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The world is allergic to everything — beware the trees, nuts and milk trying to kill you

Charmain Naidoo
By Charmain Naidoo
6 Nov 2024
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Hold on to your EpiPen, allergies are on the rise, and so is eating clean. Bring your camel milk latte, no foam.

I was about to order my favourite dinner (steak frites) in my favourite New York French brasserie, the iconic Balthazar in Soho, when I was made to sit bolt upright on the red banquette under my derriere.

Do you have any allergies? the white-aproned waiter asked. Allergies?

He then began to run through a list of foods and condiments used in the kitchen: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts. I stopped him at peanuts.

No, no allergies, both the friend I was dining with and I chimed in before the young man could gabble through his memorised inventory. If you’re sure, he said.

This new addition was a surprise – it was January 2023 – and I’m not entirely sure a welcome one.

You see, I arrived in New York as the Sunday Times correspondent in 1998, and lived in a shoebox apartment in Soho.

Just months before, in April 1997, the now infamous British-born curmudgeon Keith McNally – he takes great delight in insulting celebrities on social media platforms – had opened Balthazar.

I lived on Prince Street, which runs parallel to Spring Street, home to the extremely popular brasserie. It quickly became my local, not least because all women dining on their own were immediately brought a glass of champagne and I, yet to make friends in this metropolis, was often on my own.

There was always an offhandedness from the waiters, as is the New York way, but certainly no queries about allergies.

These days, being asked if I have allergies and read a list of foods that could kill me is the norm. Litigation, one impatient waitperson of indeterminate gender shrugged.

So, what had changed in 25 years? The world, it seems, is now allergic – to everything.

allergic allergies Photos: Freepik, iStock



The daughter of a friend has had a bracelet made for her Grade 1 son who would die if he ate, or touched, peanuts. Anaphylaxis is a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, my friend’s girl told me, adding that teachers these days are schooled in resuscitation techniques – at least five children in the little boy’s class have differing deadly allergies.

A 2007 study in Time Trends in Allergic Disorders in the UK explained that diagnosed allergic rhinitis and eczema in children had tripled over the previous three decades.

And, since 1990, admissions for anaphylaxis have increased by 700%: 500% for food allergy and 100% for urticaria.

The world has also seen an increase of prescriptions issued for all types of allergies since 1991.

And so US presidential candidate Kamala Harris – who recently released her medical records to show she is fit and able to do the job she’s applying for – is bang on trend.

But her buffoon presidential opposition, Donald Trump, saw things differently: “I have just seen Kamala’s report, and it is not good. According to her doctor’s report, she suffers from ‘urticaria’, defined as ‘a rash of round, red welts on the skin that itch intensely, sometimes with dangerous swelling’.” Also known as hives.

“She also has ‘allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis’, a very messy and dangerous situation.” Also known as a seasonal allergy or hayfever.

Now that is something we Johannesburgers are painfully aware of, given the number of plane trees that line the streets of our suburban neighbourhoods.

Those beautiful, itchy yellow balls that hang ominously off green limbs, blowing bits into the atmosphere, making it so thick you can see the air dance and move… I fear them. Microscopic molecules make their way into lungs and up noses, causing untold misery as sinuses revolt and chests close up.

And we in the City of Gold, the city of dreams, are in the midst of the most exquisite months of the year: purple jacaranda blossom time – and the worst: pollen season.

I’ve been wondering: should we be allowed to tell waitrons and friends that we’re allergic to things we just don’t like or don’t want to eat or drink?

I suspect that we sometimes couch our “need” as an allergy to earn more respect from those providing sustenance for us. Whether you’re eating in a private home or restaurant, on an aeroplane or at a catered function, there is always the question of “food preference”, where you are invited to name your allergy.

So many choices


Then there is the politics of milk. If you’re dairy-free, you can choose from a range so wide it would have made my mother gasp.

Soy. Almond. Oat. Rice. Coconut. Cashew. Lactose-free. Goat. Buffalo. Sheep. Camel. 2%. Raw. Organic. And on it goes.

The latte with almond milk has replaced cow’s milk.

I was at a large gathering of friends, invited to a glorious weekend in the country with the promise of fresh air, walks in the forest, swims in the lake – all set against a rustic backdrop of lowing cow herds and the haunting cry of the fish eagle…

And ever-present, lurking death.

Things ramped up to fever pitch when it was announced that all 17 guests had been assigned teams and allocated a meal to cook (breakfast, lunch, dinner, with snacks in between). Everything had to be made from scratch. No store-bought anything.

Read more: After the Bell: Free-range means there’s room to roam? Don’t believe everything you read

So began the head scratching. If you think breakfast is a simple meal, executed with speed and little thought, you’d be foolish.

Traditional food. Toast, right? Only, can you serve brown or white bread? No more. There’s gluten-free (coeliac disease is an immune reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye). Charcoal. Rye. Sourdough. Ciabatta.

Eggs? Easy, right? Nope. Free-range. Organic. Cage-free. Caged. Pasteurised.

And so it goes with bacon (nitrate-free) and sausages (pure meat with no grain, gluten, cereal or additives – for those eating clean).

Still, I’ve seen the horrific consequences of an allergic reaction. I once saw S kiss his girlfriend who’d eaten shellfish. His lips, face and eyes were swollen within seconds.

The adrenalin auto-injector EpiPen he carries at all times gave him the precious time needed to rush him to the emergency room.

I have a story too: I’m deathly allergic to penicillin and a doctor once gave me the drug usually prescribed for those with this allergy. Only, it turned out I was allergic to that too.

Read more: How gut dysfunction could be the hidden trigger for chronic illness

My feet began to itch that night and came out in sore red welts that became blisters. In the end it took a year to recover; the skin peeled painfully off my feet, hands and the lining of my mouth and nose. Several visits had to be made to a podiatrist to cut away dead skin. Then the nails came off my hands and feet. An uncomfortable year.

Let’s face it: life is getting more dangerous. If I were writing a science fiction book, it would be about having to live indoors where the air was purified and food tested before we ate it – by an AI-driven automaton, of course. We’d send our avatars out into the world to represent us…

For now, we have to put up with the question in restaurants: do you have any allergies? DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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