Do you or a loved one have allergies? This guide shows you how to spot and manage food allergies. From food hypersensitivity to intolerance and to other food allergies, we got you covered.
Each time we eat, our bodies obtain their nutrients from food. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is responsible for removing these nutrients from food and allowing the body to absorb them. However, certain meals can occasionally harm the body and the GI tract. This occurrence is referred to as food hypersensitivity and is an adverse reaction to food causing a wide spectrum of unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening symptoms and mechanisms.
There are three (3) types of food hypersensitivity:
Coeliac Disease
Food Intolerance
Food Allergy
Although these conditions are frequently mistaken for one another, they each have unique causes, symptoms, and ways to manage food allergies.
Coeliac Disease
Coeliac Disease is an autoimmune disorder characterized by hypersensitivity to gluten (a group of proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye). In autoimmune diseases, the immune system creates antibodies that target and harm the body’s own tissues.
When someone has coeliac disease, their body has an unusual immune response to gluten which causes antibodies to target and attack the cell lining of the small intestine. This reduces the surface area for nutrient absorption thereby leading to malnutrition, which often results in unintentional and dramatic weight loss, especially in children. The only treatment for coeliac disease is the complete exclusion of gluten from the diet.
Food Intolerance
John’s favourite enemy is milk. Each time he takes a bowl of ice cream, yoghurt or, a cup of milk, he vomits for hours at a time, comes down with episodes of diarrhoea or develops terrible rashes. However, this doesn’t stop John from eating his favourite flavour of Pinkberry Yoghurt.
You’re probably smiling while reading this because you’re just like John and won’t mind going through a little discomfort just to enjoy your favourite ice cream. If you usually have the same experience when you take milk and other milk-based products, you are probably suffering from lactose intolerance, a common type of food intolerance.
Food intolerance happens as a result of the body not producing enough of a particular digestive enzyme, which results in difficulty in digesting certain foods or nutrients. The symptoms typically happen within a few moments of eating the trigger food or after a couple of hours. Its severity depends greatly on how much of the offending food was consumed.
Symptoms of food intolerance include bloating, tummy pain, headaches, heartburn, nausea, skin rashes, and diarrhoea.
The best way to diagnose food intolerance is to monitor your symptoms and the foods you eat. See what happens when you cut out the suspected food for a while, and then reintroduce it into your diet. You can do this by keeping a food diary and taking notes of the foods you eat, the symptoms that follow after eating these foods, and even when these symptoms occur.
It is important to note that food intolerance differs from food allergy. Food intolerance affects the digestive system, and the amount of food the person eats is related to the severity of their symptoms, which are often not hazardous and will go away once the food has left the GI tract. On the other hand, food allergy affects the immune system and even a small amount of food can trigger a range of symptoms that can be life-threatening.
Certain foods can be responsible for both an allergic reaction and intolerance. For example, milk proteins can cause an allergic response in some people, while a reduced ability to metabolize lactose, the primary sugar in cow’s milk, is called lactose intolerance. Common examples of food intolerance are lactose intolerance, fructose intolerance, gluten intolerance, Egg intolerance, and Nuts intolerance.
There is currently no cure for food intolerances. The best way to avoid symptoms of food intolerance is to avoid the trigger foods or eat them less often and in smaller amounts
Food Allergies Explained
A food allergy is when the body’s immune system (the body’s defence against infection) mistakenly treats the protein in food as a threat. The body responds to this threat by releasing a number of chemicals in the body. These chemicals cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.
People with food allergies can react differently when they are exposed to allergens. The type and severity of the reaction depend on a number of factors including the individual, the severity of their allergy, the amount of allergen they’ve been exposed to, and other factors such as exercise, lack of sleep, or medication, which can increase an individual’s sensitivity.
Very small amounts of allergens can cause severe adverse reactions. The most severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to an allergen is called anaphylaxis— a life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction that can impair your breathing, cause a dramatic drop in your blood pressure, affect your heart rate, and could possibly lead to death. Anaphylaxis can occur within minutes of exposure to the trigger food. It can be fatal and must be treated promptly with an injection of epinephrine (adrenaline).
The most common symptoms of an allergic reaction include swelling of the face, mouth (angioedema), throat, or other areas of the body, itching in the mouth, difficulty swallowing, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, or diarrhoea, and lightheadedness.
Types of Food Allergies
Depending on symptoms and when they occur, food allergies can be classified into 3 types
Immunoglobulin-E (IgE) Mediated Food Allergy
This type of allergy is the most common. It is triggered by the immune system producing an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE). Symptoms can appear from minutes up to two hours after eating the allergen. There is a greater risk of anaphylaxis with this type of allergy.
Non-IgE-Mediated Food Allergy
This allergy is often difficult to diagnose, as symptoms take much longer to show (up to several hours). It is not caused by IgE antibodies but by other components of the immune system.
Mixed IgE and Non-IgE-Mediated Food Allergies
Some people may experience symptoms from both types of allergies. This is known as mixed IgE and non-IgE-mediated food allergies.
The 14 Key Food Allergies
While any food can cause an adverse reaction, 14 types of food account for about 90% of all reactions. These 14 food allergens are: Celery, Cereals containing gluten, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Lupin, Milk, Molluscs, Mustard, Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame seeds, Soya, and Sulphur dioxide.
Please see the appendix for more information on these allergens and examples of foods they can be found.
DIAGNOSING A FOOD ALLERGY
A question that is probably on your mind now is “How do I know I have a food allergy”?
Though they can emerge at any age, food allergies typically first show up in young children. If you think you might have a food allergy, (you notice that you keep having certain reactions after you eat certain meals) you should consult an allergist who will review your medical and family history, choose which tests to run, and use this data to establish whether you actually do have a food allergy.
