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FOOD ALLERGIES -- You may one of the many people (perhaps 50 million or more people in the United States) who suffer from an allergy-based illness. Symptoms associated with food allergies differ from one person to the next, e.g. some people develop headaches or migraines, some have constipation or diarrhea, others experience anxiety or difficulty in concentrating or depression. See the attached page for a more complete list of possible symptoms. The good news is that contrary to common thought, most food allergies can be overcome by abstaining from the offending foods for 6-12 months, which also takes a load off of your body thus enabling it to better handle inhalant (e.g. pollen) allergies. Those of you who have symptoms that occur immediately can usually identify the problem food – for example if you eat a bowl of strawberries and break out in hives or you eat peanuts and immediately go into anaphylactic shock, then you can pretty much guess as to why. However symptoms of most food allergies can be very subtle as well as delayed and therefore hard to determine the offending food; but repetitive exposure to the allergenic food over time may finally take its toll and cause symptoms. For example an allergy to milk may start as just minor discomfort in the intestines and over time cause inflammation throughout the body. Food allergies can affect any cell structure in the body, i.e. the joints or muscles or lungs or brain or blood vessels. Anywhere the blood flows, inflammation from food allergies follows, and symptoms may result. Over the past few years, there has been increasing awareness of many diseases and symptoms that can be caused, or contributed to, by the presence of allergies. Reasons for the increase of intolerance to our environment as well as the food we eat would definitely include the changes in the Western diet over the last hundreds of years, in particular the refining of food, the use of chemical additives, the increased consumption of animal produce and the increasing presence of environmental pollution.
Food Allergies defined and explained:
· A food allergy is an immune reaction to some food proteins and not others. During an immune reaction, the body makes antibodies to sequester these food proteins that it recognizes as foreign invaders.
· A Food Intolerance such as lactose intolerance is not a food allergy. It is usually genetically determined. People who are unable to digest milk products because they lack the enzyme Lactase to do so can simply take the supplement lactase enzyme when eating milk products to overcome this intolerance. Other food intolerances are an adverse reaction to a food additive such as colorants, preservatives, fillers, stabilizers or artificial sweeteners (see Winter 2003 Nutrition Newsletter on additives/sweeteners). A lack of the enzyme Aldehyde Dehydrogenase causes alcohol intolerance.
· An Immediate Food Reaction can occur within 3 hours after eating the food, caused by the presence of a high IgE antibody level in the blood. Usual reactions are hives or anaphylaxis, e.g. rashes after eating an apple or hives after eating strawberries. This type of allergy cannot be overcome by abstaining from the food. In fact if you have such a reaction, do not eat the food again, because in some cases the reaction can be fatal on subsequent exposure to the offending food.
· Environmental allergies such as pollen and animal dander can wear down your adrenal glad, making you more susceptible to inflammation from food allergies. You may not be able to avoid the pollen for example, but you can remove allergic foods from your diet, which allows your adrenal gland (coping mechanism) to recover, and thus decrease reaction to environmental allergies. Inhalant allergies such as those from pollens, grasses and molds also usually have an IgE antibody response.
· Histamine and tyramine occur naturally in foods, and in certain people these compounds elicit what may be mistaken for a food allergy with symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, headache and wheezing. Histamine is in wine, fermented cheeses, certain fish, crustaceans, spinach, sauerkraut, tomato, sausages. Tyramine is in wine, beer, cheese, milk, egg white, chocolate, pickled herring.
· Cross-reactions with food can occur in sensitivity to natural rubber latex which is a common ingredient in many products such as balloons, appliance cords, swimwear, condoms, rubber bands, medical and dental supplies such as gloves, syringes, masks, catheters and bandages. Such sensitivity to latex will result in cross reactivity with avocado, potato, banana, tomato, kiwi and pineapple. Other cross-reactions occur between foods of the same family. For example if you are allergic to kidney beans, you may also be allergic to soybeans or other members of the Legume Family of foods even if you never eat them.
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Delayed Food Reactions can occur up to several days after ingestion of the reactive food, making it difficult to link one's symptom to the food eaten. Such hidden allergies are often the cause of many "chronic symptoms." The immune response to delayed food reactions are often caused by antibodies other than IgE. They are IgG, IgA, IgM and IgD. These antibodies combine with the food particles in the blood to form "immune complexes" which cause inflammatory reactions in any part of the body, thus producing many kinds of symptoms such as intestinal pain, headache, eczema, joint pain, mental disorders, etc. It is impossible to identify these delayed food reactions without scientific testing. Inflammation due to these food allergies may present as any of a number of diseases or disorders depending on where the indinvidual’s “Achilles heel” to disease resides. See list of conditions that food allergies may be a possible contributing factor. Causes of these allergies may include stress, antigenic overload, compromised digestion, imbalance in gut microflora, and poor immune function.
What to do about Delayed Food Reactions?
1) Improve the microflora of your intestines by taking Acidophilus/Bifidus/FOS (by Jarro-Dophilus) 1-2 capsules daily for 2 months. These friendly bacteria normally live within our gut in a mutual and loving relationship. Fiber in the foods we eat feeds these bacteria, and they in turn help build a strong and healthy gut wall and a competent immune front in our intestines. They also influence the type of chemical mediators produced in the gut wall, causing less IgG antibodies.
2) Take digestive enzymes with your meals (e.g. CompletGest by Enzymatic Therapy, 2 capsules with each meal) to increase the amount of digestive juices in the stomach and pancreas (our natural enzymes start decreasing about age 35). If there are insufficient digestive juices made, the foods do not get broken down sufficiently and can cause food allergies.
3) Have
me order a
U.S.Biotek food allergy test to determine your delayed food allergies. U.S.Biotek
is a very good company. It is easy to do at home just requiring a
finger-stick that you barely feel. You will be delighted about how much
better you feel when you eliminate your allergic foods.