Do you often suffer from strange symptoms after eating
certain types of foods? Do you get itchy, break out in
hives, swell up or actually vomit? You could be
suffering from a common food allergy.
It’s estimated that over 12 million Americans suffer
from food allergies. Most allergic reactions are mild,
but around 30,000 visits to the emergency room are
reported each year because of the reactions. As many
as 200 deaths each year are attributed to food
allergies.
Studies report up to 8 percent of children have an
allergy to some type of food. The numbers are slightly
smaller for adults, only around 4 percent.
Many children will outgrow their food allergies. But
some will carry these allergies into adulthood and
suffer from them their entire lives.
Eating prepackaged foods, out in restaurants or even
friends homes can cause problems. It’s often hard to
tell what’s added to the foods we eat.
You hate to ask the cook “what’s in this?”, but
sometimes you just have to. Especially when asking can
mean the difference between an enjoyable meal and a
trip to the emergency room.
With the increased cases of peanut allergies, most
packaged foods have started including on the label the
use of peanut oils and even if the processing of nuts
is handled in the same factory.
There’s no cure for food allergies. So the only thing
you can do is avoid the foods that cause the reactions
you can’t deal with.