Your allergist will ask questions about your recent food intake and the quantity consumed, what symptoms you are experiencing, how long it took the symptoms to develop, and how long they persisted.
After your medical and family history has been taken, your allergist may perform skin tests or blood tests that will confirm the presence of food-specific antibodies. Now, a positive result does not always imply the presence of an allergy, but a negative result is helpful in eliminating one.
An oral food challenge –arguably the most accurate way to make a food allergy diagnosis–could be carried out in some specific cases when a patient’s medical history is unclear or when results from blood or skin testing are uncertain. In this procedure, the suspected trigger food is given to the patient in increasingly larger doses over time, and then the patient is watched for a few hours to see if a reaction happens.
An oral food challenge should only be performed by skilled allergists at a food challenge facility, with emergency medication and equipment on standby, due to the likelihood of a severe reaction.
You can preemptively take tests even before a reaction occurs if you are curious about if you have an food allergy or not. This can be carried out for children as well.
How to Manage Food Allergies in Your Everyday Life
There is unfortunately no cure for food allergies. The primary way to manage a food allergy is to avoid consuming the food that you are allergic to totally. You should also be prepared to treat an allergic reaction should the food be eaten accidentally.
Here are some ways to manage food allergies:
Always Read Food Labels to Manage Food Allergies
When grocery shopping for prepackaged food, carefully check ingredient labels of food products for food allergen declarations. Even if you have bought the product countless times, you should always read the label. An allergen might be present in a new formulation because manufacturers frequently change the components. The ingredient-containing allergen is always displayed in bold letters. (See Image below)
Exercise Extra Caution When Eating Out
You also need to be extremely careful when eating out at restaurants. Depending on your sensitivity, even just walking into a kitchen or a restaurant can cause an allergic reaction.
Always ensure to plan ahead before going to restaurants. Get familiar with the menu available on their website and look out for meals without ingredients you are allergic to. If possible, speak with the chef to confirm that the meals you choose don’t contain any allergens you react to.
Adopt Safety Measures When Cooking to Manage Food Allergies
In situations where some people at home have food allergies, you want to make sure to prevent cross-contamination when cooking. Having two sets of cooking and eating utensils or equipment—one reserved specifically (labels recommended) for the allergic person—is a great way to prevent cross-contamination of allergens during the cooking process. For instance, a person allergic to eggs shouldn’t eat with the fork that has been earlier used to whisk eggs for the rest of the household. In addition, it is important that after each use, every dish and piece of equipment needs to be thoroughly washed in hot, soapy water.
Managing food allergies is easy with Eden Life. All allergen-containing ingredients are pre-identified during the recipe standardization stage and flagged on the backend.
If you’re on an Eden meal plan, all you have to do is speak with a dietician about your dietary preferences or food allergy concerns, and they will recommend a variety of meals that could work for you.
If you found this article interesting and have more questions, please join our “Eating Well” Community. Excited about managing your food allergies with Eden? Subscribe to get a meal plan here!
APPENDIX FOR HOW TO MANAGE FOOD ALLERGIES
- Celery: This includes celery stalks, leaves, seeds, and the root called celeriac. You can find celery in celery salt, salads, some meat products, soups, and stock cubes
- Cereals containing gluten: Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are often found in foods containing flour, such as some types of baking powder, batter, breadcrumbs, bread, cakes, couscous, meat products, pasta, pastry, sauces, soups, and fried foods which are dusted with flour.
- Crustaceans: Crabs, lobster, prawns, and shrimp are crustaceans. Shrimp paste, often used in Thai and south-east Asian curries or salads, is an ingredient to look out for.
- Eggs: Eggs are often found in cakes, some meat products, mayonnaise, pasta, sauces, and pastries, or foods brushed or glazed with egg.
- Fish: You will find this in some fish sauces, pizzas, relishes, salad dressings, stock cubes, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Lupin: Lupin is a flower, but it’s also found in flour. Lupin flour and seeds can be used in some types of bread, pastries, and even in pasta.
- Milk: Milk is a common ingredient in butter, cheese, cream, milk powders, and yogurt. It can also be found in foods brushed or glazed with milk, and in powdered soups and sauces.
- Molluscs: These include mussels, land snails, periwinkles, squid, and whelks, but can also be commonly found in oyster sauce or as an ingredient in fish stews.
- Mustard: Liquid mustard, mustard powder, and mustard seeds fall into this category. This ingredient can also be found in bread, curries, marinades, meat products, salad dressings, sauces, and soups.
- Nuts: Not to be mistaken with peanuts (which are actually a legume and grow underground), this ingredient refers to nuts that grow on trees, like cashew nuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. You can find nuts in bread, biscuits, crackers, desserts, nut powders (often used in Asian curries), stir-fried dishes, ice cream, marzipan (almond paste), nut oils, and sauces.
- Peanuts: Peanuts are actually a legume and grow underground, which is why it’s sometimes called a groundnut. Peanuts are often used as an ingredient in biscuits, cakes, curries, desserts, and sauces (such as satay sauce), as well as in groundnut oil, and peanut flour.
- Sesame seeds: These seeds can often be found in bread (sprinkled on hamburger buns for example), breadsticks, houmous, and sesame oil. They are sometimes toasted and used in salads.
- Soya: Often found in bean curd, textured soya protein, soya flour, or tofu, soya is a staple ingredient in oriental food. It can also be found in desserts, ice cream, meat products, sauces, and vegetarian products.
- Sulphur dioxide (sometimes known as sulphites): This is an ingredient often used in dried fruit such as raisins, dried apricots, and prunes. You might also find it in meat products, soft drinks, and vegetables as well as in wine and beer. If you have asthma, you have a higher risk of developing a reaction to sulphur dioxide.