A food allergy is an immune system response that creates antibodies to attack substances in a food that human immune system recognized as ‘foreign’.
In the process, the reaction releases huge stores of chemical substances, including histamines, which cause symptoms ranging from a mild case of hives to a potentially life-threatening system shutdown.
People may feel itchy, break out in hives, or get stomach cramps. Some vomit and have diarrhea.
Food allergies affect different people in different ways. Nevertheless, most people with food allergies lead full and happy lives, they enjoy most foods.
People whose parents or their close relatives have allergic disease have a greater tendency than others to develop an allergy at some time in their lives. The most common allergic diseases are asthma,, eczema and hav fever.
When the term ‘allergy’ was first coined, it meant an adverse reaction to any substance that does not bother most people.
Then, in the 1920’s it was discovered that a type of antibody called ‘Reagin’ or IgE was involved in many allergic reactions especially those to inhabitants. So conventional medicine defined allergy as an IgE mediated response.
The number of people affected by allergy has increase dramatically since the early 970s, particularly in developed countries and it continue to increase.
Food allergy
Food safety can be defined as the “the avoidance of food borne pathogens, chemical toxicants and physical hazards, but also includes issues of nutrition, food quality and education.” The focus is on “microbial, chemical or physical hazards from substances than can cause adverse consequences.”
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