# If a food item makes you gag when you try to eat it, is it fair to say you're allergic to it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624 "2014-08-15T18:14:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/81 "2014-08-23T23:27:53Z")
I can’t have caffeine, not because of an allergy, but because I’m an epileptic, and caffeine is one of my biggest triggers. And there are LOTS of things I love that have caffeine, but it’s not worth having a seizure. ☹ (Strangely enough, alcohol has never had this effect on me. I only drink once in a blue moon, only limit it to a few drinks, and then I drink on a full stomach, so I’m not out getting hammered. But it’s never been a problem. Only caffeine. Go figure. My neurologist said a couple of drinks shouldn’t be a problem.) > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Do you have to go into anaphylaxis now for an allergy to count? If I take penicillin, I get an itchy, scaly red rash around my hairline, including my pubic hairline, under my arms, and on my torso, but I don’t go into anaphylaxis. If I’m around pollen, I get swollen, itchy eyes, and I start to sneeze, then my nose gets stuffy. Eventually I start coughing. I suppose if I stuck my head in a bucket of pollen, I might start to choke, but Claritin and a decongestant usually clear me up pretty well in the springtime. Once I had to spend an extended amount of time in a florist’s, with a client, and I felt like I was really sick, but still, no anaphylaxis. If I get stung by a bee, I get a red spot, that turns green-- it looks like a bruise under a sunburn. It’s really sore for a day, then itches for several days, and takes about a week for the “bruise” to clear up, unless I take Benadryl, then it clears up in about 36 hours. My doctor says that’s an allergy. But no anaphylaxis, albeit, my doctor did say I should always take Benadryl ASAP, because it could get worse each time. > > My only food allergy is peaches, and that’s just to the fuzz. If I eat a peach with the fuzz, I get a sore rash around my mouth. If I peel it under running water, I can eat it, and I don’t get a rash on my hands. No anaphylaxis. > > Are there some people who would say I don’t really have allergies? Nope. Some people seem to think that allergies automatically mean you go into anaphyactic shock, need an epi-pen, end up in the hospitcal, etc. Some allergies are milder than that. I’m also allergic to penicillin – I break out in hives. I also used to get hives if I drank too much orange juice. My cousin was allergic to chocolate as a kid – it caused her face to break out. The only issue with hives, I was told, is that you have to be careful because you can get them inside your mouth. Other than that, they’re harmless, just really, really annoying. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/82 "2014-08-23T23:37:07Z")
The worst thing about alcohol as a migraine trigger, is that unlike some of my other triggers (too much sun in the spring, before I’m used to it again; lack of sleep), I can’t take Imitrex if I still have alcohol in my system. I wonder if caffeine blocks the effects of your anti-seizure medicine. The reason I wonder is that caffeine is very similar to a naturally produced hormone that keeps you awake, which is why it has that effect. I have insomnia, but not epilepsy-- I have never had a seizure-- but I take a low dose of an anti-convulsant to help me sleep, and I take it several hours before I go to bed. Once I take it, I’m not supposed to have caffeine. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/83 "2014-08-24T01:24:14Z")
It’s possible. My anti-convulsants make me drowsy as all hell, so that makes sense. (I’m not a big fan of that, but the alternative is much worse!) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/84 "2014-08-25T19:41:58Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Although I once did have the satisfaction of ruining the decor in one of said asshole’s homes. Wow, who’d have thunk it - feed an allergic an allergen and _watch_ the bodily fluids and waste products fly! That is _not_ coming out of the pink carpeting (and who the hell puts pink carpet in a bathroom, anyway?) So you shit on someones bathroom rug/carpet instead of in the toilet. And your proud of this? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/85 "2014-08-25T21:30:35Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Every year we get people in the hospital who thought that they just 'didn’t like" something. One memorable case was they guy who didn’t know the name of the fruit he had eaten – it was green and had brown fur on it. A kiwi fruit. Since childhood, he’d had so little interest in fruit that he couldn’t even name them. > > So perhaps it’s exposure bias, but if someone tells me they ‘don’t like’ some food ingredient, I tend to assume that they are either alergic or have a food sensitiivity. > > [snip] > > But I don’t equate ‘allergic’ with ‘hospitilization’ just because the people I see are brought in by ambulance. These are people who didn’t know they had an allergy, because they’d never had that reaction before. That’s actually probably not a bad idea. That’s what happened with my friends’ kid: they didn’t know she had a nut allergy because she’d never liked nuts. Apparently the reason she never liked eating nuts because they made her throat tickle, but she didn’t tell them that part. Except for the almond cookies we brought to their house one night: those she liked so much that she ended up in the ER with BP of 50/30. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/86 "2014-08-25T22:18:28Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > [QUOTE=Broomstick] > Although I once did have the satisfaction of ruining the decor in one of said asshole’s homes. Wow, who’d have thunk it - feed an allergic an allergen and watch the bodily fluids and waste products fly! That is not coming out of the pink carpeting (and who the hell puts pink carpet in a bathroom, anyway?) So you shit on someones bathroom rug/carpet instead of in the toilet. And your proud of this? [/QUOTE] _Hoc Voluerunt !_ ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/87 "2014-08-25T23:11:23Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > So you shit on someones bathroom rug/carpet instead of in the toilet. And your proud of this? Puked. Puked all over their bathroom rug. I actually _did_ have my ass over the toilet, but I was erupting at both ends. One of the features of anaphylaxis is \*loss of control \*over bodily functions. In the more advanced stages it’s not unknown for the victim (who may be unconscious) to piss, shit, and puke liberally. It’s not a matter of pride or shame, it’s a matter of _you can’t help it_. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/88 "2014-08-25T23:29:49Z")
Are we talking about wall-to-wall carpeting in a bathroom that was last decorated in the 1970’s, or are these rugs? ETA: Ah, rugs. No biggie. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/89 "2014-08-25T23:55:51Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > It’s even more rude to continue to suggest something already declined. > > _“Ahh willya go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on !”_ “If you don’t want any, all you have to do is say ‘No.’ Just one little word: ‘No.’ It’s a lovely word that our Lord gave us to use when we don’t want any cake.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/90 "2014-08-26T00:04:30Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Are we talking about wall-to-wall carpeting in a bathroom that was last decorated in the 1970’s, or are these rugs? Wall-to-wall and pink n’ fuzzy. > [@seodoa](#): > > “If you don’t want any, all you have to do is say ‘No.’ > Just one little word: ‘No.’ > It’s a lovely word that our Lord gave us to use when we don’t want any cake.” Obviously, you’ve never been a child at the mercy of an adult who won’t take “no” for an answer. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/91 "2014-08-26T00:15:19Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Obviously, you’ve never been a child at the mercy of an adult who won’t take “no” for an answer. Obviously, you’ve never seen [Mrs. Doyle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOLYYYsFqcI). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624/92 "2014-08-26T03:22:54Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > But I think it’s nicer to say “I can’t eat onions, I’m allergic to them.” at the dinner table than to describe what happens to me if I do eat some. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Just tell them that it makes you hurl up some really nasty vomit, that hardens like glue. I had someone pester the hell outta me about my dairy intolerance once, she would not stop asking what happens (warning TMI) I ended up telling her it hurts like fuck then I piss outta my ass > [@Acsenray](#): > > (2) If you have no religious or ethical/moral prohibition regarding that food (such as being Jewish or vegetarian), so vegans get a pass but others don’t because? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-food-item-makes-you-gag-when-you-try-to-eat-it-is-it-fair-to-say-youre-allergic-to-it/695624.md?page=4)