Nancy2 wrote:
> Doug Freyburger > wrote:
>> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>
>> > What is it with these nut allergies? *Until fairly recent years
>> > nobody had ever heard of them. *Luckily, I'm not allergic to any type
>> > of nut, except for Sheldon.
>
>> My speculation - Up until some point kids would suddenly die and the
>> reason was a mystery. *As medical knowledge improved kids who would have
>> suddenly died in previous generations now know to avoid specific allergy
>> foods.
>
>> Technically a food allergy is not the same thing as a food intolerance.
>> A lot of people have food intolerances they are not aware of because the
>> symptoms of the intolerance are mild and/or the food is eaten regularly
>> so the symptoms are "normal" because they are always present. *I was 41
>> before I discovered I am wheat intolerant. *Before then I'd never gone a
>> week wheat free in my life and I never imagined wheat might be unhealthy
>> for anyone. *But when I went wheat free my health improved suddenly.
>> Now I won't tolerate those symptoms that used to be present constantly.
>> Now that i know the symptoms were not normal and can be eliminated.
>
> Technically, an "intolerance" wouldn't land you in the ER with a life-
> threatening reaction, whereas an allergy might.

Exactly. I think in the past a lot of people died suddenly without
anyone knowing it was due to allergic reactions. Now we know that and
know how to treat them so we're moving on to learning about the weaker
intolerances.

If someone is a kid when they die suddenly no one ever gets to figure
out if it was an allergy. My grandfather had a smokers cough his whole
life but he never touched tobacco. He was too busy drinking like a fish
so he died of alcoholism instead but he lived long enough to pass that
smokers cough on to me. He died at 39 never seeing his daughter get
married. I was 41 when I finally figured out there was a way to turn
off that smokers cough that happened without ever touching tobacco. I
discovered I could turn it off by not touching wheat. Had it been a
fatal allergy my grandfather would have died younger and Mom would
never have been born.

Pine nuts, basil, garlic and olive oil are the basics or pesto. I have
a bag of pistachios at home, live fresh basil out on the deck, garlic
and olive oil in the kitchen. I wonder how good it would be to make
pesto-like-stuff using pistachios? Sounds good.