There is not a single sentence in the English language which irritates me more than the one in the title of this post. Three simple words regularly make me want to scream in frustration.
As some of you will know, I have a severe nut allergy and it is quite possible that a microscopic piece of food will one day kill me. So far, I have been lucky. I have had a few scares and one memorable overnight stay in hospital attached to a drip but I am still here to tell the tale.
Part of the reason for this is that I am very, very careful. I tend to cook a lot of my food from scratch and will carefully read the ingredient list for anything pre-made before buying it or putting it anywhere near my mouth. I am also fortunate that I have some kind of hyper-awareness built into my body that tells me when something is not quite right. I can smell a Snickers bar at 50 paces and have been known to get a very itchy throat when someone is eating nuts in the vicinity. I once had to use someone else's desk at work when my PC wasn't working - within half an hour I was itching all over as the usual owner of the desk had been eating nuts the day before and the residue must have still been on their keyboard.
It's peanuts and cashew nuts that are the fatal ones for me. Weirdly, neither are actually nuts - one is a seed and one is a pea! Other nuts will make me itch and vomit but just the smallest piece of the two biggies will make my body and airway swell, restricting my oxygen intake and eventually sending me into anapylactic shock.
Anaphylaxis is not a fun thing. I have luckily never progressed fully to that stage, although the last scare was very close and it was only my close proximity to the hospital at the time that prevented it from developing. I fully intend that I will never get to that stage. This however is much harder than you would think.
All of my life, I have had to contend with the people who are convinced that I merely 'don't like' nuts. Even a family member was adamant that I was just being fussy!
Part of the problem is that the word 'allergy' is often confused with 'intolerance'. A food intolerance can result in migraines, bloatedness, sluggishness and stomach problems. It does not lead to death.
Allergies can also be much less serious, for instance a pet hair allergy will usually make someone very uncomfortable but will rarely kill them. Nobody will bat an eyelid if someone says they are allergic to wasp stings or chlorine but for some reason, any food related allergies are written off as insignificant. I sometimes get the impression that people think that I am joking when I say "it will kill me".
To be fair, most people who have known me for a while or who have had personal experience with severe allergies are usually very sympathetic. They know not to put out bowls of nuts at parties (there are few things worse than being ravenous and not being able to eat anything at a buffet due to cross-contamination), not to eat nuts before coming to visit and to take me seriously if my super-sense kicks in. They also know to save the boxes for any pre-made food that I am unfamiliar with so that I can check the ingredients. If I am not sure, I don't eat it. Better safe than sorry.
That brings me back to that dreaded sentence. Think about the phrasing. The word 'may' is key. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told "you can't have this - it may contain nuts". It may contain cat hair and half a dead mouse too but they don't put that on the flipping box.
It has got to the point where I don't declare my allergy if I go out for a meal as I will more often than not be told that the vast majority of the menu is off limits. This omission may sound stupid considering how careful I usually am but having a whole food group banned from my diet is hard enough without being told that the pre-made sauce for the salmon may contain nuts and the chef is scared of getting sued so won't serve it to me.
There is a big difference between the sentence 'may contain nuts' and 'contains nuts'. Both are found on packaging. 'Contains nuts' is a clear indication that the food will make me very ill, even if it doesn't kill me. 'May contain nuts' is an advisory note, nothing more. My general rule is that if there are no nuts listed in the ingredients then the odds of the food containing nuts are similar to the odds of it containing the aforementioned dead mouse.
I love my food and get very ratty when I am not allowed to make an informed choice. In my opinion, if a basic strawberry yoghurt 'may contain nuts' then someone needs to start cleaning the equipment more thoroughly. My world would be a much simpler place if the phrase 'may contain nuts' was removed from it.
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