Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 06, 2015

So do non-restricted drinkers…

Ask, waitress, and you shall receive. No need to be upset and bring the cook in.

I’m with Rat! Hear, hear!

Gotta agree with Rat. We’re becoming a nation of hypocondracs. There are people who are lactose intolerant or who can’t taken gluten because they react to it. But the actual percentage is small, yet it gets advertised and suddenly we’re all that way. And part of that is the doctors who diagnosis us as such because it’s easier to do so.

My diet restriction is that I can’t eat anything that outruns me.

Nice level of tolerance here for kids who can get really sick from an allergy. Hope your kids never get it; love to hear what you all would say then.

Yep.

And no, neither Pepsi Max nor Cola Zero are compatible with my Coca Cola order. Prepare to be Yelped below the belt with a vengeance!

It is truly amazing that the human race survived these many years if all these dietary ailments existed throughout history.Perhaps it is really all this “progress” we have made.

I can agree with not bringing peanut butter products to school. Mostly because peanut allergy is a real thing and can be deadly to the allergy person. In very rare instances even smelling peanuts can cause a moderate to severe reaction. Gluten can also cause bad things, but also only certain people (those with Celiac Disease), however it’s currently a fad that some people jumped unto. Same goes with GMO’s. They are save, only a few (and very vocal people) fight against them, not knowing that a lot of food we consume today are not natural occuring either (as example, broccoli and cauliflower are man made vegetables).

Remember a long time ago I used to take allergy pills every day. Than one day a doc said “Let’s stop and see what happens.” And nothing did. Haven’t taken one since.

So true. I’m with Rat today… and it feels soooooooooo wrong…

If they serve President George Herbert Walker Bush broccoli, one wonders what his reaction would be. That man did more for broccoli sales than anyone has ever done.

Let the ignorant suffer (and pay more).

The researcher who originally declared gluten to be a problem? The guy who was the source of the fretting? Last year, he published his new study in which he found gluten was not the problem. Something else was causing the effect he was seeing, and gluten was only a problem for the limited number of true sufferers of a couple of conditions they’ve always known about. So, never mind.

And, for all the people who panic over MSG (the natural umani source found in mushrooms, soy sauce, and many other foods)? When they test people who claim they have bad reactions to MSG, they have bad reactions when fed MSG-free food that they’ve been TOLD had MSG, and they have no reaction to MSG-laden food when they’re told it is MSG-free. I have a big ole jar of MSG on my kitchen shelf. It’s great.

And it cracks me up the number of people who say they’re lactose-intolerant and rigorously avoid cheese and yogurt, when the lactose in those has been converted to lactic acid by fermentation and cannot do them any harm. More for the rest of us! Hurray!

Oh, and by the way… Evolution modifies genes, so IT’S ALL GMO – bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha… Ya’ll could use some genetic modification yourself. Maybe give you some critical thinking skills.

Reminds me of a person who told me she was allergic to cigarette smoke. This was back in the day when it was still possible to smoke on the job. As soon as someone lit up, she began to cough. One day, without thinking, I lit up and smoked for about two minutes; the lady’s back was turned and she continued to chat without a problem. But when she turned around, within a second on seeing my cigarette, she was coughing. Mind over matter!And most of the anti-GMO crowd are European… where “bio” foods is a huge industry and the farmers want to keep their lucrative monopoly. GMO products would be their main competitor; so they use anti-American European sentiment to in the end create Protectionist policies, based on scare tactics but very few real facts, if any.

‘Tis the restaurant that is weird, as are the waitress and alleged cook. Rat’s right!The World Turned Upside Down.

Let’s all take a breath and repeat “it’s only a comic strip…”

Nice comment count, there, toon-boy

Serious post: Peanut butter in the cafeteria would be no problem if the parents of peanut-allergic kids would tell their kids to avoid it, and why.:Non-serious post: Try Golden Corral, Rat — unrestricted eaters rule there.

So many interesting debates are spawned by Pearls. It’s half of why I come to read it.

I’m lactose intolerant and a vegetarian, but I grew up not expecting the world to adapt to me. The onus has been on me to know what I can/can’t eat, and I’d be horrified to draw attention by nitpicking at a menu or server. My adult daughters are the same way – and we’ve never gone hungry or been pains in the neck (at least not about food ;-) )!

I’ll take a GMO beef burger with extra lactose cheese and a high gluten bun. Fries with that, fried in peanut oil.

