DONT LET FOOD ALLERGIES RUIN YOUR LIFE

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THE FOOD ALLERGY "BREAKTHROUGH"

How to discover the food allergies that may be making you ill.

By Sandra Newman

Introduction

Medical science has long accepted that food allergies exist. Moreover, a great deal of research has been conducted in order to discover what it is about certain foods that cause some people to respond quite violently to these, the  extent that it is now widely accepted that certain illnesses and medical conditions such as migraine, asthma, eczema, hay fever, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, rhinitis, Chrohn's disease, Coeliac disease, PMT and even certain forms of depressions can now be controlled - and sometimes even cured - simply by identifying and then removing from the diet, any food substances that have been shown to trigger symptoms in susceptible individuals.

Less widely known, however, is the fact that experts specialising in this area have now discovered that, were we all to be tested, virtually all of us would be shown to be sensitive to some degree to certain foods we commonly eat, and yet, despite enormous amounts of evidence to the contrary, many members of the medical profession still refuse to believe that something so basic and fundamental to life as food - or to be more precise, certain items of it - could be the cause of a myriad of minor health ailments. Or that for literally hundreds of thousands of otherwise healthy people, the difference between obesity and slenderness might hang, not as the medical establishment is wont to believe, upon the number of calories we ingest, or even upon the amount of fats and carbohydrates we eat - but rather upon the very slender thread of food sensitivity, or intolerance.

The fact is, in the United States, where medical practitioners specialising in the field of allergies are referred to as clinical ecologists, food intolerance (or food sensitivity as it is also known) has, in recent years, become both a widely accepted and highly respected branch of medicine. Moreover, this is one area of medical practice that is rapidly proving to be of enormous benefit to millions of ordinary people whose minor illnesses, lethargy, tiredness and other apparently unrelated symptoms have seemed to be either too trivial to bother their GP's with, or too vague to be considered worth investigating.

But by far the most startling evidence to emerge from this new area of food intolerance, is the new hope it is giving to thousands of people who, based upon their food intake, truly do not deserve to be fat.

The idea that food intolerance could be making you fat may at first seem rather a preposterous one. There is no denying that it is certainly a radical one. But as you shall discover upon reading this, the evidence that this is indeed so in a large majority of cases is now far too extensive, as well as far too overwhelming to be ignored.

The well-known TV personality and newspaper columnist, Nina Myskow is a prime example of someone who suspended her natural cynicism and initial doubts long enough to discover for herself that, had she but known it, her life-long battle with her weight, had nothing whatsoever to do with calories, and everything to do with certain foods that she habitually ate. After taking part in an experiment for the Sun newspaper, Ms. Myskow had not only shed every pound of her surplus weight - the very same pounds that she had been losing and gaining on a variety of diets throughout her entire life - but, now that she knew precisely which foods she was intolerant to, and therefore must avoid, she could look forward to keeping her new shapely figure for the rest of her life.

Just think of it! No more starving yourself on a ‘tomatoes and lettuce leaf' diet. No more turning away from the mirror in disgust whenever you catch sight of yourself. And no more debilitating periods of feeling tired, irritable or feeling permanently under the weather for no good reason. Now, you too can have the figure you want, and enjoy a level of energy and good health that you may not have experienced in years. And all you need to accomplish this brand new you, is to identify  and then eliminate from your diet for a few short weeks, only those foods that your body has hitherto been reacting to - the ones that you never knew you were sensitive to.

In the following document, you will learn everything you need to know about food intolerance - from what it is, what causes it, and the many detrimental effects it can have on your figure and your health, to how to identify and eliminate any foods that you personally are sensitive to, and what you can replace these with in order to make your diet over the next few weeks as tasty, nutritious, non-deprivational and as enjoyable as it has always been.

The case histories outlined in this app are not only genuine experiences of real people, but each one demonstrates how, by simply adjusting their diets, the people concerned were not able only to eliminate a wide variety of health ailments which had been bothering them and affecting their health for years, but also to lose - and keep off - the excess weight that no amount of restrictive dieting had ever succeeded in eradicating permanently.

Chapter One

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOOD ALLERGY AND FOOD INTOLERENCE

The prime difference between food ‘allergy' and food intolerance is that people who suffer from the former usually have good reason to be aware of their allergies, while most people who suffer the latter are largely unaware of their intolerances. This is not surprising when you understand that most ‘allergic' reactions occur instantly. The symptoms often are quite violent or extreme and, in some unfortunate cases, can actually prove to be fatal; witness the rare cases in which people have actually died after eating peanuts, or from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Food intolerance, on the other hand, is likely to have a far less noticeable and far more insidious effect on the system.

As far as the medical profession is concerned, diseases are only classified as ‘allergies' when the immune system is involved. And the only way this can be proven is by means of a skin-prick test.

As its name implies, a skin-prick test involves inserting purified extracts of suspected allergens (which is the name given to substances that cause an allergic response) beneath the surface of the skin by means of scratching or pricking. If the area ‘pricked' reacts by coming up in a bump, or the skin surrounding it becomes red and itchy, an immune reaction is said to have occurred.

It is generally accepted that people with certain diseases , e.g. asthma, hay-fever, rhinitis (constant runny or congested nose), urticaria and hives (a rash resembling nettle stings) and one specific type of eczema (resulting in severely reddened, itchy, flaky skin) will generally have a positive reaction to a skin-prick test, hence the reason these diseases are regarded as classical allergic disorders, along with a few other, more dangerous types of reactions that cause sufferers to experience a rapid and more violent response within minutes of eating certain specific foods. These include swelling of the mouth, lips and tongue, nettle-rash, vomiting and in very extreme cases, anaphylactic shock resulting in the collapse - or even the death - of the individual concerned.

