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Last posts on private forums:  sare  2008-06-16 09:56:33 matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:59 pieniadz 2008-04-12 20:52:26
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Last posts on private blogs: matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:17 mary 2008-04-12 19:27:47 |
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Lastly added medical terms:
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You are in: Main Page / Medical articles / Allergies / Allergy Diet
Allergy diet is a special diet which intends to eliminate allergic reactions to certain foods. Food allergies and intolerance can unfortunately be prevented through avoiding certain products.
Food allergies are very common forms of allergy, they affect more and more people these days. The term "food allergy" is often used to describe reactions to eating certain foods. Our immune system protects the organism from substances which the body considers dangerous, they are called allergens. Allergens can be found everywhere, in foods and other substance e.g. pollen. If a dangerous antigen is recognized, immune cells try to neutralize it and prevent from doing harm to the body. We can get a wide range of symptoms of work of our immune system. They can cause several health complaints such as migraine, otitis media, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome and many other diseases to the anaphylactic shock. The problem with delayed reaction is that it is extremely hard to determine which food caused allergic reaction.
Various people have either immediate or delayed hypersensitivity, immediate reactions occur within a few minutes after eating a given food whereas delayed reaction can occur many hours after eating the food that causes allergy. In rare cases, immediate reactions cause anafilactic shock which is a life-threatening reaction causing swelling the throat and blocking the air flow. People with immediate allergic responses should totally eliminate certain foods from their diet e.g. milk, soy, eggs, tree nuts, strawberries, wheat, peanuts, fish and shellfish.
According to doctors and nutritionists an Allergy Avoidance Diet is the only way to identify and cope with food allergies.
An elimination diet is prescribed to check what product causes an allergy, a particular thing is removed from the diet for a period of several days until the symptoms are gone. Sometimes a person demands a very restrictive diet and elimination of plenty of produce. Usually, foods that are eliminated include the pears, apples, rice, vegetables, beans and legumes and non-gluten grains, when the organism adapts to lack of these foods they are gradually added to the diet and the symptoms that are evoked are recorded. A rotation diet is also carried out as an alternative to elimination diet, the foods which are most likely to cause allergy are eaten every four days.
The most common reactions include headaches, indigestion, anxiety and depression, puffiness under the eyes, retention of the fluid in the organism, joint inflammation, mood swings, indigestion, asthma or even chronic inflammation of otitis media.
Food intolerance which differs from food allergy in a way that the reaction isn't caused by antigen, it may be caused by poor function of the digestive tract or a sensitivity to a certain chemical. The most common food intolerance inludes: lactose, wheat intolerance. Simple gluten intolerance is often associated with celiac disease which is actually an auto-immune disease which causes changes to liver, digestive tract and other organs functions. There are also people who don't tolerate synthetic chemical and food colorings and they should eliminate them from their diet.
The importance of the elimination diet
Food allergies affect the quality of life of many people therefore, the only way to avoid the food reactions is through the elimination diet. It may vary from moderately restrictive to a diet that eliminates plenty of food. An ordinary elimination diet removes such allergens which are very common e.g. wheat, soy, corn, dairy, eggs, nuts, fish, chocolate or caffeine and alcohol and food which contain salicylates and amines. The main aim of elimination diet is to avoid eating certain foods for at least four days and then adding them systematically to the diet. This is called the "challenge" which involves eating a tested food three times a day and observing the symptoms that occur. If they do occur, this food is certain to cause allergy, if there are no symptoms of the allergy patient can turn to the next "challenge". The purpose of the rotation is to reduce the symptoms by a gradual reduction of food they eat. The product which is supposed to cause the allergy is eaten every fourth day, which makes the symptoms reduced.
Meal Planning
Depending on the allergy you can plan the meals for the whole family. You may have to remove such substances as dairy, eggs, wheat, soy or yeast.
1. Dairy-free meals
Remove from your diet such things as: cow's milk, yogurt, ice cream, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheeses, butter.
2. Wheat-free meals
Remove: wheat bran, wheat germ, wheat starch, wheat nuts, wheat berries, bulgar, durum, graham, products which contain "gluten". Remove also dextrin e.g. dry heating of corn, potato, rice, tapioca or wheat. Caramel is also inadvisable as well as vanilla extract
3. Egg-free meals
Remove from your diet: puddings, custards, cakes, cookies, cream filled chocolates, doughnuts and muffins, baked goods and waffles, waffle mixes, pancakes, french toasts, all breaded foods, mayonnaises and meat loaf, certain sausages, rice dishes, egg drop soups, egg noodles. Beware of the foods that contain egg whites, yolks, dried eggs, egg solids, albumin, ovomucoid, ovovitellin, livetin.
4. Soy-free meals
Remove from the diet: soy and products from soy flour, soy nuts, soy milk, soy sprouts, vegetable gum, vegetable broth or natural flavoring. Such products as tamari, miso, tofu, tempeh, soy curd and soy granules.
5. Yeast-free meals
A yeast-free diet is one of the most difficult to implement because of the fact of the common use of residual amounts of yeast in many processed foods. For example, tea, coffee, and spices, many milk-containing products are made with the use of yeast e.g. sour cream, ricotta cheese, powdered milk, frozen and canned fruit juices can also contain yeast.
An appropriate diet plan will be able to provide all the necessary nutrients, adequate calorie intake and enough proteins to make person feel good. It's important not to get hungry or feel deprived of certain foods, only is such a way you are able to resist from eating foods that cause the allergy. A good plan of having right foods at hand in case you get hungry is an effective way of sticking to elimination or rotation diet. It is the hunger and lack of desired foods which cause most problems with staying healthy. A good idea is to eat as much as you want, add oils to vegetables and rice to get enough calories or increase flavor. If you're hungry read a good book, you'll forget about your problem at least for a while.
Added by:
mary
not connected with health care system
Added on:
2008-07-17 13:11:53 ,
Updated:
2008-07-17 13:26:19
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