When TikToker Jess (@jm.bakered) was 15 years old, she suddenly became allergic to potatoes. She found out after having a severe allergic reaction at a restaurant.
“Before all of this, I was not allergic to potatoes,” explained Jess. “I was only allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and potatoes are a huge staple in my family.”
“Every meal is hash browns, fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato salad. If you can make it with a potato, we did.”
One day, she was at a restaurant with her dad and little sister right before the start of her sophomore year of high school. Jess was eating her hash browns when her throat randomly started to hurt.
She drank some water, but it only continued getting worse. Her throat was tightening, her face was swelling up, and she was really itchy.
Her dad began flipping out because he had told the server that she had a peanut allergy, and now here she was clearly having a reaction.
“Because we have not considered that I have suddenly developed a potato allergy overnight and that I’m having an anaphylactic reaction to potatoes for the first time ever,” said Jess.
“The logical conclusion we reached in that moment was that I was allergic to peanuts. And therefore, I must be having a reaction to the peanut oil in the hash browns.”
Jess’s sister was the one to administer her Benadryl and inhaler. At the time, Jess did not carry an EpiPen, but she has since learned her lesson.
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Her dad was yelling at the waiter, who told him that they fried their hash browns in soybean oil, not peanut oil. The line cook also came out to confirm the use of soybean oil.
Finally, the manager got involved, and they were asked to leave. A couple of hours later, Jess’s symptoms went down. They chalked it up to a freak cross-contamination incident.
But for the next week, every time she had a meal, she got deathly ill. Her face was swelling, her throat was itching, and she was having the most miserable time of her life.
Her mom took her to see an allergist, who ran some tests and determined that Jess was allergic to potatoes. He did not recommend eating potatoes at all.
But against medical advice, Jess ate mashed potatoes on the way home and ended up in the emergency room.
Since then, she has not consumed a single potato. It is her most inconvenient allergy. Sadly, she had to say goodbye to a long list of beloved foods.
“I haven’t had Pringles, fries, gnocchi, mashed potatoes, etc since I was 15, and the worst part is there are days when all I crave is a potato,” she wrote in the caption of her video.
In the comments section, many TikTok users shared their unusual allergies and how those allergies have impacted their lives.
“I’ve got a coconut allergy. It’s super fun because they like to put it in everything. Did you know shampoo is made with coconut derivatives, and now I always have an itchy scalp because I can’t find a shampoo without it?” commented one user.
“I’m allergic to garlic, peppers, paprika, black pepper, and I can’t have anything with turmeric in it because it interferes with my meds. They like to sneak all these in everything. Oh yeah, and I’m allergic to lettuce too, and most green leafy veg will cause a reaction,” wrote another.
“I’m allergic to sunscreen. I break out into hives. I don’t know why I’m allergic. It’s mostly the spray-on kind. In a matter of seconds, it will break me out. Lotion sunscreen takes a while. I still use sunscreen because I prefer hives over sunburns,” added a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
