Food allergies and intolerances

Please keep your posts about natural health and beauty things! This is another popular demand section. So don't prove us wrong and fill it with posts about natural face masks, herbal medicine and anything else you think belongs here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Thomzo
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 4311
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:42 pm
Facebook Name: Zoe Thomas
Location: Swindon, South West England

Food allergies and intolerances

Post: # 287603Post Thomzo »

Hi
I spent most of Sunday at the Allergy and Free From show and picked up some tips that I found interesting so I thought I'd share.

There have been huge improvements in the understanding of allergies over the last few years, which is just as well as there's been a huge increase in the number of people with allergies over the same period. Sadly it doesn't mean that doctors are any better at diagnosing them.

It's important to understand whether your symptoms are an allergy or an intolerance as the guidance is different. If you have an allergy you shouldn't necessarily cut the item out completely as that could lead to much more severe symptoms if you do encounter the allergen accidentally. Your allergy consultant should help you identify a safe level of exposure.

Allergies are almost always to a protein, even in the case of, say, a nickel allergy, the symptoms are caused by the nickel reacting with chemicals in the body to form a protein.

Proteins change their form with heat, think about how meat changes when cooked. This is why you can have different symptoms if the allergen has been cooked. This is particularly common with eggs, where sufferers often get symptoms from a lightly cooked egg, such as boiled or fried but not to cakes etc where the eggs have been cooked for a lot longer.

If you think you might have an allergy or an intolerance there are some great charities such as Allergy UK, Coeliac UK, The Anaphylaxis Campaign who can help with diagnosis and obtaining treatment.

I do hope this helps someone.

Thanks
Zoe

User avatar
Green Aura
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 9313
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:16 pm
latitude: 58.569279
longitude: -4.762620
Location: North West Highlands

Re: Food allergies and intolerances

Post: # 287633Post Green Aura »

Thomzo wrote:If you have an allergy you shouldn't necessarily cut the item out completely as that could lead to much more severe symptoms if you do encounter the allergen accidentally. Your allergy consultant should help you identify a safe level of exposure.
Definitely check with a Dr before practicing this. Allergies can (at their most extreme) cause anaphylaxis and possible death. Also some mild allergies can get progressively worse with regular exposure.
Maggie

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin

becks77
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 1439
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:49 pm
Location: Hailsham East Sussex

Re: Food allergies and intolerances

Post: # 287638Post becks77 »

My middle and youngest daughter's suffer terribly with allergies mostly sneezing but middle has skin reactions too, found she was allergic to a particular moisturiser the hard way bless her, trip to a and e steroids and 4 days of anaphylaxis swelling to deal with on her face, she was ok but please be very careful with allergies xx
"no-one can make you feel inferior without your permission"

User avatar
bonniethomas06
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 1246
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:24 am
Location: Wiltshire, UK

Re: Food allergies and intolerances

Post: # 287664Post bonniethomas06 »

Thanks Zoe, this is really interesting. I am in a fat loss group (all clean eating and that guff) and one of the aspects of the diet is cutting out cows milk dairy. More than a few people have reported after cutting it out for six months, that if they accidently drink a cup of tea or something, they feel terrible for a day. I guess this is because they have not been exposed to it for so long.

On a separate note, my friend has just gone back to work after a week off because she was allergic to her false eyelashes. She couldn't see for 3 days. Ouch!!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"

My blog...

http://www.theparttimesmallholder.blogspot.com

User avatar
Brewtrog
Living the good life
Living the good life
Posts: 275
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:17 pm
Location: Warrington

Re: Food allergies and intolerances

Post: # 287691Post Brewtrog »

bonniethomas06 wrote:Thanks Zoe, this is really interesting. I am in a fat loss group (all clean eating and that guff) and one of the aspects of the diet is cutting out cows milk dairy. More than a few people have reported after cutting it out for six months, that if they accidently drink a cup of tea or something, they feel terrible for a day. I guess this is because they have not been exposed to it for so long.
I've more or less avoided drinking milk in anything for 3 or 4 years (stopped buying it at uni, now coffee tastes horribly sweet with it in) but I have no ill effects from having it in. But then we are all different :iconbiggrin:

Post Reply