Best Allergy Sites is the web’s first and largest informational guide of environmental allergy, food allergy and intolerance web sites and blogs. Business owners, medical professionals, educators, and writers from all over the world are manufacturing products, doing research and publishing articles and stories to help individuals manage their allergies and intolerance. Best Allergy Sites is an attempt to gather all of those resources in one place.
A food allergy is defined as an immune system response. If you have a food allergy, your body’s immune system mistakenly recognizes a food protein, or allergen, as an invader and produces antibodies to fight it in an attempt to "protect" the body. A chemical called histamine is then released into the bloodstream and acts on the eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin, or gastrointestinal tract and causes symptoms of the allergic reaction.
Food allergy symptoms can vary depending on the severity allergy and the amount of allergen consumed, but can include one or more of the following:
Individuals can be allergic to any food. The top 8 most common food allergies in the United States are peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, egg, wheat, soy, shellfish and fish, which account for nearly 90% of all food allergy reactions.
The best way to stay safe when diagnosed with a food allergy is to strictly avoid consumption of your food allergen. This can be difficult to do, but resources like BestAllergySites.com provides information on how to avoid allergens and valuable resources such as allergy-friendly recipes and reviews on allergy-friendly products and services.
If you are concerned that you might have a food allergy, you should meet with your physician as soon as possible to determine if you need allergy testing.
