What is a food allergy?
A food allergy is an immune system response to a food that the body mistakenly believes is harmful. Once the immune system decides that a particular food is harmful, it creates specific antibodies to it. The next time the individual eats that food, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals, including histamine, to protect the body. These chemicals trigger a cascade of allergic symptoms that can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and/or cardiovascular system. Scientists estimate that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies. FAAN’s Do You Have a Food Allergy? brochure, distributed at health fairs throughout the country, is available thanks to a grant from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI). Download a copy (.pdf ~ 30kb).
Food allergy occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks a food protein. Ingestion of the offending food may trigger the sudden release of chemicals, including histamine, resulting in symptoms of an allergic reaction. The symptoms may be mild (rashes, hives, itching, swelling, etc.) or severe (trouble breathing, wheezing, loss of consciousness, etc.). Scientists estimate that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies. FAAN’s Do You Have a Food Allergy? brochure, distributed at health fairs throughout the country, is available thanks to a grant from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI). Download a copy (.pdf ~ 30kb).
A food allergy is an immune system response to a food that the body mistakenly believes is harmful. Once the immune system decides that a particular food is harmful, it creates specific antibodies to it. The next time the individual eats that food, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals, including histamine, in order to protect the body. These chemicals trigger a cascade of allergic symptoms that can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, or cardiovascular system. Scientists estimate that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from true food allergies. FAAN’s “Do You Have a Food Allergy?” brochure, distributed at health fairs throughout the country, is available thanks to a grant from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI). Download a copy (.pdf ~ 30kb).
As with any allergy, a food allergy develops when the immune system attacks a normally harmless substance and creates specific antibodies for this substance. From this point on, whenever the food allergy sufferer eats the food to which they’re allergic, the antibodies respond by releasing histamine, which causes allergic symptoms to appear.
People with food allergies have immune systems that react to harmless substances found in food and drink. When a person eats the food that he/she is allergic to, the food allergens (see “What are allergies?”) react to antibodies on the cells releasing chemicals into the body. Any food can cause an allergic reaction, but only eight foods cause nine out of ten reactions. In children, milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish are the most common, while adults are most likely to be allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish.
