Food Allegerns

[sillyyak]

How does one know if they allergic to potato, banana, tomato, rice -- apart from feeling sick after, I am hearing a lot about how if you have sprue you could have other food intolerances as well.. How does one find out about other food intolerances.. are there specific tests for this?

I am new to sprue and food intolerance issues. Please help! Thank you

[Claire]

There are differences of opinion regarding food intolerances.

I will share my experience for what that is worth. 15 years ago I went the 'testing' route - this after 10 years of total misery with no medical help. Traditional skin allergy testing had shown that I was not allergic to anything!

These tests were done by Immuno Labs and identified a host of reactive foods. In many cases, I knew they were right on. Every possible bean on earth was identified - and I already knew that to be true. Wheat, Barley and Rye and yeast were identified (unfortunately for me only the grain itself was identified and not the gluten in the grain). They were not looking at gluten much 15 years ago.

I had doubts about many of the other identified foods. I have had the test three times. Each time I had the same feeling - they are wrong about some of these. I self tested the ones that didn't seem likely to me.

A Naturopathic doctor that I visisted recently told me that he doesn't advise these tests anymore because of the high number of false positives. He did say that he believes that they do rightly identify the culprits but with false positives in the results it gets confusing.

I agree about the false positives but I am not completely set against the testing. It does identify a of group of reactive foods. Some of these will strike a cord right away - you will know that particular good 'bothers' you. The ones on the list that are in doubt are the ones you put to the test. You remove each 'doubtful' from your diet for a week to two weeks. Then you start eating it again. Your body will tell you if that food really is reactive for you or not. If it is not, add it back into your diet. If it is, banish it. Continue this process for each food that you find 'doubtful'.

Will these intolerances go away? For some people, some of them do and some don't. For me, none of the truly reactive ones ever stopped being so. The doubtfuls are in my diet with no apparent problem. I do find that if I eat too much of any one food it will eventually become a reactive food for me.

Many labs give these tests. I like Immuno Labs because they give you an option to get specific - i.e. not just eggs but whether it is the whites, yolks or both.

As I said, there are differing opinions about these tests. Some people definitely feel they are a waste of time and money. I think they are a starting place - just test out the ones that you have doubts about.

Good luck. Claire

[Merika]

There are several labs around the country - us biotek, great smokies, york allergy, and I can't remember the others.

I think they are useful and did one a year ago. Might redo it this year.

The other option is to do a total elimination diet. To get some info on that, start at www.askdrsears.com . Basically, you only eat a few basic staples for a few weeks to get a baseline, then add in one food group a week and see what happens. Of course, if you're allergic to one of your first foods, you may be stumped.

sorry to be vague, it's late and I should be in bed, lol

Merika