The army and food allergies, can I still get in? or should I lie?

Question

I'm very VERY keen on joining the army, but I was then made aware of the fact that people who have severe food allergies (such as nut allergies or anaphylaxis) cannot join the army full stop, i'm only really interested in the army reserve, so should I lie and just avoid any food im given with nuts? will I even get passed the medical? or is it not worth the risk?

Answer 1

you should lie...
:)))))))

Answer 2

Lying about severe food allergies is never a good idea. There are too many ways to be exsposed through cross contamination and if the people around you are unaware of the issue, you could loose valuable minutes in recieving treatment. While I applaud your desire to serve, the military has these rules in place for a reason...they have dealt with these issues, know the risks you could be put at and feel that they are not equipped well enough to keep you reasonably safe from the risk of reaction. Be honest when discussing this with a recruiter and, no matter what they say, honest with the medical personel when you undergo your evals and physicals. It is better to miss out on serving and stay safe and healthy than to lie, go to training and become ill from and MRE prepared in an area that had peanuts in it previously.

Answer 3

If you have food allergies so severe that they send you into anaphylactic shock, you don't belong in the Army or anywhere else that you don't total control over your diet.

And lying about it successfully can get you dishonorably discharged, and possibly imprisoned for any one of a number of crimes. You can probably get past the physical, but it's likely that you will have an episode because special diets aren't a big priority for the military.

It's not worth the risk to you or to the other soldiers who depend on you.

I appreciate your desire to serve your country, but find another way.

Answer 4

My son-in-law is currently serving in Iraq and has done a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He was first in the Marines for 8 years and then moved over to the Army. He has a severe (deadly) allergy to nuts that he has had all his life and it didn't keep him out of the military.

We watch what we send to him making sure that it doesn't contain nuts, peanut oil, etc.

When you take your physical they will ask if you have any allergies. I wish you great success.

Answer 5

DO NOT LIE!!!! you will at times have ZERO control over what food you get to eat, and they cannot guarantee that it won't have traces of nuts.

are you willing to take the chance of DYING in the middle of field somewhere because all you had to eat was an MRE that contained a nut trace and you went into shock and there was no medical facilities capable of handling such an emergent condition?

or worse.. causing the death of someone ELSE because you were incapacitated?!

Answer 6

Well I guess if you're willing to die from your food allergies you can sign up. I'm lactose intollerant and I got in. Just avoid foods containing ingredients your allergic to that's what my commander has always told me.

Answer 7

Uh....it's never good to lie about anything, especially when the end result could kill ya!!

Think about this, if nuts are your allergy, what if one day the chow hall decides to switch from canola oil to peanut oil to fry/cook the food you are about to eat....

Answer 8

dont lie about it! you have pretty high chances of getting in to the army. most likely you will have a med alert tag to go with your dog tags (all issued in basic), and you may have to have a med waiver. most of the MRE's have no nuts, so your good in training. go for it! good luck in basic.

Answer 9

With army food you never know if it has nut oil in it or not . If you lied you'd be risking your health.

Answer 10

don't lie about having food allergies, that's dumb and can probably kill you. Don't make the medical staff work any more than they have to.

Answer 11

did you lie? Curious to know what hapened