One of the most well-known food allergies is peanut allergies. It’s so well known that some parents don’t feed their children peanuts without a doctor’s supervision. You can grow out of childhood allergies which is very common. What is less common is developing food allergies as an adult. Approximately 10% of adults have food allergies and only half of those adults had them develop into adulthood. I am one of those 5% of people who developed food allergies in adulthood. If I took time to list out everything I am allergic or have intolerances to it would be a grocery list. The short answer is peanuts, and corn.
If having an allergy to one of the most common food ingredients wasn’t enough, being a picky eater on top of that limits the food choices on campus. Penn State only does a limited amount of allergen warnings and corn is not one of them. I will eventually get set up with the dietary office but until then corn roulette it is.
A frustrating part of eating on campus is having to go through every dining hall to see what’s for dinner, and then trying to figure out what is and what it should be made with. This semester I am going to document my journey in the dining halls and figuring out the allergy system at Penn State.