Nutrition For Life

How is food allergy diagnosed?

To diagnose food allergy, a doctor first must determine if the patient is having an adverse reaction to specific foods. The doctor makes this assessment with the help of a detailed history from the patient, the patient’s dietary diary, or an elimination diet. He or she then confirms the diagnosis by the more objective skin tests, blood tests, or food challenges.

History: The history usually is the most important diagnostic tool. The physician interviews the patient to determine if the facts are consistent with a food allergy. The doctor may ask the following questions:

* What was the timing of the reaction? Did the reaction come on quickly, usually within an hour after eating the food?

* Was treatment for allergy successful? For example, if hives stem from a food allergy, antihistamines should relieve them.

* Is the reaction always associated with a certain food?

* Did anyone else get sick? For example, if the person has eaten fish contaminated with histamine, everyone who ate the fish should be sick. In an allergic reaction, however, only the person allergic to the fish becomes ill.

* How much did the patient eat before experiencing a reaction? The severity of the patient’s reaction can sometimes relate to the amount of the suspect food eaten.

* How was the food prepared? Some people will have a violent allergic reaction only to raw or undercooked fish. A thorough cooking of the fish destroys those allergens in the fish to which they react, so that they then can eat it with no allergic reaction.

* Were other foods eaten at the same time as the food that caused the allergic reaction? Fatty foods can delay digestion and thus delay the onset of the allergic reaction. Read more…

Before developing the serious health condition of type 2 diabetes, a person will almost always be pre-diabetic beforehand. But pre-diabetes is a condition without symptoms, meaning that many people can have it without even knowing it. Left unchecked, pre-diabetes can lead to full-blown type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Luckily, pre-diabetes can be diagnosed with a simple test, and treatment can prevent many health problems and complications. Here’s what you need to know to control pre-diabetes before it gets control of you.

Diabetes Basics
Under normal circumstances, the glucose (sugar) levels in your blood rise after you eat a meal or snack. In response, your body produces a hormone called insulin, which takes on the job of converting the glucose in your bloodstream into usable energy. But if insulin isn’t available, or if the body isn’t using it correctly, your blood glucose will remain elevated, and that can be harmful to your body. This is a condition known as diabetes. People who have higher-than-normal blood glucose levels that aren’t quite high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes are considered pre-diabetic.

Who’s at Risk?
Over 50 million Americans over the age of 20 have pre-diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. If you have any of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes, including uncontrollable factors like age and race, and/or controllable risk factors like obesity and physical inactivity, then you are also at risk for pre-diabetes.
Most of the time, pre-diabetes is asymptomatic (shows no symptoms), but some people will experience some general diabetes symptoms like extreme thirst, frequent urination, fatigue and/or blurred vision. Read more…

How do allergic reactions to food occur?

The allergens in food are those components that are responsible for inciting an allergic reaction. They are proteins that usually resist the heat of cooking, the acid in the stomach, and the intestinal digestive enzymes. As a result, the allergens survive to cross the gastrointestinal lining, enter the bloodstream, and go to target organs, causing allergic reactions throughout the body. The mechanism of food allergy involves the immune system and heredity.

Immune system: An allergic reaction to food involves two components of the immune system. One component is a type of protein, an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE), which circulates through the blood. The other is the mast cell, a specialized cell that is found in all tissues of the body. The mast cell is especially common, however, in areas of the body that are typical sites of allergic reactions, including the nose and throat, lungs, skin, and gastrointestinal tract.

Heredity: The tendency of an individual to produce IgE against something seemingly as innocuous as food appears to be inherited. Generally, people with allergies come from families in which allergies are common — not necessarily to food but perhaps allergies to pollen, fur, feathers, or drugs. Thus, a person with two allergic parents is more likely to develop food allergies than someone with one allergic parent.

Mechanism: Food allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction, meaning that before an allergic reaction to an allergen in food can occur, a person needs to have been exposed previously, that is, sensitized, to the food. At the initial exposure, the allergen stimulates lymphocytes (specialized white blood cells) to produce the IgE antibody that is specific for the allergen. This IgE then is released and attaches to the surface of the mast cells in different tissues of the body. The next time the person eats that food, its allergen hones in on the specific IgE antibody on the surface of the mast cells and prompts the cells to release chemicals such as histamine. Depending upon the tissue in which they are released, these chemicals cause the various symptoms of food allergy. Read more…

What is anorexia?

Anorexia nervosa, commonly referred to simply as anorexia, is one type of eating disorder. More importantly, it is also a psychological disorder. Anorexia is a condition that goes beyond out-of-control dieting. A person with anorexia initially begins dieting to lose weight. Over time, the weight loss becomes a sign of mastery and control. The drive to become thinner is actually secondary to concerns about control and/or fears relating to one’s body. The individual continues the endless cycle of restrictive eating often to a point close to starvation in order to feel a sense of control over the body. This cycle becomes an obsession and is similar to any type of drug or substance addiction.

How is anorexia treated?

Anorexia may be treated in an outpatient setting, or hospitalization may be necessary. For an individual with severe weight loss that has impaired organ function, hospital treatment must initially focus on correction of malnutrition, and intravenous feeding may be required. A gain of between one to three pounds per week is a safe an attainable goal when malnutrition must be corrected.

