Many foods are known to cause allergic reactions in
people. If you can identify the foods that affect you and remove them from your
diet, you’ll be much more likely to live a longer, healthier life.
Food allergies come in several forms. A clinical
allergy is one you just can’t ignore, an obvious cause-and-effect relationship
of a food you’ve just eaten to your body’s response: Each time you eat a
tomato, you break out in hives. Another form of allergy is a sub-clinical
allergy. Sub-clinical allergies are not so obvious, which is why they can be
more dangerous. You eat a tomato, and a while later you feel jittery or
fatigued, or you come down with a headache, or your blood pressure rises. You
might or might not notice the symptoms, and you’re unlikely to make a direct
cause-and-effect connection. Sub-clinical allergies can go on for a long time
unnoticed; meanwhile, your health suffers.
Food
allergies can manifest in many ways. Headaches, fatigue, muscle and joint
pains, stomach problems, attention-deficit disorder, panic attacks, insomnia,
depression, chest pain, nausea, rashes, dry mouth, increasing or decreasing
blood pressure, and blurred vision—all of these can be symptoms of allergic
reactions to foods. If you constantly eat foods you’re allergic to, your body remains
in a state of alarm, focused on fighting your food.
This is only a partial list of possible allergic
reactions. Because such symptoms are often mild, continuous, or caused by other
health problems, food allergies are often overlooked because many of these
symptoms are treated with drugs to alleviate the symptom itself; the cause is
not explored. Identification of food allergies and elimination of the offending
foods from the diet can sometimes save you from the ill effects of drug
treatment for symptoms attributed to other health problems.
Take
a close look at your diet. If you’re tired, don’t feel as well as you’d like
to, or have health problems that you’ve never fully resolved, food allergies
may be the cause. A skilled allergist can assist you in assessing your diet, as
can a nutritionist. Many alternative healthcare practitioners are experienced
in working with food allergies. The route you take to discover which foods you
are allergic to will depend on what type of practitioner you go to. An MD may
use skin-sensitivity or blood tests; a nutritionist is more likely to use a
diet diary and an elimination-diet protocol. Alternative practitioners may use
both. Choose the approach you’re most comfortable with.
Knowing your family history may help you determine
if you have food allergies, and, if so, to identify which food or foods you’re
allergic to. In many cases, your relatives may not know they suffered from food
allergies, but they may be able to tell you what foods “didn’t sit right with
them.” If you recall that Uncle Leroy suffered from hives whenever he ate
strawberries, then there’s a chance you might be allergic to them as well,
though your symptoms might not be as obvious. In your case, the allergy might
manifest not as hives, but as increased blood pressure.
But once you find out what you’re allergic to, you
must eliminate it from your diet. This can be a challenge. For instance, wheat
is a very common allergen. If you’re allergic to wheat, you must avoid anything
with wheat flour in it. Obviously, this means bread, cakes, cookies, pancakes,
pasta, wheat cereals, and the like. But things get more complicated when you
realize that many processed foods also contain wheat. You have to learn how to
read labels and identify what is in your food. Wheat can be found in products
ranging from hotdogs to gravy to beer.
Once
you eliminate from your diet the foods you’re allergic to, you must give your
body time to adapt. Symptoms such as fatigue may take some time to dissipate.
In many cases, a person is allergic to more than one food, and a series of
tests or food eliminations must be done before the person can regain their
health—if you don’t see immediate results, don’t be discouraged. Check to be
sure that you’ve identified all the foods you’re allergic to, that you’re no
longer eating any of those foods in hard-to-identify forms (read the labels!),
and hang in there. Elimination of offending foods can make a huge difference in
your health. Congratulations for being strong enough to make a change that matters.
