Food Allergies

A food allergy is a rather common condition to suffer from and is primarily the body reacting adversely to the ingestion of some kind of food that does not usually cause such a reaction in most people. Studies have shown that almost every individual is affected by some kind of food allergy at some point of their lives, although the majority of us are lucky enough never to know about it either because we generally don’t like the kind of food that triggers the reaction or do not consume at the point that our body is allergic to it. Another factor that should be kept in mind is that simply because you are immune to a certain kind of food, this is no guarantee that you will never be allergic to it in the future. Because of the fact that there are a hundreds of different types of food allergies, one will only usually realize that they suffer from an allergy towards a certain type of food once they have consumed the substance. It is the development of the food allergy symptoms that may either become prominent in a matter of minutes or a matter of hours that will indicate the presence of a food allergy.

The most common food allergies in children can be caused by a number of factors.

Hereditary factors, complications of the immune system, or simply hypersensitivity to a particular substance are some of the most common causes of food allergies in children as well as adults.

Some of the more common types of food allergies include shellfish, nuts, walnuts and fish amongst a number of others. Food allergies in children are considered to be slightly different from food allergies in adults because studies have shown that most children tend to outgrow their allergies while this is not really the case with the adult patients.

Living with a food allergy could prove to be problematic depending on the kind of allergy that you suffer from. If, by chance, you suffer from an allergy towards a food ingredient that is widely used, this could potentially be a stumbling block that plays a huge role in deciding the kind of foods that you can eat. It is highly recommended that you check any food packaging thoroughly whenever you choose to purchase any foods.

Submitted on January 16, 2014