# What food am I allergic to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866 "2002-12-02T01:41:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/1 "2002-12-02T01:41:24Z")
Yesterday I broke out in itchy, red hives. It was pretty unpleasant. The doctor gave me some medication and they’ve gone away, except that I still have red splotches. I don’t have any known food allergies, and considering I’ll eat anything that’s edible, it’s hard to imagine I wouldn’t have discovered this before. I couldn’t think of anything I had eaten that I hadn’t eaten before, until I remembered some Keebler cookies. So, my questions are: How likely is it that I’m allergic to something in those cookies? Since they’re chock full of additives, could the additives be the cause? How could I find out if the cookies are the cause? (I don’t want to throw out a perfectly good box of cookies.) Is it possible I suddenly became allergic to something I had eaten many times before? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/2 "2002-12-02T01:44:27Z")
Lactose intolerance sorta works that way. you might want to try eating cookie again. Or you can go into the doctor and have an allergy test. It’s rather unpleasent I hear, but it’s quite effective. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/3 "2002-12-02T02:01:40Z")
Everyone seems to get hives at least once in their life for no discernable reason. I don’t recommend allergy testing unless it becomes recurrent. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/4 "2002-12-02T02:19:05Z")
I don’t think I want to eat the cookies to find out. The hives were extremely unpleasant. Also, I think the medication I’m on suppresses the hives. I definitely want to avoid allergy tests. I faint at the thought of needles being stuck into me. **Qadgop** , are you a doctor? That would explain why you gave the same unsatisfactory answer my doctor gave. But thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/5 "2002-12-02T02:27:34Z")
We docs specialize in unsatisfactory answers to unanswerable questions. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/6 "2002-12-02T05:01:51Z")
BTW, lactose intolerance most emphatically does **not** work this way. You will never get hives from LI. You might possibly get a hive-like reaction from milk protein allergy, but that is a completely unrelated illness. However, if you are eating other foods that contain milk protein and don’t get hives, then you can probably cross that off the list. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/7 "2002-12-02T05:38:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > \*\*Everyone seems to get hives at least once in their life for no discernable reason. I don’t recommend allergy testing unless it becomes recurrent. \*\* Most pople have a slight negative reaction to the implantations of the alien mind control chip. It only happens once, so no big worries. The illuminati will be along shortly to delete this thread. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/8 "2002-12-02T05:59:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > \*\*We docs specialize in unsatisfactory answers to unanswerable questions. \*\* Forget “I don’t know.” Next time I don’t know something I’m just gonna say: “your question is unanswerable.” Throws the burden of incompetence back on the questioner. Nicely played. Anyway, the op raised an interesting point. I thought it was usually natural things (to grossly overgeneralize) that cause allergies - I’ve never heard of an additive allergy. (Except maybe people with multiple chemical sensitivities, whatever that is). I mean what kind of cookies were they? Were they peanut or some kind of nut cookies?. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/9 "2002-12-02T06:19:25Z")
Another couple of possibilities are: 1. A product on your skin - hair spray, shampoo, lotion. whatever. or 1. Stress. I used to work at a part-time job that I hated. I knew it was time to quit when I started breaking out in hives every time I worked there. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-am-i-allergic-to/139866/10 "2002-12-02T07:20:57Z")
Don’t be so hard on **Qadgop** , **uglybeech**. He’s just giving the correct medical diagnosis. My hives are idiopathic. (I appreciated my doctor using a big word with me. It means the cause is unknown.) I found that at least one food additive (FD&C Yellow No. 5) is known to cause allergic reactions. That’s why the FDA requires manufacturers to list certain additives on the package. I can rule out soaps, detergents, etc. I haven’t gotten any new products in months. Stress… yeah, I’ve got that. Getting rid of it is not an option. I decided that I probably wasn’t allergic to the cookies and ate one of them about an hour ago. As I write the red splotches are intensifying and becoming slightly itchy (despite the two different medications I’m on). I think I’m calling the doctor tomorrow. Thank god for good health insurance.