navigating the restaurant world with a food allergy

It really has not been as hard as you'd think for me to give up milk products. I am thankful for the ease of the process and that I can see it as a bigger risk than a reward most of the time to indulge in that ice cream you are eating next to me. It has kept my skin clear to make this choice so it's definitely been worth it.

The hardest thing has been the circus I go through with ordering at restaurants. Many times people gloss over the "no cheese" part or are not aware that they can look at the ingredients on the bread package to see if I can have it. I have also found that many restaurants buy their breads and other foods in massive packages that do not even include an ingredient list for the manager to look at. It is humbling to have to ask for changes to my orders, because it requires extra work on the part of the waiter and the chef.

Thankfully some restaurants have made great strides in the area of food allergy training for staff and specialized menus for guests. On the Border, Chili's, Jason's Deli, Whataburger, and Arby's are some of the places I can think of that have a link to a menu that lists exactly what I can have and what items I should ask the waiter to exclude.

The FDA also instituted a new practice in 2006 (just in time for me to learn of my allergy) that manufacturers need to include a bold face list of allergens at the end of their ingredients list and also that they are required to identify milk as milk when listing other words for it such as casein, whey, lactose, etc. So grocery shopping isn't as tedious as it could have been a few years ago!

Thank you, friends, for accommodating my special needs when you have cooked and baked. It is a great privilege to see your love acted out in this way and you do it all the time!