When you have health challenges that involve your diet, eating is a complicated affair. Eating out of the home, worse. #fact
It is complicated not only to have to manoeuvre around it but a complicated thing to explain to those around you. Before I had to deal with allergies in the form of eczema, I was like most people, highly clueless about nutrition in general. I had no idea the impact diet has on our well-being – physical and/or mental. I just ate and cooked what was convenient and tasty.
Food Sensitivities Differ From Food Allergies
Trying to explain to people around us about the challenges of living with food sensitivities, repeatedly, is frustrating. And having to explain the difference between food sensitivities versus true allergies is even harder. Sensitivities are not true allergies. True allergies (think peanut anaphylaxis) are often life and death. Sensitivities often are not, though it is no less easy to live with. Sometimes, even those suffering from challenges with food issues do not even know the difference themselves! So there is much education to be done indeed! But that is not the purpose of this post.
Home-cooked ≠Healthy!
Here, I would like to point out that just because food is cooked at home or what is fondly called a “home-cooked meal” does not mean it is healthy, even if one does not have allergies. What?!?!? How can that be? Surely home-cooked food is healthier than the food offered at the food courts/hawker centres and fast food joints? Maybe. Maybe not.
What goes into the meal is what makes it healthy or unhealthy, not whether it is cooked in or out of the home. Generally, yes, a home-cooked meal is of better quality than food served outside because I believe most of us would choose fresher and better quality ingredients than the hawker centre or our local coffee shop for the same price. So that is helpful.
Additives and Chemicals in Our Food?!
But…what are the condiments used? I once had a friend swear to me that her beef dish was home-cooked by her personally and very safe (i.e. healthy) for my daughter. It WAS home-cooked by her (not her maid). It WAS delicious but it was not safe for my daughter (even if she were not on the GAPS Diet. She rattled off the ingredients. Beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery. At that point, since we were on the GAPS Diet, potatoes were out (it belongs to the nightshade family). But it was not the potatoes that were the issue. When I asked her about the stock she used for the dish, she said – broth from a can and she had added Worcestershire sauce.
MSG Hides Behind Innocent-Sounding Names
Both of these have MSG in them, besides other additives. Side note: MSG hides behind MANY names and one of them is actually the very innocent-sounding “natural flavourings”. And no “added MSG” can also be a very misleading term. My friend was unaware of the ingredients listed in both items. When she read the ingredient list on the bottle, her eyes grew wide with disbelief.
Packaged Sauces and Pre-Mixes
At another gathering recently, the organiser proudly declared that all the food served was home-cooked by the participants. The spread offered was wide and the food, lovely! However, upon chatting with a few of them, I found out that the main dishes were cooked using some processed item and/or packaged pre-mixes. Nothing wrong with that. Except that we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that it is healthy.
Even if one doesn’t have allergies, constantly eating food with these additives and chemicals is not healthy in the long run. So the next time you buy a packet of Prima Taste for your home-cooked curry or laksa, be warned! 🙂 Home-cooked ≠healthy!
And For Those With Allergies …
For those of us with food allergies or sensitivities, we must always be mindful that eating out of the home can be a minefield for the reasons mentioned above. Because in our case, home-cooked foods ≠safe foods. And that is why sometimes, you will see us bringing along our own meals, even if we are going to someone’s home for a home-cooked meal. It is not because we think our food is nicer than yours.
We Are Not All the Same
Please understand that not all people with allergies are the same. Some are more reactive than others. So one could partake of the food and itch slightly or have a slightly congested nose. And both these annoyances would go away in a few hours or the next day. But another could have bad tummy cramps and insomnia that night. Or worse, develop a rash that takes a few weeks to subside. For us, some seasons see us more reactive than other seasons. Meaning that eating out this week could see us have a slight increase in itching but eating out the next month could see us scratching like crazy for a whole 3 months! I am so not exaggerating.
Cross Contamination
Then there is the issue of cross-contamination. For example, some highly sensitive individuals to wheat must have their dish prepared in a kitchen that did not prepare or cook wheat at all. Hence strict gluten-free restaurants have separate kitchens, not just separate chopping boards and cooking utensils!
So Militant?!
I am only so strict or militant about it when the eczema flare is bad. When that happens, we will adhere to a very strict diet and we eat no food that I did not cook myself. Even if someone offered to cook according to our specifications. I am sorry. Many cooks use certain condiments (even MSG!) automatically. But that sauce or spice that is often used in their family without issue, could be something that sets us back many weeks.
And yes, people have been offended. But when I am the one watching the child suffer and end up having to do damage control, for months, sometimes, I will be militant and take a chance that I may offend.
So please understand when someone queries you about the recipe of your home-cooked dish. It may not necessarily be that she wants to steal your recipe 😛 but that she is really cautious about her child’s or even her own health. Because…home-cooked food is not necessarily healthy, and for us, safe.
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Diet does affect our well-being