Food allergies happen when your immune system launches an attack on a food protein. Consuming the food can send your immune system into overdrive, so that it releases all the chemicals that cause allergy symptoms. While it is possible to be allergic to almost any food, the most common allergy causing foods are: Fish and shellfish, peanuts,tree nuts, and eggs. In young children it is not uncommon to see allergies to cow's milk. Fortunately, many kids outgrow this allergy by the age of four or five.

How Food Allergy Is Diagnosed

Diagnosis of a food allergy can take several different paths. When you notice reactions such as hives, itching, breathing problems, or other symptoms of an allergy attack directly after you have consumed a certain food, then the odds are that you have an allergy (Sadly, sometimes to a food you just love).

This information is useful to your doctor, because it gives a good starting point for testing. Testing will usually take the form of a scratch test, where you are tested for a number of food allergies at one time. In certain cases where exposing any allergen to the patient may be too dangerous, a radioallergosorbent will be done. This test is a blood test that looks for the IgE antibodies that indicate an allergic reaction.

Another way to diagnose food allergies is elimination diets. This is a diet plan where everything the patient eats is carefully monitored, and new foods are slowly introduced one at a time. This type of diagnosis requires very close monitoring, but it is sometimes the best path to diagnosis if other tests do not provide answers.

Prevention of Food Allergies

The ultimate way to deal with food allergies is avoidance of the foods you are allergic to. There is no "magic pill" for food allergies, much as sufferers would like. Avoiding your trigger foods can most certainly cause some inconvenience, but it is the one way that you can be absolutely certain to head off allergic reactions.

If you or your child has food allergies, you will need to be a label reader: Read all the information on the food labels, because even trace amounts of certain foods can cause a severe allergic reaction in some people. While you will need to eliminate the offending food, there are sometimes substitutions that will give you the same taste you like, without the allergen. For example, a cow milk allergy can be handled by switching to soy milk, and there are products that can replace eggs in recipes.

Those who suffer from wheat or gluten allergies will find an increasing number of gluten and wheat free breads available today. Whether your food allergen has a substitute available or not, the best answer is the obvious one: You just have to stay away from the offending food as much as possible. On the bright side of things, all that label reading and food monitoring can make you a healthier person overall!

Taylor Knight
December 20, 2009

AllergyNut.com - A Blog Dedicated to Recognizing, Preventing and Easing Symptoms for Allergy Sufferers. Visit http://www.AllergyNut.com to learn more and/or ask questions about allergies.

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