I missed that one, but that's a classic.
This thought occurred to me when looking at the new Tiana's Palace menu... how did all these people get so many food allergies? There's a separate Tiana's Palace menu for the following allergies;
Gluten/Wheat Allergy Menu
Egg Allergy Menu
Fish/Shellfish Allergy Menu
Milk Allergy Menu
Peanut/Tree Nut Allergy Menu
Soy Allergy Menu
Sesame Allergy Menu
I'm baffled. I'm an old guy, I've had a lot of friends over the decades, and I've loved to throw dinner parties and attend dinner parties. I have never known anyone who had a food allergy, much less voice that need to a host or hostess. In decades of hosting I've never even asked my guests if they're allergic to shrimp in the canape's, or milk in the potatoes dauphinoise, or sesame seeds on the July 4th barbecue hamburger buns.
And no one has ever asked me.
There's a part of me that thinks it's really great that Disney offers these options. But then there's a part of me that is absolutely baffled that all these food allergies now exist and in my entire life I've never known a single person with any of them, much less had a party guest say
"Does the pan sauce you are serving with the steak au poivre have soy sauce in it? I have a soy allergy."
Who are all these folks with all these food allergies, and how did we not know about them just 15 years ago???
disneyland.disney.go.com
I will say, based on my experience, I grew up in a household where I was afforded access to every type of food.
As a kid I ate crab, lobster, shrimp, salmon, eggs, bread, meat, vegetables, everything. Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day. I could down 4 eggs with little hesitation (not an exaggeration, for better or worse). My favorite dish in the world were the Crab Cakes at Atlanta Fish Market with mash potato and chives. I absolutely loved these dishes.
Randomly, and for no good apparent reason, I developed an egg and shellfish allergy. The egg allergy developed first, followed by the shellfish allergy a couple of years later. Absolutely zero allergies before or after that point. Very bizarre.
Personally, I’m a very extroverted person, but I still hate feeling like a burden. As a very little kid, my aunt would always complain to the waiter to bring a chef or cook or whomever because she was gluten free. She didn’t have a gluten allergy or a gluten intolerance, she straight up just made a conscious decision to stop eating gluten. She was an absolute pain in the rear for everyone involved. She delayed everyone’s dinner, wasted the staff’s time, among other problems. If you’re choosing to go on a diet, from my perspective, it’s best just to stick to whatever doesn’t obviously contain whatever you’re trying to avoid, and if you’re unsure, a simple question should suffice. No need to make it into a huge hysteria. Watching her behaved this way largely communicated to me that I needed to minimize my disturbances to others.
One of the first places we went after getting a confirmation for my allergies was Disney, and they’re absolutely fantastic for allergies, as others have previously mentioned. That said, in trying to avoid being a pain regarding allergies, Disney, to me, is often too good. To me, it makes me uncomfortable because they make a huge deal about it. When my allergies first about, my dad would often decide on an appetizer like calamari (which falls under the shellfish umbrella), for example, and then comment about how they needed to get something else instead, because I couldn’t eat it. It was very frustrating as a child because my dad was just trying to be considerate and accommodating, but it made me uncomfortable.
I say all of this, because even at a place like Disney, where they’re very good about it, I don’t like mentioning it, which brings a certain level of risk. Thankfully, I don’t have drop-dead allergies for simple cross contamination or very trace amounts. It’s still poses a threat, I always carry an epi-pen, but many people with allergies require absolutely zero tolerance, so it can be debilitating. These people are generally the exception, most people with allergies can withstand some level of exposure before dropping dead, but at the end of the day, it is playing with fire. I’ve had a few bad reactions over the years, but as a whole, I’ve managed.
To come full circle, I think your perception regarding a lack of allergies likely has a few primary culprits, firstly, many people keep their allergies to themselves, and secondly, I believe you’ve grown up in a generation where the mantra of “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” and “tough it out” reigned supreme, compared to modern standards. As others have mentioned, health standards and awareness have vastly improved.
I fully agree with you, these menus are a relatively new phenomenon barring perhaps some minor examples, but they’re extremely useful to those who need them, and decrease the inconvenience for everyone. It’s safer and better for the the person with the allergy. It’s better for the party of the guest, because their service will be faster. It’s better for everyone else, because it’s not consuming the staff’s time to have a Q&A session. It’s hardly a bad thing.
Most everyone can manage. In a weird convenience, I recently went to Disneyland with a friend with celiac disease. At one point during the day, we stopped for a snack at the corn dog stand on main street. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get anything because it’s made with gluten. There were no gluten-free options, which is understandable since it’s a cart, but if there were, her day could’ve been better. Disclaimer: I’m not suggesting a corn dog cart should answer the needs of every allergy ever, as it’s unreasonable. My point is, for those who need it, even if it’s a niche subset of guests, it makes their lives substantially better.
Besides the one friend I went to Disneyland with, I personally don’t know of anyone else’s allergy’s within my sphere of influence. I definitely know people with food allergies, but I don’t necessarily know about them.
Only 4% of adults have food allergies, which roughly equates to one in 25. Over the course of several months, I probably don’t even dine with 25 people, but even if I did, I probably wouldn’t know if they had an allergy, because not everyone has an allergy severe enough to warrant the dish is 100% of cross contamination (and if they do, dining anywhere is a challenge). Regardless, roughly 200,000 people are hospitalized each year for food related allergic reactions in the U.S. which roughly equates to 0.06% of the population each year, which isn’t a lot, but it’s non-zero.
I think claims that an explosion of allergies is overblown, a lot of it, from my perspective is the optics of allergies often gets conflated with fad-diets, alongside a decrease of the “deal with it on your own” attitude, which leads to people being more vocal.
So including these menus might not have a huge impact, even on the Disney scale, but for those who need it, it makes the process light years more convenient.
Having these menus be readily available is awesome, and should be applauded.
If menus like this were included everywhere, I would pick them up every time (even if I don’t ask for assistance with my allergy now at restaurants) which would’ve prevented multiple reactions in the past, and while those reactions weren’t fatal or worth a trip to the hospital, to say they ruined my day likely is an understatement.
Very glad these menus are becoming more common, even if they weren’t available in the past.
), etc. We ate it all.
