When you have food allergies, every contact you have with that food makes the allergy worse. So when I was younger, I could have honey nut cheerios or almonds or whatever without any reaction, because my body hadn’t had as much exposure to it—especially since we didn’t often have nuts in the house because of my mother’s allergy. I was fourteen when the allergy finally graduated to physical signs—my throat closed up and I had trouble breathing. I also developed a rash.