The New Optimum Nutrition Bible

by Patrick Holford

  If you get three or more of the symptoms shown in the illustration on the next page, you probably have an allergy and most likely to something you are eating. The most common allergy-provoking foods are:

  Cow’s milk Gluten grains—wheat, rye, barley, oats

  Yeast Nuts

  Eggs Beans

  Wheat Whitefish

  Gliadin grains—wheat, rye, barley Shellfish

  If you eat any one of these foods two or three times a day and would find them difficult to give up, it may be worth testing to see if you’re allergic to them.

  What is an allergy?

  The classic definition of an allergy is “any idiosyncratic reaction where the immune system is clearly involved.” The immune system, which is the body’s defense system, has the ability to produce “markers” for substances it doesn’t like. The classic markers are antibodies called IgE (immunoglobulin type E). These attach themselves to “mast cells” in the body. When the offending food, called an allergen, complexes (combines) with its specific IgE antibody, the IgE molecule triggers the mast cell to release granules containing histamine and other chemicals that cause the symptoms of classic allergy—skin rashes, hay fever, rhinitis, sinusitis, asthma, and eczema. Severe food allergies to shellfish or peanuts, for example, can cause immediate gastrointestinal upsets or swelling in the face or throat. All these reactions are immediate, severe, inflammatory reactions, and are known as type 1 allergic reactions.

  Symptoms associated with food allergy.

  How IgE-based allergic reactions happen.

  Hidden allergies

  However, most allergies are not IgE-based. There is a new school of thought and a new generation of allergy tests designed to detect allergies not based on IgE antibody reactions, but probably involving another marker, known as IgG. Allergy expert Dr. James Braly, who pioneered the current state-of-the-art test, the IgG ELISA test, for allergies says, “Food allergy is not rare, nor are the effects limited to the air passages, the skin, and digestive tract. Most food allergies are delayed reactions, taking anywhere from an hour to three days to show themselves, and are therefore much harder to detect. Delayed food allergy appears to be simply the inability of your digestive tract to prevent large quantities of partially digested and undigested food from entering the bloodstream, to which the body reacts.”

  IgG antibodies were first discovered in the 1960s. The IgG antibodies may serve as “tags” but don’t initiate such a severe, immediate reaction. However, a large buildup of IgG antibodies to a particular food indicates a chronic, long-term sensitivity, or food intolerance. It is now well established that many if not the majority of food intolerances do not produce immediate symptoms, but have a delayed, cumulative effect. This, of course, makes them hard to detect by observation. Dr. David Hill, Director of the Department of Allergy at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, researching in Australia, found that the majority of food-sensitive children reacted to foods two or more hours after eating them. In contrast, IgE reactions are immediate, suggesting that a buildup of IgG antibodies may be a primary factor in food sensitivity.

  According to Dr. Jonathan Brostoff, consultant in medical immunology at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in England, certain ingested substances can cause the release of histamine and invoke a classic allergic symptom without involving IgE. These include lectins (in peanuts), shellfish, tomatoes, pork, alcohol, chocolate, pineapple, papaya, buckwheat, sunflower, mango, and mustard. He also thinks it is possible that undigested proteins could directly affect mast cells (which contain histamine) in the gut, causing the classic symptoms of allergy.

  How IgG allergic reactions happen.

  One common cause of allergic reactions is a substantial production of antibodies (mainly IgG) in response to an allergen in the blood. This results in large immune complexes. “It is the sheer weight of numbers that causes a problem,” says Brostoff. “These immune complexes are like litter going round in the bloodstream.” The litter is cleaned up by cells, principally neutrophils, which act like vacuum cleaners.

  Why food allergy?

  Have you ever wondered whether the food you eat actually wants to be eaten? In most cases, it appears that it does not. Most foods try their best to protect themselves from predators—with spikes, thorns, and chemical toxins. The idea that food is “good” is far from the truth. Most foods contain numerous toxins, as well as beneficial nutrients. Omnivores like us have a risk-high return strategy as far as food is concerned. We try different foods and if we don’t get sick then it’s okay. But this shortsighted test has failed in many instances. Indeed, even today, the average diet kills most people in the long run.

  Some foods are designed to be eaten. For example, many fruits rely on animals eating them to spread the growth of their species. The idea is that the animals, such as we human beings, eat the fruit and deposit the seed some distance from the original tree with a rich manure starter kit. However, the fruit has to protect itself from unwanted scavengers such as bacteria or fungi that simply rot the seed. Seeds are often hard to crack and toxic, such as apricot kernels, which contain cyanide compounds. For protective reasons, wild food contains a massive and often selective chemical arsenal to ward off specific foes. Food and humans have been fighting for survival since the beginning of time.

  So why do food intolerances occur? Are they simply a reaction to less desirable toxins in food? It is unlikely to be that simple. After all, we too have evolved over millions of years to protect ourselves from chemical poisons by developing complex detoxification processes that occur mainly in the liver. A number of theories exist, some of which have good supporting evidence.

  Leaky gut syndrome?

