COMMON ALLERGIES

DESCRIPTION 

If you are over 4 years old, you are probably at least partly unable to digest milk products. Up to 25% of children and adults suffer from dairy allergies. Humans need breast milk only until they triple their birth weight, usually by age 1. As mother's milk dries up, so does the Childs own lactase, the enzyme that helps digest milk, usually occurring over the child's first 4 years. Humans are the only species to continue to drink milk after weaning. Cow's milk has been called a "a perfect food - for calves". Especially sensitive to dairy foods are people with blood types O and B. 

Unlike proteins, starchy grains are digested primarily in the mouth. An allergy to gluten, the protein giving dough its elasticity and which helps bread to rise, can begin when babies are fed cereal before they can chew it, damaging their intestinal tracts with undigested gluten. Parents can genetically pass on gluten intolerance to their children. With the modern hybridization of wheat, scientists figure that increased gluten content and decreased genetic variance in our grains go hand in hand with digestive difficulties.

Digestive problems begin when corn is refined into products like corn syrup sweeteners or is disguised in a wide variety of processed foods from chewing gum to baby food. Would you recognize corn in fructose, dextrose, and caramel coloring? Replacing corn is easier than learning to recognize corn in foods. Barley malt and rice syrup are perfect stand-ins for corn syrup; safflower oil easily replaces corn oil; and arrowroot will thicken any sauce just as nicely as cornstarch. Stay away from refined products infused with processed corn derivatives and you may find yourself enjoying buttery ears of corn sooner than you think.

MSG comes in many disguises, but its effects are not enigmatic; from asthma and diarrhea to heart palpitations and neurological complaints, MSG affects up to 25% of the population. MSG comes from the amino acid glutamic acid, found naturally in many foods and even in your own brain and spinal cord! Trouble starts when MSG is synthesized and used in high amounts to enhance the flavor or processed and prepared foods. By over stimulating your nervous system, MSG causes allergic reactions and may even contribute to neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Neurosurgeon Russel Blaycock, M.D., is doubly concerned about MSG's ability to cross the placenta into a developing fetus's brain. This exposure may not show up until years later when the child "suddenly" develops a learning or emotional disorder, according to Dr. Blaycock. Reading labels won't necessarily protect you, since only products that contain pure MSG have to be labeled. (Among MSG's many disguises are hydrolyzed vegetable and animal protein, and even "natural flavorings", which may not be so natural.) To stay MSG free, you'll need to avoid processed foods and ask questions every time you dine out!.

SOURCES: Allergy-Free Cooking by Eileen R. Yoder, PhD; The Body Ecology Diet: Recovering Your Health & Rebuilding Your Immunity by Donna Gates; Don't Drink Your Milk by Frank Oski, M.D.; Delicious Magazine; The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability by Paul Hewken; The Encyclopedia of Natural Remedies, Food. Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper; Good Health in a Toxic World by Sara Shannon; Optimal Wellness, Ralph Golan, M.D.; Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James and Phyllis Balch; Secrets of Natural Food Healing with Food by Nancy Appleton; Your Body Knows Best by Anne Louise Gittleman; Your Health and Your Home by Nina Anderson and Albert Benoist.