Considering Other Food Intolerances

Most of us with food problems are sure of only one thing: we don't feel quite right. Since you are looking at this website, you must suspect sulfites. If you react poorly to wine and dried fruit, I urge you to reduce your sulfite intake and see if it helps. But what about all the other food intolerances? Could you have more than one problem? What about the rest of your family, especially your children? You probably don't want to hear the answer. Take a look at the table below and marvel at the percentages of the world population harmed by troublesome foods. You and your family would be very lucky not to be touched by at least one part of this problem. Our modern society complicates food intolerance by including far too many ingredients in most packaged foods. For instance, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper is a typical modern product with the following ingredients:

Betty Crocker Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper: wheat, corn starch, soybean oil, salt, cheddar cheese, whey, maltodextrin, tomato, sugar, buttermilk, onion, corn syrup, disodium phosphate, MSG, dextrose, garlic, natural flavor, blue cheese, yellow #5, yellow #6, glycerides, citric acid, sodium caseinate, soy flour, egg white.

Note that lactose milk sugar is found in whey and buttermilk. Wheat is the first ingredient listed and it might trigger a gluten reaction. There is hidden sulfur dioxide in corn starch, maltodextrin, corn syrup and dextrose. And, there is plenty of FD&C yellow color which is bad for attention deficit disorders. For a moment, let's assume your son had hamburger helper for dinner and didn't want to finish his homework. Is he tired, upset, lazy or suffering from a food intolerance? What about his afternoon snack or his evening dessert? The truth is a lot harder to pinpoint than most people think. But, if you are willing to divide the problem up and take small steps, you can usually figure out if a food intolerance is present. Then avoiding those foods will improve your life.

Intolerance	Description	Percent
Lactose	Milk Sugar Intolerance	60% of World
Wheat	General Gluten Intolerance not limited to Celiac Disease	15%
Sulfites	Sulfite Preservatives, Sulfa Drugs and Sulfur Dioxide	6%
Most Common True Allergies	Immune System Response to: Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Seafood, Shellfish, Soy, Wheat	4%
Artificial Color & Preservatives	Attention Deficit Disorders caused by FD&C Artificial Food Color and BHA, BHT, TBHQ Preservatives	12%

Lactose Intolerance: This is the most common food problem and it should be investigated first. The sugar in milk is known as lactose and is constructed from two simpler sugars, glucose and galactose. Before the body can properly utilize lactose, it must be broken into its simpler components by a digestive enzyme called lactase. Most babies produce this enzyme allowing them to digest milk whether from the human breast or from a cow. As we age, many of us stop producing lactase and we become milk intolerant. Improperly digested milk produces gas and other symptoms of discomfort. To find out if anyone in your family is lactose intolerant, remove milk products from your menu for a few days while paying close attention to their well being. The most important dairy items are milk ( no matter whether low or regular fat ), yogurt, milk shakes and ice cream. All of these contain approximately 12 grams of lactose per 8 ounce serving. Cheeses and butter are highly processed and contain only about 0.1 grams of lactose per serving, a hundred times less than a glass of milk. So, concentrate on replacing milk and don't worry much about cheese and butter. Rice milk is available as a substitute at most stores and tastes pretty good if you buy the sweetened versions. For a valid test, make sure your family understands your goal and doesn't cheat away from home. After a few days of avoidance, put real milk back in your diet and compare notes. If avoiding milk helps, you can make lactose avoidance permanent and look into the full range of non-dairy products. This might even include taking lactase enzyme supplements when a meal cannot be fully controlled. If avoiding milk does not help, you can scratch it off your list of concerns and move on to the next step.

Wheat Intolerance: Wheat intolerance, although not new, is a newly recognized problem. During World War 2, wheat was in short supply and rationed in many parts of Europe. After the war, it was noticed that many digestive problems returned just as wheat became more available. It is now recognized that as many as 1 in 7 people have trouble with the protein in wheat ( called gluten ), especially those of Celtic origin from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. John F. Kennedy was our first Irish president and he suffered from many autoimmune symptoms. It is reasoned by some modern doctors that he was wheat intolerant and that many of his ills could have been corrected by diet. Celiac Disease is the most aggressive form of this intolerance and the resulting inflammation can permanenly damage the lining of the intestine. Celiac Disease occurs in only 1/2 percent of the population but milder forms of wheat intolerance affect 30 times as many people. The symptoms can be quite broad and include digestive upset, headache, depression, arthritis, eczema and chronic fatigue to name a few. It is a difficult condition to both diagnose and treat because wheat is so prevalent in our society. To see if anyone in your family is wheat intolerant, remove wheat for a few days and then reintroduce it. To accomplish this, you have to read food labels very carefully and avoid wheat, barley, oats and rye. The table below gives some ideas for replacing wheat.

