Allergies and Food Addictions: NO MORE

By Dr. Eleonore Blaurock-Busch PhD

This book explains food allergies and how you can alleviate or get rid of your problems. About 1-5% of the total population has food allergies; more than 120 foods are recognized to cause them. This book lists the foods that most commonly cause reactions on a worldwide basis, namely: milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts followed by cereals (mainly wheat), soybeans, fish, and shellfish. It also explains why some foods temporarily cause problems, and others may turn out to be problematic for you throughout life. The book tells you how to identify temporary food sensitivities and genetically-based food allergies.
More often, people with pollen allergy experience allergic symptoms when they eat certain fruits, vegetables or nuts. The author explains why cross-reactions occur and how you can alleviate hay fever symptoms through sensible eating and living. Food addictions are part of the food allergy complex, and you will learn how to manage it all. You will be rewarded by feeling better physically and emotionally.
The book describes how you can reduce food reactions by improving digestive functions. It also explains why some nutritional supplementation can help to reduce allergy suffering. Most of all, the book teaches how to plan a sensible and tasty diet through proper food rotation. Food groups are listed with a diet plan and tasty menus. You will learn why a temporary avoidance of specific foods changes your allergy symptoms into a manageable and temporary problem. Symptoms will disappear, one after the other. With a little discipline in preparing daily menus, you will eventually be able to eat most, if not all foods - without suffering from allergies symptoms. Try it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Eleonore Blaurock-Busch PhD
• Release date: Apr 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310885334

Dr. Eleonore Blaurock-Busch PhD

E.Blaurock-Busch PhD is research director of Micro Trace Minerals Analytical Laboratory Germany and Trace Mineral International Laboratory of Boulder, Colorado and was Assistant Laboratory Director at King James Medical Laboratory, Cleveland, OH. Her specialty is metal toxicology and human nutrition. She is a founding member and co-chairman of the International Association of Trace Element Research and Cancer, and organizer of the first East-West World Congress on Trace Element and Cancer, held in Beijing, China in 1996. As scientific advisor to the International Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (IBCMT) she lectured worldwide at medical meetings and universities. As scientific advisor to the German Medical Association for Clinical Metal Toxicology (Deutsche Ärztegesellschaft für Klinische Metalltoxilogie – KMT), she continues to be involved in teaching toxicology to German physicians. She is instrumental in environmental and laboratory research projects in metal toxicology, including epidemiological studies that evaluated the toxic burden of people of various countries, including India and Saudi Arabia. In 2005, she received the IBCMT (International Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology) Award for Outstanding Service. She was a guest speaker at radio and TV shows in the US, Germany and elsewhere. She published several books in German and English at reputable publishers including Prentice Hall (later Simon and Schuster) and Hugendubel. Her many articles were published in various languages in medical and lay journals around the world. She is a member of the European Academy for Environmental Medicine and the British Society for Ecological Medicine. She continues independent studies at Exeter College, Oxford University, UK.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

How Discovering My Own Food Sensitivities Has Changed My Life and That of Others

When I was a youngster in Germany, every food was health food. The worst junk food available was plain white sugar, but since it was always scarce, we never had a chance to overindulge in sweets as is commonly done today. At Easter time eggs came straight from the farm, from hens that ran free, feeding on grass from backyards or meadows. Before we could dye or decorate them with onion skins or red beet juice, we had to scrub them. That’s how organic they were.

In the 1940s everybody was poor by today’s standards, and our meat supply was limited, but it came from ‘happy’ animals. A half pound of beef, pork, chicken, rabbit, or whatever else mother managed to come up with, fed two families or more. (My aunt and her two children lived upstairs and we shared the good as well as the bad.)

There were no TV dinners or prepackaged foods and any canned goods we ate were homemade, Grandma’s way. Bread came straight from the local baker who had never heard of or used preservatives of any kind. His heavenly-smelling bread was dark and firm, with a crust that gave our teeth a good workout.

Teas came from country herbs, coffee was made of roasted barley. We drank fresh juices in the summer and lots and lots of non-fluoridated, non-chlorinated water. Mother often had to trade treasured family items to put food on the table even before war shortages began, and ‘real’ American coffee was a luxury reserved for very special occasions. Milk came from the neighbor’s goats.

During the 1950s, Germany rose from destruction, a new era began. A hurt and punished people began to rebuild. Ruins and ashes made room for new houses, schools and stores. Food was more readily available and a nation of people for whom hunger had been a steady companion for decades began to indulge - and overindulge.