The fact that food intolerance rarely results in such immediate or severe symptoms makes it far more difficult to detect - most people simply do not connect such tell-tale symptoms as headaches, bloating and swelling, irritability, depression, aching muscles, swollen painful joints, PMT or skin rashes with foods that are so commonplace that they are consumed on a daily basis, or even with a less common food that they may have consumed days, and even weeks before the onset of their symptoms.

HOW FOOD INTOLERENCE WORKS

In order to comprehend precisely how food intolerance works, it is first necessary to understand not only how your body reacts to food, but also how it reacts when a food to which it is intolerant is consumed.

Every species needs food to nourish and sustain life, but the food we eat must first be converted into a usable form before it can be absorbed into our bloodstream and carried around our bodies to nourish each system of cells. This conversion process, which we call digestion, begins in the mouth and continues in the stomach and is mainly completed in the small intestine.

The rate it takes our stomach to complete digestion can vary between one and five hours, depending on what we eat. Food that has been digested by the stomach is passed in liquid form into the small intestine. Here, bile from the liver will act on the fats consumed, and juices from the pancreas - which also produce the hormone insulin - will combine with other digestive juices produced by the network of small glands situated within the intestines to break down the ingredients further before passing the liquid into the lymphatic vessels and bloodstream. Once all the nourishment has been extracted from our meal, any food that has not been absorbed remains in the large intestine, waiting to be passed out of the body as waste matter, while any remaining liquid is absorbed from it and carried via the bloodstream into the kidneys and ultimately expelled as urine.

Any food to which you are intolerant will have a drastic effect on this process. The result of which makes the intestinal (or gut) wall ‘leaky' and more porous.

Throughout the entire body there are millions of tiny ‘beehive' shaped cells known as ‘mast' cells. These are present in greater numbers in the tubes inside the nose, those leading to the lungs and most especially, in the mucous membrane lining the gut wall. When these mast cells become aggravated by any foods to which they are particularly sensitive or ‘intolerant' they react by popping open and releasing chemicals that cause the gut wall to become permeable or ‘leaky'. This enables tiny particles of undigested food to cross over and pass directly into the bloodstream where they immediately proceed to attack the white blood cells.

The white blood cell group is made up of five different types of blood cells, three of which are ‘defender' cells. Of these, it is the type known as ‘neutrophils' that are primarily responsible for being ‘first into the fray' when danger threatens. However, as efficient as neutrophils are at recognising and counter-acting danger when it stems from outside, they are apt to become hopelessly confused when it threatens from within. Instead of attacking the offending food particles, the neutrophils allow themselves to be attacked, with the result that the chemical granules they contain - which are extremely toxic to the system - spill out into the bloodstream to pollute the system in what amounts to a mild case of blood poisoning.

The ultimate consequences of this ‘self-poisoning through food intolerance' are three-fold:

• Firstly, the body becomes prone to filling up with and retaining excessive amounts of water. Excessive water causes rapid and inexplicable weight gain and severe bloating.

• Secondly, Candida - which is often referred to as yeast infection - proliferates within the gut wall. (The significance of this will be explained in greater detail as you read on.)

• And thirdly, Candida's partner-in-crime, Hypoglycaemia, or low blood sugar, sets in to upset the nervous system, instigating a variety of unpleasant symptoms which range from mood swings, irritability, aggressiveness, insomnia and hyper-activity to extreme tiredness, false hunger, lethargy, depression, headaches, shortness of breath and dizziness, to name just a few.

Chapter Two

THE EVIDENCE THAT FOOD INTOLERENCE MAKES US FAT

For every obese person who consumes gargantuan quantities of food, there are literally dozens of similarly overweight people who, by virtue of their comparatively miniscule food intake, truly do not deserve to be saddled with even one spare ounce of fat.

Ask any overweight person what it really feels like to be called ‘fat' and, if they're really honest, the majority will answer: being overweight is, without doubt, one of the most miserable, depressing, confidence-sapping experiences any human being could be asked to endure.

The fact is, given the option, there isn't a single one of us who would choose to be overweight. Especially not when we live in a society that prizes slenderness above virtually every other quality we humans possess. Apart from being unhealthy, being overweight causes innumerable problems to those who suffer from it. Being overweight prevents you from ever being able to look or truly feel your best. Being overweight prevents you from wearing fashionable, stylish clothes; from taking part in your favourite sports; from enjoying summer vacations. Being overweight causes others automatically to dismiss you as a glutton; someone who cannot control their appetite for food.

Being overweight means that others not only make all the worst, most negative assumptions about your character and personality, but statistics prove that it can also affect how people you work for tend to automatically downgrade your abilities, and your potential promotability as an employee. Being overweight has an adverse affect on almost every area of your life - it interferes with your potential success at work, and it's a positive barrier to forming successful relationships in your private life.

Given facts such as these, it is inarguably inaccurate to assume that anyone with any sense, who has a choice in the matter, would opt to spend their life being overweight. Especially when there are a plethora of diet books, special ‘slimming' foods, calorie-controlled weight loss plans, exercise DVD's, inch reduction treatments and machines, along with a whole host of miracle slimming pills, products, potions and lotions - and all widely available (if not quite freely) to anyone who chooses no longer to be overweight.

The fact is, as you, me and every other person who has ever fought a losing battle to shed weight has good reason to know, being overweight and even losing weight has never, ever had anything to do with choice - if it had, the slimming industry per se would long since have ceased to exist, and every erstwhile fattie, regardless of their age, would be walking around looking like a perfectly-honed clone of Elle Macpherson and Hugh Jackman.

