"What is food for one, is to others bitter poison" Lucretius
"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine by thy food" Hippocrates
"No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means" Maimonides

"Destroy a man's mind, his reasoning ability, his imagination, and neither gold, silver, mansions, freedom, love nor anything else will matter to him. This is EASILY ACCOMPLISHED, is BEING ACCOMPLISHED by simple means: the creation of disease in his body by Toxic substances in his food; shattering his nervous system, hardening his muscles, and deteriorating his mind; making of man, the godly human, a sub-human creature, a lesser animal, a vegetation, Soulless"- The Crime Against Humanity. R. S. Clymer, M.D., 1945.

Food Allergy, Basic Concepts
The concept of food allergy and foods causing medical illness is the basis of much controversy and heated emotional responses on both sides of the argument. Most articles in the conventional medical literature state that true food allergy is rare and not usually a factor in the general medical evaluation of a patient's symptoms. Because numerous offending foods may produce a multitude of symptoms in many different organ systems, most traditional physicians have difficulty understanding and accepting this concept. Medicine likes the nice neat "cause and effect' paradigm like streptococcus germ as the cause of Strep throat which is cured with antibiotics. The myriad of resultant symptoms from food intolerance, both immediate and delayed, that can affect almost any body area or organ system and that can change in severity based on the total allergic load of the individual is just too "messy" to make most physicians comfortable. This situation is, however, slowly changing. At the Annual Congress of the American College of Allergy in 1986, William D. Kniker, M.D. told his fellow physicians that it is no longer reasonable to limit management of allergy in patients to classic atopy (immediate reactions) that principally involve inhalant triggers (dust, molds, pollens) and respiratory symptoms. "The full spectrum of adverse reactions to foodstuffs must also be considered," recommended Dr. Kniker, Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and the Director of Pediatric Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of Texas Science Center.

The concept of food triggered hypersensitivity reactions was pioneered in the 1930's by Dr. Arthur Coca. At the same time period Dr. Albert Rowe developed elimination diets to diagnose and treat food allergy. These concepts were expanding in the 1950's by Drs. Rinkel, Randolph and Zeller. Dr. Randolph may rightly be called the father of Environmental Medicine as he maintained that 2/3's of symptoms diagnosed as psychosomatic are undiagnosed maladaptive reactions to foods, chemicals and inhalants. For a complete scientific review of Food Allergy, the reader is referred to the thousand page medical text, Food Allergy and Intolerance by Brostoff J and Challacombe, S Bailliere Tindall, London. 1987. For more information on Allergy and Environmental Illness, see our separate monograph with the same title.

Beyond the Basics: Allergy vs. Sensitivity & Immediate vs. Delayed
Much confusion and misunderstanding centers around the word "allergy". The word allergy is derived from two Greek words meaning "altered reaction". The substance which provokes a reaction in an individual is called and "allergen" or "antigen". This can be food, dust, mold, pollen or other substances. When medicine began to scientifically understand allergy in the 1930's, they discovered a biochemical pathway in the body that caused the typical Hayfever symptoms we all know so well. This involved an immune compound in our blood and tissues called Ig E which was responsible for an immediate allergy reaction: exposure to ragweed caused sneezing, itching and watery nose. It is this definition of allergy that became accepted by the medical community. As time and medicine progressed, it was discovered that other pathways in the body also lead to specific symptoms and could produce delayed reactions.

Whereas immediate reactions occur within minutes to several hours after exposure to an allergen, delayed reactions can occur anywhere from 12 to 72 hours after exposure to an allergenic food or substance. These delayed pathways are still not well understood and are probably the mechanism by which foods, chemicals and other substances produce most physical symptoms. Unfortunately, this does not fit into the classic example of "immediate type Ig E allergy" and thus the concept of delayed food and chemical allergy has been very difficult for the medical community to accept. Consequently, we prefer the word "sensitivity" or "intolerance" to describe any reaction to a food, chemical or other substance that does not fit the classic "immediate type Ig E allergy" mechanism.

