For some, a glass of milk is a tasty treat. For others, it is a glass of poison.

 By ALEXA CARAVIA  

Imagine if eating a slice of pizza or a scoop of ice cream left you vomiting, gasping for breath and even at the brink of death.

For student Kristen Perez-Zarraga, this scenario requires little imagination. Her soft voice trembles as she recalls her swelled, purple lips and her pale-blue complexion as she struggled to breathe during her first anaphylactic reaction six years ago.

"If anaphylactic shock isn't treated immediately, it can be fatal," Kristen says.

She closes her eyes and remembers her eighth grade trip to Disney World. Kristen had been trying to suppress the muffled sounds of her grumbling stomach since the beginning of her 30-minute wait for Splash Mountain.

When she reached the marble-slated lunch counter, Kristen ordered a plain hamburger patty, making known her allergies to milk and milk products. When her burger was ready, she scarfed it down.

Forty minutes later, while in line for the Grand Prix racing ride, she was overcome by deep, uncomfortable stomach pains and cold chills that she passed off as "being wet from the ride and having just eaten." Thirty seconds into the ride she began to have trouble breathing.

“I felt my throat itch intensely and I started gasping for air.” Before she knew it, she was on her way to the hospital, Kristen says.

As it turned out, the plain hamburger patty contained cracker meal whey, a protein found in milk.

"My body went into cardiac arrest," she recalls. "I even stopped breathing."

Yearly, 125 deaths are attributed to food-related anaphylaxis. Epinephrine by injection is the only effective treatment.

Currently, the only way to treat food allergies is to avoid the foods that trigger reactions.

"I haven't eaten at a restaurant since then," she says.

Cooking for herself has given Kristen the tasty and safe alternative of using dairy-free recipes, but sharing the kitchen with three roommates isn’t ideal, she admits.

“They just need to pick up after themselves,” she says. “You see, I can't eat a hamburger that's cooked on the same grill as a cheeseburger, and if anything as slight as a potato chip I’m allergic to touches my food, I can die.”

While anaphylaxis has taken the spontaneity out of many things that Kristen does, it has not defined her, she replies.

"My allergies limit what I eat, not what I do. I mean, I could let them affect me in more ways than they do, but I choose not too," she says. "Whoever said milk does a body good?"

Produced by Brian Murray and Zachary Sipp

Check out NOTmilk.com for A to Z look at why you should stay away from dairy products.	Visit Milksucks.com to find out how PETA feels about the treatment of dairy cows.	Looking for milk-free recipes? The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network has new ones every month.	Check out the Dairy Council to see why some say that milk does a body good.