Ever since I was a kid, I loved how peanut butter used to taste. Not only did it taste good, but it had this weird spice to it. It wasn't quite like chili pepper type spice, but a whole unique spice that I'd never taste in other foods. It was the perfect accent when mixed with jelly, as the spiciness and the sweetness went together perfectly. Sometimes I'd eat it too fast and have a bit of a hard time breathing, but I never thought anything of it. I also remember getting some weird looks a few times as a kid talking about spicy peanut butter, but didn't think anything of that either. One day a few months ago, now I'm 25 years old, I was staying at my parents' house and went to make myself some lunch. I saw some peanut butter in the pantry, but no jelly, and since I was so hungry, I slammed about an inch of peanut butter between two slices of bread and remember thinking, wow, this is the most peanut butter I've ever eaten at once. But then got to work devouring my creation. This is where the fucked up part starts. A few bites in, I got I ate too fast feeling again that I had to take a break to catch my breath. But then I started eating again and immediately got the ate too fast feeling. Damn, it's going to take me forever to eat this sandwich, I thought. So I became determined just to power through it all and finish it no matter how uncomfortable it was. Big mistake. I made it to about the halfway point before I knew something was wrong. It felt simultaneously like there was a rock stuck in my windpipe and like someone had been filling my lungs with peanut butter. Wheezing and struggling to breathe, it fucking hurt. The amount of time it took to take full breath was causing me to panic, and it felt like I was going to fill up with hot like a hot air balloon with a straw. I immediately started googling heart attack symptoms, but they didn't really match up. And then I googled the symptoms themselves and results of symptoms of allergic reactions started coming up. Some of the main symptoms were difficulty breathing, chest tightness and wheezing. Then I scrolled further down and saw a section about things to watch out for in children. And the top one was if the child says their mouth feels hot and that they say something spicy when it's not spicy. After a painfully long period of time, I started being able to breathe again and suddenly all my weird looks I got from talking about spicy peanut butter made sense. Peanut butter wasn't spicy. I'd just been poisoning myself all these years. And now I use peanut butter alternative as a mix of a jelly, sweet Asian jelly. I pick up from the store and it's just as good but doesn't almost kill me.