Problem
Diets of all kinds are catered for online - but rather more essential to plan in advance or take your own special food on an airline. You can buy food for all kinds of special diets: eggless, free of MSG, gluten-free, halal, kosher, low-calorie, nutfree, and free of all kinds of foods you need to avoid when taking pills.
People often joke that the Chinese eat anything with four legs except the table, but many of them are lactose intolerant.
Airlines offer lots of meals. However, on Singapore Airlines, if you have a shellfish allergy the only way to get a meal supposedly without shellfish is to order a kosher meal.
In-flight you really don't want to come out with a rash like chickenpox, swelling around your eyes and mouth and throat so you can hardly breathe, and non-stop retching for 24 hours even after you have vomited up your meal.
Surprise - Mistake
I've had bad reactions to shellfish twice. The first time I ate crab by mistake for salmon. I had pointed at a pink fish sandwich filling when staff in a sandwich shop did not know the English word (for crab).
The other time was after eating king prawns in a restaurant.
Spots
It's disgusting and alarming for others to see you covered in spots. The sufferer, bystanders, even medically trained people might wonder whether it's chicken pox and contagious. Rashes are one of the danger signs which mean call a doctor. Could be meningitis, or bubonic plague (still prevalent in Africa).
Without a doctor, you don't know if it's a food allergy, food poisoning, chicken pox, or shingles (a late in life recurrence caused by chicken pox earlier in life) or something else contagious. It could be dangerous to the person suffering, and passed on to you if you touch them.
Nor, if it comes to that, a business trip. Just imagine, you are the sales person hoping to seal a deal. 'Yes, sir,' you or the sales person shakes hands with the potential buyer, 'all our food and drink is organic and healthy. Excuse me, sorry to retch over this contract I would like you to sign ... you will sign, won't you?'
Retching
I brought up the food and thought that's it, thank goodness it's over. It wasn't. I went on retching, just saliva, for hours. It's exhausting for the sufferer when you keep retching even when there's no more food in you because your body has gone into spasms.
No sleep all night. The reaction is not amusing. Even if no long-term consequences, no start to a holiday for the passenger and companions. Not something passengers and staff would like to see on an airline.
So forgive me, I am not amused by the idea of accidentally eating something to which you have an allergy.
You can also develop allergies. Usually, possibly, after increasing amounts, or increasing events of eating something to which you are slightly intolerant. I love strawberries. After a long hot summer when I ate strawberries every day, sometimes twice a day, at the end of the summer I started swelling up around my mouth and went to the doctor.
She said, "It's an allergic reaction. What have you been eating? How often?"
About ten years later I was tempted to eat a strawberry. I tried a tiny amount. Fine. Half. A whole one. Half an hour later, a couple more. Next day, a whole plateful. OK!
Luckily, even when I am surprised (by teeny shrimps in soups in Korea and rice in Thailand and Malaysia and Singapore) - most customers and servers - even at the Sheraton Towers hotel buffet - cheerily tell you they don't think the food contains any shellfish. I turn over the food and check. I can usually smell shellfish. A sharp smell. Pungent.
If I eat it I know immediately that it's shellfish. Sharp taste, like pickles in vinegar, like kimchee. Worse still, tingling in my mouth, inside lips seem to be pressing on my tongue - swelling.
I spit out, race for the toilet, retch, spit, clean my teeth and tongue, swill water, suck water between my teeth.
Always take care of yourself, your family, your friends, your colleagues.
Safety First
On one press trip, to Italy, the PR lady would not even let me eat fish in case a prawn had sat on top of a piece of fish, or a shellfish sauce had been added. She told me, and the group, that on a previous trip one of the journalists had had a reaction to shellfish. The person had to go to hospital. She, as the PR person in charge of the trip, had to accompany the stricken person to hospital, do all the paperwork, report to her employers and the insurance company, try to organize the following day when she was kept busy at the hospital, consider having to repatriate the traveller early.
The moral of the story?
The morals or lessons of the story:
1 Never give somebody something to which they are allergic or intolerant as a joke - because each experience increases their physical reaction - like vaccination in reverse as the body builds up hystamine as a reaction to try to expel the toxin.
