Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Me ‘n moo
Odd thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about my beef allergy. Probably I figured, No one wants to hear about bloody diarrhea, but you never do know what will interest some people. And one nice thing about blogging about beef allergy: it forced me to google it. I’ve asked three gastroenterologists about it (none of whom had ever heard of beef allergy) but I never googled it.
And thus I learned that it’s uncommon but not unheard of, those three gasteroenterologists notwithstanding.
Several studies reported an incidence of 1-2% of food-induced anaphylactic reactions caused by ingestion of beef. In another study an even higher figure of 9% of anaphylactic events from foods were induced by beef.
Reading about anaphylaxis from beef reminds me of my own version of Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Throat squeezing shut and the doctor had to cut your throat with an ancient can-opener? You were lucky! While you were breathin’ easy from the rusty hole in your neck, my duodenum was trying to fling itself head-long out my ass. What beef does to me, anaphylaxis would indeed be an improvement.
Also known as SLICED DEATH.
But I wasn’t always like this. The funny thing is, I couldn’t remember when I got this way. I have memories of sharing a rib eye steak with my family — one steak would feed the three of us, sometimes with leftovers — and the occasional prime rib dinner at restaurants. Although, now that I think of it, prime rib used to make me sick even ten years ago. But no, I did okay with beef until recently. How recently?
November of 2007, when I photo-blogged farsumauro, which is if I’m not mistaken one big hunk of beef. And on 12/1/07 I made it again (according to the blog). Yet I can remember having colonic rebellions from beef while we still lived in Oregon, so that narrows it down to some time between 12/1/07 and 8/16/08*. What happened, I wonder? I often tell my older patients who kvetch things like “I never used to be allergic to” whatever, “You can develop an allergy up until the day you die.” But I never expected it to happen to me.
I don’t miss beef. I really don’t. Turkey burgers are surprisingly good substitutes, as is a nice meat sauce for pasta made from ground pork or ground turkey. Know what I do miss sometimes? A Thai beef salad. But it’s not a big deal for me, just something I’d eat if I could eat beef again.
Memory’s an odd thing, though, because for the longest time I told myself that this must have been caused by the Atkin’s diet. But I stopped doing Atkin’s way back in ’03 or ’04, so that’s not to blame.
It just happened. And I developed a lactose intolerance about the same time, too. You’d think with all those convenient allergies I would be forced to eat a healthy diet, wouldn’t you? And yet I still manage to find ways of abusing my body. Humans are creative that way.
D.
With the weirdness of my diet, I am profoundly grateful that aside from a mild lactose intolerance, I have no food allergies. 🙂
Allergies are weird things. I had mono in grade 12, a very mild case. Within 6 months, I developed full-blown asthma and brutal migraines. Both of which all but disappeared with my first pregnancy. And I was allergic to citrus as a kid – the only oranges I could eat were mandarins. Now I can down all the grapefruit I want, but a drop of mandarin juice makes my tongue go numb.
Nox: and for you & me, there’s always Lactaid (which for me and my wife, works like a charm).
Chris: carrots, cantaloupe, and avocado used to make my throat itch. Probably a mild food allergy, but it used to drive my father nuts because he thought cantaloupe and avocado were two of the most glorious things in life.