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The concept of food intolerance like other types of
immune reactivity is complex because it is responsible for much of modern-day
conditions and ill health. The information below offers a basic insight
to assist you to get the “bigger picture”. It is not aimed
to be an aide for self-management as most of these conditions require
experienced professional care.
I often feel worse after meals and I suspect that
diet has a lot to do with it. How can I find out what foods cause this?
Most doctors, specialising in this field, agree
that the most reliable method is the Elimination Diet - one is required
to avoid a number of common foods for 7-14 days and occasionally longer.
This approach requires the right circumstances but it does not mean that
one has to go hungry for it. During this time many people initially feel
worse as they experience some withdrawal symptoms. This phenomenon is
common with any form of addiction and many of our patients are surprised
how bad they can feel soon after they give up their favourite foods. If
at the end of this period one's symptoms improve or clear the eliminated
items can be re-introduced in a structured process called "challenge"
to identify which ones are safe or not. In this way a previously unclear
or "masked" allergy can be "unmasked". From then on,
the reactive foods can be avoided. In our experience, patients with severe
fatigue/myalgia are more likely to react to numerous foods and will only
respond to more drastic dietary changes.
Can Elimination & Challenge identify sensitivity
to food chemical?
It is possible to identify reactions to additives
but these are not essential for sustenance compared to proper foods and
our patients are often advised to avoid them.
The most common factors are benzoic and sorbic acid, colourings, salicylates,
tyramine, mono-sodium glutamate, nitrite preservatives and others, which
are capable of causing various symptoms.
Are there any other tests to confirm reactive foods?
None of the tests available today offer 100%
accurate information, which might explain why intolerance as a diagnosis
is not yet widely accepted by many doctors. Some tests are more scientific
than others offering variable degrees of accuracy and reproducibility;
some defy any scientific imagination. Some research papers support the
view that intolerance involves different immune cells (T-lymphocytes),
immunoglobulin-G and some cellular hormones and patients reported clear
benefits when they modified their diet on the basis of these tests (blood
tests available in private laboratories - costs vary). Intra-dermal tests
(tiny, painless injections in the dermis, the top layer of the skin) give
reliable results read as a growth of the swelling (“wheal”)
formed by the injection. This method of testing is also part of a type
of desensitisation of various allergies (Neutralisation).
How can I tell if I have food intolerance?
Mild or several, chronic or recurrent problems
may be caused by food intolerance - the most common ones are:
- digestive problems: reflux, gastritis, peptic ulcers,
irritable bowel, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis
- Rhinitis: catarrh, rhinitis, sinus congestion
- Respiratory: chronic cough or asthma
- Central nervous system: headaches or migraine and
some types of epilepsy;
- Joints: joint pains, arthritis (osteo-arthritis
or rheumatoid arthritis)
- Energy & stamina: chronic fatigue/post-viral
fatigue syndrome/myalgia, M.E.
- Fluid retention - often seen as Obesity
- Infections: cystitis, ears, tonsils (especially
during childhood), recurrent herpes, thrush/candida
- Skin: eczema, acne, psoriasis
- Allergies: urticaria or angio-oedema
- Psychological: anxiety, depression or mood changes
- Cardiac: irregularities & palpitations
- Spine: chronic or recurrent back pain
- Miscellaneous: many other conditions may have indirect
connections e.g. a person's high blood pressure may be the result of
weight increase through fluid retention; cardiovascular disease may
improve with some dietary measures; multiple sclerosis may respond to
a combination of nutrients and diet.
What are the most common foods causing Type B food
allergies?
The most common "culprits" are usually
the most commonly eaten foods: most grains and cereals, dairies, chicken,
egg, tea, coffee, chocolate, tea, sugar, soy, citrus fruits, yeast (bakers’
or brewers'), rice, potato and the nightshade family, the onion family,
alcoholic beverages and food additives (children are more sensitive to
these chemicals). A smaller number of people, with more serious and persistent
problems may react to other less common foods.
Having avoided some foods and felt better, why did
my symptoms recur when I was told to gradually relax my diet?
Because the underlying propensity of the immune
system to recognise reactive foods has not changed. This is common error
made by many health professionals to underestimate the long-term nature
of the intolerance.
Will I ever be able to eat the foods found to upset
me?
Food intolerance is quite different from food
allergy to peanut or to seafood. For the majority of people, food intolerance
is a reversible phenomenon i.e. when the food triggers have been identified
and have been avoided for 6-8 weeks or more one’s tolerance improves
and these foods can again be used sporadically without the same ill effects.
However, if they were eaten frequently they will sooner or later cause
the same symptoms. A minority of patients with extensive food reactions
will always remain sensitive and require desensitisation to improve immunity
for these foods.
Why food intolerance is not accepted by many doctors?
The main reasons are:
a) For many years Medicine has focused on developing
effective methods of controlling (suppressing) a problem - only recently
it started investigating possible causes of common chronic conditions
e.g. house dust mite in asthma, caffeine and tyramine in migraine, diet
in cancer and cardio-vascular disease and so on
b) Busy health professionals follow guidelines formulated by medical
experts. These guidelines place little or no emphasis in the way complex
factors in the environment or food can cause disease
c) The same foods often cause different symptoms in different people,
thereby making it hard to investigate and associate specific symptoms
with a single cause
d) Tests for intolerance available today fall short of the 100% accuracy
and reproducibility of most routine medical tests. Without laboratory
documentation the diagnosis cannot be substantiated.
Why can I tolerate fewer foods now than a year ago?
This is true for a minority of people. There
is a number of possible reasons for this: once the tendency for food intolerance
has started often in childhood, the immune system manages to adapt and
succeeds in keeping things “in order”. However, after a while
possibly some years it can no longer cope and starts producing some random
symptoms. Many people choose to suppress these symptoms with medications
be it for headache, arthritis, nasal congestion and so on. Those who become
aware of specific foods causing their symptoms naturally avoid them but
the process is not stopped and previously safe foods are often added to
the “reactive food” list. It is possible to “block”
this process with a combination of desensitisation specific for these
foods and eating a wide variety of uncommon foods minimising the risk
by means of rotating foods. |