2 Note what you are eating.
If possible give the pilot or driver different food so in the case of food poisoning another pilot or driver unaffected can take over.
3 Label packaged food carefully - fish is not a sufficient description, nor is seafood. I am fine with salmon and trout and smoked salmon and cod and plaice. It is only shellfish and molluscs which cause me problems.
If you are not allergic to nuts, strawberries or shellfish, lucky you. If you find yourself with somebody who can't eat certain products, you can get a double portion!
If you are ever in charge of packaging, supply food, serving food, acting as a guide, watch out for allergies. You could save yourself and others a lot of time, money and worry.
On one trip to a seafood restaurant in Spain I gave my shellfish starter to the person next to me in exchange for his chocolate dessert. We were both very happy!
What are the common dietary needs?
No shellfish (allergy)
No shellish (kosher)
No beef (hindu)
No meat (and sometimes no fish) vegetarian
No eggs and milk (in addition to no meat and fish) vegan
No nuts (allergy)
No eggs (allergy - that's why Bird's custard powder was invented by a man whose wife was allergic to eggs)
No lamb (Asians find it smells offensive)
No milk (lactose intolerance in a proportion of Asians - might be one sister can't drink milk but the other can)
No milk and meat at the same meal (kosher - so no butter on meat sandwiches and no milk in coffee or milky desserts after meat)
No meat (vegans find it smells offensive - I was asked not to eat a meat sandwich on a bus by a vegan tour guide.)
No pork (Halal and kosher - ancient law, possibly practical, reinforced by prohibition, originating from the book of Leviticus which is Greek word for laws in the bible, as it is called by Jews, known to Christians as the Old Testament after they added the new Testament featuring the life of Jesus and disciples.)
My friend Shan started a gluten free import business in Singapore when a member of her family became known to have a gluten problem.
Useful Websites
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy
Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Diets of all kinds are catered for online - but rather more essential to plan in advance or take your own special food on an airline. You can buy food for all kinds of special diets: eggless, free of MSG, gluten-free, halal, kosher, low-calorie, nutfree, and free of all kinds of foods you need to avoid when taking pills.
People often joke that the Chinese eat anything with four legs except the table, but many of them are lactose intolerant.
Airlines offer lots of meals. However, on Singapore Airlines, if you have a shellfish allergy the only way to get a meal supposedly without shellfish is to order a kosher meal.
In-flight you really don't want to come out with a rash like chickenpox, swelling around your eyes and mouth and throat so you can hardly breathe, and non-stop retching for 24 hours even after you have vomited up your meal.
Surprise - Mistake
I've had bad reactions to shellfish twice. The first time I ate crab by mistake for salmon. I had pointed at a pink fish sandwich filling when staff in a sandwich shop did not know the English word (for crab).
The other time was after eating king prawns in a restaurant.
Spots
It's disgusting and alarming for others to see you covered in spots. The sufferer, bystanders, even medically trained people might wonder whether it's chicken pox and contagious. Rashes are one of the danger signs which mean call a doctor. Could be meningitis, or bubonic plague (still prevalent in Africa).
Without a doctor, you don't know if it's a food allergy, food poisoning, chicken pox, or shingles (a late in life recurrence caused by chicken pox earlier in life) or something else contagious. It could be dangerous to the person suffering, and passed on to you if you touch them.
Swelling
Then there's the swelling. You look pretty ugly with swollen eyes. Swollen face, Swollen mouth. Not what you want on a honeymoon, anniversary trip, nor any happy holiday. Nor, if it comes to that, a business trip. Just imagine, you are the sales person hoping to seal a deal. 'Yes, sir,' you or the sales person shakes hands with the potential buyer, 'all our food and drink is organic and healthy. Excuse me, sorry to retch over this contract I would like you to sign ... you will sign, won't you?'
Retching
I brought up the food and thought that's it, thank goodness it's over. It wasn't. I went on retching, just saliva, for hours. It's exhausting for the sufferer when you keep retching even when there's no more food in you because your body has gone into spasms.
