Teleidoscope

Thu, Jun 05, 2008

Malt

Posted at 7:01 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

The full list of things I tested as being allergic to is

Cow's Milk
Whole eggs
Shellfish mix
Egg yolk (with a note from the doctor that I should avoid egg whites too)
Malt
String bean

Kentucky Blue Grass
Timothy
Ragweed Mix

I just got back from wandering through Costco, and those first five items on the list pretty well rule out everything they sell that I like to eat. (Especially since I'm also supposed to avoid soy as long as I'm on the Tamoxifen).

Most commercial baked goods contain malt, even if they don't have eggs or dairy (or soy), so it's a good thing I like doing my own baking.

I bought: Kosher Franks, Bush's Baked beans, Dried Mangoes, and Satsuma Mandarins from Peru (which is contrary to the buy local rule, but I need to have something edible in the house).

There is hope, however. I can probably plan to use egg white for special occasions like holiday baking. And I tested negative for egg-white, cow casein and cow lactalbumin, and I wasn't tested for goats' milk or sheeps' milk.

When I go back to the doctor next month I'm going to negotiate for narrowing the prohibitions. In particular, I'm going to ask to be tested for goats milk, and I'm going bring samples of a good aged Parmigiano Reggiano and an aged sheep's milk cheese (maybe a Pecorino Romano) and ask to have them tested specifically. Maybe I can find cheeses to use as ingredients even if I can't eat cheese itself any more. (Until yesterday I ate cheese every day. Make that, until today: I had cheese for lunch yesterday.)

I should probably be tested for chocolate and olives, too, though I don't know what I'm going to do if olives and extra-virgin olive oil get added to the forbidden list.

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