The overall treatment of anorexia, however, must focus on more than weight gain. There are a variety of treatment approaches dependent upon the resources available to the individual. Because of increasing insurance restrictions, many patients find that a short hospitalization followed by a day treatment program is an effective alternative to longer inpatient programs. Most individuals, however, initially seek outpatient treatment involving psychological as well as medical intervention. Read more…

Cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea are some of the common and uncomfortable symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Unfortunately, no one has yet discovered a specific cause for IBS, but there are many factors that are correlated with it. There are two main categories of risk factors that can contribute to IBS—those that you can’t change, and those that you can.

Uncontrollable Risk Factors
These variables are out of your control. Although you can’t do anything to change them, it’s important to know what has been associated with the development of IBS symptoms.

* Your gender. Women are at least twice as likely to experience IBS as men. Due to fluctuating levels of hormones, women are more likely to experience IBS symptoms during or around the time of their menstrual periods.
* Your family history. You are more likely to experience IBS if people in your family have/had the disorder.
* Your age. Younger to middle-aged adults are most likely to experience IBS. In fact, half of all people with IBS will first develop symptoms before they are 35 years old, with 90% of IBS sufferers developing symptoms before age 50.
* Your health history. Some experts believe that IBS may be caused by a bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal tract. But other health conditions that can cause IBS symptoms include: celiac disease (intolerance of gluten from grains), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia (widespread bodily pain), and temporomandibular disorder (jaw pain and discomfort). Read more…

Lactose intolerance can make it difficult to eat a balanced diet. After all, how do you get the dairy and calcium you need when you experience gas, nausea, bloating, cramping and diarrhea whenever you try? By learning more about this problem, you can also learn how to work with it.

What is Lactose Intolerance?
Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest significant amounts of lactose, which is the sugar found in milk. This happens when there is a shortage of the enzyme lactase, which breaks down milk sugar into simpler forms that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. When the milk sugar is NOT broken down and absorbed, additional water is drawn into the intestinal tract. There, the bacteria that are normally found in the intestine ferment the sugar.

Lactose intolerance is a matter of degree. Today, what is commonly called lactose intolerance is referred to as lactose maldigestion by health professionals. Only a small fraction of people with lactose maldigestion has true intolerance. Most lactose maldigesters are fine unless they eat more than a single serving of dairy products at one sitting. Many people with lower levels of lactase can actually drink up to at least one cup of milk with a meal without any problems. Sometimes intolerance to milk is only temporary. It can be brought on by certain medications or by illnesses, such as the flu. Read more…

What is bulimia nervosa?

Bulimia (say “boo-LEE-mee-uh”) is a type of eating disorder. People with bulimia will eat a large amount of food in a short time (binge). Then they will do something to get rid of the food (purge). They may vomit, exercise too much, or use medicines like laxatives.

People who have bulimia may binge because food gives them a feeling of comfort. But eating too much makes them feel out of control. After they binge, they feel ashamed, guilty, and afraid of gaining weight. This causes them to purge.

Without treatment, this “binge and purge” cycle can lead to serious, long-term health problems. Acid in the mouth from vomiting can cause tooth decay, gum disease, and loss of tooth enamel. Any type of purging can lead to bone thinning (osteoporosis), kidney damage, heart problems, or even death. Read more…

Sugar might be “hiding” on the food labels you’re reading. All of the following terms indicate added sugar, so read carefully!

* white sugar
* brown sugar
* icing sugar
* invert sugar
* corn syrup
* high fructose corn syrup
* maple syrup
* honey
* molasses
* brown rice syrup
* cane juice
* evaporated cane juice
* all fruit juice concentrates, including apple and pear
* all “ose” including Dextrose, Fructose, Lactose, Glucose, Maltose and Sucrose

Almost everyone overeats on occasion, having seconds or thirds of a holiday meal or devouring an entire bag of chips while watching a scary movie. Sometimes, though, overeating becomes a regular occurrence, shrouded in shame and secrecy. It’s called binge-eating disorder, a serious eating disorder in which you frequently consume unusually large amounts of food.

When you have binge-eating disorder, you may be deeply embarrassed about gorging and vow to stop. But you feel such a compulsion that you can’t resist the urges and continue binge eating.

Although binge-eating disorder is the most common of all eating disorders, it’s still not considered a distinct condition. That may change as researchers learn more about it. Meanwhile, if you have binge-eating disorder symptoms, treatment can help you win back control and overcome secret shame.

SYMPTOMS

When you have binge-eating disorder, sometimes called compulsive overeating, you regularly eat excessive amounts of food (binge). A binge is considered eating a larger amount of food than most people would eat under similar situations. For instance, you may eat 10,000 to 20,000 calories worth of food during a binge, while someone following a normal diet may eat 1,500 to 3,000 calories in a day. Read more…

A Single-Serving Reference

Carbohydrates are your body’s main energy source. During digestion, sugar (simple carbohydrates) and starches (complex carbohydrates) break down into blood sugar (glucose). If you consume too much carbohydrate-rich food at one time, your blood sugar levels may rise too high, which can be problematic. Monitoring your carbohydrate intake is a key to blood sugar control, as outlined in a plan by your doctor or dietitian.

Carbohydrates are found in lots of different foods. But the healthiest carbohydrate choices include whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans, and low-fat dairy products. The chart below shows a single serving of carbohydrate-containing foods, which equals 15 grams: Read more…