You apparently don’t presume people are truthful about medical dietary restrictions either.
What you’re really asking for is for people to keep their doubts to themselves, which is reasonable. Your original point that people should believe despite the fact that half of the people claiming allergies are mistaken or lying is just not realistic.
I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat any flesh food at all. Furthermore, I cannot eat shellfish, simply because it tastes to me like a food that went bad.
A co-worker brought what she said was a pasta salad to a work function. I put one bite into my mouth, immediately spit it out and said “There’s shellfish in this.” Her response was “Oh, you can’t taste the little bit of crab in there.”
Yes I can, and if I were allergic I don’t know what would have happened.
What is she thinking by saying that you can’t taste something in there, when your very response itself already manifested the fact that you could taste it in there?
That would be like a TSA guard telling a passenger, “We just found a firearm in your luggage during X-ray,” and the passenger replying, “Nonsense, you can’t possibly see the Colt .45 in my bag.”
I sent my brother a holiday food package that included specialty tinned fish. One item was a can of stuffed squid.
I can hardly wait for the feedback. But if anyone would love stuffed squid, it’s my brother.
But he liked yogurt anyway? How strange. 
The half that don’t have allergy might be mistaken about having an allergy but that does NOT rule out them having some sort of adverse reaction.
To take one common example: gluten. You can have a wheat allergy, which is a real allergy, but that’s NOT celiac disease. Celiac disease is not an allergy but it is a a very real disorder and people with it should avoid anything with gluten just as much as anyone with a real allergy should avoid their trigger. It is entirely possible that someone with gluten intolerance thinks they have an allergy even if they don’t, but they are not mistaken that gluten is a Bad Thing for them and their continued good health depends on avoidance.
Rinse and repeat for a lot of other things.
Again - yes, half the people reporting allergy don’t have an allergy but I’ll give a pass to folks with a problem they’re trying to deal with in a world full of clueless assholes. What portion of the “don’t actually have an allergy” folks fall into that category? Isn’t that somewhat important information? It’s the ones who don’t have a medical problem who are lying and know they’re lying that I am furious at.
Another one I’ve heard is an alcoholic claiming to be “allergic” to alcohol. I understand why they’re doing that - they want to stay sober and don’t want to be pressured. So yes, they’re lying but they’re NOT mistaken alcohol is something they should avoid. Since I firmly believe you should not attempt to get an abstainer (regardless of reason) to drink and alcoholics have a serious problem they’re trying to cope with I’ll give them a pass on that but I would MUCH prefer to live in a world where, if a person is offered a drink they can say “no thanks” and have that respected without being grilled for further explanation. I don’t care if it’s because they don’t like the taste of alcohol, they are on some sort of medication that interacts badly with alcohol, they’re a recovering alcoholic trying to stay sober, it’s forbidden by their religion, they want to drive home sober - it doesn’t matter. “No” means “no”. If an offer it turned down that should be the end of it.
So yes, I think a number of people buying gluten free stuff are mistaken as to what, exactly, is amiss but that does not mean I doubt them when they say they feel better avoiding gluten. That’s the problem with making this all about whether or not someone has a “real allergy” or a “diagnosed allergy” - it’s not just allergies that cause problems.
The only time I have an objection to someone claiming “allergy” is when they using it to mean “I don’t like the taste/texture”. If they have a bad reaction to eating something then they’re having a bad reaction and if they want to use the word “allergy” because it’s more widely known/better accepted than “gluten intolerance” or “oral allergy syndrome” or whatever else there is out there that I’m not aware of I’m OK with that. So long as it’s understood that you don’t feed triggers to people who are allergic to something and you take it seriously.
If you were my niece, who is severely allergic this is what would have happened:
Instant trouble breathing, rapid swelling of face, eyes, throat, and every other mucus membrane, possible vomiting. Hopefully she gets her epi-pen out and deployed in the first minute, because after that her plummeting blood pressure due to shock might render her unconscious. If that happens and there is no one around to use an epi-pen or call 911 she would die.
She lives in fear of Caesar salad dressing (usually has anchovies). Not to mention all the other ways both fish and shellfish can sneak into food.
She is, however, a very good cook. Probably not a surprise given how much she winds up making from scratch.
Of course, there are people who are allergic to shellfish who don’t have as violent a reaction as my niece. They aren’t going to die from a mouthful. It can still make them feel pretty sick and people still shouldn’t be feeding even minute bits of it to them. That’s another myth that’s gotten around, that all allergies are immediately life-threatening. I have food allergies, but that shouldn’t bar me from handling foods because I’m not so sensitive that I’m going to have a reaction from picking up a peanut. Eating them is the problem, not touching them. I can even handle tomatoes provided the skin is intact and they’re not leaking (and if they are, I can improvise a glove from a plastic grocery bag). Other people with food allergies would not be able to handle food as I can. Different people are different.
But, again - people should be able to say “I don’t like X” or “I don’t like this texture” without being second-guessed, pressured, or worse yet bullied. If they were allowed that honesty and control over their bodies they’d be a lot less inclined to lie by saying “allergy” which would make the lives of the millions who DO have allergies just a bit better.
“I don’t like it.” should be the end of the matter.
“I’m allergic to drugs and alcohol; If I drink, I break out in . . .”
handcuffs
assholishness
track marks
hepatic coma
respiratory arrest
Great post, Broomie.