FYI: I reprinted this from part one: There are eight foods that account for 90% of all U.S. food allergic reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (ex. walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, pistachios), wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish.

OK, so now we know that allergies and an autoimmune response are not the same. (See Part One.) But if food triggers either an allergy or autoimmune response, then you can help yourself in the kitchen while getting help for your condition from your health practitioner, whether it be an allergist, a D.O., an internist, or whatever doctor is most familiar with your problem(s).

Here are some suggestions for dealing with food allergies, based on my research over the years, my contact with people from cooking classes or friendships who have food allergies or celiac issues, and my own personal experiences.

1. If you suspect an allergy there are several ways to be tested.  The one that I found least invasive involves a blood test, but there are also ones that require small stabs with a needle. Find a doctor who uses a method you can handle. You are stressed out enough with the issue and don’t need more stress.
2. You can try the Cocoa Pulse Test, which means taking your pulse before you eat a possible offending food and then again after you eat a food you want to test.  Go to http://www.alternativehealth.co.nz/cancer/pulse.htm for detailed information. Here is just an excerpt:

“The test is based on measurement of the resting pulse rate, something most people have no difficulty learning how to do. The resting rate is how fast the heart beats after a person has been sitting still, comfortably relaxing for three to five minutes. … Preparatory to doing Coca’s Pulse Test it is necessary to as much as possible eliminate allergic food reactions. This requires the application of discipline for a few days before testing begins. Allergic reactions can go on for several days after a food has been eaten and if you are having a reaction to something eaten many hours or several days previously, it may obscure a reaction to a food just eaten…..

On the fourth and subsequent few days (after some preliminary steps described in the article es), take your resting pulse upon arising and then eat a modest quantity of a single food: for example, eat a slice of bread, or a medium sized glass of milk, or an orange, or two tablespoons sugar in dissolved in water, or a few dried prunes, or a peach, or an egg, or a medium-sized potato, or a cup of black coffee without sweetener, or a few ounces of meat, or a stick of celery, or half a cup of raw cabbage, or an onion, or a date, or a few hazelnuts, etc. Count the pulse one half hour later and again one hour after eating the test item.  If any food raises the resting pulse over 12 beats per minute above your morning resting pulse, that food should be eliminated; you are certainly allergic to it or can’t digest that much of it. If your pulse has not returned to its morning resting rate one hour later, you are still having an allergic reaction to the food you ate previously and cannot get a decent result on another food until either your pulse slows again or until the next morning.”

2.  You can have a blood test to determine allergies. When I did mine, the doctor gave me a long list of the foods and I checked off those I suspected as allergens. Then my blood was tested for the foods I checked. No foods showed up and my skin reactions was later uncovered by a dermatologist who made scratch marks on my back using medicines that might cause a reaction and one did show up. I am not sure if I had what is called the RAST test. “A RAST test or radioallergosorbent test, is a type of blood test used to test for allergies. While RAST tests are expensive, and not considered as accurate as food challenges, they are considered a very safe way to test for food allergies.” (Source: www.food allergies.about.com)

3.     Web MD has another way to test allergies.  “The elimination diet and food challenge test are tools used to identify food allergies. The elimination diet involves removing specific foods or ingredients from your diet that you and your doctor suspect may be causing your allergy symptoms. (Common allergy-causing foods include milk, eggs, nuts, wheat, and soy.) Your doctor will supervise this diet over a few weeks. During this time, you will need to carefully read food labels and find out about food preparation methods when dining out. You’ll also need to keep a food diary to record the foods you are eating. If you remove a certain food and the symptoms go away while following this diet, your doctor can usually identify that food as the cause of your problems.” (Source: www.webmd.com/allergies-elimination-diet. )

As you can see, there is more than one way to uncover food allergies. But Americans who eat a great deal of processed foods may have more difficulties uncovering the allergen than those who eat unadulterated foods. Perhaps this is a clue or trigger for changing to a more whole foods diet, anyway.

I also think there are people with food sensitivities. For example, I cannot eat onions, although I can eat other members of the lily family such as leeks, garlic, scallions & chives. So maybe I have food sensitivities but not a true allergy.  The point is that I need to monitor my foods choices so I don’t eat items that will spark that sensitivity.

Here is an excerpt from www.righthealth.com on this very topic:

Is it Food Allergy or Just Sensitivity? From: http://www.righthealth.com/topic/Food_Allergy_Families/overview/healthology20#ixzz1EQl3HfeS

“Certain foods are often erroneously blamed for being allergic foods. Rather than being allergic, these foods contain natural histamines. Examples of foods with natural histamines are:

• Wine
• Chocolate
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes

If you are sensitive to one or more of these foods, you might get an itchy rash or a headache after eating them. But if you were tested, your doctor would probably not find any allergic skin or blood results. The exception is wine, some of which is made with preservatives called sulfites and can cause rare but severe allergic reactions.

Some of my patients tell me that they are allergic to milk. However, it frequently turns out that their stomach pain, gas, and bloating are caused by an inability to properly digest milk sugar (lactose) due to an enzyme deficiency. The lactose ends up fermenting in the person’s intestine, causing discomfort. Eating yogurt or cheeses, drinking lactose-free milk, or taking lactase tablets or acidophilus resolves most of the problem.

Others believe that they are allergic to wheat and sugar. Again, this is often undetermined. However, many of these people are indeed sensitive to these foods and do feel better without them. I have also encountered a large number of people who believe that they have a yeast allergy and frequently get yeast infections. These people seem to do well on yeast-free diets and off simple sugars (like those found in candies and chocolates).”

Fortunately, in stores today one can find almost any kind of food that eliminates milk, wheat, eggs, soy, etc. Keeping a food diary, as mentioned above, is a great way to track what you are and are not eating.  An allergy-free diet is a challenge, but not an impossibility. If you do have food allergies, there are books to help, health food store personnel, and of course, your own health practitioner.  Avoiding offending foods takes sleuthing, but the rewards of not having a runny nose, hives, stomach problems, or whatever way your allergy (or allergies) manifests itself is usually worth your efforts if you goal is to get healthy and stay healthy.

Note: I am doing research on celiac issues to see if it the intolerance to gluten is considered an allergy. I will explore this when I get to letter C.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 19th, 2011 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Food Plans & Diets: A Series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.