It’s common courtesy to find out everyone’s dietary restrictions and preferences if you are planning on hosting a meal. After all, there are all sorts of religious and ethical distinctions, as well as allergies. So it’s always good to be inclusive. However, there are people out there who, for one reason or another will instead make their, often imagined, preferences everyone’s problem.
A young man asked if he was wrong to stop cooking for his brother’s girlfriend after she would not stop inventing allergies on the spot and ruining dinner. We reached out to the man who made the post via private message and will update the article when he gets back to us.
Cooking for a group does mean figuring out what everyone eats
Image credits: unsplash (not the actual photo)
But one man was at a loss when his brother’s girlfriend would just invent allergies on the spot
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
Image credits: anon
Food allergies are actually a pretty broad term
Let’s start by stating the obvious, food allergies do exist and can be very serious, so the man’s move to actually get in contact with his brother’s girlfriend via text was smart. Best to have a written reminder. Again, this is all normal and good behavior, even if there aren’t allergies at play, it never hurts to double check how people like things. For example, around 11% of Americans do have some sort of food allergy, that’s over 26 million people. That’s a high enough percentage that checking before cooking isn’t optional.
For example, not wanting too much salt is a reasonable request, particularly when made in advance. Part of letting other people cook is trusting their skills and vision, but if your doctor recommended that you use less salt, then bring it up. However, “forgetting” that you can’t eat gluten already beggars belief.
Coeliac disease is a serious condition, which has often been hijacked by folks who claim to have some sort of issue with gluten. Importantly, while it’s often talked about as an allergy, it’s a much larger problem, as it’s a chronic, multiple-organ autoimmune disorder. Or, in the case of this woman, an excuse to complain.
Gluten is the kind of ingredient that really does show up in so many dishes and items that it often just ends up being on the forefront of someone’s mind. “Forgetting” about it doesn’t really pass any scrutiny, but for the sake of argument (which does seem to be her goal as well,) let’s just pretend that she forgot. Claiming that he deleted the messages doesn’t really make any sense since there should be copies on her phone. It does seem that her boyfriend decided to just overlook this little bit of delusion in the name of keeping the peace.
The girlfriend’s little food tantrums are bizarre and ridiculous
Her next outburst would be a lot more tragic if it was real. Garlic allergy is very real and is a truly sad state of affairs, since garlic is a pretty important component of many, many delicious items. However, it seems unlikely that she has this debilitating problem if she was just eating garlic knots hours ago.
This all leads us to the question of why would she act like this. Having someone cook for you is truly a luxury, so disrespecting someone who is literally feeding you has to have some motivation behind it. Some folks really don’t care that much about their food, but at the very least you should be polite if someone has taken the effort.
Perhaps she is a picky eater, which isn’t unforgivable, but is the sort of trait one might get judged for. However, being “judged” for having an allergy is very different, so perhaps she is just reframing things to suit herself. There is a chance she is just lying, either intentionally or just via some deeply held delusion. The Guardian reports that there are roughly twice as many adults who claim to have food allergies then there are people who legitimately can’t eat something. An intolerance isn’t the same as an allergy for example.
That being said, regardless of the situation, this woman suddenly developing blindness after being called out would be downright comical if it wasn’t so annoying for the man who just spent his time cooking. Indeed, his reaction is positively rational, he will simply not cook for her because he “clearly” can’t keep track of her allergies.
Most readers supported his decision