  The best place to start in unraveling the true cause of allergies is the digestive tract. The textbooks tell us that large food molecules get broken down into simple amino acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars. Only these get into the body. Anything larger is considered a foe. Could it be that undigested food, or leaky gut walls, could expose the immune system to food particles that trigger a reaction? This might explain why frequently eaten foods are more likely to cause a reaction. Indeed, recent research shows that people with food allergies do tend to have leaky gut walls.

  Consumption of alcohol, frequent use of aspirin, deficiency in essential fatty acids, or a gastrointestinal infection or infestation (such as candidiasis) are all possible contributors to leaky gut syndrome that need to be corrected in order to reduce a person’s sensitivity to foods. A lack of key nutrients such as zinc can also prevent proper integrity of the gut wall.

  Digestive enzymes

  These problems may be particularly severe in people who don’t produce enough of the right digestive enzymes, which results in large amounts of big, undigested food molecules reaching the gut wall. One research study of people with a sensitivity to man-made chemicals showed that 90 percent of them produced inadequate amounts of one digestive enzyme, compared with 20 percent of healthy control subjects. Undigested food may increase the chances of a localized reaction, increase the amount of large molecules entering the blood, or simply provide food for undesirable bacteria in the gut, which then multiply prolifically. Often, supplementation with digestive enzymes reduces symptoms associated with food allergy and intolerance. Zinc supplementation can also be helpful as deficiency is extremely common among allergy sufferers. Zinc is not only needed for protein digestion, but also essential for the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.

  Cross-reactions

  Another contributor to food sensitivity is exposure to inhalants that provoke a reaction. For example, it is well known that, when the pollen count is high, more people suffer from hay fever in polluted areas than in rural areas, despite lower pollen counts in cities. It is thought that exposure to exhaust fumes makes a pollen-allergic person more sensitive. Whether this is simply because their immune system is weakened from dealing with the pollution, and therefore less able to cope with the additional pollen insult, o
r due to some kind of cross-reaction is not known. In the United States, where ragweed sensitivity is common, a cross-reaction with bananas has been reported. In other words, one sensitivity sensitizes you to another. A similar cross-reaction may occur with pollen, wheat, and milk for hay fever sufferers.

  The emerging view, shared by an increasing number of allergy specialists, is that food sensitivity is a multifactorial phenomenon possibly involving poor nutrition, pollution, digestive problems, and overexposure to certain foods. Removing the foods may help the immune system recover, but other factors need to be dealt with in order to have a major impact on long-term food intolerance.

  Food addiction or allergy?

  One interesting finding among people with food allergies is that they often become hooked on the very food that causes a reaction, which can lead to bingeing on the foods that harm them most. Many people describe the foods as leaving them feeling drugged or dopey. In some cases, the foods induce a state of mild euphoria. In this way, the food can act as a psychological escape mechanism from uncomfortable situations. But why do some foods cause druglike reactions? When pain no longer serves a purpose as part of a survival mechanism, chemicals called endorphins are released. These are the body’s natural painkillers; they make you feel good. The way they do this is by binding to sites that turn off pain and turn on pleasant sensations. Opiates such as morphine are similar in chemical structure and bind to the same sites, which is why they suppress pain.

  These endorphins, whether made by the body or taken as a drug, are peptides. Peptides are small groups of amino acids bound together—smaller than a protein and larger than an amino acid. When the protein that you eat is digested, it first becomes peptides and then, if the digestion works well, single amino acids. In the laboratory, endorphin-like peptides have been made from wheat, milk, barley, and corn using human digestive enzymes. These peptides have been shown to bind to endorphin receptor sites. Preliminary research does seem to show that certain foods, most commonly wheat and milk, may induce a short-term positive feeling, even if, in the long term, they are causing health problems.

  Too often, the foods that don’t suit you are the foods you “couldn’t live without.” This is exactly what happens in the case of many food allergies. If you stop eating the suspect food, you may get worse for a few days before you get better. Some things are addictive in their own right, such as sugar, alcohol, coffee, chocolate, and tea (especially Earl Grey, which contains bergamot). You can react to these without being allergic. Wheat and milk could be added to this list on the basis of their endorphin-like effects.

  Reducing your allergic potential

  There are several possible reasons why a person becomes food allergic. Among these are lack of digestive enzymes, leaky gut, frequent exposure to foods containing irritant chemicals, immune deficiency leading to hypersensitivity of the immune system, microorganism imbalance in the gut leading to leaky gut syndrome, and no doubt many more. Fortunately, tests exist to identify deficiencies in digestive enzymes, leaky gut syndrome, and the balance of bacteria and yeast in the gut. These tests can be done at home.

  As well as identifying and avoiding foods that cause a reaction, in order to allow the gut and immune system to calm down, there is a lot you can do to reduce your allergic potential.

  Digestive enzyme complexes that help digest fat, protein, and carbohydrate (lipase, amylase, and protease) are well worth trying. Since stomach acid and protein-digesting enzymes rely on zinc and vitamin B6, it may help to take 15 mg of zinc and 50 mg of B6 twice a day, as well as a digestive enzyme with each meal.

