So I had to get up super early this morning as I had to let the cleaner into my old flat in order to check out of it. This meant getting to my old flat at 8am, I am not a morning person, especially at the moment with my Crohn's being awful.
But, I managed it and I thought I would reward myself with a Starbucks Hot Chocolate, which leads me to todays blog that features an important lesson when living with intolerances and for those working in the food industry.
I am an avid fan of Starbucks, I have been since I was about 14 when one opened in our local outlet shopping centre. They used to do these absolutely amazing Iced Lemon Frappucinos, no milk, pure American Styled blended lemonade. Boy do I miss that!
Anyway, I have tried many drinks over the years, funnily enough none of them actually being coffee as that is way too aggressive for my stomach to process. I have swayed from Hot Chocolates to Iced Teas, Hot Tea to Blended Juice drinks, always enjoying one particular drink over a long period of time.
Today, I learnt a vital lesson, no matter how good it tastes, don't always trust what someone tells you when it comes to allergens.
For the last two and a half years, I have sworn off of Dairy, Gluten and Egg. It just doesn't work for me, so why even have a little of any of it? So, knowing this, I asked my local Starbucks if possibly I could have their Hot Chocolate. It was a brave ask, as at the time I was very shy about my allergies and didn't want to be a bother. They came back to me to say that their Classic Hot Chocolate mix in fact didn't have any dairy products in it, so it was safe if I had Soya milk. Of course, I was over the moon about this and to this day I have drank it with varying non dairy milks, syrups and every thing in between.
Looking back now, every time I had a Hot Chocolate I would feel a little sick and bloated for the rest of the day, but I always put it down to it being a heavy drink as the lady I trusted told me it was dairy free. Plus it was so tasty, I went a little into denial.
Which leads me nicely to my lesson, this morning I get the Hot Chocolate after a long time of avoiding it for that reason. I wanted to reward myself for actually getting out of bed this morning and this felt like a great idea! I enjoyed a Tall (thank goodness) Classic Hot Chocolate with Almond Milk and Hazelnut Syrup, I thought, I should do a review about Starbucks (I will, I promise).
Before reviewing, I always go on the website and see if they have an allergens section, either if I haven't visited it for a while or to check if I have never seen it. I checked the Classic Hot Chocolate... I checked it again... I checked the markings were right, that I was on the right country page, that I wasn't going mad.
ALL THIS TIME, THE CLASSIC HOT CHOCOLATE HAS HAD MILK IN IT'S MIX! No wonder I had been feeling so bad every time I had it! I can only be very thankful that I don't have a proper allergy to milk as this could have been a much worse situation.
The lesson I have learnt properly today is, you can't just trust what someone says, you should get them to show you the ingredients or check the allergen information.
Also, they don't live with the intolerance, you do. They don't necessarily know all the names for milk, you do. They may not think it is anything serious, you know it is.
Trust yourself, and if you do ask, stress how important it is that you do not consume that allergen, this is your life that they are playing with and that is just not okay, intentional or not.
I am not too angry at the lady that told me it was okay to drink it, because she may not have had all the information she needed to. She should have checked the allergen menu, but instead she read the ingredients without me. This is where it must have gone wrong, people don't identify whey powder as dairy and there are so many other names for it too.
This is an education that people working in the food and drink industry need to have, as for me this is just going to make me feel a bit rough for a few days, but for others with an actual allergy, that could risk their life. It is super important if you work in this industry, that you understand that not all of us are on a "fad diet" some of us can actually damage our bodies if we consume the allergen. This needs to be recognised more, I hope that more people speak up about it.
But today, it has been a lesson learnt - I can now look forward to feeling rubbish and learn from my mistakes for next time!