TerporDie

PKU doesn't work like that. It's not a peanut allergy where you can go into anaphylactic shock and die instantly. High phenylalanine levels do brain damage over time and cause symptoms. If one time you accidentally eat a bit of meat essentially nothing will happen.

I have PKU as well and I've never had any issues with vegetarians/vegans except the one person who told me it was good that I had it so that I wouldn't eat meat and contribute to unethical treatment of animals. While I understand that made sense in her worldview, saying it's a good thing I have a genetic disorder that made my childhood way more difficult and could cause mental retardation was pretty fucked up.

I'm glad you did this IAMA! My question: WHAT?!? YOU'VE NEVER HAD MEAT? How do you live? Dude I'd totally die if I couldn't have bacon. Hahahaha. Story of our lives!