A phantom problem that we are unaware of.
Have you ever had these kind of problems after eating whatever food lies in the table or what ever was given to you.
- Tingling or itching in the mouth
- Hives, itching or eczema
- Swelling of the lips, face, tongue and throat or other parts of the body
- Wheezing, nasal congestion or trouble breathing
- Abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting
- Dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting
- Or life-threatening thing called Anaphylaxis, which will constrict or tighten your airways, you will have difficulty to breathe, have a severe drop in the blood pressure or rapid pulse and one may lose consciousness. This is one of the most dangerous among all the above and might well result in death or coma if not treated.
These are not only the symptoms but these are the most common one. Food allergy is a very common type of allergy and most of us live with it for most of our lives. We normally ignore it, thinking the culprit was not the food but for something else. Usually, we outgrow this allergy after the age of 3-4 but some live with it for the rest of our lives. It is very difficult to diagnose as the menus served in our daily lives are countless, and it can come in many forms. Hence, if you know what you are allergic to it is a good idea to read the label in the packaged food. If it contains any allergy leading food just avoid it.
Since there are many sort of food available to us, any it is nearly possible if someone is allergic to one type of food and it may have connection to the similar type.Below I have compiled 4 of the major food that we consume and are maybe unaware that you are allergic to you. For the best accurate result please ask the doctor for your problem, I am simply pointing at some.
Eggs:
Surprisingly, eggs might be considered a good source of amino acid. For some it might be a nightmare. The major allergy symptom of it as I have absorbed is it is the skin rashes and stomach cramps.
After cow’s milk, hen’s egg allergy is the second most common food allergy in infants and young children. Eggs are in so many foods. When you or your children are allergic to them, you need to know what to look for on food labels and what you can use instead when you cook or bake.
Most people with egg allergies react to egg whites, not the yolk. To be safe, don’t eat either part. Even if you separate them, the yolk is likely to have some of the white’s proteins in it.
Milk/ Lactose:
Although lactose is produced through milk itself, surprisingly one may be tolerant to milk but not lactose and vice versa.
Lactose intolerance is when you can’t digest lactose, the sugar found in dairy products. You’ll often get symptoms like stomach pain, gas, and diarrhea.
With a milk allergy, the symptoms affect more than just your digestive tract. A milk allergy is when your immune system thinks dairy is a foreign invader and attacks it by releasing chemicals called histamines. Symptoms can range from wheezing problems to vomiting and diarrhoea.
Nuts:
Although, the main and most common culprit among the nuts is peanut which is not featured above. Nuts allergy is the most common type of allergy that we have and are unaware of. It is also so deadly and potentially lethal that it can cause Anaphylaxis.
Nut allergies are when your body’s immune system overreacts to the proteins found in nuts. Your body treats them as a potential threat and tries to fight them off. This response is an allergic reaction. Even a little bit that you swallow or inhale can bring it on. It’s easy to avoid the nuts themselves, but they’re also added to a lot of other foods, and you may not always be aware.
Causes of Nut Allergies
Tiny proteins found in nuts aren’t affected by things like heat or acid, so they’re still intact after they’re processed, cooked, or even digested. Some people are sensitive to these intact proteins, and their bodies make antibodies to fight them. The antibodies latch on to the proteins. This triggers your immune system to release a chemical called histamine. Histamine is actually what causes the symptoms of an allergic reaction.
Wheat:
A wheat allergy reaction can cause symptoms that range from mild to life-threatening; the severity of each reaction is unpredictable. People who have previously experienced only mild symptoms may suddenly experience a life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis.
Foods that don’t contain wheat as an ingredient can be contaminated by wheat in the manufacturing process or during food preparation. As a result, people with a wheat allergy should also avoid products that bear precautionary statements on the label, such as “made on shared equipment with wheat,” “packaged in a plant that also processes wheat” or similar language. The use of those advisory labels is voluntary, and not all manufacturers do so.
A challenging aspect of managing a wheat allergy is baking. While there’s no simple substitution for wheat as an ingredient, baked goods such as bread, muffins and cakes may be made using a combination of non-wheat flours, such as those made from rice, corn, sorghum, soy, tapioca or potato starch. The recent growth in gluten-free products is making it easier to manage a wheat allergy. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
Causes of Food Allergy:
Food allergies are caused by your body identifying proteins in foods as enemies, thereby launching into protective measurements to fight back, causing inflammation and other reactions.
In other words, when you have a food allergy, your immune system mistakenly identifies a specific food or a substance in food as something harmful. In response, your immune system triggers cells to release an antibody known as immunoglobulin E (IgE) to neutralize the allergy-causing food or food substance (the allergen).
The next time you eat even the smallest amount of that food, IgE antibodies sense it and signal your immune system to release a chemical called histamine, as well as other chemicals, into your bloodstream. These chemicals cause allergy symptoms.
After thought to all:
Sometimes I used to have dinner, go to sleep and wake up in the morning with very heavy thoughts in my head. The day already seemed to feel dull and numb. Personally, I haven’t checked for my food allergic but mostly the day when I used to eat shellfish in the evening caused the cause in the morning. Hopefully, I am not allergic to shellfish but what my investigation through various articles have led to the same conclusion, in a way it does also causes depression. Well, I am not 100% sure of that but it’s maybe maybe thing.
If I raise this conversation to most people of Nepal, they are not aware that there is a thing called food allergy. Mostly for all if it’s food then it is food, whether it’s a farm crab or goat’s milk. My appeal to all, if you have any of the usual symptoms after eating certain kind of food repeatedly then it might be a thing to think about. A good example would be if you feel down after having Vodka then you can switch to Beer, the reason being Vodka is mostly made up of Wheat, whereas Beer is mostly made up of Barley.
We do have many options to choose from when it comes to food substitute. There are even vegan bodybuilders amongst us. There is an interesting article to read about the food allergy in an article on CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/05/18eanut.allergies/#:~:text=Epinephrine%20offers%20treatment%20for%20a,and%20it%20can%20happen%20fast.
