Your Body Mistakes Food As A Harmful Substance
September 8th, 2010

Food allergies occur when your body mistakes food as a harmful substance and has an immune system reaction to it. Common food allergens are milk, egg, peanuts, tree nut, fish, shellfish, soy and also wheat.

The immune system reaction pretty much goes like this:

You consume a food item for the first time.... milk, peanut, soy etc., you do not have any type of reaction because your body does not identify with the substance yet and is just now deciding about the substance. It decides that it is a harmful substance and starts to form antibodies against the food substance. The next time you consume that food item, your body does recognize it this time, as a harmful item and the immune system kicks in to fight the "enemy" in order to protect itself. The body including the chemical histamine in order to combat the food item releases chemicals. The chemicals are released into the respiratory system, the gastrointestinal tract, and the skin and also into the cardiovascular system.

The allergic reaction symptoms you experience are a direct relation to the chemicals that the body releases. Symptoms such as tingling sensations in the mouth, or your tongue swelling or throat closing up, or difficulty in breathing, the appearance of hives, or vomiting and abdominal cramping, diarrhea, a drop in your blood pressure even unconsciousness which could lead to death. The individual can experience these symptoms anywhere from a few moments of ingesting the food and up to two hours after eating the food item.

The best thing someone who can do that is allergic to a food item is to avoid that food item altogether that means not eating it, not cooking or baking with it, avoiding it, in any way regarding food preparation, serving or eating. Food allergies can be outgrown, but some food allergies become lifelong allergies.

A person with food allergies has to be super careful when shopping for food items. They need to read food labels careful and really know about the particular food allergy that they have. Sometimes there are different names for the same ingredient that the person with food allergies would have to be aware of.

There is a difference between having food intolerance and a food allergy. When someone has food intolerance they have an adverse food-induced reaction that does NOT involve the immune system. An example is individuals who are intolerant of lactose. They may have symptoms of gas, bloating, and abdominal pain; but these reactions are not connected with the immune system so they are not an allergy. With a food allergy the body develops immunoglobulin E (Age) antibodies to the food item. The antibodies react to the food items and chemicals including histamine are released causing hives, asthma, or other allergic reaction symptoms.

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