About what food allergies are and howUnfortunately, not only ordinary people, but also those who have encountered this disease more than once cannot tell you how to eat properly. According to experts, only a few adhere to the correct diet, which allows you to avoid a relapse in the future. And some allergy sufferers even attribute the symptoms to poisoning or ordinary fatigue. Therefore, it is so important to understand such a sensitive issue as early as possible, so as not to suffer from severe consequences later.
Why there is an allergy
There are no reasons why exactly in your particular caseIn case of intolerance to certain products, there can be many. Starting with heredity, bad ecology, ending with an unhealthy lifestyle. Let's consider all these factors in order:
- Heredity
If either of your parents wereallergy sufferer (mom, dad, grandma or grandpa), this could have been passed on to you by inheritance. And it is not necessary that you will not tolerate the same products as your parents. In this case, an allergy can appear to anything.
- Wrong way of life
Again, allergies are to blameparents who drank or smoked during conception. If the mother did not give up bad habits during pregnancy, this led to a disruption in the baby's immune system. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it.
- Problems with the digestive tract
If an allergy appears out of the blue,you should urgently visit a gastroenterologist. The problem may be in the work of the gastrointestinal tract. And timely treatment will help get rid of this disease once and for all. Often, the appearance of an allergy can be provoked by poorly chewed food, which is digested in the stomach for a long time. All this creates a load that is quite difficult for your body to cope with.
- Lack of balanced diet
By eating two kilograms of cherries every day, you,in the end, you will provoke the appearance of allergies. Of course, seasonal products are a real temptation, because you want to eat your fill in reserve. But you should know the measure in everything. The same applies to regular food that is available to us all year round. No matter how much you like meat, you also need to eat vegetables and fruits.
- Quality of products
Preservatives, dyes and other chemicals,Unfortunately, it is present in every second semi-finished product, mayonnaise, ketchup. Despite widespread awareness, we continue to buy such products, even without looking at the composition. And such additives irritate the gastric mucosa, increasing the ability to absorb protein. Over time, our immune system begins to react even to healthy food.
Symptoms of food allergy
Many people mistakenly believe that food allergiesmanifests itself some time after a person has consumed a harmful product. In fact, symptoms can appear at the very moment when the allergen enters the mouth. For example, swelling of the lips and tongue occurs. This is followed by selective intolerance to food, when some ingredients cause disgust. All this can be accompanied by acute abdominal pain, general weakness, muscle spasms, vomiting, upset stomach, constipation.
Than allergies to food are dangerous
If you encounter one ofthe above symptoms, immediately contact the clinic to take all the necessary tests. Your first priority is to eliminate the consequences of the allergy (itching, rash, swelling, etc. on the list), and then identify the allergen. Otherwise, if you do not do this in time, you may encounter a similar problem again. And the consequences will be sad, up to and including death or the appearance of chronic diseases.
- Acute allergic gastritis
This disease occurs whenthe patient does not regularly eat foods containing the allergen. It, in turn, negatively affects the gastric mucosa, irritating it. Thus, causing a local allergic reaction. The first symptoms of acute allergic gastritis may not appear immediately, but after a couple of hours. This is common nausea, severe pain in the navel area, increased salivation. Often, food allergies are accompanied by pale skin, general weakness. After vomiting, such a person experiences significant relief. A couple of hours after emptying the stomach, the patient's condition stabilizes. Therefore, it is so important to induce vomiting in the allergy sufferer when such symptoms occur. You can either give him a special drink or physically affect the tonsils by putting your finger in his mouth.
- Lesion of skin
Food allergies can manifest aseczema. Location - face, hands. Characterized by severe burning, itching. All this may be accompanied by Quincke's edema. Symptoms usually go away some time after you stop eating the allergen. In the hospital, you may be prescribed an IV to quickly clear the body of the pathogen.
- The defeat of the pancreas and liver
Such consequences of food allergies occurrarely, so they are often confused with other diseases. In this case, only a specialist can make a diagnosis, so you should not rely on chance or trust your seventh sense. If you guess wrong, start taking medications incorrectly, it will be more difficult to diagnose an allergy. Only during an examination can a doctor discover that the patient's spleen or liver has increased in size. You are unlikely to be able to determine this on your own. So, urgently go to see a doctor if after each meal you experience sharp pain in the right side of the abdomen, namely - under the ribs. This is explained by the fact that due to the allergen, the bile ducts are disrupted, which entails the appearance of spasms. In this case, any products can be an allergen, from strawberries to fish. To identify the cause, you will have to do a biochemical blood test.