Until now, that is! For thanks to the efforts of a number of dedicated medical and scientific professionals who set out primarily to investigate and solve a number of hitherto insoluble health problems, the truth about the majority of the population's weight problems has, almost by way of accident, now been uncovered. And the results of their research have not only been nothing short of startling, but the evidence is mounting daily that what they discovered is having an almost miraculous, revolutionary and highly beneficial impact on hundreds of thousands of people's health, lives and weight.

How can I say this with such certainty? Because, firstly, as a journalist and author who specialises in slimming and health, it is my job to keep abreast of all the latest research findings and discoveries that might be of interest and benefit to my readers. Secondly, because my work on another book led me to conduct extensive research into food intolerance, and the potentially harmful effects it can have on our weight and health, backed up by a number of interviews with people who had successfully cured their own weight and health problems after identifying and eliminating from their diet any foods to which they were intolerant. And thirdly, because I myself have personally used this highly accurate, yet startlingly simple method (which is now being revealed to you) of identifying my own food intolerances to successfully eliminate my own weight problems and also to benefit my overall health.

Chapter Three

HOW FOOD INTOLERENCE MAKES YOU FAT

Have you ever wondered why, no matter how hard you try some diets that appear to be quite effective for others, simply don't work for you? Or why you can spend weeks avoiding all your favourite foods, and lose several pounds or inches in the process, only to find that one small deviation from your diet results in regaining all your lost weight virtually overnight?

If an increase in weight or inches spells an increase in body fat - as slimming ‘experts' are so fond of telling us - doesn't it seem rather odd to you, not to mention downright illogical, that it can take several days of self-denial to lose one pound of fat, but only one or two hours of self-indulgence to regain it?

The answer to this puzzling enigma, which has baffled dieters for years, is that in the majority of cases the weight we gain often consists of only a small percentage of fat, and a very large percentage of fluid.

Contrary to what many slimmers have been led to believe, calories are not the only culprits that cause us to put on weight. Rather, it often proves to be fluid that is responsible for a majority of weight problems. This is not to say, of course, that we should all immediately forget about dieting, and overeat with impunity, because, as with most things in life, there has to be a sensible balance between the amount of energy we take in (via our food) and the amount of energy we expend in the normal course of a day. What it does mean, however, is that anyone who is really serious about losing weight, and keeping it off permanently, would do far better to re-define their attitude towards dieting, and concentrate their future efforts on discovering precisely which foods they can eat with impunity, and which ones their body has been reacting to by making them retain fluid.

For without doubt, fluid is probably one of, if not the biggest, enemy any slimmer could encounter. And by fluid, I do not necessarily mean the fluid we drink, but rather the fluid that our bodies make from within.

Fluid is a very heavy substance indeed: just one pint of water is equal to one and a half pounds in weight. Total up the average amount of fluid that you ingest in one day - say, several cups of tea or coffee, a little alcohol, a bedtime drink of cocoa, one or two glasses of water plus the hidden fluid contained within any solid food you may consume, as well as whatever is in the gravy or sauce which accompanies your meal - and the results would not only be quite startling, but would probably amount to several pounds in weight.

Of course, the human body is designed to cope quite efficiently with large quantities of fluid passing through - and out of it - each day. And in the normal course of events, this is precisely what happens. Except that it has now been discovered that, in many people, especially those who are overweight, the body's ability to process and stabilise its fluid content becomes impaired when toxic spillage from the neutrophils accumulates in the bloodstream.

For it has now been found that, when these poisonous chemicals are released into the bloodstream, they cause tiny capillaries all over the body to leak, in exactly the same way that the gut wall leaks when it becomes aggravated by intolerant foods. Instead of being returned to the kidneys via the lymphatic system, and flushed out of the body, the fluid escapes and seeps out into the body's tissues which then become heavily water-logged. And as there is no simple, easy way to return this fluid back to the kidneys, there it remains, sloshing away inside you, swelling up the underlying tissues beneath your skin, adding extra pounds to your weight, and unwanted inches to fleshy areas of the body such as the stomach, hips and thighs.

How much of our weight is due to fluid retention varies from individual to individual. The following questions will help you discover whether fluid retention is affecting your weight:

• Do you often feel bloated after a normal sized meal?

• Does your weight start piling back on the moment you stop dieting?

• Does your weight yo-yo from day to day?

• Have you ever woken up after one night out, weighing several pounds more than you did the day before?

• If you wear a ring, is it often loose some days and inexplicably tight on others?

• If you are female, do you commonly bloat up immediately prior to menstruation?

• If you are female, do you suffer from cellulite?

If you answered ‘yes' to any of the above questions, then you can be fairly certain that fluid retention is probably the main culprit in your own excess weight, as well as the likely cause of your failure to lose it.

Of course, some excess weight is due to fat. And, as every slimmer knows to their cost, fat is notoriously hard to shift. In the same way that true fat - as opposed to fluid retention which merely gives the result of resembling it - takes a long time to accrue, so too does it take weeks and often months to disperse.

Cellulite - which is something even skinny women are prone to suffering from - is somewhat different to fat. Cellulite is formed when the tiny capillaries serving the fat cells, leak their toxic chemicals into the spaces between the cells. In time, thickened fibrils of collagen surround the cells forming lumpy structures known as micronodules. The waste matter trapped in the tissues begins to accumulate, nutrients vital to the cells' healthy growth become blocked, and fluid and toxins become trapped, unable to escape in the normal way via the lymphatic drainage system.

