I am posting this for accountability, as a reminder to myself.

Growing up, I was a picky eater. It was difficult to cajole me into eating any vegetables, and even when I'd try one, I would say it made me feel sick and then go back to not eating it. So picky!

As an adult, and especially in the past ten years, I've become more adventurous and deliberately more "grown-up" about the foods I try and the foods I like. I've discovered that I actually like a lot of vegetables that I used to turn up my nose at, like broccoli, zucchini, and spinach!

I've also discovered, though, that while there are some foods I'm still just "picky" about (I'm simply not sold on the taste of eggplant, mushrooms, or cauliflower), there are other foods that I actually for real can't eat.

I have known for a while that I'm intolerant to cabbage and anything cabbage-like (bok choy, brussels sprouts), of the "physically incapable of swallowing it" variety.

And the juice of raw tomatoes and bell peppers makes me feel sick, even though I LIKE tomatoes now (I love them in soups, when they've been cooked enough that the juice doesn't affect me).

And, okay, I'm "mildly intolerant" to spinach, meaning if I eat more than an arbitrarily small amount in a sitting I might throw it up or come close, which is a pain because I really like spinach now, especially raw in a salad or cooked in dough like spanakopita or spinach bourekas.

And, all right, recently I've discovered another mild intolerance to "dark greens" - more than an arbitrarily small amount of things like asparagus, or cucumber or zucchini with the peel on, and I'll suddenly experience the "physically unable to swallow" that I know from my cabbage intolerance.

And then today, proud of my new salad eating habits, I told my mom I would try the (lettuce plus dressing) salad she had made, and she served me a big bowlful. I'm not intolerant to lettuce, I thought in my hubris. Then just past halfway through the very delicious salad, I started gagging violently and couldn't eat more.

So anyway, turns out I'm mildly intolerant to ALL green vegetables (plus tomatoes and bell peppers).

I'm probably going to keep up with the "I'm ideologically opposed to eating salad" line because in my experience only people like my fiancee who have a personal experience of niche / weirdly specific allergies or intolerances will believe you when you say "I'm intolerant to basically all vegetables" and, also in my experience, people are a lot more tolerant of someone giving a funny quip acknowledging her picky eating than of a grown adult who can't even admit to just being picky about vegetables. But I'm writing this to remind myself so I'll know, and feel vindicated, that the vast majority of vegetables that I refuse to eat, or only eat in minuscule quantities or only when overcooked, are not because of baseless picky eating but from genuine for real eating intolerance.

Lactose intolerant Vergil moodboard 🧀🥛

Inspired by this poll

Mikey, waking up from his slumber with a start: Something Just Happened.

Leo on the kitchen floor immediately after eating cheese from the fridge at 4am:

Based on this post where followers and me end up deducing Leo is lactose intolerant.

Crosshair: *chugging milk because Wrecker dared him to*

Echo: Aren’t you lactose intolerant?

Crosshair: This isn’t lactose, it’s milk.

Tech, facepalming: You’re a fucking idiot.

“I’ve only found out recently I am lactose intolerant …”

junk food.

iii has the same vibe as those lactose intolerant people who specifically seek out anything containing dairy in a challenge to god

Dating me would just be like we either go out for ice cream or stay home and eat ice cream for every single date sorry

It's so interesting hearing people who are unaware they have a food intolerance talk about food. We know the examples of people having an allergic reaction, but Ryan on Watcher is like "apples are a laxative to a lot of people" and it's like buddy, you have fructose intolerance.

Or my grandma confidently saying ketchup and chocolate make you break out. Like no that's not universal, your hay fever is giving you histamine intolerance.

For real tho health freaks who scream about how sugar and salt will kill us all and try to push for restrictions on things like candy and chips for SNAP recipients or politicians who try from time to time to replace food stamps all together and give out Government Approved Staples like bread and peanut butter and Government Cheese are gonna kill a whole lotta sick and disabled people like

Diabetics

POTS sufferers

Hypotensives

People with peanut allergies

People with celiac disease or wheat allergies

The lactose intolerant

People who can't eat solid food

People who are undernourished for any reason and need all the calories they can pack on

So-called "picky eaters" who can't tolerate certain tastes and textures without getting violently ill

A myriad of other human conditions that cannot be neatly tallied into categories because the human body and human experience is vast and infinitely variable

But I don't think ableds really care about us and our health like they like to claim so they can harass us about it, do you?

my mom thinks that diet will cure my audhd. she's putting me on a "special diet". is that a real thing because i don't think it is.

I can't speak for ADHD, but there is little to no scientific evidence that special diets can 'improve' autism, let alone 'cure' it.

There is some evidence to suggest autistic people are more likely to have an intolerance to gluten:

'A review by Valicenti-McDermott et al (2006) found that 70% of autistic children had gastrointestinal problems compared to 42% of children without a diagnosis of autism.' - Autism and gluten and casein-free diets from the National Autistic Society

so if you are actually gluten intolerant and you stop eating gluten you might feel better and have less stomach issues, but as far as I know there's not a direct correlation with autism, and being autistic does not mean you're also gluten intolerant.

Here are some articles and studies you might find helpful:

'National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises not to use exclusion diets such as gluten and casein-free diets as you may miss out on certain nutrients. In children this may lead to weight loss and affect their growth.' Autism and diet (bda.uk.com)

'...a review of data from 27 clinical trials...shows that there is little to no scientific evidence to support the bulk of these diets.' Analysis finds little evidence to support dietary interventions for autism | Spectrum | Autism Research News (spectrumnews.org)

Here's a link to the study the above article mentions

The best diet is a healthy balanced one with the right proportions and a good variety from all the food groups.

i thiunk chase is allergic to peanuts. my proof is that he’s blonde

medieval british man eats kraft macaroni and cheese 2023 colourised

Crosshair would def be someone who, despite being lactose intolerant, would order a cheese pizza and then have ice cream for dessert.

it’s sooooo funny to me that brooke’s main song is about going to go get frozen yogurt then in the broadway version they made her lactose intolerant