Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Son Shows How He Eats at Food Festival with a Severe Peanut Allergy

A chip off the old block, Joseph Baena bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, bodybuilder, film star, and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

One way he doesn’t resemble his dad is his food allergy: Baena is seriously allergic to peanuts.

Recently, Baena took to Instagram to show how he navigates a food festival despite his allergy:

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A post shared by Joseph Baena (@joebaena)

We at SnackSafely.com truly appreciate Baena’s public showing of diligence in asking whether the foods he is about to try contain nuts. That said, there are a few changes we hope he makes when attending such festivals in the future:

• Does the person he is asking know definitively how the dish was prepared? We suggest that be the first question asked;
• As peanuts and tree nuts are often conflated, we encourage asking whether a dish specifically contains peanuts. Asking only using the general term “nuts” opens the door for ambiguity;
• If the dish doesn’t contain peanuts, we encourage inquiring whether the food establishment uses peanuts in their kitchen and, if so, what precautions they took to prevent cross-contact.

Detailed questions like these should be answered before consuming any food with a food allergy, but getting reliable answers at busy events may be difficult. That’s why eating at such events is especially risky.

We hope Baena knows to always take two epinephrine auto-injectors along to food events and everywhere else he goes. We also hope he knows to administer one as soon as he suspects anaphylaxis — and if it doesn’t reverse the progression of symptoms after a few minutes — to administer the second while waiting for emergency services to arrive.

We hope you know too.

Do you eat at such events? If you do, do you take special precautions? Let us know in the comments section below.