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My boyfriend is lactose-intolerant and has colitis, which means that in addition to dairy products, he can't eat beef, pork, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, anything spicy (and that includes black pepper!), anything very fatty (I have to use cooking oils very sparingly), cabbage, peas, and lots of other things I'm forgetting. When we met, he only ate boiled chicken, white rice, and pasta with store-bought sauce. It's been a journey to create foods that he likes & can eat (and convince him to try the dishes, that they wouldn't kill him), but I've had a great time with the challenge, and his diet now has a ton of variety to it. I'm proud, and he's healthy!

I had intestinal surgery, plus get migraines.

I maintain a web page with my restrictions- although I need to also put what I *like* up there since people are incredulous how I live.

in general: no meat, chicken, dairy, asparagus (landed me in the med center in college), cranberries, celery and corn kernels (hard to digest), chocolate, nitrates (present in preserved fish), no seafood, peanuts, lentils, or split peas.

in general, really small amounts are okay; I'm sensitive (will get sick) rather than allergic (go into anaphylactic shock)

OMG Jillrenee I want to pity you, but then I realize you're not complaining, I'm sure you've mangaed just fine with these restrictions...so instead of pity, I admire you. Post that site, I'm intrigued and - although I don't have food allergies - I would love to get new cooking ideas from someone who does.

I too admire people that have food restrictions (pity sounds so patronizing). It's just something I've never had to deal with and have trouble empathizing with. Anyway, it's exciting to see that you are making the best of it, and still have a fun, involved relationship with your food.

I have oral allergy syndrome. I can't eat raw strawberries, peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, cherries, figs, or hazelnuts in any form (raw/cooked). I can eat any of those fruits cooked, even cooked for even a short time. I add more and more fruit to the off-limits list as time goes on. Basically, I can't eat any fruit (raw) that's grown locally. If I want fruit I can have melon or tropical-climate fruit. Or pie!

I am allergic to hazelnuts and cherries. Really allergic, as in swell up and have trouble breathing. I carry an epi-pen with me at all times. Cherries are easy to avoid. (I really miss being able to eat cherries, my allergy developed when I was in my thirties)

Hazelnuts are a bit more difficult, as they are not uncommon in desserts. In restaurants I always ask about ingredients, and when I eat with new friends I let them know about these only two things I cannot eat. Fortunately I am not allergic to any other nuts, so it is relatively easy to make substitutions in recipes.

I'm lactose intolerant, but I've found that moderate amounts of certain cheeses don't bother my stomach much - mozarella, for example. But real ice cream and cheeses like gorgonzola are guaranteed to make my day miserable.

extremely allergic to dairy. hurts my whole body not just my stomach.--also tomatoes and macadamia nuts, go figure. :-)

Yeah, I just developed my food allergies in the last year and it's been really hard to adjust to. I also swell up and can't breathe. Fruit was basically my favorite thing to eat until last summer (and the tasty, healthy, fast way to satisfy my sweet tooth). All the best chocolate desserts are have hazelnuts in them. Actually, my showstopper dessert is a hazelnut torte, something I will never make again I guess. It is a dome-shaped hazelnut cake lined with chocolate ganache and then filled with amaretto whipped cream and raspberries. I used to bake that whenever I wanted something impressive for guests, and for my best friend's birthday every year.

I'm somewhat lactose intolerant and allergic to mushrooms, chocolate, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, bananas, musk melons, and kiwi fruit. So now you know why my recipes will never include these things! :)

I don't know if it's technically an allergy, but when I eat raw onions I get an awful headache. It started in my mid-20s.

I put down "nothing", but then i remembered i'm allergic to raw beef and beef blood. Even just a little bit of underdone beef is enough to cause violent illness. It's just hard to remember though because i've been a vegetarian for so many years.

raw figs. one is usually ok, but I try not to push it. it's such a shame as well, since I love their flavor and texture.