We thus have several mechanisms and corresponding words that describe food triggered symptoms. Food allergy generally refers to the specific situation where an immediate and readily identifiable food reaction occurs in the respiratory, digestive or skin systems. These symptoms include sneezing, itching and hives. Food sensitivity includes these limited immediate food allergy symptoms and also includes any other immediate or delayed symptom or reaction to a food substance. The resultant symptoms are immediate if identifiable within several hours after the ingestion or are delayed if reaction occur 12 hours later or for some times up to 4 or more days after the food contact. Delayed reactions are almost always "hidden" and are subsequently difficult to identify.

Hidden food sensitivity causes some of the most common, chronic and incapacitating illnesses in today's society. The symptoms may not emerge noticeably until long after eating the causative foods, and many foods may be causing symptoms simultaneously. Therefore, many such patients suffer puzzling illnesses and are chronically sick. Unfortunately, they are not usually aware that foods have anything to do with their problems.

Symptoms and Conditions Related to Food Sensitivity
As stated, food sensitivity symptoms can include any body area and organ systems. If you have any of these symptoms or conditions, they may be caused or aggravated by food sensitivity. The symptoms and conditions related to food sensitivities¹ may include, but are not limited to the following:

Head: chronic headaches², sinus headaches, migraines^{3, 4, 5}, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, red face
Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat: runny or stuffy nose, post nasal drip, ringing in the ears, red ears, earaches, vertigo, blurred vision, eye pain, conjunctivitis, dark circles under eyes, bad breath, geographic tongue, mouth ulcers, recurrent upper respiratory infections and colds, recurrent ear infections⁶
Heart and Lungs: irregular or rapid heart beats, palpitations, high blood pressure, asthma, wheezing, chronic cough
Gastrointestinal⁷: Infantile colic⁸, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, loose stools, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis (Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis), stomach/duodenal ulcers, reflux, heartburn, indigestion, gall bladder conditions, malabsorption syndromes
Kidney, Bladder and Reproductive: bed wetting, cystitis, interstitial cystitis, recurrent urinary tract infections, blood in urine, nephritis, glomerulonephrosis, recurrent vaginitis, PMS
Skin: hives, eczema, psoriasis, acne
Muscles and Joints: muscle and joint pain, arthritis, lupus, muscle weakness
Overall and Others: fatigue⁹, hypoglycemia, starch and sugar cravings, hyperactivity and attention deficit^{10, 11, 12}, behavior problems, learning problems, convulsions, bulimia, obesity, anxiety, panic reactions, depression, mental dullness, memory lapses, mood swings and irritability, anger outbursts, difficulty thinking¹³.

Which symptom or symptoms occur depends entirely upon the person and most likely their genetic inheritances. While any body system can be affected, most allergy sufferers have a "target" organ or organs that are affected by the sensitivity reaction. For some this may be the nose (chronic nose congestion and post nasal drip), for others it may be the brain (headaches, confusion, depression). Some will experience the same symptom each time they have a food reaction, regardless of which food is ingested. Others will report different symptoms for each different allergic food.

Reasons Why Your Hidden Food Sensitivities May Not Have Been Detected
Most of us can recognize an immediate food reaction (like sneezing five minutes after eating a tomato) and a few of us can recognize some foods which cause delayed symptoms, particularly if they are eaten infrequently. However, for the ten reasons listed below, most delayed type food reactions are not known to the patient and his or her physician.

1. Summation of Feedings

Food molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream when it enters the mouth, and absorption continues for about three or four days. However, it may last up to seven or more days in some instances, particularly in the presence of constipation.

When a food is eaten daily or several times daily, a high blood level of that food is maintained. Then a reaction to a given food occurs while the patient is still reacting to one or more previous meals of the same food, and may also be reacting to one or more previous meals of other allergenic foods as well. Symptoms thus tend to be almost chronic. They seem unrelated to a given meal or a given food.

Anything that causes an increased rate of absorption of a food from the digestive tract is more apt to cause the emergence of symptoms. Increased rates of absorption can occur from intestinal diseases, diarrhea, or taking alcoholic beverages with the food. It can also occur when eating the food on an empty stomach such as when first arising in the morning. Exercising vigorously soon after taking an allergenic food also seems to increase the rate of emergence of symptoms.

