Self-Diagnosing: Avoiding Certain Foods — What is the Risk?
Experiencing nausea, bloating, vomiting, itchiness, hives, rash, and other concerning reactions after eating a meal are real symptoms for many adults and children. However, trying to understand and determine what is going on may require a more serious investigation. Unfortunately, in today's era of the internet and social media, it has become too easy to find quick advice relating to symptoms and foods, leading people to make unhealthy and even dangerous choices. There are two terms that are often misused in self-diagnosing the root cause of your illness or symptoms. The first is food intolerance and the second is food allergy.
Food intolerance affects the digestive system and often occurs due to deficiencies of certain enzymes. Lactose intolerance, for example, results when a person lacks the enzyme for breaking down sugar found in milk. The symptoms of this food intolerance are intestinal gas, abdominal pain, and in some cases, diarrhea. However, too many misdiagnose their situation, calling this a food allergy. In the end, they avoid milk products altogether, not knowing that they can use lactose-free milk, or that they can, in some cases, tolerate small amounts of milk.
Food intolerance can also occur when the body reacts to a chemical. Some people may be sensitive to certain food additives like nitrates or sulfites. In some cases, people may react to chemicals that are naturally occurring in foods. Vegetables from the nightshade group — tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant — contain alkaloids that can lead to inflammation of the gut. In these cases, cooking food properly, or eating smaller quantities, can lessen or eliminate the issue.
Food allergies are different than food intolerance in that with a food allergy, a person's immune system is fully involved. Food allergens are proteins that are attacked by the person's immune system, and it is this reaction that leads to a wide range of symptoms from hives and itching to more severe reactions such as anaphylactic shock. The latter, considered a life-threatening situation, results in several deaths of adults and children each year. Unlike a food intolerance, absorbing or consuming a small amount of an allergenic protein can be a life-threatening situation for those who are most sensitive.
For a person who is allergic to dairy proteins (i.e. cow's milk), the consumption of a glass of milk will trigger the body's immune system to treat the dairy protein as a foreign invader releasing antibodies called Immunoglobin E ( IgE ). This cascade of effects can happen within seconds of the foreign protein being detected. Without immediate medical attention and the injection of epinephrine to counter the reaction, death could occur.
Although there are over 160 known food allergens, there is just a small group of food allergens that account for the largest percentage of food allergy reactions occurring each year. There are eight food proteins in this group:
- dairy
- eggs
- fish
- peanuts
- crustacean
- shellfish
- soy
- tree nuts
- wheat
Children are more prone to have food allergies. Some of these allergies can fade with time while others may stay with the person their whole life. While many food allergies are diagnosed in young children, there are some allergies that show up later in life. So, an adult can become allergic to a food protein that they had been able to eat as a youth.
For those with food allergies, avoidance is the key. This is done through understanding what foods contain allergen proteins, but also being aware of the potential for cross contact exposure where food allergen proteins inadvertently get onto non-allergen containing foods.
It is important to recognize that self-avoidance of a specific group of foods without proper medical guidance could lead to nutrient deficiencies. For example, avoiding dairy products based upon a self-diagnosis that you are allergic to milk, but it is just an intolerance, could lead to the risk for calcium deficiencies, a key nutrient in bone growth and repair.
It is important to go beyond self-diagnosing your reaction to specific food by fully understanding the issue. In some cases, a one-time reaction after eating can be misinterpreted, and this can lead to someone avoiding a food for the rest of their life. In other cases, it has become too commonplace for people to blame a specific food groups for ongoing symptoms, that have nothing to do with that food.