- Allergies and ulcers
Frequent consumption of foods that cause allergiesreaction, can lead to the appearance of an ulcer. Therefore, the patient should first of all exclude harmful food from the diet once and for all. Otherwise, the ulcer can develop into a cancerous tumor. If everything is done in time, the allergy symptoms will quickly pass and will not entail serious consequences. So, how to diagnose a food allergy? The first thing that should alert you is the appearance of acute pain in the stomach, and immediately after you have eaten. If the ulcer is of the duodenum, then the symptoms may appear after two or three hours. Please note: it is impossible to get rid of the ulcer in this case if you do not adhere to a strict diet at first. At the same time, ulcer diets can only worsen your condition if they contain ingredients that are dangerous to the health of an allergy sufferer. That is, you will have to exclude dairy products, eggs, fish, some vegetables and fruits, sweets from the diet. Semi-finished products and fast food are not even worth talking about.
- Allergic enteritis
A couple of hours after taking the products,containing an allergen, a serious exacerbation begins. In some cases, deterioration may occur on the second or third day. The symptoms will be as follows: increased temperature (up to 37.5), frequent stools. The peculiarity of allergic enteritis is that the general condition of the patient does not change in any way. A decrease in enzyme activity may be observed. The human body stops perceiving, for example, dairy products, cereals, mushrooms, etc. Therefore, do not be surprised if you previously tolerated this or that food normally, and one fine day you discovered an allergy to it.
How to treat with food allergy: diet and proper nutrition
In this case, we are talking about how to get rid offrom food allergies for people over 18 years old. Food allergies in adults and children manifest themselves differently, so the treatment is completely different. If the problems have arisen in a baby, then this should be dealt with by a children's doctor, namely a pediatrician. So, first you need to identify the substance that causes your allergy in order to prescribe a full treatment. There are two ways to do this. The first is to take tests. However, there is a small chance that the tests will not show anything. And then you will have to act by trial and error. That is, first switch to completely safe products, gradually introducing the remaining prohibited ingredients in small doses. This method can be used only if the allergy sufferer does not have acute manifestations of this disease (choking, spasms, sharp pains, as with poisoning, etc. do not begin). The next step is choosing the right diet. During an exacerbation, the doctor can prescribe a therapeutic diet that excludes almost all allergens. This is necessary in order to completely cleanse the body of foreign protein. At first, you can only eat porridge. The specialist develops a menu based on your diagnosis, tests and diagnostics. In everyday life, an allergy sufferer is shown preventive nutrition. That is, you will not be completely forbidden to eat normal food, but will be recommended to eat animal protein, vegetables and fruits in limited quantities. So, what you will need to exclude from your diet for the coming years:
- Easy-to-replace products
This category includes food without whicha person will be able to feel normal. These are chocolate, citrus fruits, honey, berries, pomegranates, seafood, nuts and mushrooms. In case of individual intolerance, some vegetables and fruits can be added here: cherries, tomatoes, etc.
- Main products
As for this category, it includesproducts that we are used to eating almost every day. They are very difficult to exclude from the diet, as they have high nutritional value. If, for example, you are allergic to eggs or dairy products, then you will have to subject all of this to additional processing. For example, buy ultra-pasteurized cow's milk, boil eggs for more than ten minutes, etc. The blue yolk, of course, does not look very appetizing, but you will be able to eat it normally. With fatty meat, sour cream, cereal products, things are a little different here. You will have to completely stop eating them for a while, and then, after a couple of months, you can reintroduce them into the diet. But in small doses, of course. Maximum - 50 grams per day. We cook soups only on vegetable broths. We do not even use dietary chicken meat. In this case, a steamer is very useful. Since frying vegetables and meat is strictly prohibited, you will have to either bake the products or steam them. In this case, the amount of oil should be minimal. You will have to forget about seasonings, salty and peppery dishes forever. Irritating the gastric mucosa, they increase the permeability and absorption of allergens. The ideal food option would be oatmeal and rice porridge cooked in water. They have enveloping properties, due to which protein molecules will practically not penetrate your body through the stomach. Please note: you should not add oil and seasonings here. Smoked meats and all types of canned food, including homemade ones, remain prohibited. Store-bought products contain too many dyes, flavors, stabilizers and other additives that negatively affect our health. Homemade pickles also contain many unnecessary and harmful elements that are contraindicated for allergy sufferers.