Curiously, cellulite is something that is almost exclusively a women's problem. There are two primary reasons for this. Firstly, women have twice as much fatty tissue in their bodies than men. And secondly, cellulite is linked to the female hormone, oestrogen. Cellulite often first appears at certain life stages such as puberty, pregnancy and the menopause, when oestrogen output is particularly high. It is also quite common in women who are on the Contraceptive Pill. But, and this is also an important point to note, food intolerance experts believe that the majority of women who suffer from this distressing and embarrassing condition, could eradicate their cellulite by identifying their food intolerance - which is the primary cause of leaky capillaries - and removing these foods from their diet.

Chapter Four

THE ROLE CANDIDA PLAY IN MAKING YOU FAT

The second problem caused by food intolerance is Candida - which also happens to be the second biggest enemy of any slimmer.

There are millions of micro-organisms, bacteria and yeasts inside the human body. These occur quite naturally in the mucous membranes, on the skin and inside the intestinal wall. Under normal circumstances, these micro-organisms, or gut flora, exist quite happily and naturally inside us, doing us no harm, and even providing an essential service by contributing to the normal, healthy functioning of our bowels. In a normal, healthy person, this population of gut flora is a balanced community made up of hundreds of different species of organisms, one of which is Candida albicans.

These friendly bacteria provide us with some vitamins, aid digestion and prevent other, unfriendly, disease-causing bacteria from invading our gut, upsetting our system and making us unwell. However, the friendly gut flora can only do their work in keeping us healthy when their numbers are in perfect balance. Should there be a massive invasion by ‘unfriendly' bacteria such as occurs in food poisoning, and they would not be able to cope. Diarrhoea, which is one of the body's natural methods of coping with an onslaught of toxins and unfriendly bacteria introduced by food poisoning, often results in upsetting this balance.

When we get diarrhoea, all the friendly bacteria in our gut will be swept out of the body along with all the unfriendly organisms that are upsetting our system. Antibiotics - which are designed to kill off unfriendly bacteria, cannot differentiate between those which are good for us, and those that are bad. Consequently, antibiotics will kill off any organisms in sight. With the friendly bacteria killed off, or expelled, the way is left clear for a massive invasion by all less friendly types, such as Candida, to gain a foothold.

Thrush - or yeast infection, as it is sometimes know - which is a common side-effect of taking antibiotics, occurs when Candida bacteria are allowed to proliferate, out-numbering and killing off in vast numbers their more friendly counterparts.

Should this occur, they cannot only cause the mast cells to degranulate (or burst), but they can also penetrate the gut wall and then travel freely to other areas of the body. Once it is allowed free rein, Candida will multiply at an alarming rate, and could make us quite ill.

As Candida is essentially a yeast, its staple diet is sugar. Candida needs sugar to live, thus it will not only ‘eat up' every ounce of glucose in our body, but it will create a vicious circle by actually making us crave more. It does this by forcing a severe drop in our blood sugar level, to which the brain will respond by signalling a need for even more carbohydrate. This craving then prompts us to find the easiest, quickest method of supplying our body with what it needs, thus we resort to refined carbohydrates such as biscuits, sweets, chocolates, white bread, cakes and all the unhealthy sweet, empty calorie-rich type of foods that are freely and readily available to us.

Hence, once Candida sets in, we are far more likely to take in far more sugary, starchy, calorie-laden foods than either it, or our bodies, need. The upshot of which is that an unfortunate chain-reaction is then spiked off. The more carbohydrates we eat, the higher our blood sugar level rises, the greater the amounts of insulin our pancreas produces to drive down our blood sugar to its normal level. And insulin works by pushing any excess sugar out of the bloodstream, converting it into fat and depositing it in the body tissues.

If this yo-yo syndrome of high-blood-sugar versus low-blood-sugar is allowed to continue for too long, the pancreas will eventually become so exhausted that its insulin-making mechanism will become faulty. This is what happens when diabetes occurs.

And this is why diabetics, who produce too little insulin for their bodies' needs, have to avoid foods that produce too much glucose at once, e.g. refined carbohydrates such as starchy, sugary foods, chocolate and sweets.

And the bad news is: not only is diabetes on the increase in this country, but it has been estimated that up to one third of the population of the Western world is probably suffering with a Candida or yeast infection today. And because Candida is notoriously difficult to identify, and therefore to diagnose - it's symptoms are now so diverse they are often regarded as totally separate illnesses - It is likely not only to go undetected, and consequently untreated, for many, many years, but it can also play a major part in the slow degeneration of our health.

Chapter Five

HYPOGLYCAEMIA AND EXCESS WEIGHT

Although it is perfectly possible for some people who suffer with Candida to show no trace or symptoms of hypoglycaemia - low blood sugar - the fact that this condition is present in a high number of Candida sufferers had led many experts to believe that there are strong links between these two conditions. Hence, hypoglycaemia is often referred to as ‘Candia's partner in crime.'

Hypoglycaemia is a condition that often occurs as a direct result of the body's efforts to deal with and dispose of excessive amounts of glucose in the blood.

As was explained in the previous chapter, under normal circumstances the body can deal quite adequately with a moderately high level of sugar in the bloodstream. And, in most cases, this is unlikely to cause any noticeable symptoms or ill-effects.

Hyperglycaemia - high blood sugar - can often result when abnormally high levels of sugar are shown consistently to be present in the blood. This condition, which often causes excessive thirst, can, if left untreated, ultimately cause untold damage to the blood vessel.

Hypoglycaemia, on the other hand, which occurs when the blood sugar levels drop alarmingly low, is rarely without symptoms. These include hyperactivity, insomnia, restlessness, impaired concentration, aggressive behaviour, irrational behaviour and temper tantrums in children.

