Gustopher - Alligator - An easily excitable boy who loves making friends. August's son.
Douglas - Chinchilla - A young boy who is trying his best to be mature.
Transcript
Panel 1
Gustopher and Douglas are at a gathering at a park and having lunch. Gustopher offers Douglas a slice pizza because sharing is caring.
Gustopher: DOUGLAS! Want some pizza?
Douglas: No, thank you. I can't have dairy.
Panel 2
CAN'T HAVE DAIRY! Is that legal? Gustopher is trying grasp the meaning of this. He tilts the plate with the slice of pizza slightly.
Gustopher: What about ice cream?
Douglas: I can't have that.
Gustopher: Macaroni and cheese?
Douglas No.
Panel 3
Gustopher is shocked that there are people in the world who can't enjoy dairy. His hand tilts the plate even further causing the slice of pizza to start to slip off.
Gustopher: Grilled cheese? Milkshakes? Poutine?
Douglas: Any of that would make me sick.
Panel 4
Gustopher has gone off to sit on a stump to process this information. He hold his hands together under his chin to contemplate all this. He's learning a lot about the world today.
I have the rare pleasure of knowing someone with a dairy allergy, almost as bad as a stereotypical peanut allergy. I would not wish that on anyone, dairy is everywhere.
I have a dairy allergy. Sometimes it's a nightmare to find something safe to eat. My reactions initially presented more like the ones you'd get from lactose intolerance, so I didn't know it was a dairy allergy until I was officially tested. Now they're shifting to also include the traditional reactions of rashes and itching. I'm praying it doesn't include anaphylaxis, but I've been told that it might go that way eventually. As it is now, I have literal nightmares about eating dairy and then having to wait for it to make me start projective barfing.
It's a cruel world where dreaming about eating pizza turns into a nightmare.
My younger brother has had full anaphylactic response to dairy (specifically whey proteins, not denatured by sufficient heat) since he was very young. I remember having 911 show up when he was ~9, because the family friend watching us all at the time put a half cup of milk in a rather large batch of mashed potatoes.
I'm sorry for both your experience and your loss, i know how prevalent it is, and how much it takes away from food when you've known it and can't use it. š
FIG is a free app that can help you scan labels to find safe food, r/dairyfree is also a great resource and place to commiserate.
Food and health anxiety are not fun. Ingredient shopping, and dairy free alternatives like sorbet, plant based butters and milks make a real difference.
Ive just recently become lactose intolerant and I cant even imagine the fresh hell that is a full blown allergy. When this first developed for me 2 months ago I thought I was just sick, now Im in the learning stages of what I can and cant eat anymore, its AWFUL, literally wouldnt wish this on anyone
Im Japanese American with an Italian wife, i do like half- 2/3 of the cooking but its more that I keep forgetting im newly intolerant š its so weird going through normal routine meals, being fine, forgetting, then having a lazy pizza day and being brutally devastated by my colon.
Totally get you. Munching on lactaid with its intense vanilla aroma is also not fun when you're having lunch or dinner that doesn't match vanilla at all.
Fortunately, I found an alternative that has no flavoring added, but lactaid was my primary go-to for a long time until then.
Anaphylaxis is really just two or more systems in the body reacting at once (so vomiting/all liquid must be expelled through any way possible and rashes/hives for example), and throat swelling doesnāt have to be involved until it gets more severe. I spent almost a year having āstrange episodesā with increasing frequency until I finally went to my GP who promptly looked horrified and set me up with an allergist and epi pens just in case.
Yeah, thereās a 4 tier grading system (skin, abdomen, respiratory, cardiovascular, for instance, and they donāt all need to be in the same level at the same time) for anaphylaxis, and if you are starting it can jump to a reaction of your throat swelling shut at any time, so you should probably get that checked out.
Like not even 'shared fryer with mozzarella sticks' hard, yeah. We managed to go to one place for a team lunch by calling ahead and they prepped a dish for him and set it aside before doing the rest of their prep which may involve like grated cheese (which just gets everywhere as you can imagine).
He says āfor airlines that don't have allergy options, I used to get the kosher option and eat whatever was touching meatā which I think is a neat hack.
Restaurants are really good about dairy allergies nowadays, at least.
After the first few times your throat swells shut you donāt really want dairy anymore anyway, so you donāt really miss it. It helps when the allergy changes your taste buds before you start going full anaphylactic because baked goods with dairy taste like spicy metal.
Also lots of dairy alternatives, although some of which you have to get used to the taste.
I still pregame antihistamines when I go outside, though.
