Woman eats only two food items for five years due to severe allergies
Food allergies are not uncommon, but there's a woman who has allergies that are so severe that she is forced to eat only two food items to prevent any reactions.
According to a report by PEOPLE, 24-year-old Caroline Gray shared that her food allergies began when she ate crackers containing traces of nuts when she was just two years old.
After she was diagnosed with allergies to peanuts, nuts, sesame, mustard, kiwi, seafood, and various fruits, she eventually outgrew them over the next 10 years.
However, things started to worsen when she ordered an ice cream sandwich at a truck when she was 18. Even though she carefully checked its ingredients, she experienced an immediate head rush from just two bites.
"It felt like all the blood was rushing out of my head, and I got super tunnel vision, so I basically thought, oh my God, I think I'm having an anaphylactic reaction," Gray told the media outlet.
After receiving medical attention from a hospital, Gray found herself experiencing more allergic reactions to the point that she had become too weak to live on her own in her college dorm, forcing her to move back home.
"I just felt like a ghost. I felt like nobody would really notice if I was there or not. I was really, really depressed. I didn't want to do school anymore," she said.
Gray was eventually diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome, which is defined by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology as having " repeated episodes of the symptoms of anaphylaxis—allergic symptoms such as hives, swelling, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and severe diarrhea."
"The last six or seven years have been a bit of a roller coaster. A few years ago, I was able to eat basically all foods except for those main allergens, like peanuts, tree nuts, mustard, sesame, but the last few years, it's been really, really difficult" Gray shared.
To help treat her allergies, Gray decided to only stick to an extremely strict diet of only two food items: oats and a hypoallergenic formula, which give her enough nutrients as the formula contains 57 grams of protein, 91 grams of fat, 100 grams of carbs.
"Then I have all these vitamins. The only thing that it's a bit deficient in is sodium. So I just supplement that. I just add salt to things," she added.
Gray has been sharing her experience on her TikTok account and has been getting help from other social media users on what recipes she can try with her two ingredients, such as crepes, oat pastas, chips and dips, among others.
"My mom and I were laughing about it because for four years I was on autopilot, just heating up my oats, mixing in my hypoallergenic formula and not getting creative with it. And then all of a sudden I post about it, and now I'm in the kitchen all day," she said.
She continued, "It would make sense to crave things and miss food and be sick of oatmeal. But my survival brain kicks in, reminding me of the ramifications of symptoms, and frankly, it's not worth it."
Gray shared that she's learning how to reintroduce foods slowly into her diet, starting with broccoli, boiled chicken, and carrots.