Not really an allergy, but I am super-sensitive to the compounds in potatoes and wild huckleberries. They make me very nauseous. I've tried to research it a bit online, and it sounds like I might be naturally sensitive, but that lifetime exposure can be a factor, too.

Unclear, but either way I miss baby potatoes, which I can no longer eat as a result (the little ones invariably have more glycoalkaloids than fully-grown potatoes do).

soy, corn, shellfish, and tropical fruits are the worst for me, resulting in rashes and sometimes headaches.

my rashes can be exacerbated by beef, lamb, duck, asparagus, artichokes, bamboo shoots, hot peppers, and a host of other things.

i miss popcorn at movies and mango with sticky rice. but otherwise i eat plenty and very well (too well...).

I'm allergic to Tomato's

For some reason I couldn't answer the survey, but wanted to chip in that I am deathly allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Like another commenter I carry an epi-pen and benedryl with me always.
I wanted to share with all of you a really neat thing they are doing here in NYC called Worry Free Dinners ( www.worryfreedinners.blogspot.com ) which is a group for food allergy and celiac sufferers to dine out together at "safe" restaurants. It's really a lot of fun and it is so nice to be able to eat out once in a while and know that you aren't putting your life in danger to do so.
I'm not affiliated with them, but I think it's such a cool service I just wanted to give them a little plu-plu-plug.

My son (8 years old) has food sensitivities to gluten, dairy, eggs, oats, cane sugar, peanuts, soy, almonds, and sesame. In spite of this, it is amazing how many things he can eat and how great simple food can be. I feel very fortunate that he is dealing with this at a time when there are abundant resources and products available. However, I do miss being able to cook with cheese.

I don't know if I have an official allergy, but I can't eat onions. I hate the taste/smell/feel of them, but they also make me feel really sick if I eat any. It's hard to find any sort of recipe without onions . . .

Food-wise, I am allergic to spinach and bananas. Which is a shame, because I used to love spinach.

Many of my friends have odd--and in one case, extensive--food allergies. It can be a challenge, but if you think in terms of foods that are acceptable to everyone, it actually makes menu planning a lot easier.

I'm allergic to food colouring. Not a bad one as I'd rather avoid it anyway and it's not a serious allergy.

Almost as crippling as food allergies when it comes to cooking are digestive disorders that limit what you can eat. I've got friends with crohn's, colitis, and ibs and they have huge lists of things that they can't eat or can only eat if prepared certain ways. It certainly makes dinner parties a challenge.

One common allergen that I notice you didn't list is sulfites. It's a tricky one for people to diagnose/figure out since it's more a chemical component than a specific food. Sulfites are what makes garlic/onions/mustard have that spiciness. They occur naturally in grapes (meaning wine and balsamic vinegar have sulfites). They're also present in the common preservative metabisulphite (which is in most packaged crackers, sprayed on strawberries, in bottled lemon juice, etc). I'm not allergic, but I have a family member who is, which is why I know all the affected food products.

I am deathly allergic to carrots and most uncooked fruits and veggies. I'm not kidding and it gets annoying to try to explain this to waitstaff at restaurants.

I'm allergic to mustard and horseradish.

With mustard, I mostly just feel sick to my stomach, my heart rate increases, and I get a headache. I used to live in Southern California and the wild mustard pollen there would make me just a ball of snot in the spring.

Horseradish (and wasabi, unfortunately) causes an anaphylactic reaction -- my throat closes and my heart speeds up.

I wish there were substitutions for these flavors....I'm Scandinavian, and it's hard to make traditional food without them.

I wouldn't say that I am allergic (there's no Type I or IV hypersensitivity going on) but I am intolerant or sensitive to dairy, wheat (and gluten) corn, peanuts and certain types of soy. I used to get killer headaches, GI irritation, nausea, nasty farts, itchy skin and rashes, acne, and other symptoms (that I now have found out are symptoms of renal toxicity).
Now that I don't eat that stuff, I feel much healthier. Plus, my hayfever symptoms (which used to debilitate me) are almost non-existent.

