Allergy is the body's extreme response to harmful substances that are present in the body. This condition is said to be the result of immune system's malfunction. The body tends to release histamine in excessive amount as it believes to have erroneously eaten, smelled or touched something harmful.
There have been around 11 million Americans who have allergies to certain foods. Common food allergies are peanuts, milk, eggs, nuts, shellfish, fish, wheat and soy.
Food allergy symptoms may include mouth tingling to swelling of throat and tongue as well as hives, diarrhea, cramps, vomiting, difficulty of breathing or dyspnea and in extreme cases, death.
You can help a family member deal with food allergies by asking the help of your allergist. The cause of allergic reactions can be easily determined by performing patch test. After knowing the cause, your allergist will help you out in developing a diet free from food allergies.
Like other types of allergies, food allergy has no remedy. There are kids out there who have lifetime food allergies mostly to shellfish, peanuts, fish and nuts. Allergy won't be triggered as long as an individual doesn't eat these foods that cause allergy. You have to be careful when dining out in restaurants. In severe cases, even a bit of food cross contamination can trigger reactions.
To avoid reactions, you need to check out food labels. FDA has been giving out information to manufacturers to follow certain rules in labeling their food products. They are requesting the manufacturers to modify their food labels like changing some terms to plain language. A good example is putting on milk rather than caseinate.
There are alternatives to ingredients like milk or egg when you plan to bake or cook. Rice milk, soy milk, potato milk and nut milk can be an alternative to milk. A great egg alternative for baking would be blending whole flax seeds with some water.
As long as you avoid allergy-causing foods and get on with your diet, you won't have to worry.
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