No sleep all night. The reaction is not amusing. Even if no long-term consequences, no start to a holiday for the passenger and companions. Not something passengers and staff would like to see on an airline.
So forgive me, I am not amused by the idea of accidentally eating something to which you have an allergy.
You can also develop allergies. Usually, possibly, after increasing amounts, or increasing events of eating something to which you are slightly intolerant. I love strawberries. After a long hot summer when I ate strawberries every day, sometimes twice a day, at the end of the summer I started swelling up around my mouth and went to the doctor.
She said, "It's an allergic reaction. What have you been eating? How often?"
About ten years later I was tempted to eat a strawberry. I tried a tiny amount. Fine. Half. A whole one. Half an hour later, a couple more. Next day, a whole plateful. OK!
Luckily, even when I am surprised (by teeny shrimps in soups in Korea and rice in Thailand and Malaysia and Singapore) - most customers and servers - even at the Sheraton Towers hotel buffet - cheerily tell you they don't think the food contains any shellfish. I turn over the food and check. I can usually smell shellfish. A sharp smell. Pungent.
If I eat it I know immediately that it's shellfish. Sharp taste, like pickles in vinegar, like kimchee. Worse still, tingling in my mouth, inside lips seem to be pressing on my tongue - swelling.
I spit out, race for the toilet, retch, spit, clean my teeth and tongue, swill water, suck water between my teeth.
Always take care of yourself, your family, your friends, your colleagues.
Safety First
On one press trip, to Italy, the PR lady would not even let me eat fish in case a prawn had sat on top of a piece of fish, or a shellfish sauce had been added. She told me, and the group, that on a previous trip one of the journalists had had a reaction to shellfish. The person had to go to hospital. She, as the PR person in charge of the trip, had to accompany the stricken person to hospital, do all the paperwork, report to her employers and the insurance company, try to organize the following day when she was kept busy at the hospital, consider having to repatriate the traveller early.
The moral of the story?
The morals or lessons of the story:
1 Never give somebody something to which they are allergic or intolerant as a joke - because each experience increases their physical reaction - like vaccination in reverse as the body builds up hystamine as a reaction to try to expel the toxin.
2 Note what you are eating.
If possible give the pilot or driver different food so in the case of food poisoning another pilot or driver unaffected can take over.
3 Label packaged food carefully - fish is not a sufficient description, nor is seafood. I am fine with salmon and trout and smoked salmon and cod and plaice. It is only shellfish and molluscs which cause me problems.
If you are not allergic to nuts, strawberries or shellfish, lucky you. If you find yourself with somebody who can't eat certain products, you can get a double portion!
If you are ever in charge of packaging, supply food, serving food, acting as a guide, watch out for allergies. You could save yourself and others a lot of time, money and worry.
On one trip to a seafood restaurant in Spain I gave my shellfish starter to the person next to me in exchange for his chocolate dessert. We were both very happy!
What are the common dietary needs?
No shellfish (allergy)
No shellish (kosher)
No beef (hindu)
No meat (and sometimes no fish) vegetarian
No eggs and milk (in addition to no meat and fish) vegan
No nuts (allergy)
No eggs (allergy - that's why Bird's custard powder was invented by a man whose wife was allergic to eggs)
No lamb (Asians find it smells offensive)
No milk (lactose intolerance in a proportion of Asians - might be one sister can't drink milk but the other can)
No milk and meat at the same meal (kosher - so no butter on meat sandwiches and no milk in coffee or milky desserts after meat)
No meat (vegans find it smells offensive - I was asked not to eat a meat sandwich on a bus by a vegan tour guide.)
No pork (Halal and kosher - ancient law, possibly practical, reinforced by prohibition, originating from the book of Leviticus which is Greek word for laws in the bible, as it is called by Jews, known to Christians as the Old Testament after they added the new Testament featuring the life of Jesus and disciples.)
My friend Shan started a gluten free import business in Singapore when a member of her family became known to have a gluten problem.
Useful Websites
email: sales@glutenfreesg.com>
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/flying-withus/dining/specialmeals/https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy
Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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