The title of the this post does sound rather strange.  You see, back in the 80s, barely a tween, I went to the allergist and took an allergy test.  I had a positive reaction to peanut butter, and since that day, I did my best to avoid peanut butter and other products that contained it.

There were times when I unknowingly ingested the product, as in, eating a cracker and not knowing it contained peanut butter, but there was no allergic reaction after consumption.  No hives, no closing of the throat, nothing.  Still, I didn’t want to leave it to chance and I eventually avoided it all together.  I made sure to read product labels, and asked if a certain food contained peanut butter if it was offered to me.

Fifteen years later, that was all about to change.  I was tired of reading ingredient labels and missing out on the nutritional benefits of peanut butter.  It was time to take another allergy test.   I heard that allergies come and go, so I wanted to see if I was still allergic to peanut butter.  Last year, I took an allergy test that included 40 common food allergens.

Peanut butter wasn’t listed as one of the allergens I was testing for, but peanuts were on the list, so I figured that it was close enough.  After going through a set of prick tests, the area of my arm with the peanut allergen didn’t show any reaction, not even a hint of redness or a small bump.  Could this be true?  Did my allergy to peanut butter go away?  Were the results of my first allergy test full of false positives?  I will never know.

I took the allergy test in October, and four months would pass until I walked down the peanut butter and jelly aisle of the supermarket.  I picked up the first jar and looked at the ingredients label.  No, I wasn’t looking for peanut-free peanut butter.  I was looking for high fructose corn syrup.  If it was listed, I would continue to look for a brand of peanut butter that didn’t contain it.

At last, I found a jar of all-natural peanut butter, made out of 100% peanuts, no sugar, no salt, or any other type of ingredients.

Peanut butter my friend, we have a lot of catching up to do.