How Food Allergies Develop
Let me ask you a question. In the morning when you wake up, do you leap out of bed full of energy ready to tackle a new day?
Or do you dread hearing the sound of the alarm clock, struggle to open your eyes, and then slowly stumble your way to the bathroom still half asleep?
If you are like most people you probably hate getting out of bed in the morning, and have got so used to feeling groggy and tired when you wake up, you just assume that it’s normal.
What you probably didn’t realise is that this is a classic symptom of a food allergy (food intolerance).
How Do Food Allergies Develop?     Â
When you put something into your body that is poisonous, harmful or simply not suited to your genetic makeup (I will get into this later), your body sends you an “alarm signal” to tell you to stop what you are doing.
This can come in the form of a headache, feeling sick or even just a bad taste.
But if you keep on putting the same thing into your body, eventually your body gets used to it and stops sounding the alarm. This is known as adaptation.
Why Do People Keep Putting Harmful Things In Their Body?
One of the best examples to illustrate this is smoking. When people first start smoking they often cough or feel faint. These are the first alarm signals, and the bodies way of saying “hey, this is no good for me, stop it!”
At this point most people will listen to their body, and not smoke another cigarette.
However if they choose to ignore the warning signals and keep smoking (usually due to peer pressure), eventually the body will get used to the poison (adaptation) and stop sounding the alarm.
Poison To SurviveÂ
Over time the body will begin to think it needs the poison to survive, and if it doesn’t get it, the person will experience withdrawal symptoms.
These can make them feel irritable or unwell, until they relieve those symptoms with another cigarette.
In the medical world this process is known as General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS for short.
Adaptation To The Wrong Foods
The same principle of adaptation, addiction and withdrawal (GAS) that occurs with smoking, also occurs with the food you eat.
This usually develops during childhood, by parents who forced their child to eat something because it was “good for them”.
For example, if you were told to drink milk because it was a good source of calcium, but your body did not tolerate it well, or you were allergic to it, eventually your body will get used to the milk (adaptation) and you will appear to tolerate it.
However in reality because you are consuming something that you are intolerant to, it is in fact slowly wearing your body down.
Eventually the adaptation will break down, and in your later years of life you may develop symptoms such as arthritis or asthma.
The next part of this article shall explore withdrawal symptoms from food.
Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Email This
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I’m willing to try anything if it promises to remove that groggy feeling I experience every morning. What I would like to see is a list of possible trouble makers. The idea is clear but what foods should I be watching.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 pm
This is something i will be writing about in the next few articles. However if you want to find out more immediately you can do so by listening to the radio interview from which these articles are based here
http://www.eruptingmind.com/everyone-has-food-allergy/