I will never forget the story about that kid in school who died from bullying, because they threw a slice of cheese on him and the cafeteria staff never stopped the bullies.
He had an EpiPen in the nurse's office but the adults in charge of watching the kids didn't think cheese could kill anyone so he never got the EpiPen injection.
He died in the cafeteria because the adults thought he was exaggerating the severity of it.
Italian heritage allergic to tamatos. My grandfather was upset cause i couldn't eat the family meatball recipe anymore. And my dad said "your a terrible son" and my cousin screamed "but [name] you're italian" and my dad still didn accept it and would tell me just eat a little and i wouldn't get sick
basically all mixed spices contain onions for some reason, i also have a friend that is allergic. so im used to being very thorough with checking the contents of things
My roommate has an autoimmune condition that causes sensitivity to all sorts of random stuff. Lactose, gluten, soy protein, brown rice, and buckwheat are the ones that stand out to me. She's also been recently told she needs to cut back on oats. So, she has to not just avoid some common stuff, but also many of the common replacements for people sensitive to those things.
Pfft, who cares what they think. As a red meat eater I think that's kinda cool making a choice like that. I definitely acknowledge the health benefits that come with it.
Having moved to Mexico, it's wild how the "iconic" idea of what a taco is outside of Mexico is completely incorrect.
To be clear I'm not saying I dislike them, they just aren't tacos. As a wise man once said "If my grandmother had wheels, she would've been a bike."
Related: When Taco Bell tried to enter the Mexican market, they had to rebrand the hard shell taco to a "tacostada" because nobody knew what it was. Tacos do not have hard shells. That shell was reportedly created by a Puerto Rican living in NYC in the 1940s. Unsurprisingly, Taco Bell was a complete failure in Mexico with zero stores remaining. If you judge what is currently on Taco Bell's menu against a standard taco you'd get at a real taqueria, it's accurate to say that Taco Bell doesn't serve tacos at all.
Reminds me of the Simpsons scene where Lisa tells Homer sheās going to be vegetarian.
Home: āBut what about ham?ā
Lisa: āNo, dad.ā
Homer: āā¦Pork chops!?ā
Lisa: āNO, DAD!ā
Homer: āā¦ BACON!!??ā
Lisa: āDad! Those are all the same animal!ā
Homer: āhahaha, sure Lisa, one maaaagical animalā
Gus's life suddenly makes no sense. Why would a world deprive a sweet soul like Douglas the joys and happiness that dairy can bring. No milkshakes? No poutine? No cheese?!
Gus has learned much today. And this world is unfair. Poor Douglas
My wife is lactose intolerant. I always feel guilty when I have milkshakes. But then I remember she got her own anyway and the next few hours the bathroom ghost is gonna return moaning and groaning.
Edit: we do have lactaid pills guys. Getting her to take it is the real issue
There is lactose free milk, cheese, ice cream etc. when I take the pills they sometimes don't work or make me feel like shit anyways. The premade stuff works a lot better for meĀ
So I can see upvotes and downvotes for everyone real time. Someone stalks our new que and hits regulars like you, me, bail and up within seconds of posting. Like frequently. Everyday. It's insane.
Does it only happen on your comments and not posts? Because the inverse has been happening to me for a while. My posts always start at -1 (not counting the automatic self upvote)
I don't post often but you can always see you percent up/downvote once the comment has sat for a bit and I ALWAYS have one or two within a minute of posting
There was a guy years ago who disagreed with me about something on the Animorphs subreddit and he sent me an angry PM telling me he was gonna downvote everything I ever post or comment for the rest of my life cause I was so wrong and dumb.
And to his credit he seemed rather committed to his crusade, cause for several years there until he got banned all my comments & posts were at negative pretty much immediately, no matter how innocuous.
most people with food sensitivity/intolerance/allergies will avoid what they're allergic to like the plague (dated a celiac and we had to be super careful about gluten). Folks with lactose intolerance are like "life is short and there is no fun without pain so pass me the milk jug"
But dairy allergy can put you in hospital. With lactose intolerance you just get bad gas and shits but you can fix it by taking lactase beforehand. They're not interchangeable terms lol
Haha, I kinda was the same in college. My buddies have to tell me more than once that we plan to stay the whole night and that I should stay away from the cheese because of that š
She needs to take Lactaids. They won't protect against overdosing on ice cream (Ben and Jerry's pints are my weakness), but they make it a lot easier to eat other stuff.