Wheat	Wheat Replacements
Wheat, barley, oats and rye	Rice, corn, and quinoa
Wheat noodles and pasta	Rice or rice noodles/pasta
Bread, bagels and crackers	Corn tortillas and corn chips
Hamburgers on wheat buns	Hamburgers on lettuce alone
Macaroni and cheese	Amy's frozen Rice Mac & Chesse
Cookies, cake and pie	Fruit and ice cream

Sulfite Preservatives: Of course, you now know all about sulfite preservatives after reading this website. If you have trouble with wine and dried fruit, you are probably sulfite intolerant. The menu pick Where to Now? presents a list of  ingredients to avoid and a list of foods to eat. If avoiding sulfites, sulfur dioxdie and sulfa helps, congratulations. But don't stop here, consider all of the other intolerances before declaring yourself healed. Note that I rate the prevalence of sulfite intolerance at 6% of the population, considerably higher than the 1% numbers that are usually attributed to the FDA. A 1998 study at Doai Memorial Hospital in Japan found that 65% of those with asthma were overly sensitive to sulfites, exhibiting a wide range of symptoms beyond breathing problems. Since 8% of the population suffers from asthma, multiply by 65% and you get 5% from this subgroup alone. Throw in another 1% to cover non-asthmatics and you have 6% of the population, the number I used. I believe this to be a conservative estimate. I do not have asthma and I get headaches from sulfites, headaches that are not even recognized as a symptom of sulfites by the medical community. So, I guess a better estimate of the scope of sulfite intolerance would be 6% of the population plus me.

True Food Allergies: Most of the conditions discussed above are intolerances that do not involve the body's immune system. For instance, lactose intolerance is caused by a lack of sufficient lactase enzyme to completely digest milk sugar. If your immune defense against germs becomes confused, it can target the protein in food instead of the protein on the surface of invading bacteria. When this occurs, your body produces antibodies ( called IgE, IgB, etc. ) that bind with food protein and initiate a cascade of chemical reactions that make you feel sick. We call this a food allergy. Food allergies are less common than food intolerances but they can be more intense and require only minute amounts of food. The protein in milk, called casein, can trigger an allergy with symptoms very similar to those of the more common lactose intolerance. However, a milk allergy is usually much more sensitive, even requiring some people to be careful of kissing a milk drinker. The most common food allergies involve Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Seafood, Shellfish, Soy and Wheat. Since symptoms appear quickly and are quite severe, most people recognize these allergies. However, if you often feel sick after eating and aren't sure why, pay careful attention to what you eat. Sometimes writing things down and comparing notes can be helpful. It is important to avoid the foods that cause your allergies since repeated attacks can make the allergy grow stronger. On the flip side, if you can remain attack free for many months, some allergies will diminish. You should talk to your doctor about food allergy and ask about taking Benadryl to control the symptoms when an attack occurs.

Artificial Color and Preservatives: If a member of your family suffers from attention deficit disorder ( ADD or ADHD ), you are not powerless. Many cases of attention deficit disorder respond to dietary changes, specifically the removal of FD&C food colors and the preservatives BHA, BHT and TBHQ. This is a very subtle food intolerance that overloads the brain with chemicals that compete with neurotransmitters. The relationship between food color, preservatives and attention deficit was established by Dr. Feingold, head of the Allergy Department of Kaiser Permanente Hospitals. Eliminating FD&C food color along with other artificial ingredients is known as the Feingold Diet. Doing nothing is a big mistake. Attention deficit can make your child an outcast at school that begins an unhealthy spiral of poor performance and bad behavior that rarely ends well. If dietary changes do not help, talk to your doctor about prescription drugs for this condition. Today, there are many choices that include non-narcotic alternatives to the older Ritalin class of drugs. The right diet or the right drug for your child can be life transforming. You have nothing to lose unless you do not even try. If you don't like the results, you can always stop and look for something else.

How do you know if the Feingold Diet can help? You have to try it on members of your family with attention deficit problems. To make things a little easier, Jane Hersey of the Feingold Association has compiled a Four Day Diet. This test diet and loads of other information is presented in her book, "Why Can't My Child Behave?" You just try the test diet for a few days and see if it helps. But beware, to be effective, you can't cheat. Below is a table that summarizes the Feingold philosophy. These are the foods you shouldn't eat.

Category	Feingold Diet (Unsafe Foods)
Never Eat These Chemicals	FD&C Artificial Food Colors Artificial Flavors and Aspartame Sweetener BHA, BHT and TBHQ Preservatives
Avoid Salicyclates Initially Then reintroduce to test if they are all right.	Aspirin Almonds Apples Apricots Berries Cherries Chili Powder Cider Vinegar Cloves Coffee Cucumbers & Pickles Currants Grapes & Raisins Nectarines Oranges Paprika Peaches Peppers, Bell Peppers, Chili Plums & Prunes Tangerines Tea Tomatoes Oil of Wintergreen Wine Wine Vinegar

The next table presents food that you can eat on the Feingold Four Day Diet. For convenience, you can mark all of the safe food in your cupboard or refrigerator with green colored electrical tape. Then if it isn't marked with green tape, you shouldn't eat it. Period.

