WYSIWYG: my allergy is pretty complicated by lots of food phobias & dislikes which have evolved since Year 1. I've never been able to bring myself to discuss it with the medical profession as the allergy has ownership of me. However, in the early 80's I came across a homeopathic nutritionalist who went through the whole thing with me & found that the basis of my food problems is an allergy to alkaline-forming foods. It could also be something to do with my remaining kidney & what it can cope with.

The rest has been 'learnt along the way', as it were. Phobias developed due to being teased mercilessly at school as I couldn't eat fruit - so apple cores in my desk were a daily challenge. As this had been since babyhood I'd developed a fear of anything I couldn't eat & literally ran away from people eating fruit. Even the thought of it would make me queasy.

I've improved a lot in the past few years, but as you can imagine I have been stifled by my own food problems. Foreign travel has been difficult and I've very rarely 'eaten out'. Social dining is almost impossible & I've learnt to 'make do' with Bread & Cheese at buffets.

Apologies for all this personal info & thread creep, it's not something I've ever really talked about, so writing it here has opened a bit of a floodgate for me. I'll close it now, but thanks for asking.