How Avoiding Foods Can Cause Allergies

Recently, I had a conversation with a family friend about her unexpected and severe allergic reaction. While at a concert, she took a few sips of a friend’s iced coffee that contained almond milk and quickly began struggling to breathe and being whisked away by an ambulance. Before this, she never experienced a serious reaction to nuts - only mild symptoms like an itchy mouth or occasional eczema. Later allergy testing confirmed that she was allergic to almonds, raising the question of how such a severe reaction could occur so unexpectedly.

Maggie’s story reminded me of a National Geographic article I had recently read. The article explained how food avoidance diets, requiring us to eliminate certain foods from our diet, can be dangerous for people who have a history of allergies or conditions like 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 eliminate foods from our diet, we can mess with 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 it is reintroduced, often leading to more severe allergic responses. It is important to understand that cutting out foods could result in life-threatening reactions for people when they reintroduce the food into their diet, especially if they already have or are 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 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.