Food allergy: the body’s cry for help

If you often feel bloated, tired, or not so well after a meal; if you have frequent stomach pains, cramps or intestinal problems; if you have strong food cravings or food dislikes; If you experience a number of symptoms that you just can’t explain, or sometimes become more anxious, irritable, or depressed, you may have a food allergy.

Allergy has reached epidemic proportions, and it has been estimated that at this rate, half of Europe will have allergies within a few years. Food allergies are of particular concern as they are now recognized as a factor in many health problems and illnesses, especially in children.

Many scientists and health professionals believe that a poor diet and the large number of toxins that are now present in our food are important factors in this unprecedented increase in the number and severity of allergies in recent decades.

When food hurts instead of helping

Much of our food is over-processed and treated with toxins from production to sale. So instead of being an important source of true health and resilience, the food we eat can actually undermine our body’s ability to deal effectively with daily stress and eliminate toxins that attack us from all sides. It’s no wonder that more and more of our bodies are reacting with food allergies.

Food allergies not only damage our bodies (and our minds), they also prevent us from getting the full nutritional benefits of the healthy foods we eat. By causing damage to our digestive system, they can prevent the complete breakdown of food into essential nutrients and interfere with the body’s ability to properly absorb available nutrients. This can lead to nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition, even though you’re eating lots of good foods.

Another problem is that food allergies can restrict your ability to eat the foods you need. A diverse diet offers the greatest assurance that you’re getting the nutrients you need, but if you live in fear of a reaction, you may be limiting your diet more than necessary. For example, someone with an allergy to Swiss chard or silver beets might eliminate all vegetables from their diet, when in reality, they may just be reacting to a particular chemical found in plants of the ‘beet’ genus. By cutting out all vegetables, this person is missing out on many of the healthful properties of vegetables, which are excellent sources of chlorophyll, calcium, and magnesium.

allergenic foods

An allergenic or reactive food is one that causes an allergic reaction, such as hives, wheezing, stomach cramps, or nasal congestion. The foods that tend to be more allergenic (especially for children) are: milk, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, nuts, eggs.

Other highly reactive foods are: oatmeal, yeast, chocolate, shellfish, beef, and citrus.

However, you can develop intolerance, sensitivity or allergy to any food. The degree of sensitivity to a food depends on your “threshold” tolerance for that food. You may be able to eat small amounts of a food but react to larger amounts. Or some foods can be eaten without reaction from time to time, but not more often.

In fact, you may not be reacting to the specific food, but to one or more of the components of that food. It may surprise you to learn that the most common problem substances are vitamins and minerals in food. They can cause us to have allergic reactions to many foods we eat every day. Other important causes of food allergy are food additives, sulfur, pesticides, biotechnology, and genetic engineering.

Food allergy symptoms

There are many warning signs that you might have a food allergy: dark circles under your eyes, frequent sniffing or throat clearing, irritability, mood swings, hyperactivity, or frequent fatigue. Other signs may include headaches, stomachaches, intestinal problems, muscle pain, coughing or wheezing, and frequent digestive or breathing problems. Symptoms vary from person to person. Common signs of food allergy include the following:

Digestive problems: Reactions to food allergens can damage the lining of the digestive tract and also upset the balance of hormones and chemicals necessary for proper digestion and elimination. This can lead to problems like leaky gut syndrome, in which the walls of the small intestine leak partially digested food into the bloodstream. This can lead to bloating, stomach cramps and inflammation, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases and immune deficiencies, and many other problems.

Obstructed airways: Food allergens are responsible for excess mucus in many allergy sufferers, leading to chronic obstruction of the mucous nose and throat, as well as ear infections. Babies have very small upper airways and it takes very little to block them. When allergens are removed from the diet, the mucus dries up.

Middle ear infections: More than 70% of children suffer from a middle ear infection at one time or another, and many researchers believe it is due to food allergies, particularly to milk and wheat. One study reported that 78% of children with otitis had allergies to milk, wheat, egg whites, peanuts, and soy, and when these foods were removed from their diet, 86% experienced significant improvement.

Psychological or emotional problems: Food allergies have been clearly linked to a variety of psychological and behavioral disorders, such as autism and hyperactivity in children, anxiety, depression, inability to concentrate, mood swings, and ” fog”.

