So you’re allergic to corn, now what? A corn free lifestyle is life altering. It’s so much more difficult than any of my other allergies because it’s in 99.99% of everything in our modern world. If you’re anything like me, you might go through several stages of grief.
Stage 1: Innocence
It’s No Big Deal, There Are A Lot of Things To Eat!
Realizing you are allergic to corn. Meh, corn isn’t so bad. So I’ll just skip the corn booth at the state fair.
Stage 2: Shock and Denial
Corn is in What?!
This might happen a few days or weeks after when suddenly you realize-corn is in EVERYTHING. You will be shocked by how corn is in every processed food and even on fruits and vegetables from the grocery store. It’s in diapers and air fresheners and stuffed animals and clothes and in water and in the air and, and, and…. Your brain will go numb as you realize the possibilities and you might even deny it to yourself for awhile.
Stage 3:Anger
Corn is EVIL
You will get so upset and angry. Seriously, why is corn in everything. Corn is EVIL. I hate corn! It’s in this?! HOW can it be in this?!
Stage Number 4:Bargaining & Self Pity
Please, I’ve Got to Eat Something!
Why Me?! Maybe if I go corn free for awhile, I’ll grow out of it and I’ll go back to normal. Maybe if only eat a little bit it won’t hurt me. Maybe if I eat organic corn I’ll be ok. Maybe if I eat corn light I’ll be ok. Nope.
Stage 4:Depression, Reflection & Loneliness
I’m Never Going to Eat Again
You will realize how fully encompassing corn allergies are. The sheer magnitude of the corn world is overwhelming and you will feel defeated. You will feel isolated from your friends and family who have no understanding of the depth of corntamination and you might isolate yourself from everyone. You’ll reflect on your pre corn and post corn life with thoughts of hopelessness. You’ll hit rock bottom.
Stage 5:The Upward Turn
Ok, I’ve Got to Eat
After hitting your lowest point, you’ll have no choice but to pick yourself back up. Take a deep breath, friend.
Stage 6:Reconstructing and Working Through
Seriously Though, What Can I Eat
At this point, you’ll probably start researching like crazy. You’ll join a few corn support groups, you’ll scour the internet looking at different websites, you’ll even be brave and research and try recipes to make from scratch.
Stage 7:Acceptance and Hope
There is Life After Corn, After All
You’ll come to a point where you are not a victim of corn, you are a corn free warrior. You know that other people can and do live corn free successfully and so can you. You’ll start gathering safe foods and household supplies and begin to change your entire world for the better. You’ll learn how to bake and cook like they did way back when. You might grow a garden and make buddies at the farmer’s market. You have learned that life without corn isn’t so bad after all.
After we first figured out that we had corn allergies, it took awhile for us to not only process, but to figure out what was safe and not safe for us. We made a lot of mistakes. We were accidentally corning ourselves with things we had no idea were corny. It took at least a year to figure out the basics and then another year to adapt and grow. It’s been almost 4 years and we are still making changes to our allergy lifestyle.
I hope that you don’t feel discouraged if you find out that you or a loved one has corn allergies. I hope that you find hope, inspiration and comfort here. Maybe you can learn from our mistakes and adjust a bit faster than we did.
Are you allergic to corn? Have you gone through the stages of grief? If you are a pro, how long has it taken you to adjust to a corn free lifestyle?