Imagine if you start vomiting after consuming your favorite food like milk.scary. but true for those who have food allergies.
Food is a primary need of our body, but it becomes the worst enemy if your body responds adversely to the food you consume.On those occasions, it will award you the death penalty for as innocuous a ‘crime’ as consuming, against the wishes of you body, the most seemingly harmless foods
The Culprits
Who can get a food allergy? There is no saying, really. You might just wake up one day with a food allergy. Your body decides, and you have no say in the matter. Stress and lifestyle are the main culprits.
The food culprits vary from people to people depending on many factors, a major one which can be used for classification is the age.
Food allergies differ in adults than those in children. The most common foods, which can cause allergic reactions in adults, are peanuts, walnuts, fish, eggs, shrimp, lobster, crab and some other nuts. Children could be allergic to milk, eggs, soy, wheat and peanuts. In India, many people are allergic to chana dal(and other forms of dal as well).
Children can get rid of their allergies as they grow.but adults normally cannot get rid of their allergies.whooooooo scary isn’t it?
How to Diagnose Allergies
Food allergies can be diagnosed by a person’s medical history, blood test and skin patch test(in which a particular food is rubbed on your skin to see the reaction).
So, after consuming a particular kind of food, if you feel any of the symptoms like vomiting, difficult breathing, diarrhea, sneezing, watery eyes, skin rash, nasal congestion, stomach upset, tingling sensation in the mouth, swelling in tongue or throat, consult doctor to see if symptoms are related to food allergy.
Symptoms could appear anytime within two minutes to two hours after consuming the food.
Managing the Allergies
Simple - do not consume the food you are allergic to!
Lets see how the allergic food can be replaced with other food in your diet.
Milk
If you are allergic to dairy milk, replace it with equal amount of soymilk or fruit juice. You can consume curd and curd products as milk allergy is due to lactose and curd do not contain lactose. Beware of some hidden sources of milk like - some brands of tuna fish contain casein, a milk protein - some meat may use casein as a binding agent.
Egg
In the recipes, egg can be replaced with a combination of baking powder and vinegar.or gelatin and warm water.or yeast and warm water.Beware of hidden sources of eggs like pastas, biscuits, cakes.
Peanut
This is the deadliest kind of allergy.a person allergic to peanuts should be extremely careful as little carelessness could result in death.
Avoid chocolates as most of them contain peanuts.experts recommend such people should avoid other nuts too like cashews, walnuts.avoid icecreams containing peanuts.be very careful while eating in a restaurant.such people should always carry a prescribed medicine with them as if by mistake they consume peanuts the symptoms would occur immediately.
Fish
Keep away from seafood restaurants if you are allergic to fish.as other food in the restaurant could have been contaminated with fish.also, fish protein could become airborne during cooking and cause allergic reactions even if you are sitting in such restaurant.one can have such reaction even while walking in the fish market.
Soy
Soy is a miraculous source of nutrition having amazing medicinal benefits.but some people may be allergic to soy. As soy does not form a primary part of diet.it can be avoided easily if one is allergic to soy.
Wheat
Replace wheat flour with other flours like rice flour, potato starch flour or corn flour.in case you are allergic to wheat flour.
The True Story
One of the first cases documented in Mumbai was of a five-year-old girl who suffered acute breathlessness while her mother was cooking in the kitchen. In a few minutes her nails had turned blue. She was rushed to the hospital and saved. The doctors were baffled — the child was playing with her toys and had neither eaten nor touched anything that could have brought on the allergic reaction. Barely a week later, the child had a similar attack. This time the mother remembered that the attack started as soon as the pressure cooker had started whistling in her kitchen. Doctors found out she had been cooking chana dal, the steam of which had wafted over to the child, bringing on the allergic reaction.
Is There Any Remedy?
Unfortunately, food allergy cannot be treated.only solution is to avoid the allergens - products to which one is allergic to.children can outgrow their allergies - the allergies disappear in them as they grow older.
The scientific research is on to develop a vaccine that could cure food allergies.lets hope for the best.