"I would know since I am Vegan"

[Ironclad Alibi]

Well, obviously someone didn't grow up in a Southern, white trash family who shopped at the Winn-Dixie. Whenever they had a sale on store brand ice milk, it was a banner day in our trailer.

I grew up in a southern family (north Florida). Not only did we buy ice milk from the store, our home made ice cream was actually home made ice milk. I never realized that until years later when I bought my own ice cream maker and made real ice cream.

Life's too short to eat cheap ice cream, or imitations thereof.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Yeah, but it's different when it's a personal choice for <reasons> rather than an allergy. I don't drink a lot; maybe one drink a week (unless I'm in Key West, then all bets are off), but if I suddenly *couldn't* drink because of an allergy, I'd be very, very grumpy. I've already had to learn how to live without tomatoes. I don't want to eliminate any other foods!

I know what you mean. I've had to eliminate all of the following from my diet because of my Crohn's:

tomatoes/tomato products
beef and pork (although poultry and fish are still okay)
greasy foods
fatty foods
dairy
nuts/seeds
spicy foods
colas
apples
whole grains
corn/popcorn

It blows.

[CorneliaMarieRocks]

Oh, dear <diety>, Ice Milk. That stuff is a travesty, an offense against the very existence of proper frozen quiescent concoctions. I would go so far as to call it "The Anti-Gelato." *shudder*

I agree, I mean sheesh, if ya gonna eat ice cream, then eat ice cream for Crimney's sake

[Monterey Jack]

A former colleague of mine, when I taught at a community college was allergic to beer, wine, and liquor. Basically, she was allergic to alcohol. How do you live without alcohol?!?!?!?!?!

I live just fine without it...never liked the taste (especially beer).

[Ironclad Alibi]

I live just fine without it...never liked the taste (especially beer).

Some people get upset with people like you. I just figure there's just that much more for me, and others.

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm so sorry for those of you with food allergies. Just reading about them made me

I'm lucky enough to be able to eat anything. My sweetie can't eat bread. We have a wonderful bakery just down the road (OK, well 4 miles away, but when you live in the sticks, that's really close.) I'll buy some tangy sourdough bread, sneak it in and then hide it because I don't want him to be sad that he can't have any.

[Monterey Jack]

Some people get upset with people like you. I just figure there's just that much more for me, and others.

You're welcome to it.

Always annoys me slightly just how people react when you tell them that you don't drink alcohol, i.e., "You don't drink? How do you have any fun?" I'd rather drink liquids that A.) taste good, and B.) won't kill my brain cells.

[notalwaysright]

I drink sometimes. It tastes good to me, and it does not kill brain cells. (heavy/long term drinking can damage the brain, but this isn't the same as cell death and one drink won't cause it) I understand why some people choose not to drink, just like I understand why some people choose not to eat meat. The key is not to get judgy about it. Sorry, just felt things spiraling.

[EricKei]

I'm also in the "no drinking by choice" category (this got me the occasional "HUH?!? O_O" response, growing up in New Orleans)... though I do have the excuse that my sense of taste is unusual (possibly an example of a supertaster). Anything with alcohol in it tastes prohibitively strong to me, along with any other food that has tannins (such as coffee -- tho I LOVE the aroma!), broccoli, etc. Even church wine tastes overpowering to me, and that's usually watered-down.

It's possible that I do have some sort of official allergy, tho -- Many an era past, in my late teens, I once had what turned out to be a double rum & coke...I thought it was just Coke, so I chugged it. I promptly blacked out, and came to three days later. My parents told me I had been...let's just say "ill" the whole time in between. While I have never exactly been of a delicate constitution, I decided to make it a point to avoid the stuff from then on. No worries, tho, it just means more for my buddies ^_^

[Antisocial_Worker]

Life's too short to eat cheap ice cream, or imitations thereof.

Which is why the battle in my house now rages over whether to go to TCBY (my choice), or the latest branch of the local frozen custard shop that opened a block away (my partner's choice).

