4 days ago
Aging Millennials Share Foods Their Bodies Reject Now
You think we'd have seen it coming — the moment our favorite foods turned against us. But for a lot of millennials, it still feels like a personal betrayal. So when u/TheCIAandFBI asked, "Alright millennials, what foods have you found yourself forced to give up due to aging?" the responses were painfully relatable. From dairy disasters to red sauce regrets, here are some of the funniest, most dramatic, and all-too-real replies:
"For me, it's bananas and any sort of beans. Bananas make me feel like I've been punched in the stomach, and black beans will have me nearly immobile from discomfort (and it isn't IBS — I got checked!). It's simply the fact that I am, despite what I tell people, getting older..."
"I think alcohol and I are breaking up. I'm a 'one and done' when I used to be the person who got a round of shots."
"It should be cheese, but I refuse to go gentle into that good night."
"Not give up, but I've drastically reduced my dairy intake. Long gone are the days where I could eat an entire cheesecake by myself."
"I'm in Minnesota. Imagine my sadness as I say…ranch."
"Coffee. It messes with the acidity of my stomach, makes digestion incomplete, and gives me skin issues. I've bad eczema since I was 16. It's not like it suddenly started at 40. It just took me that long to figure out it was coffee."
"Corn. And red sauce of any kind after 5:30 p.m."
"High fructose corn syrup — 20-plus years. Soy lecithin — two-plus years. I've more or less stopped eating heavily processed and preserved foods, so most junk candy, cereal, instant meals, etc. I could go on."
"Not so much forced to give up, but many foods I used to love now taste terrible. Little Debbie, Hostess, Mrs. Tasty, Kool-Aid, Hawaiian Punch — so many other lunchbox staples haven't tasted good in years. I don't know if the recipes changed or if my taste buds did. I still love other sweets."
"Baked goods. I love them, but they don't love me back. It's like baked goods suck the life out of me, drain me of every ounce of energy. Everything else I didn't mind — red meat was never a big thing for me. I stopped drinking nine years ago as I'd had enough of hangovers. I always liked vegetables and was vegetarian for 15 years, so eating more plant-based made it easy not to feel like I had to give up anything. But baked goods, man…"
"Buffalo sauce."
"The gluten caught up to me a couple of years ago and started sending me to the hospital. I thought it was dairy at first, but nope — just wheat (thank god). Annoying, but it's led to a healthier diet overall for me."
"Gummies. If I have more than three Fuzzy Peaches, it's bad news."
"Eggs. Had food poisoning symptoms for a year and a half. Became really anemic and weak. Did every GI test and everything was fine. It wasn't until I took a food sensitivity test to see what to start eliminating that I got better."
"My family has a history of diabetes and acid reflux, so pretty much all the fun stuff."
"Pop-Tarts and sugary breakfast cereals. Loved them in my 20s, would go through phases where I'd eat them for a month or two out of the year in my 30s. In my 40s, I can't. They don't taste as good as they used to and I feel like trash the rest of the day."
"I grew up in the Southern US. Love spicy food with all my heart. Now, if I have one spicy thing every four months, I'll regret it for twice as long."
"Funny story — yesterday, my husband came home with a Slim Jim and I said, 'Hey, did you get this for me? You can't have these anymore because of your tummy troubles.' His facial expression rapidly displayed all the stages of grief."
"Chips. But specifically Doritos. I used to have a bad habit of eating an entire bag in one sitting and then tossing and turning in bed with indigestion later."
"Mine is sugar in any detectable quantity. High fructose corn syrup especially kills me. I've even been tested for diabetes and insulin resistance due to how badly sugar affects me. Turns out I metabolize sugar too well, and then it messes up the equilibrium, leaving me with not enough sugar."
"Fish — which is really, really sad, as I grew up in Taiwan and ate a ton of it growing up. I have an allergy now, and can't even touch it without feeling like death is running through me."
"Pasta dishes."
"I'm 33, with IBS and GERD. I've given up leafy vegetables, beans, beef, pork, onions, and peppers. I've also developed an egg allergy in my old, old age, so anything delicious is out. I'm surviving on turkey and fruit most weeks."
Well, getting older might mean saying goodbye to cheese, but at least we all seem to be in this together. What foods have you had to give up (or dramatically cut back) as you've aged? Drop your own stories in the comments below!
