The Egg Effect

Lark 

Mason Lark

Professor Bleyle

English 1101

31 August 2026

The Egg Effect

Growing up with so many allergies always forced me to live my life with caution and made me very attentive about everything in my life since I was young. One of the most serious allergies I have is my egg allergy. While most people were able to eat food without a second thought in mind, I had to always pay close attention. As I grew up, I learned that I need to check ingredients and be aware of how my food was prepared. Sometimes, I even had to wonder if the utensils or pans used to make my food had previously touched eggs. Being careful about food eventually became a normal part of my life, but my family first realized how serious my egg allergy was because of something that happened when I was only two years old.

When I was two years old, my father, Bernard, took me out for breakfast one day. What was supposed to be a normal trip to a local breakfast spot in downtown Atlanta to start off the day right while watching the sun rise high into the sky, quickly became one of the most traumatic and key events of my childhood. I was served a dish made of scrambled eggs, bacon, and waffles and at the time my father and I did not suspect anything wrong. “Here Mojo, the food is finally here.” my dad said to me as he put the plate in front of me. “Eat up.” To most people, scrambled eggs, bacon, and waffles are all key breakfast items, however when I started eating the eggs, my body quickly began to react aggressively. 

After eating the scrambled eggs, my throat began to close up and I began to have difficulty breathing, what made everything even worse is that I also do have asthma. Since I was only two years old, I could not explain exactly what I was feeling to my father nor understand why my body suddenly felt different. My father quickly noticed something was wrong due to my breathing and facial expression. “Mason?! What’s wrong?” he asked. He stared at me with a blank face of confusion, not long after that, I began throwing up which quickly made my father realize that something was severely wrong. My reaction continued to get worse, I even started to break out in rashes and it became clear that I needed immediate medical attention. Instead of finishing our meal, my father had rushed to take me to the hospital as quickly as he could by any means necessary, even driving through red lights with oncoming traffic. “Just please hang on son, we’re almost there,” my dad said while driving. “I’m gonna get you help, please god don’t let anything bad happen to my only child.” 

At the hospital, after many allergy tests, the doctors were able to find everything that I am allergic to and they also were able to confirm that it was the eggs in the meal that caused my reaction. That one ordinary breakfast meal would soon become a frightening moment that would change the way my family had to think about the food I ate for the rest of my life. Ever since that day, my family started to pay much more attention to the foods I was eating. My reaction showed what my life was going to have to be like from that day on. As I grew older, I began to learn that avoiding eggs was not as simple as it seemed. Eggs can be found in many different foods, like some fried rice, egg nog, mayonnaise, and many more, so I had to pay attention to the ingredients and ask waiters questions before eating trying something new. “Uhhh excuse me, sorry but like does this have egg in it?” I would always ask sometimes knowing it was fine. Eating at restaurants could sometimes become more stressful than I could imagine, because I did not always know exactly how my food was prepared. I also had to think about cross contact. For example, even if the food I ordered did not contain eggs, I sometimes had to wonder whether the same cooking utensils, pans, or even surfaces had come into contact with eggs. These are things that many people probably never have to worry about, but for me, they were important. Sometimes it was frustrating to see other people eat without having to think about these things, while I had to stop and make sure my food was safe.

As I got older, I learned more about my egg allergy and became better at understanding what I was able to eat. I realized that it caused me to become more responsible because when I was younger, my parents were always the ones checking labels, talking to the restaurant workers, and making sure that I was not eating anything that could have caused me to have an allergic reaction. Now I understand that I could not always depend on someone else to do those things for me of course, so I had to take care of myself and make sure I was making the right choice. One important thing I learned about my allergy that is not always the same for others with an egg allergy is that I can eat eggs if they were baked into certain foods like cake, cupcakes, or brownies, though I personally do not really like cakes. Even though they contain eggs I am able to eat it, though to this day I am not sure how it works but I am just grateful to be able to experience these foods. At school get together’s where there was always food this became especially important because I did not have to stress about what I was eating because it was usually chips and cookies. “Are you sure you can eat those cookies, they make em with eggs, you know that right?” Someone might ask me. Overall my allergy to eggs made me more responsible and aware about what is going into my body and really care about what I eat. Looking back, it is crazy how something so small like a plate of scrambled eggs could have created so much of an impact on my life. 

Image Credits 

Eggs - image

Breakfast Plate - images

Grady Hospital - images