I have allergies. Most not so severe that m'throat might close, but severe enough. One such is milk. And two days ago I found out that they---I'm guessing the FDA, they regulate labels, right?---allow the label non-dairy to be put on foods that are not, in fact, non-dairy.
How can this be, you ask? (I know you are as shocked as I am so that if you did not ask it, you would have if your tongue and all reason had not failed you.) I don't know! What I do know is that casein and sodium caseinate are derived from milk, a milk protein in fact (sneaky how allergies are actually all to proteins). It is listed in the ingredients, naturally. But as I AM NOT A CHEMIST how would I know that they are milk? I thought milk was spelled m-i-l-k. I would even accept d-a-i-r-y. But not c-a-s-e-i-n.
It is bad enough that there are antibiotics that are made from milk proteins and my doctors don't seem to understand the correlation. I'm lucky that my sister, a pharmacist, warns me of potential problems. But that things actually labeled non-dairy, presumably to be handy for people that don't eat dairy for whatever reason including allergy, can in fact be dairy is not okay.
I"m mad as hell, damn it. And also enlightened about why I haven't been able to get my allergies under control. At least in part. Freakin' liars.
Cheers,
LV
2 comments:
Casein shows up all over the damn place. We used casein-based paint in undergrad theater stage painting, which was dandy as it was easy to clean up but also meant that when the roof leaked its colors ran like buggery.
I came across it in the super-awesome-fix-your-teeth glop my dentist gives me, which is largely based on milk proteins, and they were very sure to ask me several times if I had any kind of dairy allergies at all whatsoever. I think your doctors need a good punch up the bracket and that your sister is awesome for warning you about this.
She is. She's been watching out forme for years. Which turned out to be good practice as my nephew has bunches of allergies too.
As for the punch, so true. I even once had a pharmacist tell me I wans't having an allergic reaction when I was having an anaphtlactic reaction.
By the way, I love your phrase, i.e. "ran like buggery".
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