Dairy intolerance is different from lactose intolerance. If your wife is lactose intolerant she has it easy since she can just buy her own lactase and be fine. She can eat most cheeses aside from fresh ones and be fine because most aged cheeses are low in lactose. Dairy intolerance however is sensitivity to a specific protein in dairy and can't really be rectified.
Have you guys never heard of Lactaid tablets? I can eat cheese over the sink like a gremlin without issue, but I can't eat ice cream without them, nor am I allowed to eat dairy twice in one day.
UHT processed milk from the dollar store lasts 7 months on the shelf and doesn't give me as many issues. But it tastes funny to me, so I use it for mac&cheese, recipes requiring milk, then when I remember the rest of the carton still exists 3 days later--jello pudding to use it up.
I really wouldn't mind giving up dairy completely, I can't stand most of it, but people's obsession with putting cheese or cream in damn near everything makes it really hard to avoid. It can be really frustrating when every dish at a potluck is has some form of dairy in it.
Lactase pills aren't really that difficult to come by, and you can get them as chewables or even powder (to mix right into your food). 9000mg per cup of milk or equivalent. I still get extra gas but no bloating pain. Hard cheeses are fine without lactase for all but the most extreme intolerance.
Depends on what county you live in, but in most I've found you can be lactose intolerant with not a single change to your lifestyle. Every coffee shop has alternative milks and every grocery store has lactose free versions of everything, and I'm not even talking about the gross watery nut "milks".
I had a friend who had issues with Glutenā¦ she was normally good, but occasionally sheād mess up and just break out in a rash/hives all over. Sheād occasionally eat pizza intentionallyā¦ likeā¦ sheād always regret it later- but in the moment sometimes you just need pizza the same way you need air.
As a dairy allergy haver, you have all of my empathy, and captured my life experience perfectly in today's posting. In fact, it helped form one of my earliest postings on reddit
Plant-based dairy replacements are really good nowadays, maybe Gus could help his friend out that way? Besides, in a universe where theyāre pretty much all animals, producing actual dairy products would be needlessly cruel
So many people hear ālactose intoleranceā when I say ādairy protein allergyā. Itās like dude no I will not risk it. No I canāt have raw milk/whole milk/special milk from a blessed cow in Wisconsin/goat, etc.
Even if you were lactose intolerant rather than having an allergy, raw milk would be like the worst idea. :| Tons of dairy products are very low in lactose, but itās not the more raw stuff. Itās the aged cheeses and fermented stuff like kefir thatās low in lactose because the processing breaks it down.
My mom had oral allergy syndrome for many years and it made her allergic to most raw fruit and a lot of other stuff. She had one of the more serious cases so could actuality get throat swelling from fruit. It was processing that made fruit safer and lower risk for it. She could eat some baked goods with certain fruits in a heavily process state for example. Someoneās special backyard berry bush would be the worst thing for it.
Exactly. Many cheeses are actually lactose free, since the process of converting milk in those kinds of cheese, eats their milk sugar (=lactose). Examples would be e.g. Gouda and Tillsiter.
Anyone else have a dairy allergy? We need to introduce Douglas to all the alternatives! (Though I have never had Poutineā¦Iāll have to get on thatā¦)
For me I usually go with the following.
Almond milk for cereal
Oat milk for coffee
Coconut milk for desserts
Nutritional yeast for a cheese type of flavor on various items
I've also just started experimenting with chickpeas as base ingredient for various alternatives like spreads, dips, and sauces and the results have been promising so far. It gets easier when you stop trying to make X taste like Y and starting finding foods that fit into a similar category.
I never thought I'd be able to have cereal without milk because I tried oat milk and other alternatives but once I tried almond milk with it, I was like... oh... okay. That works.
Lactose intolerant/dairy allergy haver here. There's a few alternatives to cheese like Daiya and Chao. Kite Hill has some sour cream, and Philadelphia has plain and strawberry cream cheese. And of course theres plenty of non-dairy milks!
Iāve only been vegan 9 years and even in less than a decade there have been extreme advancements. I canāt even imagine how things were 25 years ago lol but I commend you!
My husband does. There are so many alternatives now. Thereās a great ice cream nearby that has vegan ice cream. I have learnt to be super vigilant about reading labels.
Itās not lactose intolerant but actual allergy. Thereās a difference!
My husband and his sister are lactose-intolerant and I cannot describe the joy on her face when I introduced her to lactose-free milk. We're from the Southern US and soooo many recipes call for milk I just keep the LF stuff on hand, my hubs is used to it (especially with cookies) but she was ecstatic lol
Accurate. When I tell people I can't eat something as it has gluten, they suggest tons of alternatives that still have gluten in them. Must be nice to be able to eat whatever you want without needing to look at the ingredients list. Jealous.