2. Delayed and Prolonged Reactions

One problem that has made delayed food allergy difficult to diagnose in the past is that most physicians did not realize that a reaction, even a sudden, severe one, may occur so late and continue for so long a time after a given allergenic food is eaten even once. We did not recognize that such a reaction might not begin or noticeably emerge for many hours and might then last or recur repeatedly for days.

Furthermore, the individual may have eaten several meals in the past few days so that all these portions of the food are absorbing almost simultaneously from different segments of the gastrointestinal tract, causing daily or chronic symptoms.

3. Great Number of Food Ingredients in the System

Most people eat three or more meals daily. Each meal usually contains at least five to ten food ingredients. These foods continue absorbing for about three days. Simple arithmetic tells us that we can consume 15-30 different foods per day or 45-90 over a three day period. All these could potentially influence our immunologic mechanisms. This is a conservative figure since many processed foods such as bakery products, packaged cereals, dried or canned mixtures, mayonnaise, salad dressing, etc., may contain dozens or scores of ingredients. So a person on an average diet may have several hundred food ingredients in his gastrointestinal tract and bloodstream any time. These are not all allergenic, but the potential is there, increasing the difficulty of detecting individual allergens.

4. Patients May be Sensitive to Many Foods

It is not uncommon to see patients with hidden allergies to thirty or more foods who, on initial history can incriminate only a few foods, such as tomatoes, oatmeal and apples. Many patients suffering from recurrent headaches know only that if they eat chocolate today, they will probably awaken tomorrow in the early morning hours with a severe headache.
What they do not realize is that the headaches they have on many days when known allergenic foods are not eaten are due to milk, wheat, corn, soy, egg, beef, and possibly other staple foods they eat daily or frequently. This range of allergens represents a near-impossible tangle which few patients can recognize, much less sort out, without help.

5. Related Bursts of Absorption

An allergenic food eaten for dinner one evening may not cause any symptoms that evening or during sleep. However, when a non allergenic meal is eaten the next morning, the reawakening of the gastrointestinal tract apparently results in renewed absorption of the allergenic food eaten the day before.
This finally brings forth symptoms. The allergenic food was eaten only once, but the increased burst of absorption occurred twice, boosting the blood level and producing symptoms in the same manner as though it had been eaten twice.

The patient may have his headache or stomachache repeatedly after several consecutive non allergenic meals, from an allergenic food eaten only once but absorbed again in bursts after subsequent meals. He may never pinpoint the causative food because he did not eat it at each meal. This is also one reason some patients who are put on entirely allergen-free diets or total fasts will continue to have symptoms periodically for two, three, or more days before obtaining relief.

6. Varying Thresholds and Mediator Levels

One may also have an "asymptomatic sensitivity" to some foods. In this instance, the patient may have no symptoms when any one of these foods is eaten once or alone. However, he may have symptoms when eating one allergenic food twice at close intervals, or repeatedly or when eating several "asymptomatic" allergenic foods together or at close intervals.
This phenomenon suggests that the blood mediator levels may be elevated by a single feeding, but not always to the level of the symptom threshold for that food. Eating one allergenic food repeatedly or eating two or more allergenic foods together or at close intervals, or eating an allergenic food while being exposed to an allergenic inhalant may further elevate the mediator level. Thus the mediator level finally exceeds the symptom threshold resulting in illness.

7. Additive Effect of Nonfood Stressors

Puzzling symptom fluctuation in the same patient may also be produced at times by nonfood allergens. A food-sensitive patient may also be sensitive to inhalant particles, chemicals, or drugs. The same symptoms initiated by allergic stresses may also by precipitated by a nonallergic stress or triggering factors such as irritating chemicals, infections, intestinal bacterial, parasitic or yeast (Candida) overgrowth conditions (Intestinal Dysbiosis), chilling, exercise, fatigue, season, weather, environmental changes, the change of daylight, varying rates of gastrointestinal absorption, menses, and emotional stressors.

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