Millions of Americans suffer from food allergies, but one teen in Utah is fighting his own food battle.
He is allergic to food, but he has found a unique way to get past the problem, by woodworking.
With a little bit of skill and a lot of practice, the end result is exactly what you’d hope.
From a very young age, allergies were Alex Visker’s worst enemy.
It seemed Visker was allergic to peanuts, but as the years passed, the allergies got worse.
After years of testing and searching for answers, it turns out Visker is allergic to food.
The family kitchen is stocked, but every single item could make him violently ill.
Doctors believe Alex may have a form of what’s called “mast cell activation disorder.”
Now, Visker can only eat hypoallergenic powdered nutrients.
While he misses the way food tastes, he has found a unique way to cope.
“I can’t have it and it’s there all the time,” he said. “And so it was like, ‘I’m going to conquer this.’”
Visker may never become a professional cook, and the block of wood that is his life may not have turned out how he’d imagined, but Visker refuses to let his condition stop him from enjoying the taste of living.
“One thing that’s helped me is serving others,” he said. “You kind of lose yourself in that.”
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