BTW, my original powerpoint presentation on how to deal with food allergies (from a prison physician’s point of view) is available for a small consideration. 
This is redundant, since my favorite medical Doper has already answered, but Zabali_Clawbane asked me to comment:
And Colophon, allergies can crop up at anytime in one’s life. The one factor required to have an allergy is that the individual must be exposed to the allergen.
First contact CAN cause your immune system to begin producing antibodies, but it can also be your thousandth contact.
My husband recently had an anaphylatic reaction to almonds. he’s eaten them his whole life.
Allergy symptoms run a whole range, from itching eyes, to death. Allergy testing is the only way to know for certain what one is allergic to.
Yes, many people have allergies.
Yes, some people think they are allergic to things they may not be.
The important thing is to inform yourself completely.
Thank you both. People, don’t treat food allergies lightly. If you are ok with sneezing and sniffling and rubbing your eyes when the ragweed blooms, I guess that’s your choice. But when it comes to foods, don’t play Russian Roulette. 
Sorry for the hijack. Was this a prison patient? I know you don’t give details about where you work, but this sounds like a nice prison. 
“Hear tell boys? Seems Bulldog was nibbling on the shrimp and caviar platter with the rest of the chaps from Cell Block E when he started turning positively blue! He tried to wash it down with a glass of Chardonnay, but to no avail.”
The stuff they make easter candy out of sometimes isn’tt even listed as “chocolate”, but rather “chocolatey”. That ‘y’ is important.
And those of you who don’t like Hershey? INFIDELS!!! (I grew up near there and if it ain’t Hershey, it ain’t milk chocolate. Everything else just tastes WRONG).
We have a friend who’s allergic to nuts. Fortunately for her, it’s mild enough that she can eat a nibble of something, and it’ll just make her ill enough to realize she’ll want to stop, rather than killing her. She used to have to avoid M&Ms but can now eat them safely. It turns out, the company used to use the same chocolate for plain M&Ms that had already been in contact with the peanut variety. Not just the same equipment, the chocolate was actually in contact with peanuts.
Dweezil’s allergic to peanuts so he avoids them, obviously. We’ve never had a reaction to anything that was labeled as “may contain traces” though. In fact, the only two times he’s had a breakout (hives, not anaphylaxis luckily) were both with foods that should have been peanut free: Safeway store-brand rice krispie treats, I think I spotted a couple of hives on him a couple years back when he had a “nut-free” cookie when we were on vacation. The Safeway product must have been badly contaminated.
In one of those “shit for brains” moments, just a few months ago we got a bag of “truffle” kisses at Hershey’s Chocolate World, and let our son have some on the drive home that night. The next morning, I happened to glance at the ingredients. Not “may contain traces” but “contains peanuts”. :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :smack: :eek: I had fed my kid something that could have killed him. He could have gone to sleep in the car… and not woken up (well, I’d like to believe the discomfort as his throat seized up would have awakened him but who knows). Needless to say, I dashed upstairs and made sure he was alive and not itching. Must mention that to the allergist next time he’s seen, as he tested pretty allergic to peanuts on skin and blood tests and has had known reactions to peanuts in the past.
Oh - forgot to say: Dweezil has eaten regular Hershey’s chocolate numerous times and has never had a reaction. We were just lucky with the truffle kisses in that the peanuts were the last ingredient on the list (after artificial flavor, if memory serves!) and he didn’t eat that many so the exposure must have been quite low.
Nah. I practiced medicine in more traditional settings for nearly 19 years before I went into a corrections-based practice 6 years ago.
But frankly frozen shrimp can be a lot cheaper than hamburger at times. It’s not the sort of quality you’d get with fancy shrimp cocktails, but breaded ‘shrimp’ nuggets have appeared on the menu in the past.
How severe is the allergy, Zabali? Other than getting diarrhea?
Bad gut cramps, and feeling worn out for two days, “hung over”, headachy. I was SICK. It wasn’t as bad as the reaction I had to sulfa, but it was like that. I was puking every fifteen minutes or so with the sulfa reaction, and I HURT all over. To this day it is the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life, including recovering from my partial hysterectomy. ETA: Read the single post I linked (in my post 19 here) where I describe what it was like. I’ve been dealing with the anniversary of Mom’s death too, so the peanut reaction isn’t as fresh as the anniversary pain.
That’s generally known as “GI anaphylaxis”, ZC. It occurs shortly after the ingestion of an implicated food and include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. It’s far worse than “oral allergy syndrome” which causes swelling and tingling limited to the mouth and lips.