I was barely a teenager then and quickly developed a taste for dairy products and fancy sausages. I regularly drank a quart a milk a day and devoured many delicious homemade cheesecakes. Mysteriously, my health began to deteriorate. I endured headaches, was often irritable and seemed to live in a fog. I also developed bladder and kidney problems, suffered through nearly every childhood disease and eventually came down with meningitis.

I was first treated by our family doctor. He had been bewildered by my ailments for years, and although I recovered from the meningitis, my list of ailments continued to grow: depression, menstrual problems, occasional hives, etc. He was unable to help, and I continued to be tired, irritable and susceptible to colds. Most doctors I consulted attributed all of these problems to puberty and what they termed the critical years.

It was suggested that I was too sensitive, perhaps a bit neurotic, with a tendency towards hypochondria. Later, broken friendships were held responsible. School problems were blamed on unhappiness and an unwillingness to adjust. In short, I was considered a troublemaker. I became suicidal.

Years later, I was assured by various doctors that marriage would solve all my problems (what they really meant was sex.) I tried both, but the problems continued. Some wise men suggested pregnancy and motherhood, so I tried that, too.

When I was 27 I had a nervous breakdown and developed a goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland that made my neck look swollen. I tired easily, suffered from severe hay fever and dermatitis. My energy level was constantly low and I felt as if I had to push myself to get anything done. Endocrinologists checked me from top to bottom and gave me a clean bill of health.

By the time I turned 30, I had pretty much accepted my fate. Emotionally and physically, I compared myself to a rollercoaster. I experienced ups and terrible downs, but the downs became more frequent as time went by. I often came down with colds. When the flu season arrived, I was the first to get sick, suffered pneumonia three times in a single year. Most of the time my brain seemed foggy.

Eventually, I started to ask questions. Why was I so susceptible? I ate very healthy, mostly organic foods. Nutritionally, I did the best I could (or so I thought). I didn’t smoke and with one beer for dinner, I was hardly considered a drinker. I swallowed tons of nutritional supplements including large doses of vitamin C and whatever else was considered good for the immune system.

But in spite of a healthy lifestyle, my health gradually deteriorated. It didn’t make sense.

Then, in early 1982, I attended a seminar on food allergies and food allergy testing given by Dr. Connie Haber of Pittsburgh, PA. The presentation was intriguing and I began to study the subject. Months later, Dr. Haber came to Denver again and introduced attendees to food sensitivity testing.

By that time I had started to apply some of the information offered in the first seminar. I had been successful in helping other allergy sufferers, especially those who had suffered severe digestive problems. After hearing Connie Haber speak the second time, it became clear that food sensitivities can cause more than just digestive disturbances and I decided to have myself tested.

To be quite honest, I was pretty much convinced that nothing much would show up. All the tests performed on me up to that point had come up negative, and I did not expect anything different.

Surprise! I soon learned that I reacted to most of my favorite foods: dairy products, pork, barley (which is found in beer), corn, shrimp, pineapple, cabbage and grapes.

I called Dr. Haber. Connie, I said, this is a mistake. I don’t react to these foods. I eat most of them every day and they’ve never given me any problems. She accused me of being a bad listener. You bet your sweet life you react, she said. Follow the diet and call me in three months.

Just to prove her wrong, I decided to strictly follow the suggested regimen. On the tenth day I woke up early in the morning feeling-like a new person. I had energy. I was ready to live. For the first time in my life, I felt like hopping out of bed before sunrise. I loved every minute of that day and every day since. Now, I worked harder, put in longer hours than ever before in my life, but I tired less. Menstrual problems disappeared and for the first time since childhood I felt emotionally stable, my head cleared. Disagreeable people, difficult events hardly upset me. I finally was in charge of my life. I loved that feeling, still do - decades later.

I have learned a lot about my body. I know I can create my own headaches and fogginess with milk or whey; cheese leads to depression; pork and cabbage cause fatigue; shrimp brings on diarrhea; barley in small amounts does not affect me, but malt leads to that foggy feeling.

Not unlike the kid who starts smoking out of curiosity and peer pressure, hates it initially, but soon develops a craving and dependency I started to drink beer as a teenager and eventually grew to like it. But after I hadn’t had any for a while, I noticed something peculiar: the smell of it offended me just as it had when I was little. I suddenly remembered how the smell of malt from a nearby brewery had bothered me to the point where it produced strange headaches, though during my childhood nobody ever made that connection.

We all understand that smoking and drinking can create health problems, but staple foods such as milk and corn are rarely looked upon as evil. Statistics indicate, however, that healthy foods such as wheat, beef and citrus fruits are common allergens that can create numerous health problems that generally are not recognized as food allergies and thus remain a mystery to patients and doctors alike.

