It's amazing what one can learn from reading books! Memoirs and fiction contain information that is true, but is merely communicated contextually and in passing, not primarily, as in non-fiction. Whilst reading "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" (Alexandra Fuller - and may I plug what a GREAT book this is), a memoir about growing up in Zimbabwe, reference was made to a breakfast staple having soy in it, to which I found out many years later, I'm allergic. I had eaten that cereal most days as a child.
Back then, growing up in South Africa in the 60's and 70's, no thought was given to reading labels and ingredients, and having an allergy was for wimps! But it was our basic and everyday breakfast growing up - a bowl of ProNutro cereal, promoted as a high protein breakfast, containing corn, soy, sugar and other minerals.
Until now, I'd thought my allergy was something I'd developed later in life, from moving to a continent where soy is a staple in everything, and to which I was unaccustomed, or that pregnancies had upset my immune system. I had no idea that I'd been exposed to soy in South Africa. It was not a food or ingredient we ever deliberately added or served in a dish. I do know that I grew up with a lot of digestive discomfort, which I thought was normal, and how intestines and bowels worked. I had been hospitalized for observation, and tested (barium enema anyone? So, so awful ... ) and prodded for all sorts of diseases, but not an allergy, in my late twenties, to no avail. I had tried avoiding gluten for years, and then went lactose free, with no significant improvement. A specialist in Maine finally recommended allergy testing at fifty-something years old, which has made my life so much more comfortable. Having got used to the work-arounds, I actually like making my own food and avoiding production-line, processed food.
It's interesting to me how knowledge and information is disseminated and imbibed, and how slow realizations can be.
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