- Alcoholic beverages
It should be noted that in our time it is quiteAlcohol allergy is common. The problem may lie either in alcohol intolerance, which is rare, or in the low quality of alcoholic beverages. In the first case, the patient does not tolerate even medications that contain alcohol. In the second case, people can drink expensive alcohol that does not contain any chemicals (dyes, flavors, etc.).
How to compensate for the shortage of useful elements
By excluding certain foods from our diet, wewe deprive ourselves of vitamins, minerals and substances that our body needs so much. As a result, we start to get sick more often, general fatigue and weakness appear, we get tired quickly, and we experience sudden mood swings. To avoid this, you should adhere to the basic rules of dietary nutrition.
- Use in dishes
For people who cannot stand boiled or fried foodseggs, you can use them to prepare some dishes. For example, you can bake sweet buns, add yolk to minced meat for cutlets. But it is better not to cut them into salads, since an allergy will not take long to appear. The same applies to dairy products. It is not necessary to drink a glass of kefir every day to saturate your body with calcium. Ultra-pasteurized milk can be boiled and added to mashed potatoes, from which dumplings, zrazy and similar dishes are then prepared.
- Thermally process
To make up for the lack of animal protein,which is contained in beef, you can treat yourself to steamed cutlets once a week. Sometimes you can use dietary chicken meat, which should be boiled or baked in the oven.
- Temporarily replace
During periods of exacerbation, it is recommended to switch frommeat dishes for vegetable and fruit. These can be stews, mashed potatoes, casseroles. By the way, the rule mentioned earlier applies here - the food must be boiled. You can't fry French fries or make homemade chips. Things are more complicated with sweets. Almost any product containing sugar can cause an allergy. But where to get glucose, without which our brain cannot function normally. The solution is simple - eat dried fruits. To make up for the lack of carbohydrates, eat cereals. Of course, if you are not allergic to them.
- Drink more water
An average person should consume no more thanless than 1.5 liters of liquid. Otherwise, dehydration may occur, and slags, toxins and other "garbage" will stop being excreted from our body normally. Allergy sufferers should always remember this! Therefore, drink weak tea, homemade compotes, mineral or filtered water (but not carbonated). As for juices, everything depends on the tolerance of the ingredients. Naturally, drinks should only be prepared at home. Store products contain dyes, flavors and other substances. If a representative of the fair sex suffers from swelling, she will need to control both the amount of liquid she drinks and her salt intake. The latter is what retains water in our body. Try to cook lean and completely bland dishes for at least the next six months. After some time, you will notice how your body is transformed. Even bruises and bags under the eyes will disappear.
- We drink multivitamins
Sometimes allergies can occur to vegetables andfruits that contain the vitamins we need. And without them, our body simply cannot fight viruses and infections. In such cases, you can buy multivitamins at the pharmacy. However, they are taken only as prescribed by a doctor. You should not experiment with this on your own.
Precautions for food allergy
People diagnosed with food allergyallergy", you should be especially careful. Protein can be contained in dishes that you are used to eating in cafes and restaurants. Moreover, waiters do not always know what a salad or side dish consists of. Therefore, in such establishments, you should warn the service personnel that you cannot tolerate, for example, fish or mushrooms. Wear a bracelet on your hand, which should not only indicate that you have a food allergy, but also describe in detail what exactly you cannot tolerate. In the event of a serious deterioration or exacerbation, doctors will be able to provide first aid and prescribe treatment faster. They will not have to wait for test results that will show what the real problem is. And, as you remember, hospitals do not always have the necessary equipment. In this case, every minute is crucial. It is also recommended to take a small first aid kit with you, which would contain all the necessary drugs. Your doctor should tell you what is best to buy. At the same time, inform and explain in detail to all your relatives, acquaintances and friends about what they should do if an exacerbation occurs. Visit a doctor once every six months, even if a food allergy has not manifested itself during this time. A gastroenterologist should examine the gastrointestinal tract to exclude serious consequences. If gastritis or an ulcer has developed due to an allergy, the doctor will prescribe a full treatment. By doing all this on time, you will quickly get rid of the problem.
