Food Allergies: The Complete Guide to Understanding and ...

Download Description:
Many people are allergic to types of food, and to the chemicals that are in them. This book helps people to discover the foods that have been afflicting them, learn how some foods react to the body in different people, and discover how to avoid troublesome foods at the store, eating out, and dining at home.

Now it all begins to make sense:
This book is practically an encyclopedia of food allergies written for ordinary people. The author is a physician and allergy specialist with almost 40 years of experience in the field. He describes how in the beginning of his career, he had not been trained to recognize food allergies in his patients, but over the years, he became more and more sensitized to the kinds of symptoms that food allergies can cause. Over time, he noted that many of his patients were allergic to the same common foods, especially what he calls the MALS foods, MSG, acidic foods, low calorie sweeteners, and sugar. The skin tests that are so much relied on for detecting environmental allergies are less informative with food allergies. In response, he has developed a method for identifying food allergies that uses a diet that eliminates common allergy causing foods and then gradually re-introduces them while the patient notes when the symptoms lessen or begin to reoccur. This diet is described in the book, together with possible rotation menus and lists of additional foods that cause problems for some people and may need to be avoided. If you try to read this book from cover-to-cover, you will find that it is rather repetitive at times, and the organization seems in some places to be more stream-of-consciousness rather than logical. At times the avoidance of technical language or explanations seems almost evasive, and it's amazing how a doctor could write an entire book about allergies without once using the word histamine. Since the book is addressed to general readers, it does not contain in-text references to scientific studies. Nevertheless, the bibliography is replete with such references, adding credence to Walsh's message. This book confirmed many of the phenomena that I had observed about my own food sensitivities. For example, Walsh explains that allergies are additive, so that's why I can pet a cat so long as it's not hay fever season, or I can drink a small glass of milk now and then, but not a big glass every day. Walsh also suggests that readers should trust their instincts- -if they have a strong feeling that a food is making them sick, there is a good chance that it really is. After reading this book, there is no longer any question in my mind- -food can make you sick, and you can feel a lot better once you figure out what you've been eating that is causing you trouble.

Immediate Relief!:
Immediate relief! That was my reward for reading this book and putting it into practice. It has my full recommendation for anyone suffering from the effects of allergies. This author is sympathtic and the book is easy to read. It is apparent that the doctor has scaled his vocabulary WAY DOWN to facilitate the reader's ability to concentrate on WHAT he is saying, rather than be dazzled by how brilliant he is. After battling allergies for 25 years, he has brought me new weapons. I thank the good doctor and am in his debt.

Would make a good magazine article:
Though it does contain some interesting information, the book seems to be written for somebody with the IQ of a donut. He starts by detailing all his education, and then continues to talk down to the reader. He also repeats himself without adding any detail. (Yes, we learn that he really likes corn on the cob!) The contents of the book could easily be boiled down to 10 pages without missing anything important. Also, don't expect to find much of anything concerning 'classic' food allergies here. As a saving grace, there are a few nice charts and tables at the end to help pinpoint MSG content in fast foods and elsewhere.

Cured my Migraines:
I have been migraine-free for five years since reading this book! I had tried Imitrex, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, biofeedback, chiropractics, herbs, oral sprays and everything I had heard of for migraines except Botox injections and nerve severance. My general practitioner, second opinion doctors and neurologists told me to avoid red wine, Chinese food and chocolate. Their "migraine diet" came from the back of an Imitrex pamphlet (keep in mind, this was five years ago). When I told my doctor about my self-diagnosis of food intolerances from this book, she tried to act like she already knew this. Then why didn't she diagnose me? Why didn't she put me on an elimination diet? Why didn't she send me to a nutritionist, allergist or immunologist? Why did she put a teenage liver on codeine permanently and say I would have to live with it or grow out of it? If your doctor is not part of the Nutritional Enlightenment, YOU NEED THIS BOOK to help you find the right specialist. Even if this book isn't all inclusive, it will introduce you to the basic concepts and terms to Google and talk to your practitioner about. I am not sensationalizing that this book changed my life. I almost didn't graduate high school because of migraines, and now I have a computer science degree.

not the book for me:
I have multiple severe food allergies (eat something that touched a peanut and end up in the emergency room with a swollen face type deal). I came to this book looking for tips about good avoidance and some explanations about the actual chemistry of the reactions themselves. All I got were a few dismissive lines about how people with severe allergies just need to avoid the foods that make them sick. Thanks. If you have a more subtle problem, like eczema you can't seem to shake or migraines, this could be the book for you, but I didn't find it to be helpful.