S/O Sharing dessert - Food Dictators

[laud_shy_girl]

ahh diet pop.

I HATE diet drinks. I am sensitive to sweeteners. They make me wheezy and sick. I think I am actuality allergic to them. More to the point I can taste them. blercgh 

My sisters is adamant I can't taste them. She out right calls me a lier and hounds me about drinking diet. The number of people (usually bar people or people over hearing me ask a bar person to change a drink becouse they gave me diet when I didn't ask for it) who become dictator like over my drinks is amazing. total strangers will "ask" in total disbelieving way "why I am not drinking diet?"

[Piratelvr1121]

DH tried to get me to give up caffeine once.  I admit, I wasn't polite. I laughed.  Sorry, I just like my coffee and Diet coke too much.  And I can detect a difference in the caffeine-free versions.  Years ago DH tried to slip me some caffeine free coffee but one sip and I knew it was not my beloved high-octane.

If it was when you were pregnant, then we married the same guy.  Now, granted, I can't taste the difference between regular and decaf but we got to where we were citing different studies at each other to defend our positions.  (FWIW, all the existing research plus doctors' recommendations allow that up to 1 cup of coffee daily is probably totally safe and at the time I had about a 1/3 of that per day.)  To stop the badgering keep the peace, eventually I just started having my tea at work.

Well during my first pregnancy I voluntarily gave it up but with my second I was taking classes at night so caffeine was necessary.   It was maybe one bottle a day but still.  When Pirateboy2 turned out to have ADHD dh said "Maybe it was all the caffeine you drank when you were pregnant with him!"  I told him no, dear, it's a neurological issue and hereditary.  It is not caused by too much caffeine.

I remember once I went out to eat at a food court with a friend in high school and ordered a sandwich and a diet coke.  She said "You do realize that you can't cancel out the calories in that sandwich by drinking a Diet Coke?" 

[ladyknight1]

ahh diet pop.

I HATE diet drinks. I am sensitive to sweeteners. They make me wheezy and sick. I think I am actuality allergic to them. More to the point I can taste them. blercgh 

My sisters is adamant I can't taste them. She out right calls me a lier and hounds me about drinking diet. The number of people (usually bar people or people over hearing me ask a bar person to change a drink becouse they gave me diet when I didn't ask for it) who become dictator like over my drinks is amazing. total strangers will "ask" in total disbelieving way "why I am not drinking diet?"

I can taste all artificial sweeteners, and can barely tolerate Stevia (which is natural). I learned to do without sweetening at all in my beverages. People cannot believe that I can taste Splenda, Nutrasweet, or Sweet&Low. I can, although I wish I could use one of them.

[Venus193]

I thanked the food gods for Splenda because it's the only one that tastes good in tea.

[Bexx27]

ahh diet pop.

I HATE diet drinks. I am sensitive to sweeteners. They make me wheezy and sick. I think I am actuality allergic to them. More to the point I can taste them. blercgh 

My sisters is adamant I can't taste them. She out right calls me a lier and hounds me about drinking diet. The number of people (usually bar people or people over hearing me ask a bar person to change a drink becouse they gave me diet when I didn't ask for it) who become dictator like over my drinks is amazing. total strangers will "ask" in total disbelieving way "why I am not drinking diet?"

I am so with you on this. Artificial sweeteners -- yes, even splenda -- don't make me sick, but the aftertaste is just disgusting to me. I love regular soda, but I'd rather drink nothing than diet soda. If I had a nickel for every time I ordered I coke and was asked, "diet coke?"...

My SMIL once sort of called me out for drinking coke while pregnant. She said, "oh, I have caffeine free diet coke if you think the caffeine might not be a good idea for the baby."  I said I'd be much more concerned about the effects of aspartame than a little caffeine. (Not that I'd really be concerned about either, but it was a convenient excuse.)

[Klein Bottle]

ahh diet pop.

I HATE diet drinks. I am sensitive to sweeteners. They make me wheezy and sick. I think I am actuality allergic to them. More to the point I can taste them. blercgh 

My sisters is adamant I can't taste them. She out right calls me a lier and hounds me about drinking diet. The number of people (usually bar people or people over hearing me ask a bar person to change a drink becouse they gave me diet when I didn't ask for it) who become dictator like over my drinks is amazing. total strangers will "ask" in total disbelieving way "why I am not drinking diet?"

They make me sick,too.  But that doesn't stop people from pushing them on me.  Once, I went with a then-boyfriend to his dad's birthday celebration.  His mom provided Diet Cokes and that Crystal Light stuff as the choice of beverages, and I politely turned them down.  She was a sweet lady, and kept insisting that I "would not taste the difference" in the Crystal Light.  Not wanting to be adamant, I just told her I wasn't thirsty.  Eventually, I wound up with a glass of tap water to wash down the cake and ice cream      (Thankfully, they were not sugar-free!)

[bansidhe]

I love diet, caffeine-free soda. Just figured I'd be the sole opposing voice on the matter. 

I avoided caffeine entirely for 25 years or so, as when I was in my late teens I discovered that it made me quite ill -  as in nausea and vomiting and similar unpleasantness. Just a couple of years ago however, my husband brought home some diet cream soda from the store and I got into the habit of taking a can with me to work every day. After a couple of weeks, I finally noticed, in small print on the can, the words "contains caffeine." I cautiously experimented with other caffeinated drinks and sure enough, I'd outgrown my caffeine problems! Exactly when it happened I have no idea, as I'd been very religious about avoiding the stuff.

So I've experienced both pro- and anti-caffeine dictators. 

[Queen of Clubs]

Some people are just dictatorial. No matter what you're doing/not doing or eating/not eating, if they do anything differently or eat anything different, then you are wrong and must be put right.

