Food allergies and intolerances
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:16 pm
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
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