I have been told I'm allergic to life. I don't think so...life usually seems to treat me pretty well. But for as long as I can remember, there have been three things that I am definitely allergic to. Melons, nuts, and fish. I don't eat them. Each of them make me swell, but they each do it in different ways. Melons make my lips and tongue tingle. This must be a fruit thing, because other fruits I'm mildly allergic to, like bananas and tomatoes, do the same thing. I once had a watermelon fight with my mom, and we both ended up with welts wherever we actually hit each other. I definitely won though!!! And that's all that mattered then... ;-)
Nuts make my mouth feel fuzzy. It's a weird thing to describe, because it's not that tingly feeling, just a swelling feeling. And for all of you out there that don't know this, peanuts are NOT nuts. They are legumes...and thankfully I AM able to eat peanuts. :)
But fish? That's another story. It doesn't really affect my mouth or my lips. It goes straight for the throat. So I've tried to avoid fish and other seafood the most, though they did try to kill me in China a time or two...
When I was little, my mom used to feed us fishsticks, and I had no problem with them. Of course, I figured it had to be because I'd douse them with mayonnaise. (Did I mention the dilution trick I use with bananas? I drink water after I eat a banana, and I don't have a reaction. I tell myself it's because it's washing down whatever I'm allergic to. Who knows if that's actually true or not...but it works!) Anyway, she also did feed us flounder more than once when I was a kid. I don't think it was often thankfully, because if I remember correctly, I didn't really care for it. But I also don't remember ever reacting to it.
So here's where things get interesting. She also made us tuna sandwiches all the time. That was fine...she'd put a lot of mayonnaise in it (dilution tactic at its best!) and occasionally sweet pickle pieces of joy. Those little bursts of flavor were always welcome. Up until about three or four years ago, I would still eat as much as a can of tuna at a time, either with bread or crackers or whatever I could find. I'd dilute it with mayonnaise and voila! Fishy goodness! Well...all good things must come to an end, right? One day I got my hands on a can of albacore. I didn't know any differently, so I did as I usually did. That was the scariest allergic reaction I have ever had. My throat threatened to close completely, but thankfully it did not. I even narrowly escaped a trip to the ER...mostly because I was too stubborn to think I actually NEEDED to go to the ER. (I HATE doctors...I think I get that from my dad. It's definitely genetic.) ;-)
Since that bad experience, I haven't touched tuna. Of course, as is customary for me, I had to look up why albacore reacted so differently from regular tuna. What I came up with is that it's more mercurial. Well, tuna in general is full of metals...they are big fish. But apparently, albacore has even more.
After much more research, stopping just short of going to the allergist like I know I SHOULD do, we have discovered something amazing! I'm not necessarily allergic to fish. It's whatever metals, or whatever attributes, these tuna have. I can eat salmon! This fact has made me so happy that we've been eating a lot of salmon lately. Sorry babe! Jillian Michaels says they are really good for you though...so I'll continue to eat them. Because I can!
Again, my inquiring mind wants to know WHY I can eat salmon but not tuna, and once I figure out the big difference, I then want to find out what else I SHOULD be able to eat. Orange roughy? BAD! Though not as bad as albacore... And trout should be good.
The moral of this story? We have narrowed it to this: the top of the fishy food chain is probably where I need to stay away from. Any fish that eats other fish would be bad, because their metal levels go up. Bottom feeders are also probably bad, but we don't know for sure. So for now, I'm going to continue to stay away from crabs, lobster and shrimp. Caviar should be good...but they still really creep me out, so it'll take a while. :) Sharks? I will stay away from them for multiple reasons!
Then my head really started going wild. I thought, hmmm....what about those deep-sea fish from Finding Nemo??? Not like they'd be on anyone's menu, but if they were, should I stay away from them? I have to admit, I actually got distracted from that question. I still don't know...I'm not sure if they said.
These anglerfish are some FREAKY fish!!! We knew they were pretty ugly, in a very fascinating way, just because of how they were portrayed in that movie. But, I guess in the fashion of making things kid-friendly, they certainly prettied up this fish. If you go to the National Geographic link: animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/anglerfish/, you can see that it is not only a really ugly fish...it's not your normal fish. First of all, I have to applaud the females in this species...they are definitely awesome! THEY are the ones with the dorsal spine that has that little protrusion that draws the fish to them. Want to know what's even freakier? The males are smaller than the females and the males don't "go fishing"...they just attach themselves to the much-bigger females and are actually parasitic in nature! They don't do anything for themselves...they just feed off of the female! And to make things even worse? A female could have SEVERAL of these males that latch on to her body, and over time, they actually fuse to her! Isn't that just the most bizarre, yet incredible, thing you've heard today? If you have something even more bizarre, please share. I'm definitely in the mood to hear whacky things that are part of this world!
No comments:
Post a Comment