Just a few years ago I, too, thought that the symptoms of allergies were limited to a runny nose, accompanied by watery, itchy eyes, wheezing and couching. My own experience was an eye-opener. Today, I strongly believe that the rise in food sensitivities is the result of overeating certain foods and, quite possibly, our system’s inability to cope with the plethora of chemicals we are bombarded with daily.

We really do eat a great deal of the same food products all the time. Our variety is no variety at all. The seasons no longer dictate our diet. We can buy the same food year round and, if we like certain items, we eat them day in and day out.

Worse yet, modern foods are loaded with chemicals, preservatives and hormones. Hardly any food rots any more. Do you know what apples used to look like in January? They were wrinkled like prunes, although those which hadn’t rotted still smelled and tasted heavenly.

We eat all sorts of chemicals; we have little choice. Modern laboratories can detect over 600 different pesticides and even organic foods are not what they used to be. While I realize that man is adaptable, I also know that some people are less able to adjust than others. Heredity plays a part in all of this.

Years ago, my daughter Yvette suffered from mysterious headaches and stomach cramps, and seemed-to have developed chronic bronchitis. Often, and for no apparent reason, she started wheezing and experienced inexplicable emotional and physical ups and downs.

After finding out that waxed apples and corn are her enemies, we changed her diet accordingly and bronchial attacks largely disappeared. During her teenage years she tried to avoid corn, but found that is in virtually all sweets and many health food juices and sodas. When indulged, she experienced old health problems and learned to make choices.

And that’s the catch. While this book and/or the doctor you consult can help you find the cause of your problem, you must do the work. You are the one who makes miracles happen. You are the one who must learn to say no. You are in charge.

It isn’t easy. My daughter is not a compulsive eater, and neither am I, but we have our weaknesses. After years on a dairy-restricted diet my tolerance-level has improved dramatically, I can now afford to eat cheese without suffering the next day. I can eat pizza again. Yeah!

Similarly, my daughter can eat corn and apples without experiencing problems. Today we know that her sensitivities were due to chemicals, she buys organic food. Her allergy-free daughter benefits from that habit.

I often wonder whether the suffering I had to endure during each pregnancy was due to the fact that I, like many concerned mothers, drank a gallon of milk every day for nine months and gobbled up as much cheese as I pleased. Is it possible that many young mothers who feel nauseated during pregnancy are simply suffering from food reactions? Why not educate parents-to-be prior to conception. Just think how much healthier their offspring could be.

ONLINE CONTENT

Since it is difficult to reasonably represent some contents in our eBook, we decided to provide some information online.

This applies especially to the Allergy and Intolerance Test and Diet plans as well as some of the food tables. You can view, print and download all of these online.

Don’t consider this offer as mandatory, rather as a useful supplement to the book.

The contents are available at the following URL:

http://www.tracemin.com/en/partners

To access these contents, you need to login as follows:

To keep you up to date, we will do our best to continually provide current information on the subject of allergies and food intolerance.

And we welcome your suggestions or critique. Report them to this address:

http://www.tracemin.com/en/contact

CHAPTER 1

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What Food Sensitivities can do to you

During the 20th century, life on earth changed dramatically. We discovered and used the atomic bomb. We also made it to the moon. We learned to transplant organs, implant babies, surgically change people’s looks and, with the use of drugs, are able to alter minds. Genetic engineering is almost mainstream.

By the time our children enter elementary school, most have successfully communicated with computers and know more about the universe and nuclear weapons than university professors imagined a few decades ago. Medical science practically wiped out many disabling diseases like smallpox, polio and diphtheria and developed the best emergency care ever known, prolonging life beyond that imaginable just a few years ago.

We have learned to manufacture everything from polyester suits to plastic shoes, use microwaves, drive automatic cars which remind us to fill the tank and buckle up, and with the punch a few button we are able to converse with people thousands of miles away. We watch television while sitting in prefabricated houses, eating TV dinners. We drink out of cans and have robots work as mechanics.

Life is easier now. If you don’t agree, try doing your laundry the old-fashioned way: boil water, scrub the clothes and carry them all down to the river for a good, long rinse. Then haul them back and hang them out to dry before you put the iron on the stove and press everything. I’ll take my washer and dryer any time.

Convenience is costly, however, and the price we pay is an ever increasing pollution problem that is becoming a threat to the health of us all. Electricity, gas and oil create pollution. So do cars, airplanes and industrial plants. Chemical, or environmental, allergies are a modern phenomenon. Food allergies however, although they are currently on the rise, have been around since the time of Hippocrates. This great physician suggested centuries ago that every physician strives to know what man is in relation to the articles of food and drink, and what the effects are of each of them to everyone.

Prominent medical allergists such as Dr. Theron Randolph, Dr. Marshall Mandell, Dr.