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Allergies do not develop all at once
but in stages. When the body’s immune system first encounters
an allergen – a substance that it mistakenly sees as a harmful
foreign invader – it alerts its specialized cells to make
antibodies, or immunoglobulins, for protection against it. A
body does not usually have an allergic reaction in that first
exposure. However, if the same substance enters the body
again, the antibodies that were programmed to mount an attack
against it go into action. In some instances, the response
will not produce symptoms; but the stage will have been set
for a future reaction and an allergic response.
The following eight foods
account for 90 percent of all allergic reactions.
|
Food Types |
Main Foods |
|
Milk and milk products |
Dairy products, such as milk,
cheeses, yogurt, cream, ice, cream, cream soups, and
certain baked goods and
desserts.
|
|
Eggs (especially egg whites)
|
Cakes, ice cream, mayonnaise,
salad dressings, French toast, waffles, and pancakes
|
|
Soy and soy products |
Soybeans, tofu, textured
vegetable protein (nutri nuggets), soy sauce, natural and
artificial flavors, vegetable broth, and vegetable starch. |
|
Wheat and wheat products |
Cereals, bread and bread related
products, dry soup mixes, cakes, pasta, gravies,
dumplings,
|
|
Peanuts
|
Peanuts and peanut oil, peanut
butter, peanut flour, baked goods and candy with nuts, |
|
Tree nuts |
Candy and baked goods with
pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and
pistachios; oils from nuts (walnut, almond). |
|
Fish |
Fresh, canned, smoked or pickled
fish, fish-liver oils, caviar, soups and stews containing
fish.
|
|
Shellfish |
Crustaceans, such as shrimp,
crab, lobster, and crayfish; mollusks, such as clams,
oysters, and scallops; and
seafood dishes. |
Peanut allergy is one of the most
dangerous food allergies. Even minute amounts of peanut
protein can be enough to trigger fatal anaphylactic shock.
Research is ongoing for the development of a vaccine to help
tone down the body’s overreaction to peanuts, and to use
activated charcoal to bind the allergy-causing proteins when
an allergic person has accidentally eaten peanuts.
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