19-Year-Old Discovers His Parents Lied to Him About His "Deadly" Food Allergies

For the first few years of my life, I honestly believed the stories my older brother told of my parents finding me in a garbage can. He'd tell it so often and roll his eyes and sigh so convincingly whenever my parents would say otherwise, there was no telling me any different.

While it was a mean thing to say to a child (hey that's what older brothers are for I guess), my life wasn't severely altered as a result of his little joke.

But this young man's was.

A 19-year-old posted to Reddit's AITA sub to see if he was in the wrong for cutting off communication with his parents because of a huge lie that they maintained throughout his entire life. The fib? That he was deathly allergic to several foods: anything with dairy, wheat, flour, gluten, or legumes.

They even went so far as to make sure their kid had an EpiPen on him at all times. Talk about dedication to a lie. That's Prestige level commitment right there.

He grew up never eating cereals for breakfast and would have grilled fish and "assorted pickled vegetables" instead. When he'd be at kids' birthday parties and they'd be munching on delicious, but gluten-packed cake, he'd have an apple. 

For his own 19th birthday, however, he was at his aunt's house, and it was probably one of the few days he'd get to have a specially-crafted yummy treat that didn't contain ingredients he was "allergic" to.

His aunt made him almond flour brownies.

A lie can hardly be kept up forever and it turns out this celebration at his aunt's house was the day for it to finally be exposed. His parents had extended that lie to the rest of their family as well, because when he ate from a plate of brownies that he thought were made with the almond flour, he noticed a change in his aunt's face. She ran to get his EpiPen, but the young man's mom was surprisingly calm.

The reason for her equanimity? She explained that while they weren't looking, she had swapped the plates of brownies, which didn't sit well with the young man. He didn't cause a stink at his party, but the entire situation seemed fishy. So he decided to go to the doctor and get an allergy test (props to him for scheduling his own doctor's appointment) and lo and behold, the truth was finally revealed.

After discovering he wasn't allergic to pretty much anything, he called his mom and asked just what the heck was going on. She finally confessed that they had lied to him for his entire life because they wanted him to have a paleolithic diet. He immediately ceased communication with his folks, and they began bombarding him with texts, saying that they only did it for his benefit.

They pointed out the fact that he's been healthy his entire life, has flawless skin, has super strong bones and teeth, and even made it onto a Division 1 tennis team.

She then started calling her son "ungrateful" for all of the work that she put into keeping him healthy, and the young man wants to know if he really is being ungrateful — hence his post to the AITA sub.

Tons of folks on Reddit assured him that no, he wasn't being crazy for not talking to them and they brought up a lot of points as to why he was in the right. Like the fact that he busted his butt since the age of 4 playing tennis as the reason for his accomplishments, that it was messed up for him to be forced to eat an apple while other kids at parties got to have cake, and that his mom was dishonest to not only him but her entire family, and that she could've just talked to him instead of lying.

She responded with an outburst of emotion, "ugly crying" as he puts it, and said that her brother passed away because he ate himself to death and she wanted to make sure her son was as healthy as could be. To his mom's credit, she admitted that she had no excuse for her actions and while things aren't perfect between the three of them, they're at least talking now.

How would you react if you found out your parents had lied to you your entire life, depriving you of delicious lunchables and ice cream cake?