Although many people’s body have difficulty tolerating to eat certain foods (which is the hypersensitive reaction of the immune system), the true food allergy is happily far less than we think.
First of all, it is important to make difference between food allergy and food intolerance. While allergy (hypersensitivity) may be more dangerous or fatal, intolerance (which is an inability to tolerate) may cause unpleasant symptoms after eating some foods.
What develops food allergy?
Do not forget that allergic diseases occur worldwide, including skin, respiratory and digestive complaints.
At the beginning of the XXI. century, we have witnessed a tremendous industrial development in which the food industry produces out of refined and processed foods that contain large amounts of ingredients with significant allergenic effects.
Artificial preservatives, flavor enhancers, texture improvers, colorants and other additives have a significant allergic effect.
What are the symptoms of food allergy?
The allergic reaction may be unpleasant but harmless, but in some cases even life-threatening. Symptoms may appear a few minutes or a few hours after a meal, depending on the type of food allergy:
- The mouth numbs;
- Swelling of lips, tongue, throat, face or other parts of the body;
- Swelling of the nasal mucosa, which occurs gasping breathing and in severe cases, manifested as heavy respiratory distress;
- itchy skin;
- Urticaria – rapidly emerging red spots on the skin that change their location on the skin.
- Eczema – is characterized by slowly emerging coarse skin thickening, crackling, scaling, peeling and pruritus, usually occurring where dietary food has allowed the body to release more histamine;
- Abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea;
- Dizziness, fainting.
The most serious form of allergies is called anaphylaxis, which involves life-threatening symptoms and immediate medical attention is required. Characterized by the following symptoms:
- airways narrowing – throat swelling (lump in the throat), bronchitis and bronchial constriction;
- decreased blood pressure – (vasodilatation develops) weakness, dizziness, in severe cases it may cause unconsciousness and death;
- Fast pulse – the body’s response to the vasodilatation to counteract the decreased blood pressure.
What foods can cause allergic reactions?
Most often, certain protein in foods causes unpleasant allergic symptoms. Attention should be paid to the following food consumption:
- dairy products
- eggs
- oil seeds (walnuts, peanuts, sesame)
- cereals
- soybeans
- fish
- shellfish
What test methods are available to us?
The method of filtering suspicious foods consists of four steps:
To test food allergy, the amount of specific allergen antibody produced by the body (IgE antibodies) can be measured by blood test through various nutrient panels.
The skin test (Prick test) may only suggest that the blood test results are correct. In this case, the result of the skin test should be consistent with the symptoms after eating the food and with the results of the blood test.
How symptoms can be eliminated?
In most cases, eating diary and exclusion diet result when we are working to relieve or completely eliminate the symptoms. Diet should be administered under medical supervision for three weeks. If the symptoms alleviated, we gradually recycle each food containing the allergens. If allergy symptoms occur again, the suspicion is confirmed.