Thank you! I’ve been looking for the TERF-free version of this.

typed out a whole response and then took a deep breath and deleted it. +2000XP +500G

Would also like to point out that food intolerance and food allergies are not a contest either. No one food issue should be dismissed or seen lesser because you might have one that you see as worse. At the end of the day the food will make someone feel bad and uncomfortable at worst hospitalized. One's ability to have a varied diet has been reduced, new inconveniences during meals and parties have been introduced.

Far too often I have had one food issue group dismiss another. Yes severity needs to be considered, but if someone with a nut and legume allergy is now seeking gluten free alternatives and they are highly concerned about the cross contamination of nuts in their gluten free foods, do not tell them nonsense like "Its all or nothing, there is no such thing as gluten free-lite, you'll be destroying your gut if you dont make a full switch"

1. it does not answer the question of what are nut free alternatives to breads and flours
2. You've disregarded their nut allergy. Going gluten free will not cure their nut allergy. They are trying their best to find a balance between two issues. They very well may not be able to go 100%, but 90% is better than none at all.
3. Their diet is already restricted because of nuts, GF foods have alot of nuts and legumes in it, don't make it sound like adjusting their diet is going to be a death sentence either way. Its doomsday thinking, its anxiety inducing, it can cause more stress for people who already have food aversion.
4. Don't play games with people's food don't lie if something has or doesn't have an ingredient. Some people are highly sensitive, some people are on a spectrum of sensitivity. Be honest, so the person you are interacting with can be safe and well, and make the decision if they can safety eat it. And don't get mad if someone can't eat your food, it can be poison to them.
   
   And its important to remember that consuming a triggering food can exhibit itself in many various different way for different people. Its not the same for everyone. Some folks have an immediate reaction, some have a delayed reaction of a few hours or even days. For some the reaction only lasts for a few hours, some for a few days, others few weeks Depending on the severity, it can cause loss of schooling and work, hospitalization or even death.
   
   It is a health condition. Its not people being dramatic or picky. It is a health issue, the food can harm them. Give the same respect as you would with someone with another disability or health condition that has special needs and conditions.

not to mention the social ramifications of not being able to sit down to the same meal as everyone else, not being able to eat the only things available at a party, not being able to go out in a group setting because you can't trust that a common food allergen isn't in meals without advertisement.

As a species our social culture is often built around food and sharing a meal together; what do you suppose that means for someone who can't eat a lot of what most people assume everyone can?

As a dietary professional and also a person with gluten sensitivity, I want to highlight this part in specific:

Some people are highly sensitive, some people are on a spectrum of sensitivity.

People without food allergies and/or sensitivities (not the same thing, I’ll get to that in a minute) largely do not understand this spectrum, so I’ll break it down here real quick*, from most to least severe:

1. Celiac: certain foods (most universally but certainly not exclusively gluten) cause the body’s immune system to attack itself, causing widespread harm and severe illness.
2. Allergy: proteins in the food cause a histamine response, up to and including anaphylaxis.
3. Sensitivity: your body doesn’t want to digest the thing you ate and will make you suffer for it. Can be stomach pain. Can feel like food poisoning. Bodies are weird and sometimes they just say no about what you eat. (This is where I am with both pork and gluten.)
4. For lack of a better term here, I’m going to call this Compound Sensitivity: if you can have food A and food B, but you can’t combine them without feeling sick, it’s this one. The most common example I can think of is that sometimes people who otherwise can drink regular cow’s milk feel a little sick if they have dairy in their coffee. My housemate is sensitive to dairy if she combines it with wheat.

*This is a broad simplification meant to help people begin to understand the complexities of food allergies/sensitivities, and why you should never play around and not tell people what they’re consuming.

I myself have both allergies and sensitivities; gluten and dairy both make me moderately sick, enough to ruin my day depending on how severely I was exposed, and I can’t eat rice more than twice a week or else the same happens. I also have an outright allergy to fruit pollen that causes mild anaphylaxis upon ingesting or touching fruit peels or rinds, not enough to require a hospital visit but strong enough to require antihistamine medicine (which itself causes intense brain fog) to keep breathing properly. I consider myself fairly lucky that my allergies and sensitivities are relatively mild, causing mostly short-term discomfort and pain.

They still prevent me from eating out at almost all restaurants, because even the salads are made with croutons and the tongs and such have all touched gluten and dairy. Most places have a gluten-free or dairy-free option, not both, and those are almost always both expensive and poor quality. The only breadstuffs I can eat are extremely expensive compared to the kind with gluten and dairy, and desserts and snacks are typically limited as well. Most of the foods sold that I can eat are sold as ‘health food’, increasing the price even further and reducing the production quality. Half the so-called allergen-free foods I find on store shelves still make me sick, usually because the product contains 'trace’ amounts of gluten and/or dairy due to sharing a production line with something that contains them.

I cannot go to potlucks or eat out with friends, because I would end up either having to bring my own meal or go home hungry, both considered rude at best. I cannot go to a nearby gas station or food truck and purchase lunch if I accidentally miss it, because everything there will make me sick. I am fundamentally barred from a major aspect of human culture, and most of the few half-hearted attempts at giving me some substitute are marketed at dieters instead of people who actually can’t tolerate gluten or dairy.

It ticks all the boxes. It gets in the way of living my life, it forces me to adapt to my circumstances, and the aides and requirements to exist with it are ridiculously expensive and don’t work half the time. It certainly sounds like a disability.