I don't buy ice cream or any variation thereof at the store anymore because if I did, everyone knows that they'd find me an hour later in a corner in a sugar coma with the tub over my head and my clothes in disarray, bonded to the carpet by whatever melted dribs and drabs escaped the feeding frenzy. I have no willpower whatsoever when it comes to cold sweetness.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'm a sleepy drunk, so I don't do it too often. And always at home; I hate the local bars anyway.

[Valentinian]

Yeah, but it's different when it's a personal choice for <reasons> rather than an allergy. I don't drink a lot; maybe one drink a week (unless I'm in Key West, then all bets are off), but if I suddenly *couldn't* drink because of an allergy, I'd be very, very grumpy. I've already had to learn how to live without tomatoes. I don't want to eliminate any other foods!

I don't drink much at all (hate the taste of most alcohols, and the ones I do like tend to be expensive), but when my doctor told me I needed to be on a medication that didn't play well with booze, suddenly I wanted to. Same thing happened when I was on a drug that binds to an enzyme found in grapefruit - I probably hadn't eaten grapefruit for a year at that point, but the moment I couldn't have it I wanted it!

I'm already on a fairly restrictive diet (there used to be a lot of wiggle room in it, but I'm losing it as my IBS gets worse) and I've gotten pretty used to it, but I spent three weeks in December with an incredibly restrictive Diet Of Boring Boringness* added on top of it to see if that would help. They, uh, don't overlap much, so I went from having a medium-sized list of things I couldn't eat to having a very short list of things that I could. My reaction was pretty much "Nope. Nuh-uh. No. THIS HAD BETTER NOT WORK." (Spoiler: It didn't. Phew.) I would have dealt with it if I had to, but I wouldn't have been happy... and yet what I was stuck eating for three weeks was pretty similar to what a friend of mine eats from choice. She was incredibly picky as a child and hasn't broadened her horizons much at all as she grew up.

*Google 'FODMAP Diet' if you want to look at the one I have to follow for IBS, and 'Failsafe Diet' for the Diet of Boring Boringess. It's telling that the New South Wales governmental website about the Failsafe Diet at one point tells you what the diet is trying to avoid, and then goes on to say that "the tastier a food is, the more likely it is to have these chemicals in it".

[KuariKaydrith]

I'm back to not drinking alcoholic anything now that I'm back on antidepressants. Which really sucks because I have an unopened bottle of gingerbread Kahlua sitting in my cupboard. But such is life. It will make a nice gift to somebody later, I'm sure.

My own list of what I can have without any reaction is growing smaller - I recently had to remove ice cream off the list and I damn near bawled. But then anything that has a high fat content or is cooked in oil has a tendency to do bad things to my digestive system. I can't even enjoy McD's fries anymore without a reaction later. And forget anything spicy because I can be guaranteed a rather painful experience later as I spend entirely too much time in the bathroom. And that's not even taking any of my food allergies into account. Damn you, IBS -_-

[Lovecats]

I know what you mean. I've had to eliminate all of the following from my diet because of my Crohn's:


It blows.

My son-in-law has Crohn's. A few years ago he had to get a colostomy bag (he's missing part of his stomach and a good portion of his intestines) and all of a sudden found out he could eat a lot of things he couldn't before. Well, the doctor wants to make the bag permanent and now wants him to lose 80 lbs. Yes, he managed to get himself THAT overweight.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

My son-in-law has Crohn's. A few years ago he had to get a colostomy bag (he's missing part of his stomach and a good portion of his intestines) and all of a sudden found out he could eat a lot of things he couldn't before. Well, the doctor wants to make the bag permanent and now wants him to lose 80 lbs. Yes, he managed to get himself THAT overweight.

Wow.

I have a colostomy myself, which I've had for almost 3 years now. Mine is permanent because after two operations I don't have enough intestine left to be put back together, but I certainly never gained anywhere near that much weight!

I can't eat the things I've listed because I find that even with the ostomy relieving most of the burden, I still suffer if I do have any of them. It's just not worth it in my eyes so I've eliminated them entirely.