Food Addictions: If you’re addicted to a food, you’re probably allergic to it. This is because allergic reactions in the body trigger the release of certain chemicals, including opioids, that make you feel good. If you feel happier when you eat that food, you may develop a craving for it.

Types of food allergies

If you are allergic to a food, you may experience an immediate or delayed reaction to the food. The immediate reaction pattern is known as type I food allergy. Immediately or shortly after eating the food, it shows clear and often dramatic symptoms. If you are allergic to mushrooms, you may develop abdominal cramps within an hour after eating a mushroom-containing ragu. A child with a type 1 reaction to kiwifruit may experience severe itching of the mouth or vomiting within 15 minutes of eating a kiwifruit.

The most dangerous type I reaction is called anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that can be fatal within minutes. If you or your child experience dizziness), a swollen tongue or throat, difficulty breathing, fainting, or facial swelling immediately after eating, seek immediate emergency care.

Type I food allergies are easy to diagnose. They respond to allergy skin tests and show up on blood tests because they result in excess IgE antibodies. For many doctors, this is the only true type of food allergy. Recent estimates show that Type I food allergies occur in 3-5% (sometimes as high as 8%) of children and 1-2% of adults.

Type II food allergy does not involve IgE antibodies. Instead, IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies can be produced. This reaction pattern is associated with the release of inflammatory substances by the immune system. Many food allergies are of this type, therefore they are not detected by standard allergy tests, which usually only test for IgE antibodies.

Some reactive patterns are “hidden”. Late-pattern food allergies (known as type III food allergies) often go unrecognized because symptoms are often not obvious and can occur days after the food is eaten. Also, because they do not involve the production of excess IgE antibodies, delayed allergic reactions do not show up on skin tests or IgE antibody tests. Rather, they tend to appear as clusters of physical, behavioral, and learning problems that affect multiple body systems at once.

You may experience type III allergy as a combination of recurrent or persistent symptoms, such as shortness of breath, frequent throat clearing, episodes of hyperactivity and emotional hypersensitivity, chronic nasal congestion, and flu-like symptoms. Another person may experience recurring headaches, frequent itchy eyes, abdominal pain, fatigue, bouts of depression, trouble sleeping, and swollen lymph nodes. These delayed food allergy reaction patterns are difficult to diagnose. However, according to many health professionals, they account for the majority of food allergies, especially in children.

In fact, food allergies are so common, and so often undiagnosed, that you should take any undefined pattern of illness involving different symptoms and different bodily symptoms as a sign of food allergy until proven otherwise.

Treatment

It used to be accepted that children outgrow food allergies, and adults sometimes report the same thing, but now we know that allergies simply evolve and change over time. For example, allergies to milk or eggs can develop into respiratory or other allergies, or various health problems. For true healing to occur, the underlying allergies must be addressed.

The most common treatment for food allergies is avoidance. This will relieve symptoms and prevent further damage; however, it can mean a lifetime of restrictive diets.

There is some evidence that eating organic foods may decrease the incidence or severity of food allergic reactions and may even help protect against allergic reactions. Organic foods provide more of the quality nutrients needed to strengthen the immune system, which is always weak in people with allergies. Certainly, a diet rich in organic foods decreases the chances of developing allergies to food additives and pesticides, and can reduce the incidence of allergies.

However, if you already have food allergies, the damage they have already caused still needs to be corrected.

The best solution for food allergies is desensitization. There are different treatment options available, some of them immunize the body against allergens with extracts under the tongue or injections. Acupuncture has also proven effective in treating some allergies. The problem is that these therapies may not address the underlying health issues, such as nutrient deficiencies, toxin overload, or stress, that caused the food allergies in the first place.

For a real solution to food allergies, choose a program that involves detoxification to cleanse the body of toxins that contribute to allergies, correct other underlying health problems, and desensitize you to the allergens that are affecting you.

Once food allergies are under control or eliminated, it’s important to get sound nutritional advice to help you maintain and build your immune system health. If you don’t eat enough of the right foods or eat too many of the wrong foods, you risk developing new allergies or other problems. A good diet is still your best protection.