Some of the biggest problems that arise in managing a permanent special diet stem from organising them alongside normal family meals. If one or two foods have to be avoided, it is not usually much of a problem to accommodate within ordinary household catering; but if more foods are involved, or if more than one household member has a special diet, then it can become a nightmare of planning and juggling.
One solution that people sometimes adopt is to put the whole household on to the special diet, or something close to it. It is often easier to organise and plan this way, but it has some drawbacks. It often causes stupendous rows, it can be very costly (depending on the foods you have to eat), and it can have one unforeseen consequence – it occasionally reveals that other family members have food allergies and intolerances too, unmasked by the special diet, and they start to get sharp reactions typical of an exclusion diet. It is not a good idea to put anyone through that process without good reason, without supervision or without foresight.
You may well have hidden food sensitivity in your family, given that allergy and food intolerance often run in families, and that mild symptoms often go undetected and unreported. It is better either to leave it alone, or to sort it out systematically, rather than find it out by accident when one family member starts following another’s special diet. So keep the special diet just for the person for whom it is designed.
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