That’s like French people thinking fresh milk tastes wrong - because they’re brought up on UHT
(ironically, the only Hershey chocolate I like is in Reese’s peanut butter cups)
LOL - I’m sure you’re right about it being what one is raised on!
Hopefully I’m redeemed by the fact that I think their dark chocolate is vile stuff (the Hershey’s brand… the Scharffen Berger and Dagoba lines that they bought recently are quite lovely). Almost any other brand of dark chocolate tastes better than Hershey’s Special Dark.
Both of em? The reaction to sulfa and the reaction to peanuts? :eek: It is sobering to find out, that you’ve been playing Russian Roulette for DECADES all unknowing! So, I probably had best avoid even the “may contain trace peanut proteins” products eh? I had planned to, not wanting to risk exposure and make my reactions worse, but now? Er, yeah…
Zabali, my sympathies, and welcome to the wide world of food allergies. :rolleyes:
You may want to look into Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, I’ve never ordered any but I’ve heard good things.
In addition, I use Trader Joe 's single origin chocolate in my baked goods, it’s very good chocolate and they’re also peanut free. They have a large variety of other chocolate labels as well, some of which is peanut free. (They also have peanut-oil-free Nutella! Yum!) [I also avoid peanut oil even though I hear it’s supposed to be okay because it processes out the proteins, or whatever. I’m not willing to bet my life on it. Um, if you go this route, it also rules out Chik-fil-A, Five Guys, and Cheeburger Cheeburger. ]
You didn’t ask about other stuff, but I want to share anyway: Amy’s frozen food is all peanut free as well. Most of it is pretty good.
Also, this probably varies based on how severe your allergy is, but I have found in general that stuff that says it was made in a facility that processes peanuts is fine for me, but I have had reactions to stuff with the warning that it was made on *shared equipment *with peanuts, so now I avoid anything with that warning. I avoid stuff with the *may contain traces *warning, because it’s just too vague. I also have no problem being around peanut butter, but being around people shelling peanuts has become an issue as I’ve gotten older.
Also, when you are getting ice cream, you should start asking them to either use a new scoop or go and wash theirs thoroughly before scooping your ice cream if the place sells peanutty flavors. I’ve never had an issue getting this done for me. However, I have some bad news if you like Smoothie King - they don’t wash out their blenders between making a smoothie with peanuts and one without, they only rinse them. Smoothie King point-blank refused to do this even when asked to make a peanut-safe smoothie for me.
Slight hijack of my own thread, but here goes. Are their any tree nut companies who put out products for those who are only allergic to peanuts? I like nuts, too. But I am not going to knowingly risk getting any peanut protein. I’m trying to find any support groups etc. that can help point the way for me. So far I’ve found The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, but they don’t appear to have any discussion boards, and you must pay for a membership to get their booklets. What I’m looking for is a place that lists safe brands (of all kinds of food) for the USA, specifically for peanut allergies. (With luck they’ll know of a nut company that gladly puts out peanut free tree nuts. I can still eat those, right? hopeful I haven’t had any nuts right now, not risking it.) Anyone know of a site? 
I also buy nuts from Trader Joe’s and have never had a problem.
…However, now that I’ve seen your location, I don’t think there’s a Trader Joe’s in your state! Crap. I can tell you, however, don’t eat any kind of nuts that are from big bins where people just scoop out what they want, there’s always cross-contamination. Nuts that you buy in the shell should be fine once shelled, though. (You may need to get someone else to actually shell them.)
PM me if you can’t find anything in your neck of the woods and might want to set up a mail trade for trader joe’s stuff.
By the way, you should get yourself a Medic Alert bracelet.
Jenny Haniver bookmarking the sites, thank you. I had a medic alert bracelet at one point, and I really, really need to get another. I’m also allergic to sulfa. This is in the plans for this coming month, to get a medic alert bracelet for me, probably more than one, and a tag for my purse, and maybe my coat as well.
Zabali: food allergy forum here - http://wheyoutforum.proboards51.com/index.cgi
It’s not very active, but I went on there once or twice to find recipes for my sister-in-law.
Damn, that reminds me-I gotta renew my MedicAlert subscription! (Penicillin allergy and epilepsy)
(Fortunately the former is only by prescription. And the allergy means nasty, NASTY case of hives)
My cousin had a peanut/chocolate allergy as a kid. It would give her this really gross-looking rash on her face. I do believe she grew out of it. (I’ll have to ask her)
I’m willing to bet that the big open boxes of peanuts and peanut shells littering the floor are a bigger reason to avoid Five Guys.
Zabali_Clawbane: I now have you full allergic history. It’s only a matter of time before I have the rest of your medical records, kill you, mate with your spouse and raise your children as my own. Fair warning from Doppelgängerbot.