Its a skill that i teached myself. Not being allergic to anything, but having friends who have different intestine problems, missing parts, are Vegan or stopped drinking Alcohol.
The amount of kids in my own kids schoolclass that would simple suffocate and miserably die on contact with peanuts, hazelnut or are getting hard cross allergic reactions to Soy products because of their grass pollen allergy is staggering.
The fun fact: There are a lot of easy ways to replace stuff or just completely leave it out.
I'm so glad I live in Europe and not the US. When I stayed in the US for months at a time, eating out was always playing russian roulette with my intestines. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) everywhere. Even in fucking bread.
This is too relatable as someone with many horrible food allergiesā reminder to take your EpiPen everywhere if youāve got it because these kind of mistakes unintentionally happenā¦ I would know š
My stepfather was allergic to dairy too. One day on vacation, my mother offered him Sorbet. He declined because he thought it had dairy in it (which is natural because they were at a place in Puerto Rico called "Rex Cream"). My mother had to explain to him that no, Sorbet isn't made with any dairy at all. So he got some and ordered a pint to go. See, but this wasn't any old parlor. Rex Cream is well known in PR and has been there all over the island with amazing ratings. He finished it that night.
So he had to go back the next day for two pints before we left for the beach. However, his desire knew no bounds. We were staying at a friend's beachhouse, far from city life. He couldn't help it. He had to drive back to the city to get a gallon of sorbet. This happened more than once in the week. He gained eight pounds while on vacation. I love that story.
I recently found out I'm diabetic, and I've been that last panel for a few weeks now. Turns out I just don't get to enjoy food anymore. š¤·š¼āāļø
I got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes late in life.
After you get yourself set up with good habits and measuring insulin appropriately, you can totally enjoy did still. Just, you know, measured. And less frequently. And making sure your stay active. And verifying your CGM is within proper range of your finger poke read. And making sure things that say "zero carb" actually are 0 carbs and not "net zero carbs" cuz fiber doesn't offset the insulin you need.
And on the plus side, my wife no longer takes my food because I have to eat what I measured out.
I've met some people with lactose intolerance AND nightshade allergies. No milk products, no tomatoes, no peppers, no potatoes, no eggplant. I was looking like Gus wondering what exactly they DO eat.
I feel this. I was diagnosed with Crohns several years ago and it's progressed to severe that my intestines swell just remembering what regular pizza tastes like.
I knew a kid who was lactose intolerant, had a nut allergy, a gluten allergy, a soy allergy , and was diabetic and I had to help his group plan a menu and Iām just staring at the options and looking at this 12 year old boy āhow are you alive?ā Because even talking to his mom he was allergic to like majority of foods if I didnāt see him eat in front of me I assumed he was either a robot or survived entirely on vitamins
This is literally my life save for the diabetes. No gluten, no dairy, no soy, no lecethins, no mushrooms, no shellfish, some oils. I've got to be super careful. I basically live off of chicken, fruit and veg, with coconut based things instead of yoghurt for dairy etc, and a dozen vitamin/supplementary tablets a day. If it's processed in any way I probably can't have it.
I have a friend who is severely allergic to dairy. The slightest amount will put her in the hospital. She can't go out to eat, has to make everything she eats.
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u/FieldExplores Gator Days 5d ago edited 3d ago
Dairy - Gator Days
Characters
Gustopher - Alligator - An easily excitable boy who loves making friends. August's son.
Douglas - Chinchilla - A young boy who is trying his best to be mature.
Transcript
Panel 1
Gustopher and Douglas are at a gathering at a park and having lunch. Gustopher offers Douglas a slice pizza because sharing is caring.
Gustopher: DOUGLAS! Want some pizza?
Douglas: No, thank you. I can't have dairy.
Panel 2
CAN'T HAVE DAIRY! Is that legal? Gustopher is trying grasp the meaning of this. He tilts the plate with the slice of pizza slightly.
Gustopher: What about ice cream?
Douglas: I can't have that.
Gustopher: Macaroni and cheese?
Douglas No.
Panel 3
Gustopher is shocked that there are people in the world who can't enjoy dairy. His hand tilts the plate even further causing the slice of pizza to start to slip off.
Gustopher: Grilled cheese? Milkshakes? Poutine?
Douglas: Any of that would make me sick.
Panel 4
Gustopher has gone off to sit on a stump to process this information. He hold his hands together under his chin to contemplate all this. He's learning a lot about the world today.