ConceptMed.com

Foods Can Make You Sick

Health problems like MCS and CFS often bring with them a bewildering array of symptoms, one of which can be food intolerance. Suddenly, or so it seems, foods that you have always eaten are causing you problems, maybe even making you very ill. This is not an unusual reaction. When the immune system has taken a battering, the effects are widespread.

Food is totally basic to life and if your body is rejecting or reacting to certain types of food it is sending you a very clear message—your diet is not working for you. You are unique and if you eat the wrong diet for you, even if it follows all the current healthy diet guidelines, you will not experience good health and you will probably have weight problems.

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If your body cannot tolerate a particular food, or one of its ingredients, then you will experience an unwanted reaction. The type of symptoms that arise are very individual-specific and it is not possible to say that, for example, apples will cause headaches or milk will cause stomach problems. They may do so, but they may also cause other symptoms.

The simple truth is that any reaction can be provoked by any food. You can be intolerant of any of the following:

1. A complete food such as milk, soya, carrot, egg, pork, wheat, mushroom, chicken, apple.
2. A naturally occurring chemical such as salicylate in many herbs, fruit, and vegetables; tyramine in aged meat, cheeses, and wine; purines in protein foods; amines in cooked and fermented foods; and solanine in vegetables.
3. An added ingredient that does not occur naturally in the food such as a preservative, artificial sweetener, colouring, flavour, or antioxidant.
4. In a complex food, i.e., any processed food, you could be sensitive to any one of the ingredients. For example, in bread it is possible to react to wheat, preservatives, yeast, or bleaching agents.

You can find out more about food intolerance at the Food Can Make You Ill website.

—Sharla Race

International Food Information Council—"Food Allergy and Asthma"
Online Resources for People with Food Allergies & Intolerances
Vegetarian Times—"Allergic to Good Health"