Meal	Feingold Four Day Diet (Safe Foods)
Non Food	Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste (Spearmint, Peppermint or Fennel)   or just brush with baking soda and water Omit vitamins for the short test period Avoid perfume and products containing fragrances   or products that would result in dyes on the skin
Breakfast	Oatmeal (not instant) with white or brown sugar, whole milk   and pear or pineapple (juice or whole fruit) French toast (homemade w/eggs, milk, real 100% maple syrup   or sprinkle with granulated sugar) Real eggs (not imitation) and use butter (not margarine)   or Wesson Oil for cooking Plain Puffed Rice or Puffed Wheat, whole milk, sugar Toast with real butter or honey
Lunch	Peanut butter and honey sandwich (or substitute banana for honey) Tuna salad sandwich made with Hellmann's or Best Foods Mayonnaise   (look for water-pack tuna which does not contain hydrolyzed veg   protein and use original versions of mayonnaise, not low-fat, etc.) Leftover chicken (sliced or made into salad, add celery if you like) Egg salad sandwich, carrot sticks
Dinner	Roast chicken, basted with real butter Baked potatoes with real butter Fresh or frozen plain green vegetables (no sauces and   season with salt, butter, black pepper if you like) Broiled fish fillet (season with lemon, garlic and butter if you like) Salad or any vegetable (except tomato, cucumber and peppers),   make a salad dressing with fresh lemon juice and Wesson Oil Pork chops (broil or season w/flour and sauté in oil) Sweet potato (with butter or mashed with pineapple juice) Ground beef patties (made with plain chopped meat) Corn (on the cob or canned or frozen plain)
Drinks	Baby food pear juice (available in large bottles) Pure pineapple juice (dilute, if you like) Grapefruit juice (sweeten with granulated sugar) Lemonade made from fresh lemons and granulated sugar Whole milk (not low fat or skimmed) Shake made with whole milk, pineapple juice, banana Water (plain without flavors)
Snacks	Eagle Thins potato chips Fresh pears, bananas or any melon Whitman’s All Natural Chocolate Bar Baker's Sweet Chocolate Bar (sold with baking supplies) Haagan Dazs vanilla or chocolate ice cream Popcorn made from plain kernels with real butter or Wesson oil
Bread	Francisco sourdough bread and french rolls Lender's Frozen Bagels (plain or onion) Oroweat Cracked Wheat Buns Mrs. Fields Regular French Bread Pioneer sourdough bread Aunt Jemima Easy Mix Corn Bread

A few comments about this test diet are in order. It usually takes a few days for the metabolites of food color and preservatives to clear the body. However, fresh symptoms can reappear in hours if the diet is violated. That's why it is important to eat only approved foods during the test. Note that hamburgers are safe only if they are made without ketchup, tomato and pickle. You may replace these condiments with lettuce and Best Foods Real Mayonnaise. If you don't see a food listed on the diet, don't eat it. For instance, you cannot add hot sauce to your eggs nor Mrs. Butterworth's syrup to French toast. Be satisfied with salt, black pepper and real maple syrup.

Whole milk is preferred over reduced fat on the Feingold program. This is because vitamin A, preserved with BHA or BHT, is added to most reduced fat milk. A closer look at milk provides some insight into food allergies. Reduced fat milk contains 500 IU of vitamin A per glass which is preserved by a mere 5 micrograms of BHA/BHT. Using World Health Organization estimates for preservative consumption in the United States, a glass of reduced fat milk would account for only 1 part out of 3000 of the daily average. Yet, many mothers have noticed a deterioration in behavior when reduced fat milk is added back into their child's diet. You must be very careful when on the test diet or in the first stages of the Feingold Program. Only after gaining experience should you reintroduce suspect food to see if it is acceptable.

Daily vitamins and other medications may also contain preservatives. At the very least, be sure they don't contain artificial color if you continue to use them during the test. You might consider postponing elective supplements for a few days. Soaps and toothpastes can be problems, too. Consider brushing teeth with baking soda instead of commerical toothpaste. And use Ivory Bar Soap for hands, body and hair if your normal soap or shampoo is brightly colored. Health food stores have a great assortment of natural products that are free of synthetic dyes and additives. Finally, strong perfume can cause trouble for some children, so go natural. Golly, I must sound like a fanatic but such changes can make a difference.

If the Feingold Four Day Test works for you, visit the Feingold Association website for more complete information. Feingold membership costs $69 and includes a wider list of foods and ingredients that allows an expanded diet. The more limited test diet suggested by the table above should not be used for more than a few days. If your child does poorly, discontinue the diet. Before attempting any medical or dietary intervention, please consult your doctor.