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270 points surprisetalk | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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donatj ◴[] No.45103276[source]
I had something of a semi-intentional palate reset in my early twenties.

I had been a super picky eater basically my entire life, and getting me to try new foods was like pulling teeth. Then I spent a couple weeks traveling around Japan with some friends. I think it was in part genuinely wanting to immerse myself in the culture and in part not wanting to make myself appear fussy or annoying to a girl we were traveling with, but I forced myself to try things I would never have eaten state side. I found myself by the end of the trip actually pushing myself to try things... Even perhaps a little too far as the Takoyaki triggered my shellfish allergy. Nothing a bunch of Benadryl couldn't solve.

I'd come to Japan a picky eater though and left an adventurous one. I will at least try just about anything once.

This is something which twenty years later my parents still don't accept. "Oh, I thought you didn't eat salad" when I am halfway through my salad.

Mind you there are still things I did not like before that I still do not like. Ketchup tops the list.

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cardanome ◴[] No.45104837[source]
I used to be very judgemental about picky eaters and felt they are all super spoiled people but it important to know that there are vastly different reasons for being one.

Some neurodivergent people have genuine sensory issues that forces them to be selective about their food. They can't just get over it. Especially as exposure therapy does not work for them or at least not as well as for neurotypical people.

So it is always good to remind oneself to be kind and not judge people harshly. You don't know what they are struggling with.

That said, yeah most people absolutely profit from opening up their palate and trying new things.

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o11c ◴[] No.45112440[source]
Also, most people can't express "this food is triggering a minor allergy, enough to make me uncomfortable but not recognize it".
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1. Cthulhu_ ◴[] No.45113680{3}[source]
There was a post on Reddit (which came from Twitter or whatever) just now about someone who got itchy when eating plums; some food allergies are minor or just unconscious. Others take a while to trigger a response (bowel issues).

But since spicy foods hurt and pineapple is tingly and that's normal, I suspect a lot of people with mild food allergies just... don't realise they have an allergy.

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2. Chris2048 ◴[] No.45114430[source]
tbh, it'd be great if there was just national (any country) testing for allergies.
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3. rypskar ◴[] No.45114538[source]
It would be great if there was accurate tests for allergies. Blood tests shows what you absolute should stay away from, you maybe should be careful with, and what to do more testing with. Then there are different tests to learn more, but in the end they end of with learn to read your body's reaction and stay away from things you react badly to.

And yes, this have made me a picky eater, not because I don't want to try new things but because the setting with trying new things is in most cases not the settings where you want to get the bad reactions

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4. Chris2048 ◴[] No.45114836{3}[source]
AFAIK skin prick tests are the best for contact allergies, blood tests unlikely to find anything but severe allergies.

and I'm not sure how to find mild food allergies directly, seems to be all food diaries and correlation which feels mostly useless..

There also seems to be a hair test that AFAI can tell is an outright scam.

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5. rypskar ◴[] No.45119685{4}[source]
The problem with blood tests in my experience is all the false positives, skin prick tests are often used based on result from blood tests. But when having many allergies it is normal to only check for the most severe using skin prick tests.

Food diaries are probably good for those that are more experimental in what they eat, the difficult part come when it is a combination of things that give a reaction. The most important is to learn to listen to your body and not buy into peer pressure when someone urge you to try something new that you are not sure about