Answering the questions below will help you to identify whether hypoglycaemia may be affecting your own mood, mind and weight.

• Does skipping or being late for a meal make you feel ‘edgy' or unduly irritable?

• Do you ever suffer from attacks of light-headedness, dizziness, weakness, anxiety, panic or palpitations for no apparent reason?

• Do these attacks strike when you least expect them, and right out of the blue?

• Are you easily distracted from jobs that require more than the usual amount of concentration? And does your concentration ever desert you completely, for no good reason at all?

• Does eating refined carbohydrates - especially sweet, sugary foods - make any of the above symptoms disappear temporarily, only to return within an hour or so?

• Do you spend more than the usual amount of time thinking about, or snacking on, food?

• Do you regularly take food to bed with you ‘just in case you feel peckish'?

Answering ‘yes' to any of the above is a good - but by no means foolproof - indication that you may well be suffering from hypoglycaemia. But if you positively answered ‘yes' to the last two questions then it is almost certain that you are hypoglycaemic.

Chapter Six

HOW FOOD ALLERGIES AND INTOLERENCE DEVELOP

Experts agree that certain allergies are inherited and, therefore, likely to remain with us for life (these are often termed ‘fixed allergies') whilst others such as infantile eczema will often disappear quite spontaneously at some point during childhood or adolescence.                                                         

Coeliac disease is a prime example of a ‘fixed' allergy. In this case, the food at fault is gluten, which is the main protein element present in wheat, barley, rye and, to a lesser degree, oats. Although it is possible to develop coeliac disease in adulthood, most people who suffer from this condition were born with it. The characteristic symptoms of coeliac disease are quite specific and therefore easy to diagnose.                                         

Food Intolerance - or sensitivity - on the other hand, can produce such a wide range of symptoms - many of which are quite minor to begin with, or exceedingly vague in nature - that it often goes unnoticed, and therefore undetected for many years, which makes pin-pointing precisely how and when these began an extremely difficult, if not impossible, exercise to complete with any clarity.

For one thing, food sensitivities are notoriously slow to ‘build-up' to the point where we begin to suspect that particular food could be affecting us. For another, it is very difficult for us to remember precisely when certain ailments or problems - such as headaches, digestive problems, constipation, bloating, weight gain and vague feelings of tiredness or lethargy, to name just a few - first reared their ugly heads. Moreover, this is especially so when it comes to recalling when certain situations - such as bouts of ill health, involving food poisoning or diarrhoea - which are now thought to be contributory factors to the development of food intolerances occurring.

For example, there can be few people who have not suffered at least one bout of diarrhoea during their lifetime and even fewer still who could pin-point with any accuracy, specific dates when their diarrhoea occurred. Likewise, whilst some viruses or infections such as influenza have been linked with the onset of food intolerance, doubtless we would all be hard pressed to recall the timing of the last occasions on which we succumbed to one of these.

To complicate matters even further, not only are there a number of viruses that can attack the system from within, without causing any external symptoms of which we are aware, but science is still only scraping the surface when it comes to identifying the full range of enzyme deficiencies which may have a role to play in the development of ‘allergic' reactions to food.

Many specialists working in the area of food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances believe that virtually all of us suffer from food intolerance to some degree. Some of us have leakier bodies than others, and some of us will be intolerant to only one food, while others may be intolerant to several different types of food. Moreover, some people with food intolerances or sensitivities may not experience ‘leaky capillaries' at all, although it is fairly safe to say that their sensitivity to certain foods will almost certainly affect them in other ways.

The toxins and waste matter circulating in their bloodstreams may, for instance, cause degranulation of the mast cells situated in their lungs, thus causing them to experience an asthma attack. Alternatively, mast cells elsewhere in the body may burst open, unleashing their toxic chemicals into other tissues. The fact is, food intolerance has been identified as the primary cause of a variety of conditions ranging from arthritis, rheumatism, persistent migraine and cystitis, to irritable bowel syndrome, Chrohn's disease, constipation, chronic diarrhoea and digestive disturbances, and even M.E. Although precisely why this should be so, is not yet entirely clear. What we do know is that:

• A.) Certain types and groups of foods have been identified as being far more likely to cause reactions than others (a list of these appears in chapter seven.)

• B.) That we are far more likely to develop a sensitivity to foods that we eat every day as opposed to those which we consume only occasionally.

• C.) Any foods that we particularly ‘crave', and therefore feel that we could least do without, should immediately go straight to the top of our suspect list.

On a more positive note, the good news is that with a little time, dedication and effort, it is a relatively easy matter to identify the offending foods that are both affecting your health and also making you fat. Moreover, once you have treated your body to a rest from its ‘self-poisoning' by eliminating from your diet for a few short weeks all trace of these offending ‘trigger' foods, it is possible not only to shed your excess weight in remarkably quick time, but also to ‘break' your sensitivity to any food or foods that are making you fat.

And if, by now, you are feeling quite despondent at the prospect of never again being able to eat your favourite foods - take heart. For many people with food intolerances and sensitivities have discovered to their immense relief - not to mention their great delight - that a brief period of abstention proved to be all that was required to de-sensitize themselves to their food intolerances, and have since gone on to re-introduce their ‘trigger' foods into their diet without suffering any ill-effects whatsoever, and even more encouragingly, without regaining a single ounce of excess weight.

Chapter Seven

HOW TO DISCOVER WHICH FOODS ARE MAKING YOU FAT

As we have already learned, while skin prick tests are the accepted method for pin-pointing ‘true allergic reactions,' they are unlikely to be of any help when it comes to discovering the foods to which you may be intolerant.

