If you're feeling sick to your stomach yet doctors can't find anything wrong with you, it may be something you eat. Here's a story by Ed Rockey for the Los Angeles Times, where his food allergy was even misdiagnosed by a doctor as being depressed:
"We've done every test I can think of, and there's nothing organically wrong with you," said the internist. "I think you are clinically depressed. I'm putting you on an antidepressant." I had an intuitive sense I'd been misdiagnosed. Had I ever felt depressed? Sure. But the symptoms I had reported to him didn't feel like depression. I asked him about the side effects of the drug he prescribed. I refused to take it. As I left, he warned me, "You'll be sorry."
A couple of months later, I was in the office of a dermatologist for a routine checkup, and I had one of those attacks of nausea and weakness. It was the first time I'd had those dreaded symptoms while with a physician. He checked my vitals. Blood pressure was way down, for one thing. He got a hunch. "I once had a patient with symptoms just like yours," he said. "Turned out he had food allergies. Why not get checked out for food allergies?"
An endocrinologist ran tests, which indicated I was allergic to several foods. Results came in a flow-chart format, displaying levels of severity associated with my allergies. The most severe: cow's milk. The next most severe: wheat.
Now, almost a year after cutting all food dyes out of my diet, I've ceased having problems.
Is our medical community overzealous in suggesting medications to treat symptoms rather than addressing the causes? Most certainly. Do they suggest surgeries that are little more than (unnecessary) shortcuts? Absolutely.
Assuming that everyone can eat everything does not take into account the different diets eaten by their ancestors.
I never did follow up with a food allergy test, but reading this is making me think i should.
That said, a lot of people with regular lactose intolerance (about half of all Caucasians [factoring in backgrounds that have a higher percentage like Italy and Greece] and over 75% of the other adults in the world) confuse it with a lactose allergy and shouldn't get all freaked out like they do. I have severe intolerance, and all I have to do is avoid unprocessed and lightly processed milk, and I can get along fine.
Either its the milk or ...hmm..could I be allergic to the "Bifidus Regularis" cultures in Activia?
Damn... nothing is safe anymore.
And parents! Remember this when your child has trouble drinking their milk at dinner time! As a child I was forced to finish my milk every night despite my complaints. It turns out I suffered from mild lactose intolerance. When I hit my 20s, though the severity increased exponentially though. Before I just had trouble drinking milk or eating too much ice cream. Now even eating milk chocolate or makes me ill. :( Thank god for Lactaid!
I was tested for a whole plethora of allergies as I am very allergic to dust mites and animal fur, and I tested positive to being allergic to wheat, yeast, tomatoes, and a whole bunch of other foods. I trialed excluding them from my diet but there was no noticeable difference except that my diet became boring.
It seems that there has been a steady increase in food allergies and intolerance over the last few years, but it would make more sense to say that we have just gotten better at figuring them out, I guess.
You are right to not trust doctors
Necessary conditions to develop food allergies:
- Overprotective parents
- Growing up in a society that over-relies on antibiotics and disinfectants
- Parents that mysteriously seem to be heavily opposed to the consumption of whatever food product their child is reportedly allergic to
- Parents who think they know better than doctors because they have an internet connection
I had none of the above. Amount of food allergies: Zero.
I try to stay away from everything genetically modified and in the process, found out I had a wheat allergy...when going off of wheat I dropped 16lbs and sleep better with less irritability. None of these were diagnosed by a doctor.
Best bet is to stick with 100% organic.
Saying no one would have food allergies, like you, if they all followed the same upbringing as you is facetious and not the way to make your point.
Come to find out that aloe, is in the same plant family as onions and garlic, and it is the onions that have caused my stomach troubles primarily. Garlic doesn't affect me that much, but then again most people only consume it as an herb.
For the curious: if I consume aloe, or touch it I break ou in fever blisters. It's so bad that if I touch a door or shake hands with someone using aloe, my hands break out. Not fun, but it is better than wearing gloves everywhere.
The Top Eight Allergies:
Dairy
Eggs
Fish
Shellfish
Wheat
Peanuts
Tree-nuts
Soy