  Leaky guts can heal. Cell membranes are made out of fatlike compounds. One fatty acid—butyric acid—helps heal the gut wall. The ideal daily dose is 1,200 mg. Vitamin A is also crucial for the health of any mucous membrane including the gut wall. Having 5 grams of glutamine powder in water before bed also helps heal the gut.

  Beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus or bifidobacteria can also help calm down a reactive digestive tract and reduce allergic potential.

  Boosting your immune system (see chapter 24) also helps reduce any hypersensitivity it may have.

  How to test for allergies and intolerances

  There are two ways to find out what you are allergic to. The first we could call “educated trial and error.” It involves avoiding suspect foods for fourteen days and noting what happens. How to do this is explained below.

  The pulse test

  Most people are free of symptoms within fourteen days of avoiding an allergy-provoking food. Most react on reintroducing such a food within forty-eight hours, although some may have a delayed reaction of up to ten days. Delayed reactions are much harder to test. For some, symptoms improve considerably when they leave out offending foods, while for others, noticeable changes are slight.

  One simple method of identifying possible suspects is the pulse test. This requires avoiding all suspect foods for fourteen days, then reintroducing them, one by one, with a forty-eight-hour gap in between each item to be tested. Take your resting pulse sitting down, before you eat the food, then ten minutes, thirty minutes, and sixty minutes after eating the food. If you have either a marked increase in pulse rate of more than 10 points, or any symptoms of ill health, including weight gain, avoid the food and wait twenty-four hours before testing the next food.

  The avoidance-and-reintroduction test for allergies. If you avoid a food you are allergic to, you may notice an improvement in how you feel within fourteen days. If you then reintroduce the food, you may notice a return of symptoms.

  While day-to-day changes in symptoms are hard to pin down to specific causes, avoidance of suspect foods for fourteen days often lessens symptoms, which then increase significantly on reintroduction. This way it is possible to notice which foods or drinks make you worse. It is very important to observe symptoms accurately because you may have preconceived ideas about what you do or don’t react to, perhaps because of what somebody told you, including me, or because you dread being allergic to certain foods that you’re addicted to.

  (If you have ever had a severe or life-threatening allergic reaction, I recommend you do this avoidance-and-reintroduction test only under the supervision of a suitably qualified practitioner.)

  SAMPLE AVOIDANCE-AND-REINTRODUCTION TEST RECORD

  IgG allergy testing—the gold standard

  Quite apart from the fact that many food reactions are delayed in avoidance-and-reintroduction tests, they may not always be picked up for two reasons:

  You do not suspect the food and do not avoid it.

  You suspect one food you might be allergic to, but not another, so you continue to have a background of allergic reactions and cannot notice the difference when you take only one allergen out of your diet.

  The best test for detecting which foods you are sensitive to is what is called a quantitative IgG ELISA test. “Quantitative” means that the test shows not only if you are allergic, but also how strong your allergic reaction is. Many of us live quite healthily with minor allergies. But stronger allergies can create all sorts of problems, including weight gain. ELISA is the technology used. You don’t need to know the details, but trust me, it is the most accurate system used by almost all the best allergy laboratories in the world. To explain how the test works, and why it is so good, I need to explain a bit about your immune system.

  Your immune system can produce tailor-made weapons that latch on to specific substances to help escort them out of your body. They are like bouncers on the lookout for, say, wheat, if you are allergic to it. The bouncers are called immunoglobulins, or Ig for short. There are different types. The real heavies are called IgE, although most allergies involve IgG reactions. IgE reactions tend to be more immediate and severe. However, most “hidden” allergies that may be insidiously causing you to gain weight are IgG-based. In an ideal world, you test both; however, I normally start by testing a person for IgG sensitivity to food.

  The good news is that you can
now do this using a home test kit. This involves a clever device that painlessly pricks your finger; the blood is absorbed into a tiny tube and then sent to the laboratory. You then get an accurate reading of exactly what you are allergic to. Your body doesn’t lie. Either you have IgG bouncers tagged for wheat or you don’t. Your diluted blood is introduced to a panel of liquid food “testers,” and if you’ve got IgG for that food, a reaction takes place. (See Resources for further details.)

  Main allergy-inducing foods

  These are the most common foods people react to:

  Cow’s milk: An allergy to cow’s milk is the most common food allergy of all. Cow’s milk is in most cheeses, cream, yogurt, and butter, and is hidden in all sorts of food, as the ingredient casein, which is milk protein. Logically, this should not be surprising since cow’s milk is a highly specific food, containing all sorts of hormones designed for the first few months of a calf’s life. However, it’s not the lactose, the sugar in milk, that causes the allergic reaction. It’s the protein. If you react to cow’s milk, it doesn’t necessarily mean you react to goat’s milk or sheep’s milk. However, many people do. It’s often best to eliminate all dairy food for the first three months, and then try goat’s milk or cheese or yogurt.