you.
If you took away from this article that I was insulting people who do not eat certain foods because they make them ill, whether or not it’s an allergy, then you completely misunderstood my point. I tried to make that clear.
I’ve friends who are vegans and I have been on plenty of press trips with vegans (I should add I was a vegetarian for 5 years), and some of them had the worst sense of entitlement when it came to food, and completely overshadowed me when I had to ask about peanuts. What the fuck. I respect anyone who is vegan or vegetarian, but I wish people had better attitudes about it. And even if you have been a vegan your entire life, you can’t argue with the fact that there is a massive raw food trend going on right now, which I am sure annoys people who have been hardcore vegans.
And this may sound bitchy but at the end of the day its a choice versus having no choice whatsoever. And from the perspective of someone with a lifethreatening food allergy, I can tell you from my experience traveling around 40 countries, trends and food lifestyles have damaged how receptive people are to someone with a legitimate illness.
But at the end of the day, the point of this was to show that people who have any sort of food related illness can still travel the world (not directed towards vegans but I feel like they can follow the same advice, maybe there are vegans out there who didn’t think they could travel before) and also attitude, and how to present your allergy to others.
I get sick because of my repulsion of meat and my beliefs about animal rights. Not because my health has dictated that throughout my life, so I think you may have misunderstood when I said I get sick. I used to be a carnivore, now I’m not.
And as someone who served her way through college, I treat waitstaff pretty fantastically. 🙂
And this may sound bitchy, which is unintended, but I should inform you that it does not annoy hardcore vegans. The whole premise is to spread knowledge and education about the lifestyle and hope that it catches on. We are very thankful that it is. Anything people do to spare the meat on their plate, choose a dairy substitute, etc. is helpful. We are NOT an exclusive club, most of us are working towards the same goal.
I can tell you from my experience traveling 6 continents and over 100 countries that it is difficult as a vegan and we deserve receptivity as well. It is hard to be taken seriously and I actually carry allergy cards because people take THAT much more seriously..which is the way it should be, of course. I may not have a “legitimate illness” but I do have legitimate beliefs. You do not have to act belittling towards that, just like I would not act belittling towards you for your peanut allergy and tell you “well, then just don’t travel! your problem…” That would be an asshole move.
I took away that you insult people who choose a diet YOU consider trendy.
YOU HAVE ALLERGY TRANSLATION CARDS FOR BEING A VEGAN? YOU ARE NOT ALLERGIC TO MEAT. YOU CHOSE NOT TO EAT MEAT. You can even begin to compare your decision to being a vegan to someone with a life threatening food allergy. This is the most offensive thing I’ve seen on here in ages. you are ridiculous. Thank you for justifying this entire post, now please get off my blog, I am ashamed of you.
I feel I have to chime in here, and say there is nothing wrong with using allergy cards to avoid eating something against your beliefs if you are vegan or vegetarian. Yes I COMPLETELY understand that a food allergy that can cause you to die is very serious, but, (and this is going quite deep) food choices made by a lot of people cause millions of animals to die. The whole notion of humans being far superior to animals is something vegans are trying to change, so yes accidentally eating meat or whatever will not kill you, but it killed something.
I know this isn’t really what this post is about, I just feel peoples food BELIEFS should be taken as seriously. If you 100% do not want to eat something you should never be forced to, and unfortunately in some places maybe the only way to be taken seriously is to lie and say its an allergy.
Ah the old “cause millions of animals to die” argument. Complete and utter bollocks. What about the (insert ridiculously unimaginable number here) of animals who have been displaced from their natural habitat or killed over history in order to plant crops? Or the sea life killed by oil spills so you can drive your car to your weekly vegan meet ups to bathe in each other’s self righteousness? Or the fact that oil is used in the production of EVERYTHING. There is nothing that you do in the course of a day that has not caused the death of an animal in some way shape or form. The hypocrisy of the animal death argument makes my blood boil almost as much as reading that a vegan uses an allergy translation card. And I’m not even an allergy sufferer. Holy sweet baby Jesus. That anger is only reduced by the fact that two people came out of the woodwork and perfectly justified the point of the blog. Perfect.
Yes, I do agree that everyday living contributes to animal suffering in one way or another. All I am saying is that many vegans try to MINIMISE this suffering by not eating them/wearing them. Oil and MANY other factors play a part in the suffering, so please don’t take my comment as hating on allergy suffers etc*
Honestly all I am saying is that every person should have the right to eat what they want. Some people have allergy’s, some people strong beliefs. My opinion is that everyone should have the right to choose what they eat. End of.
I just found this post while planning travel for our family; it appears that my son is allergic to nuts.
The problem with allergy cards for meat (wtf) is that then the person who has fatal allergies is just one of a bunch of people that comes in with special requests. I was a vegan for years and a few people told me that I inspired them to become vegan or vegetarian.
I didn’t make a big stink out of it. Yes, I have limitations on what I eat for moral reasons. But yes, I still have to live in the world. People like you think that being vegan is some awful, miserable, chore that has to consume your whole life. We’d all be better off if everyone just reduced their animal product consumption a bit. With hysterics like yours, you’re not winning over any converts.
Even my husband – whose family has never eaten beef for religious reasons – doesn’t make a big stink about cross contamination. The recent militant vegans are the worst.
I flew to Mexico a few years back, and was surprised to find a fruit and nut tray on the airline menu. I assumed nuts weren’t available on planes anymore.
Also yes to #1. Certain foods bug me – soy and raw bananas, but they’re not things that will send me into anaphylactic shock and possibly kill me. Traveling with a food allergy can’t always be easy, but it’s great your showing people that is possible.
exactly!
Nothing to hate about this post! It is simply pointing out that if you plan well, you will find a way to cope with the travelling challenges for food allergy. More of a challenge in a different language though, particularly if in a country where food allergy is uncommon. My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and tree nuts. When we travelled from nz to the uk (he was 7) we decided to avoid the usa altogether because of the airline snack risk. Stopped over in Singapore because we thought we might manage to explain ourselves better in a country with many English speakers. We did ok but had to avoid street food. Over the years we have found peanuts to be generally avoidable, provided you bring your reading glasses to the supermarket. What I have found a bit trickier is a more recent diagnosis -eggs! They are everywhere, sadly. Cafes, in particular, seem to be excessively fond of mayonnaise, and egg-wash glazes. Back to the home cooking !!
Yikes! I can’t imagine how hard it must be for moms!
I’m anaphylactic to peanuts and also fairly allergic to crustaceans. Later this year I’m going on an exchange trip to Hawaii (I live in Sydney, Australia) so I’m a bit worried, but I do trust in my ability to determine what is safe and what is not.
Really liked your blog post. Also, I came across your blog through the post about the Dublin incident, and have been following ever since. 🙂
Awesome! glad you stuck around! Hawaii will be awesome, just be careful with seafood, but I’m sure they’ll have other options since its such a popular destination