Did You Know - Avoiding Certain Foods Can Cause Allergies to Form

Recently, I had a conversation with a family friend about her unexpected and severe allergic reaction. While at a concert, she accidentally took a few sips of a friend’s iced coffee without realizing it was made with almond milk. Soon Maggie was struggling to breathe and being whisked away by an ambulance. Before this, she never experienced a serious reaction to nuts; she only had mild symptoms like an itchy mouth. Because of this, Maggie avoided eating almonds, After her severe reaction, testing confirmed Maggie's almond allergy. Her family was left asking how such an unexpected and severe reaction could occur since she had never seemed that allergic to almonds before.

Maggie’s story reminded me of a National Geographic article I had recently read. The article explained how food avoidance diets, which require us to eliminate certain foods from our diet, can be dangerous for people who have a history of allergies or eczema. As Dr. Brian Vickery of Emerson Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta described in the article, “Our digestive track has a very difficult job. It must constantly sort through the food we eat, allowing safe foods and bacteria to remain and aid digestion while defending us from harmful foods”. When we completely eliminate foods from our diet, we can mess up our body’s ability to later tolerate the food that was eliminated. This can then cause our bodies to treat the food as dangerous when we try to eat it again. This leads to more severe allergic responses. The article explained that cutting out foods could result in life-threatening reactions for people when they reintroduce the food into their diet. This is especially true if they are already at high risk of developing allergies.

This is why my doctor encourages me to eat peanuts at least once a week. My Doctor doesn’t want my peanut sensitivity to turn into a severe peanut allergy. Given my extreme allergy to tree nuts, he knows I am at risk of actually developing a peanut allergy if I avoid them. If you have a history of allergies or eczema, you may want to talk to your doctor before you decide to eliminate a food from your diet.