By Jurriaan Plesman BA(Psych), Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
Sensitivities to food items is a common element hypoglycemics. Sufferers should avoid their allergies. The detection of allergies can be made by professionals or by a systematic investigation of the patient himself. This is a vast topic. I would recommend that you read books on allergies. A cytotoxic test by a doctor is one short cut to revealing allergies, but these tests are not always accurate or valid.
But if a patient wants to do a home test for his allergies he should start a DIETARY DIARY. This is a notebook with pages representing the days, for instance headings of Saturday, Sunday, Monday etc. Each page should show three columns:
1) time of day
2) details of food taken,
3) reaction to the food BEFORE taking the food.
and as illustrated in the following figure; here
The reason why you record your reaction ‘before” you take food is that some foods may give you a high. When you have a milk sensitivity it may initially put your blood sugar level up (adrenergic reaction) making you feel good. This is then followed by sharp drop in blood sugar level which makes you feel lousy later on. Thus many people with a milk allergy become in fact addicted to their allergy.
By carefully observing your reactions to food eaten previously you will soon discover the kind of foods to which you are sensitive.
To confirm your suspicion you should
1)abstain from that food for at least four days
2)on the fifth day take a big quantity of that food
if you have a strong reaction, you know that you have an allergy to that food.
By abstaining from suspect foods for a couple of days you seem to lull your immune system into believing that it can relax.
Many people with allergies become allergic to more and more food sources over time.
Some common causes of allergies according to studies are:
Cow’s Milk 56-67%
Wheat 43-57%
Chocolate 26-55%
Eggs 22-60%
Orange 13-52%
Benzoic acid 35%
Cheese 32%
Tomatoes 14-32%
BOOKS ON ALLERGIES:
Forman,Robert(Ph.D.)(1979), HOW TO CONTROL YOUR ALLERGIES, Larchmont
Randolph,T & Moss, R.W.(1980), ALLERGIES – YOUR HIDDEN ENEMY, U.K. Turnstone Press Ltd.
Randolph,Theron G., & Moss, R.W.(1982), AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO ALLERGIES, Bantam Books Toronto,NY
How to control your allergies at Google Books