Food Allergies and Allergic Reactions
Allergies and allergic reactions, especially to food, are becoming increasingly common. And reactions can range anywhere from a slight rash brought on by food intolerance to a life-threatening full blown anaphylatic shock attack from an allergy to peanuts. That's why we've brought together all the key information you need about allergies in one place. These are some of the most common allergies and some of the facts about them:
Allergies and Intolerances:
A true allergic reactions takes place when the body reacts to something relatively harmless - like a piece of food or a sniff of grass pollen - with an immune system overreaction, where cells are damanged and histamine released. The person will experience a number of nasty symptoms, like runny nose, itchiness, rashes, severe wheezing, diarrhoea and even vomiting as a result.
However, quite often people have bad reactions to food that are not strictly allergic - these are called intolerances. For example, if I lack an enzyme in my stomach to digest milk, I can't "tolerate" milk and will be ill if I drink it. People also can have bad reactions to drugs in food like caffeine, or indeed food poisoning.
Common Food Allergies and Intolerances
The most common food intolerances and allergies are the following - these 8 account for as much as 90% of allergic reactions:
Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Other nuts (eg walnuts)
Fish
Shellfish
Soy
Wheat/flour
Other common food allergies or intolerances include:
Chocolate
Artificial colours
Pork/bacon
Chicken
Tomato
Soft fruit
Cheese
Yeast
Other relevant pages on Fit and Trim:
Food Allergies and Allergic Reactions