You tell ’em rat!

tough? really?ever watch a child react to a food allergy? ever seen them with their eyes bugged out of their head and turning blue and not know what to do but knowing that if something isn’t done within seconds they will be dead?ever try to explain to a three year old why they can’t eat something that smells good and everyone else can eat it but they can’t? ever had to avoid eating something that is common in many foods because if you do your body will shut down? ever try to find out what foods it is in? ever sat by a hospital bedside and held the hand of a grandchild that can hardly breathe, who’s raspy jagged breath can be heard out in the hall through a closed door and wonder when he will take his last one? well i have buddy and it wasn’t because he wasn’t ‘taught’ and it wasn’t because it wasn’t known – it was because a mistake was made. a simple labeling mistake. are some ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’ an overreaction to stupidity – yesare personal accountability and responsibility disappearing in the society i live in – yesbut when compassion for kids and adults who need real help because of circumstances beyond their control are present and their life is a constant abnormal watching out for hundreds of hidden dangers beyond the normal is missing, than we have lost what i believe makes us human and not animals.-and yes i get the strip and yes i agree with rat BUT i sure don’t agree with your comment – tough – really????

i’m moderately lactose intolerant, the world does not revolve around me it’s ok. everybody seems to overreact to this stuff. could we all throw PC out the window and start over please? i’m also a Jew who is not offended if you say merry christmas. just mellow out everybody. yeeesh

NO MORE SANDWICH TRADING AT SCHOOL!!! Those days are gone, folks.

I think if Pig were there… He would have a bit of everything.Or a lot of everything.xxx

Odd how those here that don’t care if children get sick or even die from a food allergy will absolutely bend over backward to make sure the 1% aren’t discomfited in the slightest, as they might stop creating all these millions of jobs. Rant over, there was a study about why Israeli children don’t have peanut allergies. It seems their children get a popular peanut snack as soon as they can eat solid food, and therefore never develop an allergy to it.

As someone who IS lactose intolerant and vegetarian, I would just like to point out how much it sucks when literally the ONLY thing on a menu that one can eat is a “house salad”. Without any dressing. So spare me this, please…. We live in an Unrestricted Eater’s world….

Whenever I see the sign that states “please let your server if you have any food allergies” I tell them I’m highly allergic to salmonella.

History Made Today! I am 100% in agreement with Mouse.

Too late for most to see, most likely, but starting iin the early 2000’s, I coughed on and off constantly (popped cough drops a lot, had pneumonia nearly annually after never having it before), had symptoms of the “thanks-for-sharing” variety, had frequent stomach upsets, and went from 135+ to 106 lbs. (at 5’ 5" before old age shrank me). This became worse when I hit 70. I went to two each of pulmonary specialists, gastroenterologists, family physicians, and allergists. Finally, with the support of my daughter the doctor (she’s a psychiatrist who also treats the physical ailments of elderly institutionalized patients), I revisited a gluten-free diet, and, voila! enjoyed a 95% amelioration of symptoms. People can carp about “fads,” “it’s all in their spoiled, flighty heads,” etc., but I’m a true believer in allergies (or sensitivities, which are mainly what I have). (Yes, I know it’s a comic, but the commenters aren’t.)

There’s that Christian compassion we hear so much about.Any surprise why there are less Christians every year?

Hybridization is NOT genetic modification. This really pisses me off that people conflate two COMPLETELY different things and say “See, it’s safe, we’ve been doing it for millennia” when they are not the same. Genetic modification is taking a gene, or gene part from one species (such as bacteria, or an insect) and inserting it into another (corn, soy) with oftentimes completely unpredictable results. It is also completely impossible to do by cross-pollination or selective breeding.

To actually comment on the strip: the joke doesn’t quite work as rat is not restricted to things without nothing omitted.

Personally, I’ve been known to put “lots of food” on forms which ask for dietary requirements, but the joke wouldn’t work if it said “dietary restrictions”. I also considered putting “glutton”. However, I have absolutely no aversion to eating vegetarian food.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness aren’t a heirarchy. They’re a (non-exhaustive) list of rights that were stated to be impossible to sign away.

I agree that there are practical limitations, and that people asserting rights without regard for the consequences is a major problem, it’s just that arguing from the Declaration of Independence doesn’t support your reasoning.

may your life be blessed so that you have no ‘tough’ in your life. but when you do have a ‘tough’ in your life may people around you show you and yours more compassion and mercy than your comments show here. it is not ‘idiocy’ when a label is mislabeled. it is not ‘idiocy’ when allergies are not known until after the fact. it is not ‘idiocy’ nor ‘not paying attention’ that causes the sorrow and pain and anguish – it is the ‘not knowing’ until after the fact. it is the not having a problem of any kind until a certain age is reached or a strange ingredient is introduced that no one had a clue would cause the affect it did.and NO LIFE IS NOT TOUGH ALL OVER. but it can be tough in certain places and at certain times due to circumstances beyond our control. but to have NO COMPASSION for those who suffer because of circumstances beyond their control is truly the sign of one who has made themselves less than what they were intended to be