Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Today I opened the Chicago Tribune's "Tempo" section as I like to do with my morning coffee. I flipped to the advice column "Ask Amy" as I do most days. And there it was: Miss Amy got snarky about food allergies. She's snarky about a lot of things, but I wasn't going to take this one lying down, since she seems very biased against food-allergic folks.
Here's the gist: A food-allergic adult wanted advice about how to deflect frequent commentary and needling from their co-workers about their food allergy. The writer mentioned that they even felt uncomfortable dining with their co-workers because people were always questioning them about what they were eating.
A fair concern, right? If you have food allergies or a child who does, you know what this writer means. As BC would say, you feel their pain. You've been through it yourself and would probably be interested in reading what an "outside party" has to say.
Don't get your hopes up. Amy's "helpful" (a-hem) response? "Clearly your food allergies are making you grumpy and extra sensitive," she told the food-allergic letter writer. She also told them that they needed an "extra helping of graciousness." As I said, I read her column often and she's been kinder in her responses to advice-seekers who have done, shall we say, a lot worse things than the food-allergic letter writer described.
Amy also told the writer that their "nightmare" (yes, I think she's being sarcastic) will stop if they keep their food allergy "private." When I read this, I thought, Oh, no she didn't.
Keeping their condition "private" is about the worse thing a severely allergic person can do. Others (including co-workers) should know to call 911 if they recognize allergic symptoms in an adult and keeping it "private" is detrimental (usually) to a food-allergic person's health. Should people with a bee sting allergy keep it "private?" How about people with asthma? Or any severe medical problem that could present strong symptoms?
Well, if the French Roast I was drinking at the time wasn't enough of a wake-up aid, Amy's comments certainly did get my blood rolling (and boiling) this a.m.
You may be saying to yourself: Who cares what Amy thinks? But here's the thing: she's got a national readership via her syndicated column. It stinks when someone with that kind of forum treats food allergies with such derision.
If you would like to read the letter/response in its entirety, go to this link.