We always like to say that true friendship isn't just about being able to rely on the person we're with, but also about being patient, respectful, and tolerant of their various whims and quirks, both minor and major. But, as often happens, everything, even human patience, has its limits.
This lady put up with her friend's supposed food allergy for years, considering it a challenge to her culinary talent and skills. However, an incident during a friendly get-together at her home truly called into question not only the allergy itself but also her willingness to tolerate it... Well, let's just go on reading it together.
More info: Reddit
Many people are really ready to tolerate and accommodate their close friends' whims and quirks, but actually, to some extent, only
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The author of the post has a longtime friend, who always claims she's allergic to many foods and products, thus making everyone around her accommodate her
Image credits: faststocklv / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author is a decent cook, so she usually considers this a challenge to her skills
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But recently she spotted her friend secretly devouring a piece of pizza with her allergens, ignoring her special dietary pizza, and nothing actually happened to her health
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So the author wondered if it was time for a frank conversation with her friend about her allergy and, honestly, maybe being a drama llama
The Original poster (OP) is 32 years old, and one of her longtime friends, "Dina," a 38-year-old woman, has always claimed to be allergic to a variety of foods. The author and her other friends eventually began to suspect that this was nothing more than a whim, as they repeatedly noticed Dina willingly munching on something from her "restricted list," and because more and more foods kept appearing on that list.
But isn't friendship a willingness to accommodate your friends' whims? And so the original poster, being a brilliant home cook and a hospitable host, continually went to great lengths to prepare new, delicious, yet "hypoallergenic" dishes for Dina. For example, she recently spent several hours making a special pizza for her...
Then evening came, the guests arrived, and, surprise-surprise, Dina reluctantly ate just a slice of the pizza prepared for her, leaving the rest on her plate. However, our heroine spotted her devouring a slice of regular pizza, containing "allergens," right over the kitchen sink soon after. And, most interestingly, this had no visible consequences for Dina's health!
Well, after discussing this incident with another mutual friend, the original poster learned that she had also seen Dina consuming many foods and products from her "No-No List" with obvious pleasure. So now our heroine wondered if this behavior was something strange, and whether it was time for her and her friend to finally have a frank conversation.
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According to FARE data, approximately 15 million Americans suffer from food allergies, 90% of which are actually caused by eight foods: milk (usually in children), eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, grains containing gluten, fish, and shellfish. At the same time, researchers found that around twice as many people are unfoundedly convinced that they have a food allergy, even though they do not.
"While we found that 1 in 10 adults have a food allergy, nearly twice as many adults think they are allergic to foods, while their symptoms may suggest food intolerance or other food-related conditions," Medical News Today quotes Dr. Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University. That is, ignorance may simply be at play here.
Sometimes the cause may lie in the so-called "nocebo," the reverse of the placebo effect, or in the excessive suspiciousness of many people, this article in The Pharmaceutical Journal also says. Some experts do believe that for many patients, their "allergy" may have a psychosomatic or anxiety-related basis. However, people will deny their anxiety to the last, sometimes not trusting even negative allergy test results.
In other words, the situation with the author's friend may be much more complicated than just her being a picky eater. People in the comments also didn't rule out this possibility, and many responders simply urged the OP to have a serious talk with her friend and stop essentially catering to her. So what do you, our dear readers, think about this story? Have you ever seen or witnessed anything similar as well?
Many people in the comments just urged the author to stop catering to her friend
