Food sensitivity

When I went to him, it was a real eye-opener. I saw what happened to other people in the testing room and I saw what happened to me. I learned that I had both food sensitivities and chemical sensitivities. 

The diagnosis meant many changes. We had our gas kitchen stove removed and an electric stove put in. There was a lot to do to find new, safer products. I made out a two-week chart to keep track of everything I could eat, trying to cut it down to one or two foods per meal so that I could pinpoint and control my food sensitivities. It was hard because I didn t know anybody else who had this problem. I joined a local support group as soon as I found out about it, and that was a real blessing. 

The food sensitivities started moving closer together. I began to lose my tolerance to more foods every day, and it just started to snowball. 

Another future area of research for monitoring adverse reactions to food additives might involve the development of clinical tests to screen for genetic biomarkers indicating food sensitivities. Perhaps vaccines will be developed and administered to sensitive individuals, preventing the occurrence of adverse reactions from food additives. 

Gamlin, L. and Brostoff, J. (1997). Food sensitivity and rheumatoid arthritis. Environ. Toxicolo. Pharmacol., 4, 43 9. 

Castillo et al. (1996) studied 142 food-sensitized patients from Gran Cranaria, Spain. Of these individuals, 120 reported clinical symptoms following ingestion of one or more foods. While shrimp was the most common allergenic food, squid was the second most common allergenic food with 33 cases. Additionally, 12 cases were reported to oyster, 10 to clam, and 10 to mussels. 

Bock, S. A. (1982). The natural history of food sensitivity. /. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 69,173-177. 

Metcalfe, D. D. (1984). Diagnostic procedures for immunologically-mediated food sensitivity. Nutr. Rev. 42, 92-97. 

Taylor, S. L., and Hefle, S. L. (2001). Food allergies and other food sensitivities. Food Technol. 55, 68-83. 

Bock, S. A. 1980. Food sensitivity. A critical review and practical approach. Am. J. Dis. Child. 134, 973-982. 

The diagnosis of food sensitivity leads to removal of the offending food from the patient s diet with concomitant improvement in the patient s symptoms which reappear when the food is added back preferably in a double-blind manner (Brostoff and Challacombe, 2002). 

Andre, F., Andre, C., Colin, L., Cacaraci, F., Cavagna, S. 1994. Role of new allergens and of allergens consumption in the increased incidence of food sensitizations in France. 

Bernstein, M., Day, J.H., Welsh, A. 1982. Double-blind food challenge in the diagnosis of food sensitivity in the adult. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 70 205-210. 

Kruizinga, A.G., Briggs, D., Crevel, A., Knulst, A., Van den Bosch, L., and Houben, G.F. 2008. Probabilistic risk assessment model for allergens in food Sensitivity analysis of the minimum eliciting dose and food consumption. Food and Chemical Toxicology 46(5) 1437-1443 doi 10.1016/j.fct.09.109. 

Increased IFNy production is associated with food-sensitive atopic dermatitis, Crohn s disease (local mucosal synthesis), RA synovial tissue (suggesting a role for this cytokine in the ongoing immunological reaction of the... 

Hughes EC, Oettinger L, Johnson F, et al Case report a chemically defined diet in diagnosis and management of food sensitivity in minimal brain dysfunction. Ann Allergy 42 174-176, 1979... 

Jewett DL, Fein G, Greenberg MH A double-blind study of symptom provocation to determine food sensitivity. N Engl J Med 323 429-433,1990 Levy F, Hobbes G Hyperkinesis and diet a replication study. Am J Psychiatry 135 1559-1560, 1978... 

Over the past few decades, alternative and complementary physicians have stressed the concept of food sensitivity or food intolerance, in which an otherwise healthy person has a poor reaction to certain types of foods, particularly wheat and other grains or dairy products. Food sensitivities are far subtler than true allergies, which tend to have far more obvious symptoms (diarrhea, hives, wheezing, and the like). Likewise, sensitivities are not the same as food addictions, in which eating a particular food gives short-term relief while producing symptoms later. 

In food sensitivities, by contrast, the body reacts so subtly that we either don t pay attention or we don t associate the ill effect with having eaten something. So if you suffer from depression, I believe it s important for you to consider the possibility that some of your food choices may be affecting your mood by setting off such sensitivities. 

I think that the best way to find out if you are food-sensitive is to keep a food log, noting what you eat and how you feel within the next thirty to sixty minutes. If you begin to discover that certain foods seem to bring on the feeling of being spacey, tired, or depressed, try one of these strategies ... 

Blood test You can get a special blood test for food sensitivities pretty easily. These tests are sophisticated and reliable, but they are not cheap. If you re interested, check the resources listed in Appendix C. 

Even if you have a food sensitivity, you don t necessarily have to cut the food out of your diet completely. If you avoid your danger foods for three to four weeks, your system will probably become less reactive. Then you can reintroduce these trigger foods in moderation, not eating any trigger food more than once every four or five days. 

Laboratories for Nutrient Level and Food Sensitivity Testing ... 

Increased milk production. Much controversy exists over providing cows with supplemental bovine somatotropin (BST), also called growth hormone, a hormone that increases metabolism and milk production in dairy cows. Tbe controversy centers on human consumption of the hormone. However, BST is a peptide hormone, so it is hydrolyzed in the digestive tract and is not absorbed directly into the human bloodstream (Section 24.2). Furthermore, aU milk must contain some of this hormone, because the cow cannot produce milk without it. A more soundly based concern about BST supplementation in dairy cows is that the cows given extra BST often develop mastitis, an inflammation of the udder caused by bacterial infection. Mastitis is frequently treated with high doses of antibiotics, and some of these antibiotics could end up in tbe mUk, causing problems for people with certain food sensitivity. 

Food-sensitive enteropathy is frequently associated with a family history, and the clinical features, of atopy (Kuitunen et al., 1975 Harrison et al., 1976). The acute systemic reactions to milk provocation in patients with gastroenteropathy include asthma, rhinitis, and eczema (Harrison et al., 1976). Since there is some evidence for the involvement of non-reag-... 

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