The Sad Truth About Food Allergies

Allergies to food are no doubt one of the most frustrating and miserable allergies to have. It can make dinner parties and birthday parties a mission of determination and willpower, let alone fun and indulgence! Trying to avoid that mouth watering chocolate cake and ice-cream whilst everyone happily makes their way through it can make you feel really left out.

For some, finding foods to eat that won’t cause a reaction on a day to day basis can almost feel like a constant fight for survival as the amount of food allergens that you have collected is almost unmanageable. New food allergies are created often in very allergic people, ultimately leading to severe malnourishment as the body finds it difficult to receive all of its nutrients from the limited amount of foods tolerated.

If you are unaware of what foods you are allergic to and continue to ingest them on a daily basis, your immune system will become less able to fight bacteria and viruses as it is too busy fighting and destroying food allergens.

This can lead to greater infections, and a harder time getting over the common cold or flu. Bouts of tiredness and anxiety may become more regular, or a feeling of bloatedness or stomach upsets may become a common occurrence.

If left untreated, constant immune responses to food allergens over long periods can create inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as;

Arthritis

This is a disease where the cartilage between your joints begins to break down causing a lot of joint pain and discomfort. This makes it extremely difficult for you to use your hands making everyday tasks like opening food jars absolutely excrutiating! But did you know that there are actually a group of vegetables that contain a natural chemical that have been known to cause arthritic symptoms? These are called the night shade vegetables and they include tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes and peppers. There has also been some recent studies on the connection between food sensitivities and arthritis, in particular milk that worsened arthritic symptoms considerably.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

This problem affects your digestive system and can prove to be a rather embarrasing disorder. It can make you run to to the toilet while you are at a work conference or make your time on the toilet rather painful. Bloating, excess wind production and stomach cramping may also be symptoms that you experience regularly. Either way it can be an absolute nuisance! Fortunately there have been many clinical trials that have tested time and time again the impact of food intolerances on the causes of IBS symptoms, in particular dairy products and grains. This makes it much easier for you to eliminate the main culprits so that you can spend less time on the toilet and more time socialising!

Crohns disease

This is a condition that involves chronic inflammation in your digestive system. Symptoms that can be experienced are diarrhoea, abdominal pain ,weight loss, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and low grade fever. Evidence has illustrated food allergies to trigger inflammation in Crohn’s disease. Wheat has shown to worsen symptoms up to 70% in Crohn’s patients and dairy between 20%-50%.

Fibromyalgia

Is a syndrome that creates widespread pain with aching discomfort and tender trigger points, making everyday tasks extremely exhausting and almost unbearable. Mood and sleep disturbances, general fatigue, headaches and digestive distrbuances are often experienced with fibromyalgia. Food allergies have been shown to trigger and exacerbate symptoms remarkably in some individuals with fibromyalgia. These include; glutamate (naturally occurring in tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, corn and milk), aspartame (sweetener) and MSG (flavour enhancer used in asian foods).

Lupus

This is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks normal bodily tissue that it shouldn’t be! This creates inflammation and a wide range of unpleasant symptoms such as skin rashes, mouth/nose ulcers, arthritis, muscle pain, weakness, fatigue, hair loss, fever and the list goes on. Individuals with Lupus have shown a tendancy towards allergic conditions such asthma, eczema and nasal congestion (rhinitis) related to food allergies that also trigger Lupus symptoms.

Indeed all of these ‘sound’ terrible, which is why it is so important to find out exactly what food allergies could be triggering your symptoms so that you don’t go down the wrong path.

So what can we do to overcome our pains to begin to live allergy free? Is it even possible to do such a thing or will we be stuck with cardboard tasting diets forever?

In the following section we’ll take a look at why you have food allergies, helping to shed some light on the topic and the path to freedom.