Jenna, 21, is only able to eat 13 foods due to being diagnosed with over 100 allergies and has been dealing with symptoms since childhood
A woman who has over 100 allergies can only have 13 types of food. Jenna Gestetner, 21, suffers from a rare immunological condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) which causes her to have allergic reactions to almost all foods.
Her symptoms, which she has had since she was a child, include intense pain, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, skin reactions, and difficulty breathing. She was only able to eat nine things, but has now added four fruits to her diet.
She can now eat dates, grapes, raspberries and pears thanks to mast cell stabilizers – medications used to treat MCAS. Jenna, a student, from Los Angeles, California, US, says: “It’s amazing I can now eat some fruit, it’s changed my life so much just the extra four foods.
“I didn’t have a lot of sugars before. Before all the foods were very inconvenient, and I would need a kitchen to eat. Now I can actually buy a snack when I’m out and about. It’s amazing.”
Jenna has struggled with reactions to food since she was a child and found eliminating foods from her diet was the only thing that helped. After years of trial and error, Jenna was only able to eat turkey, white fish, cucumber, green beans, courgette, limes, chia seeds, olive oil, and glucose supplements.
She was formally diagnosed with MCAS in March 2021. Now she can eat 13 foods after introducing fruit into her diet. Despite her newfound food discoveries, Jenna says life with her condition is still a struggle.
She said: “There’s so much unpredictability, it takes a big toll on me mentally. It makes it really hard to travel, you need a lot more down time. I can’t just travel somewhere – and I also get really tired a lot of the time.”
It is particularly hard for Jenna in social situations. She said: “If I’m going on holiday or to a family or friends social event I can’t eat the food everyone else is eating.
“It makes it a bit more complicated, I’ll often bring my own food to someone’s house. I do feel left out – I’m not able to have same experience the in my daily life as other people – I can’t really be spontaneous.”
Jenna is able to find humour in her strange condition however, and says one perk is how quick it is for her to do her weekly shop. “I can do it in about three minutes – its actually quite convenient,” she joked.
Jenna keeps a cabinet full of snacks for her friends to enjoy when they come over. She makes sure to stock up on sweets, popcorn, chips and sauces and seasonings – even though she can’t eat any of it.
A typical day of eating for Jenna usually consists of:
- Breakfast: A bowl of dates and chia seeds.
- Lunch: A plate of grilled courgette.
- Snack: Raspberries.
- Dinner: White fish or turkey with and green beans.
A typical dinner for her is fish with courgette and green beans, and now she is able to have some fruit for dessert. Her breakfast is usually dates with chia seeds in it. “It’s been a life changer as I have a real sweet tooth,” she said.
Her goal is to be able to stabilise her condition with medication so that she can continue to expand her diet. She said: “My condition does still cause me to have anxiety – I get a reflex of wanting to eat a lot of food before I go out since I worry about being able to find food when I’m not at home.”
Jenna shares her health journey on TikTok, Instagram and Youtube under the username Jennaxhealth. She hopes sharing her story will help raise awareness about people living with issues that you may not see or hear about.
Jenna said: “Diet is only one part of health and the idea of what is and isn’t healthy is unique to each person. I want to be able to make other people feel validated. MCAS is much more common than a lot of us think but it’s rare to find other people who have it because it is mostly invisible.
“With an invisible condition, it can sometimes feel like you have to prove something which can lead to people not understanding or even believing that it’s real – and there have been times where even I start to question it. There is so much online about being healthy, but what is good for one person isn’t always good for another.”
