Hear Elizabeth's Story.

Get your popcorn! Peanuts! Popcorn! Peanuts!

Going to a ballgame is an American tradition that everyone should experience. Last year I went to a game. I was having fun watching the game, but as eating goes hand in hand with being a spectator, I headed toward the concession stand. On my way, there they were, on the ground, hundreds of peanut shells. I had to walk over them. It made me nervous, because touching the shells can cause an allergic reaction.

I am one of the 7 million Americans with food allergies. I am also one of the 3 million Americans with peanut allergies. In addition I have seafood allergies. People sometimes tell me "don't eat the peanuts" or "scrape them off." It's a little more complicated than that, because just a trace of peanuts touching my food can cause a major allergic reaction.

Imagine yourself on a plane; one of the things you always look forward to is when the stewardess passes out the snacks. The stewardess comes, she hands you snack mix. You look at the ingredients. You see it, PEANUTS! You throw away the snack. But this time it doesn't matter. You start an allergic reaction even though you didn't eat the snack. It is probably from touching the armrest, possibly from the previous passenger, maybe from the air. You don't know, you'll never know for sure! It's something you have to live with. Luckily, Mom brought Benadryl®. Luckily, you don't have to use the EpiPen®.

When eating out at restaurants, I usually rely on the waitress' answers to: Did the cook use peanut oil to fry the French fries? Are the chicken strips fried in the same oil as the shrimp? My allergist says, don't even try restaurants that specialize in certain ethnic recipes, especially those with peanut sauces. The cross-contamination risks are too high! Someone might touch both the peanut sauce not on your order and the so-called peanut-free dish you ordered. Believe it or not, that little mistake can cost me my life.

Peanut butter sandwiches… a staple of many kids' diet! A major worry for me! At school lunch the food servers would place a peanut butter sandwich on my tray… Little did they know, that just placing it on my tray was enough to cause me a reaction. I would bravely tell them, "I'm allergic to peanut butter." We educated the school lunch staff on the danger of cross contamination. But it's hard to educate the entire school. Just sitting at a lunch table, where someone has rubbed their peanut butter hands all over, can be a problem. Some kids think it's a joke. I even had a kid throw a peanut butter sandwich at me once. It landed on my food. I left lunch hungry that day.

This is what it's like to live with food allergies. My grandma calls me the bravest person she knows.

Elizabeth Jaeger, a 13-year-old from Walker, MN, won first place at Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill 2003 in the Young Artists, Musicians, Writers, & Producers category. Her winning essay brings to life the daily struggles of being a middle school student with food allergies. For more information about AADCH award winners, visit City Hall.