However, there are two tried-and-tested methods that will undoubtedly reveal some - and one in particular that should reveal all - or at the very least, most of the foods to which your body is reacting, either by making you fat and/or by making you ill.

The first method is known as a cytotoxic (blood analysis) allergy test. But as this is a rather complicated and expensive business, and in the opinion of many experts, unlikely to be 100% accurate, you may find the second method, which is outlined a little further on, to be more useful.

Cytotoxic testing involves taking a sample of fresh blood and testing the white blood cells against a number of food extracts. Unfortunately, there are very few laboratories in Britain that specialize in this complicated procedure, and as there is no provision for this on the NHS, many people may find that it is not only difficult to travel the long distances that may be required to have this test done, but also that the cost - which ranges from between £100-£125 is beyond their means.

However, for those who might like to investigate this option, details of two recommended laboratories appear below:

York Nutritional Laboratory, Tudor House, Lysander Close, Clifton Moor, York YO3 4XB.

Telephone: 01904 690640

Because this laboratory prefers to work in association with their clients' GP's, it will first be necessary to arrange for your test to be booked with York, and then get your doctor to take the blood sample according to specific instructions issued by the laboratory. Your blood sample should be taken as late in the day as possible, after a 12-hour fast, and should be mailed to the laboratory on the same evening to enable the tests to be conducted within 24 hours. Costs vary according to the number of foods you wish to be included in the test. Clients opting for the standard test which includes 80-100 of the most common allergy causing food can expect to pay between £100 and £125.

Larkhall Natural Health Ltd. 225, Putney Bridge Road, London SW15 2PY.

Telephone: 0181 874 1130

Tests carried out by this laboratory do not necessitate the involvement of your own GP, as clients are required to travel to London in order to have their blood taken by Larkhall's specially trained staff. Tests carried out by Larkhall are conducted within six hours of the blood being taken, and involve 143 of the most common allergy causing food, including herbs, spices and food additives. Average cost: £100-£125.

HOW TO INDENTIFY YOUR FOOD INTOLERECES FOR YOURSELF

While it can take considerably longer to identify for yourself any foods to which you are intolerant, there is no doubt that this method is not only likely to be highly accurate and effective, but it also doesn't involve any cost. Apart from this one difference, both methods will of course, require you to undergo an elimination diet for a period of time in order to determine precisely which foods are causing your symptoms.

A curious fact of food intolerance is that, while cytotoxic tests may show up a reaction to several foods, not all of those foods will necessarily be causing your symptoms. Moreover, while you may find that a period of abstinence may result in successfully ‘killing off' certain specific intolerances, you may require a longer period of avoidance to achieve the same positive results with some other foodstuffs, while certain others may always result in a return of symptoms despite a long period of totally eliminating them from your diet.

The main objective of any elimination diet is to give your body a much needed respite from having to deal with an overload of toxins, and to enable it to answer some fundamental questions about the foods to which it is reacting. Thus, eliminating one or two ‘suspected' foods on your list, will be nowhere near as effective as eliminating them all at once.

There are three separate phases to the Food Intolerance Diet.

PHASE ONE - Preparation. During this phase you will be preparing your body by embarking on, and in the main keeping to, a healthy eating plan for at least one month. In order to break up the monotony, you may if you wish have an occasional break from the diet, by eating something that you may have been required to eliminate. But if you do deviate from the prescribed healthy eating plan, do be careful not to eat too much of any foods on the forbidden list, and under no circumstances should you drink any coffee, tea or alcohol.

If you are embarking on the Food Intolerance Diet for health reasons, keep a careful note of any foods you consume during this period that could be suspected of ‘triggering' any symptoms. If all your symptoms disappear, then you can safely assume that one or several of the foods on your forbidden list is the likely culprit or culprits.

If you are happy to stay on this Healthy Eating Plan, you may continue to do so as long as you wish. If not, you can move on to Phase Three - Re-Introduction, which will help you narrow down and ultimately pin-point any food or foods which are responsible for causing your symptoms. Once these have been identified, you can then move on to discovering whether a further period of avoidance will ‘kill off' your food intolerances. If this proves ultimately not to be the case, then for the sake of your health you would be well advised to avoid that particular food (or foods) for life. Either way, you should soon be able to enjoy the benefits this will undoubtedly have on your health.

For those whose primary motive for embarking on this diet is to lose weight, the same instructions apply, only in your case, it will be a simple matter to detect which foods are causing you to retain water, and to eliminate these temporarily in order to help de-sensitize yourself against their effects.

PHASE ONE - THE FOUR WEEK HEALTH EATING PLAN

During this phase, you must eliminate from your diet all the following foods:

FORBIDDEN FOODS

• Alcohol - this includes all spirits, alcohol free beers and wines, and any sauces made with wine.

• Coffee and tea - herbal and fruit teas are allowed.

• Cocoa, chocolate and all chocolate flavoured foods and drinks - sugar-free carob drinks and carob ‘chocolate' bars make a good substitute.

• Sugar and all sugary foods, e.g. honey, syrup, malt, treacle, molasses, cakes, puddings, sweets, certain cereal, fizzy drinks, dried fruit, jams, marmalades and any tinned or packaged foods that contain sugar on their ingredients list - diabetic sweets, drinks, jams and marmalades may be substituted if you cannot exist without something sweet, but only if you are certain that you are not intolerant to any substance contained within these products.

• Peanut Butter - Whole Earth Foods manufacture a very tasty sugar-free version which those who are not allergic to peanuts can use as a substitute if they wish.

• Chutney, pickles, bottled sauces, salad cream and mayonnaise (including those labelled ‘low fat'.)

• Pickled onions and vinegar are allowed in moderation.

• Artificial sweeteners and saccharine.