I have a pretty serious intolerance (not allergy): fructose intolerance. That means I can't eat sugar in any form, including honey and fruit. Basically, I can't digest the stuff, so even the smallest amount will wreak havoc on my system in all sorts of unpleasant ways.

It's a tough intolerance to have in these cupcake-crazed times. It's also the reason I learned to cook!

Growing up, I had no food allergies at all. Come my twenties and I discover the very hard way that I'm terribly allergic to mangos, as well as molds and yeasts, which means no bread, wine, beer, mold-ripened cheeses, soy sauce, vinegars, autolyzed yeast extract (which is an amazingly common additive), etc. Thank god I was never a big fan of Marmite. On the other hand, I do like myself a nice drink now and then, so in lieu of beer and wine, I've become quite fluent in gins.

I'm lactose intolerant, which is relatively, and easy to deal with as long as I avoid excessive cheese, milk and ice cream, except that I live in France and my boyfriend works in a gourmet ice cream shop. So, easy to deal with in general, kind of annoying in my personal situation.

I'm also sensitive to red food dye. It gives me migraines. I can pretty easily avoid it in my own cooking and while in Europe, but in the US it's pretty omnipresent. It's frustrating having to explain over and over again that I can't eat the cake that has raspberry filling because I don't know what's in it and having to ask restaurants if they use food dyes. I've only recently developed this allergy and have been shocked by the number of things unnecessarily dyed, like some brands of fruit yogurt, which should have enough color on its own.

Also, my brother has Asperger's and is sensitive to MSG, which makes his Asperger's more pronounced, and to dairy, which makes him go to sleep. The dairy is annoying because so many products have milk powder, etc, but it's the MSG that's the kicker. Many ingredients, such as malted barley and canned tomatoes, contain MSG, but MSG is not listed because it was added as a separate ingredient. My family pretty much had to completely overhaul our food consumption and start making everything from scratch, which was good health wise but difficult. However, it was totally worth it, because as a result of therapy and the change in diet, my brother no longer "tests" as having Asperger's.

I have a violent allergy to dairy products, and it irritates me to no end when restaurant staff don't take it seriously. I've become very, very sick on a few occasions because someone in the kitchen got careless.

I cant eat egg yolks or my intestines go on strike, so more of an intolerance than allergy. Same with some cereals (life, special k). The allergist told me I was allergic to rye, and now when I eat it I get all itchyitchy and warm. The main flavor in rye bread is caaway, so no big loss there, as I can make "rye" bread. But man, I miss those ryecrisp wafer things...

Now ask me about plants, molds, lotions, candles, perfumes and antibioics and youll get a story!

Thankfully I'm not allergic to ay foods, but I do get a weird reaction in my mouth after eating fresh pineapple & eggplant. My mouth feels like it's been burned or scratched raw. Does anyone else have that reaction?

Lobster. I live in New England, so it makes me sad.

Still, it beats being allergic to chocolate!!

Strawberries. Very, very allergic.

Didn't bother me much for a long time, but has gotten annoying the last few years as folks seem to be using them to garnish practically anything all year round. I can hardly ever take a piece of fruit from a fruit platter anymore, now that they strew strawberries about like crazy and there might have been one just sitting on top of the melon I would like. Same has become true of dessert platters, cheese platters, appetizer platters. And many a time I've asked in a restaurant for them to please leave it off, it comes with one anyway, and when I remind them, they just take the strawberry off . No, folks, I reall0y mean it, can't eat anything that has touched.

I'm not allergic to anything, but I usually tell people I'm allergic to seafood, since it's easier than explaining that I hate it and it makes me want to vomit :)

I'm not allergic to it, but I tend to avoid soy protein because too much soy estrogen tends to make me break out.