[Venus193]

Some people are just dictatorial. No matter what you're doing/not doing or eating/not eating, if they do anything differently or eat anything different, then you are wrong and must be put right.

Also known as Control Freaks, who are frequently the most insecure people you know.

[kherbert05]

At some point in the past I read an article with the premise that sometimes people with food aversions have an allergy to the food that they dislike. Do you ever have problems/symptoms after eating foods with a high egg content, like custard, Coley?

[edited because I can't spell]

These stories are not supposed to be scientific fact but my family has been told to treat food aversion as food allergy until it can be checked out because of family history.

The docs wouldn't test me for allergies until I was in HS. Mom and Dad were told not to push any food that I seemed to have an aversion to especially if I described it as physically uncomfortable (like calling something itchy).

When I finally got tested - I went into anaphylactic shock from the skin test. Then a couple more times from the actual tests. When we finally got through the test (was suppose to take 2 days took 4 or 5 days), almost every food I HATED was on that list. A couple of hated foods that weren't on the list either a) had a similar flavor to something on the list b) was often mixed something I did test positive to C) had a similar texture to something on the list.

Sis HATES eggs. She hates them with a purple passion. Cannot keep anything that is mainly eggs down. She gags and gets sick. She also swears that the flu shot gave her a horrible case of the flu. I suggested that she might be allergic to eggs - and that the horrible case of the flu could have been a reaction. She is going to ask her doc about next time she goes in for a check up.

[Aeris]

At some point in the past I read an article with the premise that sometimes people with food aversions have an allergy to the food that they dislike. Do you ever have problems/symptoms after eating foods with a high egg content, like custard, Coley?

[edited because I can't spell]

These stories are not supposed to be scientific fact but my family has been told to treat food aversion as food allergy until it can be checked out because of family history.

The docs wouldn't test me for allergies until I was in HS. Mom and Dad were told not to push any food that I seemed to have an aversion to especially if I described it as physically uncomfortable (like calling something itchy).

When I finally got tested - I went into anaphylactic shock from the skin test. Then a couple more times from the actual tests. When we finally got through the test (was suppose to take 2 days took 4 or 5 days), almost every food I HATED was on that list. A couple of hated foods that weren't on the list either a) had a similar flavor to something on the list b) was often mixed something I did test positive to C) had a similar texture to something on the list.

Sis HATES eggs. She hates them with a purple passion. Cannot keep anything that is mainly eggs down. She gags and gets sick. She also swears that the flu shot gave her a horrible case of the flu. I suggested that she might be allergic to eggs - and that the horrible case of the flu could have been a reaction. She is going to ask her doc about next time she goes in for a check up.

Oh my, I can't believe the doctors wouldn't test you until high school! That's just terrible! Why in the world did they make you wait so long? Especially if they were telling your parents to treat your aversions as allergies. What in the world were they thinking?

[Black Delphinium]

Oh my, I can't believe the doctors wouldn't test you until high school! That's just terrible! Why in the world did they make you wait so long? Especially if they were telling your parents to treat your aversions as allergies. What in the world were they thinking?

Considering how bad her reactions were in her teens, that testing earlier might have killed her.

[MerryCat]

I don't know if this is food dictatorship, exactly, but I used to know a girl who, when we went out to eat, would often  pressure me to order fatty, unhealthy stuff. If I felt like it that day I would do so and she'd be happy and order something similar. If I wasn't hungry or just felt like a salad or something then she would also order a salad but be very resentful about it. She'd complain about how she came out to enjoy herself and take a break from her diet, etc.

I could never get her to explain to my exactly why we had to eat at the same level of "healthiness". I mean, when she was on one of her diet of the week crazes it never bothered me to eat a burger while she had her handful of celery and orange juice (because yes, I was allowed to eat unhealthy while she ate healthy, but the reverse was never allowed to happen.) We drifted apart years ago, but sometimes I think about her and wonder if she still does that.

[Venus193]

I think some people do that to validate their own choices.  That's the only explanation I can have for that.  If she can order diet food while you order the megacalorie choice she can feel superior, but in the reverse she can't.

In certain social situations it can make you look prissy to order diet food.  This is something one does not eat according to Power Lunching 101, a mini-course I gave to everyone I have ever mentored in my work.

[kherbert05]

Oh my, I can't believe the doctors wouldn't test you until high school! That's just terrible! Why in the world did they make you wait so long? Especially if they were telling your parents to treat your aversions as allergies. What in the world were they thinking?

That the tests could kill me. I went into full on reactions during the test 3 times as a 16 yo it would have been worse when i was smaller. This was long before the current test that can be done with a blood draw and not expose the child to the actual allergens.  As it was standard allergy shot treatment didn't work on me. The lowest levels cause my arm to look like I had 1/2 a golf ball stuck under my skin.


As a kid I was on a somewhat restricted diet to avoid possible allergens till it was safe to test me. I rarely ate at other people's houses, except my extended family, and 2 best friends (1 had a doctor for a father, and both had medically fragile siblings), never ate school lunches because they all came with peanut butter cookies. Mom as at every class party to stop the other mothers from forcing foods I wasn't allowed on my plate - so the teachers (who were great except for PK and 3rd grade) didn't have to monitor me.


Somehow my parents did that without me feeling like I was wrapped in cotton wool all the time. They encouraged me to be independent as possible. Outside of situations that involved food - I was as free as other kids my age.  In situations that involved food - I took the lead starting in lower elementary. I would ask questions and get responses - with my parents listening and watching in the background. There were times they had to step up and insist on firm answers or that things be double checked.