• All colourings, addictives (‘E' numbers) and preservatives in food.

• Fast foods and take-aways.

• Ripe cheeses, corned beef, processed hams and continental sausages.

• Any food item that can potentially cause gut ‘leakiness' e.g. curries and other highly spiced foods, raw pineapple and papayas, and aspirin.

• All highly salted foods such as peanuts and crisps.

• Bran.

• Margarine.

ALLOWABLE FOODS

• All fresh vegetables and fruit (apart from those mentioned above, along with any others that you suspect you may be intolerant to.)

• Salads.

• Wholemeal bread and wholemeal sugar-free cereals (unless you suspect that you may be allergic to wheat.)

• Potatoes.

• Rice, lentils and other pulses.

• As much fresh meat or fish as you desire (except for any that you suspect as a potential cause for your sensitivities.)

• Milk, butter and cheese.

• Fruit juice, but only the unsweetened varieties.

If you are not feeling any better at the end of PHASE ONE, or if you have not succeeded at losing any significant amount of weight, proceed to PHASE TWO.

PHASE TWO - Elimination. During this phase, you will be required to eliminate totally from your diet every item of food that you suspect may be contributing to your problems, as well as those that appear on the following list of most common and frequent offenders that you may not have eliminated during  PHASE ONE. (Please note that for the sake of your weight and health, no deviation from the diet is allowed during PHASE TWO as this will only confuse the results, requiring you to start all over again.)

FREQUENT OFFENDERS

• Wheat - (e.g. white and wholemeal flour, bread, cakes, wheat containing cereals etc.) If you cannot do without bread, some health food shops offer a wheat-free variety which may not be quite as tasty as you are used to, but will certainly help fill the gap. Alternatively, crisp breads such as Ryvita, along with sugar-free oat cakes and rice, may prove to be more to your taste.

• Cow's Milk - Soya milk is sold in most supermarkets nowadays. Alternatively, you can buy goats and sheep's milk, yoghurts and cheeses from most health food shops. (Note: some people who are intolerant to whole milk can often consume re-constituted dried skimmed milk powders such as Marvel, and/or evaporated and condensed milk, on the basis that the high temperatures involved in the preparation of these products, kills off certain proteins in whole milk. However, to be on the safe side, it is better to leave these out of your diet until you reach the Re-introduction phase.)

• Cheese - Cottage cheese, goat's cheese and sheep's cheese may be tried.

• Eggs - If you want to experiment with wheat-free flours most health food shops sell an egg-replacer product that gives perfectly adequate results in baking.

• Citrus Fruits.

• Yeast.

• Chocolate.

• Food Additives.

If, at the end of your two weeks on PHASE TWO of the Food Intolerance Diet, you are feeling considerably better and/or have lost a significant amount of weight, congratulations! You may now proceed to PHASE THREE.

PHASE THREE - Re-Introduction.  This phase requires you to re-introduce one food at a time. To begin with it is best to eat the re-introduced food separately from all other meals. If no reactions or symptoms are experienced within five days, you may safely assume that you have either successfully broken your intolerance to that particular food, or alternatively, that you were not intolerant to it. Either way, in order to avoid developing an intolerance to this (as well as any other frequently eaten foods) at a later stage - which could lead to an unwelcome return of your old symptoms - it is advisable to rotate your diet, so that the same foods are not being eaten more frequently than once every three or four days.

This process of Re-Introduction should continue with the introduction of one food only at a time, leaving an interval of five days between each one.

If you should experience a reaction or a return of any original symptom, note down the name of the food and immediately eliminate it from your diet again for at least one month. In the meantime, you should continue to monitor any effects produced by re-introducing the remaining foods on your list.

In the majority of cases, the above measures will be sufficient to pin-point any real offenders in your diet, and in most cases you will find that with sufficient time, you will not only be able to successfully kill off your intolerance to these foods, but will soon be able to enjoy them once again without any adverse effects. If this does not prove to be possible (and do remember that it can take anything from a few weeks to a whole year to successfully de-sensitize your body from certain foods to which you may react quite violently,) then you would be well advised to cut this particular food out of your diet altogether. If this proves to be too much of a hardship, it is entirely up to you whether you want to risk consuming it only infrequently or on certain special occasions, and prepared to accept the consequences. Many people have found that the odd headache, or a short-term weight gain is a small price to pay in return for the pleasure of occasionally being allowed to indulge in their favourite food.

FOOTNOTE

As with most things in life, there will always be a very small percentage of unfortunate people for whom no amount of dieting, or any other attempts to identify the root cause of their problems, meet with any apparent success. To those unfortunate few for whom this may indeed be the case, the best advice I can offer is to say that if you are still determined to identify whether food intolerance is really at the root of your health or weight problems, it might be worth discussing with your doctor to find out whether he/she can arrange for you to undergo further medical and/or allergy tests.

Alternatively, you may find it worthwhile to arrange for a private cytotoxic allergy test to be carried out by one of the specialist laboratories mentioned earlier in this document. Either way, it is not medically advisable for anyone to cut too many foods out of their diet for very long periods at a time, as this may result in a nutritional deficiency which could not only obscure the issue even further, but have a very real detrimental effect on your overall health and well-being.

Chapter Eight

HOW THE FOOD INTOLERANCE DIET HAS HELPED TRANSFORM THREE PEOPLE'S LIVES

Case History  1.  Debbie L.  Aged 19

Debbie L. is a 19 year old student. A pretty, vivacious girl, Debbie's weight has had a tendency to yo-yo ever since puberty. Recently  however, her mother noticed that not only had Debbie's weight ballooned to nine and a half stone - far too much for her, a girl who was barely five feet one inch - but Debbie's personality and behaviour were becoming increasingly un-predictable and anti-social.

