Food Allergy or Intolerance?

Before you come to your own conclusions about your health, read on.

With growing awareness of food allergies, people often make the leap to self-diagnosis. Are you uncomfortable after eating? Feel bloated or fatigued? Break out in hives? It's only natural to associate your distress with something you've just eaten -- but it may be something else. More often than not, these adverse reactions are "food intolerances" rather than allergies.

Remember how lactose intolerance seemed to be the fashionable self-diagnosis a few years ago? Now gluten is the new target. According to a recent front-page story in The Wall Street Journal (December 2005), as many as 3 million Americans may have celiac disease, an intolerance to gluten, a group of proteins found in certain grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Never heard of it? You're not alone. It's even missed by doctors. Peter Green, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, author of Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic, says the average patient goes undiagnosed for 11 years. The symptoms can include diarrhea, fatigue and nausea. Left untreated, it may lead to anemia, osteoporosis or intestinal cancer. After an intestinal biopsy confirms the diagnosis, sufferers are told to stick to a gluten-free diet: Yes, that means no bread, pizza, pretzels, pasta or beer.

While food intolerances can be extremely uncomfortable, they usually aren't dangerous. "The key thing is to get them evaluated," says David Fleischer, MD, an allergist-researcher at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. The hazards of self-diagnosis are real. "When people start taking foods out of their diet for symptomatic relief, they may wind up with a diet that is not nutritionally balanced or miss another illness," says Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). And if it's an undiagnosed food allergy, the consequences could be deadly.

How to Protect Your Family

• If you have any suspicion that someone in your family has a food allergy, have the condition evaluated by a board-certified allergist.



• Know the risky foods to be avoided. Whenever possible, keep them out of the house.



• Learn how to read labels. The recent Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), put in place this past January, requires manufacturers to use plain language instead of technical jargon to disclose whether foods harbor proteins from any of the eight major food allergens.



• Keep a written plan close by on how to handle a crisis; share it with family, friends and co-workers.



• If you have food allergies, never share foods, beverages or utensils with anyone. You don't know what has touched someone else's lips.



• When you're away from home, carry "safe" snacks, and never consume something unless you know its ingredients and how it was prepared.



• Caution teens to be careful about kissing. Any exchange of saliva could place them at risk for contact with an allergen. Even brushing teeth immediately after eating may not be good enough to prevent a reaction.



• Join FAAN for information and support, and to learn practical strategies for living with allergies.

From Reader's Digest - June 2006

 

• Healthy Habits
• Family Life

• When Food Turns Fatal
• The rise in allergies is stumping even the experts. Here's what you need to know.
• 
• Healthy Eating Begins at the Supermarket
• Learn to efficiently shop for healthy foods.
• 
• 10 Easy Steps to Smarter Food Shopping
• Enter the supermarket with purpose and determination!
• 

“ Need to shovel? Pick the right tool. A smaller blade shovel will require you to lift less snow, putting less strain on your body. ”

• See All Tips