Eczema Boil » corn syrup

Yes, I’m Really Allergic to Corn, Take #561

Annie — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:57:46 +0000

Random Party Guest: “Corn?!”

Me: “Yeah.”

RPG: “That’s a random thing to be allergic to.”

Me: “No more than anything else.”

RPG: “So, like, anything with corn?”

Me: “Yeah.”

RPG: “It’s in everything!”

Me: “Yeah.”

He thinks for a few moments, eyes darting around like the mouse in his head got trapped in a maze. And then he asks my favorite question. The one with such an obvious answer.

RPG: “What do you eat?!”

Me: “Everything else.”

Study Finds Many Foods with HFCS Contain Mercury

Annie — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:18:09 +0000

This is very alarming, especially if you still eat high fructose corn syrup.

Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brandname food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient-including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

The entire article is at the Organic Consumers Association website.

Sugar High

Annie — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:29:57 +0000

My mother found some pre-made bread dough that didn’t have corn syrup, so she made cinnamon rolls. They were delicious and I must admit I lost control and ate 6, or more… I lost track.

The important thing is that my face is breaking out now. My cheeks feel like someone’s stabbing needles through them. So – what am I reacting to? I think between the copious amounts of chocolate yesterday and the plate of cinnamon buns today, and all the ice cream in between, my system is overdosed on sugar. I get a certain rash on my cheeks on holidays and after thinking about it the only difference in my diet at those times is the extra sugar. I had ~~blocked out~~ forgotten exactly the way I feel when I break my diet. Besides the sensation of needles, which make me want to tear off all the skin, I have an attractive red bumpy face. I feel lethargic and queer like the flu is about to hit me, except not quite. I think I’ll take a vacation tomorrow so I can get all this out of my system and stop snapping at my innocent coworkers.

Pies and Marshmallow

Annie — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:15:10 +0000

My mother’s pie crust is perfect, really. Flaky, not too moist, not too dry, not too sweet. All her pies are fabulous, but my favorite is her lemon meringue. She grinds the lemons and peels to give the filling real kick and bite, and whips the meringue from scratch as well. I can sense, literally, when she begins preparing lemons for this pie because my face will break out from the citrus in the air. She tried to convince me to stop eating the pies, but I wouldn’t – they’re so delicious, and so now she doesn’t make them unless I’m on vacation. I asked her why and she said “I can’t stand to see you in pain like that, so you’ll just have to do without lemon meringue.”

Almost all marshmallows now have corn syrup of some variety in them, even if they’re labeled ‘natural’ or ‘organic’. This means no marshmallow topped sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving for me. Miraculously, this year my mom found an old recipe for marshmallows that has no corn syrup! Besides sweet potatoes, that means I can have s’mores again!

‘Most Important Meal of the Day’

Annie — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:50:02 +0000

I was never much of a breakfast person, but you throw in the corn syrup and citrus allergies and going out for breakfast becomes a moot point. Often it ends up that the only thing on the menu I can eat is a bagel with cream cheese and a glass of milk, which is fine for me, but invariably elicits a range of emotions from whomever I’m eating with. If they’re friends of mine the meal is usually spattered with “I’m sorry there’s nothing else here you can eat.” It’s not like it’s a surprise, get over it, I have. “I feel so bad, we all had these big meals and you just had a bagel!” Yeah, well, corn syrup is prevalent in the majority of US foods, cry me a river. And of course, the patting my knee while saying “Don’t worry, we’ll get you something you can eat later.” Don’t worry, I’ll get something to eat later with or without you, it’s not like this is my last chance at food. But all these things are much easier to hear than the conversation when I’m eating with people who don’t believe I have a CS allergy or are blissfully unaware of how it’s in almost every type of food. The following is a conversion over breakfast, years ago, at a fast-food chain breakfast place with my boyfriend of the time’s mother.

“Well that’s easy to get around, I’m sure they have lots of things on the menu!”

“I better ask the waiter just to be safe.”

“They have waffles, and pancakes, and french toast. Leave the syrup off those things and I’m sure you’ll be fine. There’s no need to bother them over a little allergy.”

“It can’t hurt to ask the waiter, they’ll know for sure.” The waiter came over and I asked “Can you tell me what on your menu doesn’t have corn syrup?”

He said he wasn’t sure and then went to the kitchen to ask. When he returned he reported “The head cook is pretty sure that everything on the breakfast menu has corn syrup, and most of our food is prepackaged and it comes without ingredient labels, so I can’t tell you for sure.”

The mom piped in again “Well, what about a fruit cup?”

The waiter replied “Those do have corn syrup, two kinds according to the label.”

“How about a bagel?” I tried for the old standby.

“Those we make here from scratch -”

“See!” interjected the mom.

“- so I know for a fact they have corn syrup.” finished the waiter. There was a moments silence where the waiter looked uncomfortable and the mom glared at me as though I was ruining her morning. The boyfriend sat there quietly staying out of the way. “You two eat breakfast and I can get something later, it’s fine, I don’t mind.” I smiled at her. She ordered for herself and her son and then questioned me on whether I was really sure that such an allergy could possibly exist. I’m fine without breakfast, but being harassed for my diet always gets under my skin.

King Corn ~ Farming, Feed, and Corn Syrup

Annie — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:22:20 +0000

Christopher Mims at Scientific American wrote a great review of King Corn, a movie coming out this fall. I hadn’t heard of it but it sounds like it’ll be entertaining and horrifying at the same time. Their site is here.

En Garde

Annie — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:42:00 +0000

Sometimes I forget that corn syrup can be anywhere. Last week my boyfriend O and I went to bar with some of O’s coworkers. We were having a good time and I didn’t plan on drinking anything so I ordered a water. Silly me didn’t watch the waitress while she made the drink, or say anything to her about what to leave out, so I was suddenly facing a glass of allergens. First the lime, but that’s easy to take out. So I sipped through the straw and as soon as I tasted the water I knew I couldn’t drink it. It had a myriad of flavors and most importantly it was so sweet there must have been corn sweeteners. I asked the bartender if I could please have another glass with nothing but water, because I have food allergies. She glared at me – although, to be fair, she was hung over – and got another glass of water. This time I watched. The water was coming out of a fixture that had 12 buttons for soft drinks and was attached to a hose. So the taste was ‘trace elements’ of all the sodas that go through the soda system. After that I ordered a Newcastle.