My kiddo is allergic to milk and eggs. She might be allergic to other things too, e.i tahini, but it's to be confirmed... That the reason I don't enjoy cooking as much as I used to - I'm scared to experiment. Half of the kids in her pre-k class are allergic to something. Pizza and ice-cream cake are no longer on the list of the Birthday treats...

Yea, I tell people that I am very allergic to dairy and meat when I go out to eat. If you just tell them to not put it in the dish, half the time they forget or ignore the request.

I used to eat lots of dairy, but if you stop for a while, your body stops producing the enzymes necessary to digest it; our bodies aren't really designed to have dairy past infancy, especially that of another animal.

I'm allergic to citrus. Its sort of frustrating.

I am VERY allergic to: pineapple, shellfish, fish in general, and some preservatives in meat.

I developed allergies after I turned 20. It took forever to get a diagnosis but now I know...

sugar cane products
coffee
oats

i was lactose intolerant throughout childhood and my early twenties, but regained my ability to digest dairy about eight years ago by consuming small amounts of dairy every day. since the after-effects were unpleasant, i would usually treat myself to a bit of ice cream every night, so it wouldn't ruin my day or evening activities. it took a couple of years of this, so you kind of have to be committed to it. but i was really intolerant, and i travel a lot and have an adventurous palate and basically didn't want to have to worry about accidentally ingesting dairy in a really inconvenient place.

the only real downside to this is that i've gained about 15 pounds since then. :(

I too am allergic to fructose, although so long as I stay away from rye bread, apples and pears i find i am OK. MSG is a big no no for me too.

I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease (allergic to the gluten in wheat, barley and rye) when I was 37 - came on for no apparent reason but, boy, were the stomach cramps painful!

I don't suffer from coeliacs, but I am highly intolerant to gluten products. A sandwich on a tuesday can sometimes ruin my normally healthy digestive system for the rest of the week.

I've spoken to my GP about this - I can have gluten products if I am willing to suffer as it won't do me any harm in the long run, but it's not fun!

I find most "gluten free" alternatives for bread/cakes/pasta that you can buy in supermarkets (in England, at least) aren't a patch on the real thing - I'd love some good recipes.

I'm allergic to lobster. I found this out by eating a chinese takeout seafood combo dish that had lobster and I broke out in hives. I thought it was a fluke so in culinary school I had some lobster that my classmates prepared and I broke out again and my face was swollen. That's when I knew it was lobster.

It's weird because I'm not allergic to any other shellfish.

Sesame!
I will always remember september 7th, 2001. The day I learned I had to stop eating sesame or die. I loved sesame, I actually had sesame snaps on me that day. Of course my life without sesame is not too tragic. I can order sushi and other asian dishes sans sesame and make my own hummus but I seriously miss that so very flavorfull sesame oil.

Allergies are a pain. I am completely dairy intolerant and we are weening our children off it as well. Unfortunately dairy products seem to be in nearly everything. My husband is allergic to peanuts and both him and my son are seriously allergic to pineapple and raw tomatoes (I think its the seeds).

What really gets me are the food restrictions though. Because of medical issues I can have NO seafood or anything with iodized salt. It is often easier to just eat a low salt diet than risk getting too much.

Shellfish and mango.

miss jolly, I have oral allergy syndrome, too! That means no raw apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, etc. For anyone who's not familiar with it (and I wasn't until a kind doctor solved my mystery earlier this year), oral allergy syndrome happens when your body confuses the proteins in some foods that you're not 'actually' allergic to with the proteins in things you are - for me it's birch. So instead of recognizing that I'm consuming a delicious apple, my body thinks I'm stuffing my face with birch pollen!

Apparently, allergy shots my fix the whole conundrum, but they're expensive and, after 8 and a half years of 'em as a kid, I'm reluctant to go back. So just know that if i see you snacking on a healthy, refreshing apple, i'm seethingly jealous.