Allergy addiction hiden allergies

ALLERGY ADDICTION: HIDEN ALLERGIES

 

'There are certain persons who cannot readily change their diet with impunity: and if they make any alteration in it for one day, or even part of a day, are greatly injured thereby.'
Hippocrates, 500 BC
Not everybody suffers from the usual, immediate allergic reaction to a given substance or food. Some suffer delayed reactions, making it difficult to associate their symptoms with a given allergen. These 'hidden' or 'masked' allergies can dog the unsuspecting sufferer for a lifetime as he or she travels from doctor to doctor looking for an answer to his or her particular pot-pourri of symptoms. Unlike the easily recognised cause and effect allergy such as hives after eating strawberries, swollen mouth after eating lobster, migraine after eating a Chinese meal with MSG, the allergy-addicted people actually feel better after eating the food they are allergic to and ill when away from it for too long.
Frequently the first over-exposure to a given substance is encountered in the womb where the substances the mother is allergic to floats through the baby's blood as well. Later these substances are taken into the baby's body in the breast milk. Fating solid foods before the age of ten months further aggravates the problem of over-exposure.
As a result of this, many kids come into the world with allergies (asthma, eczema, colic, nappy rash, stuffy, runny nose, etc.) to certain foods and chemicals which in time they grow out of—or so everybody thinks. What has happened, in fact, is they have become used to these foods and aren't reacting as overtly as before. Their bodies have adapted to these allergenic foods or to the chemical flavourings, colours and preservatives in them. This happens because the allergenic food is spooned into the baby whether he/she wants it or not. As babies are not able to communicate that a given food doesn't agree with them, the parent continues to give it, even when the baby repeatedly spits it out.
Often, from about two years of age, children are ordered to eat foods they dislike because those foods are considered 'good for them'. Even though they instinctively know these foods disagree with them, they continue to eat them because there is nothing else to eat and because they are under orders to do so. In time Mum's stance is vindicated because they are growing well and are no longer afflicted by those childhood complaints. It is concluded that they have outgrown their allergies. In fact they have simply become used to the presence of those foods in their systems, so marvelous is the body's ability to adapt to undesirable situations.
In fairness to the well-meaning parent there is no way out of this dilemma as babies and little children are in a rapid growth spurt and need to eat as broad a spectrum of nutritious foods and as much of it as possible. The withholding of foods at that age could do more harm than good as malnutrition, and the impaired growth and development it gives rise to, is more serious than allergy. Besides, nature has coped with the situation by giving the body the powers of adaptation.
During this period of adaptation everything is fine and the allergic person is often symptom free so long as the foods or chemical flavourings, colours and preservatives that used to cause the allergy symptoms are regularly consumed. If they are not, unpleasant withdrawal symptoms start. When this happens, eating that food makes one feel immediately better, which is why so many allergy foods turn out to be favourite foods. Not surprisingly, allergy-addicted people believe these foods are good for them.     *24\18\9*