"I didn't take much notice at first, I simply assumed that, like most teenagers, she was going through a ‘difficult phase'" said Debbie's mother. "But then she started becoming really irritable and sometimes even downright aggressive towards her younger brothers. Apart from the fact that Debbie had put on several pounds in weight, it worried me that she couldn't seem to get enough junk food, and she never went to bed without a glass of milk and a packet of biscuits on her bedside table. Then I noticed that she never seemed to have any energy. She often went up to bed early, but she never could seem to wake up the following morning. She had frequent headaches and backaches, she got ever cold that was going around, and whenever she had her period she would often spend the whole time in bed, doubled over with period pain."

"It wasn't until a friend mentioned that she had read a book about Food Allergies that I started to suspect that this might have something to do with Debbie's aches and pains, as well as her behavioural problems. "

Debbie's mother contacted a clinic that specialized in cytotoxic allergy tests. Sure enough, when the results came back, Debbie was revealed to be suffering from a mild sensitivity to twelve foods, and a moderately severe intolerance to two.

Debbie co-operated with her mother in trying to identify the real culprits that were making her fat, upsetting her moods and responsible for her PMT and other assorted aches and pains. She found it hard going, especially the first few days when her headaches got worse, and she felt more than usually tired and achy - a common occurrence when one first excludes the foods to which has shown to be intolerant to - but with her mother's support, Debbie stuck to the elimination diet recommended by the clinic. After discovering that she had lost seven pounds at the end of the first week on the exclusion diet, Debbie was overjoyed!

When the time came to start re-introducing the suspect foods, Debbie found that milk, wheat and eggs were the main cause of her symptoms, while all the other foods on her forbidden list could now be eaten without causing any untoward effects.

At the end of three months, Debbie's weight had gone done to a healthy eight stone, she no longer felt tired and her headaches and all her aches and pains had completely disappeared. As Debbie's grateful mother says: "It's wonderful, I got my old Debbie back again. She's bouncing around the house, can't do enough for me and her little brothers, and she's got so much energy that if I didn't know better, I might start worrying that she was on drugs!"

Case History 2.  Jonathan M.  Aged 52

Jonathan had suffered from asthma ever since he was a boy. Usually, this didn't interfere too much with his life or job, but once he reached 45, Jonathan found himself having asthma attacks that grew more severe and more frequent with each passing year. By the time he was 50, it was not unusual for Jonathan to be experiencing at least one, and sometimes more, asthma attacks each day. Moreover, he had developed a permanently runny nose (rhinitis), constipation, stomach pains and had put on more than a stone in weight. Skin prick tests to ascertain whether Jonathan was allergic to animals, house dust and a variety of other common allergens, all proved negative. When Jonathan's GP implied that his symptoms might be psychosomatic (all in the mind) in origin, Jonathan was most offended. He didn't like feeling permanently ill, and he certainly didn't relish the idea that he was wasting his GP's time.

In an attempt to pin-point precisely what was causing his problems, Jonathan embarked on a Food Intolerance Diet recommended by a friend. What he discovered came as a big surprise. Jonathan was sensitive to eggs, wheat and cheese. Two years later, Jonathan weighs fifteen pounds less than he did when his symptoms were at their height, his digestion is normal, his runny nose has cleared up and, best of all, his asthma attacks are virtually non-existent. And though he knows now that he is unlikely ever to break his sensitivity to these ‘culprit' foods, he counts himself extremely lucky to know what to avoid in order to prevent his symptoms from returning.  

Case History 3.  Jeanette J.  Aged 39

Jeanette has always enjoyed good health. She had no weight  or other problems , and she enjoyed her job as a swimming instructor to young children. But last year, Jeanette developed a rather unsightly, itchy rash on her stomach that wouldn't go away. Tests at the local hospital diagnosed a fungus infection. Jeanette's GP wrote out a prescription for an anti-fungal cream, and Jeanette returned home, confident that her rash would soon disappear.

Unfortunately, instead of disappearing, as Jeanette's GP had assured her it would, Jeanette's rash began to spread all over her torso. Curiously, however, there were days when Jeanette's rash seemed to be far more prominent and itchier than others, and neither she nor her doctor could work out why this should be so.

As a woman herself, Jeanette's GP could not only empathise with how embarrassed Jeanette felt at the prospect of having to constantly suffer the unkind stares - and even un-kinder comments of the eleven year old boys in her swimming class, but she was determined to get to the bottom of the problem.

After a long consultation during which Jeanette's GP asked her innumerable questions about her health, Jeanette mentioned that she had been suffering from mild diarrhoea, wind and bloating ever since she had contracted a mild case of food poisoning the previous year. Having some knowledge of how food sensitivities work, Jeanette's GP asked her whether she would be willing to exclude carbohydrates and sugar from her diet for a short period of time. Although Jeanette suspected that she would find this incredibly difficult - she had a very sweet tooth - she nonetheless agreed. Jeanette's rash disappeared within a week. Two weeks later, when her period came, she noticed that this time it was not accompanied by any bloating. Moreover, her bowels were now back to normal. Four weeks later when Jeanette began to re-introduce the foods she had eliminated from her diet, she was overjoyed to find that she could now eat sugar and carbohydrates without experiencing any ill-effects whatsoever. Best of all, now that she has broken her addiction to sweet things, Jeanette has no problem sticking to the rotation diet her GP recommended as a sensible precaution to prevent her symptoms from returning. And although Jeanette didn't need to lose weight, she is nonetheless delighted by the fact that she has now shed five pounds.