Specialties: Food Allergies

Food allergies have been called the great masqueraders because they are a hidden cause of so many problems. Unfortunately, food allergies can cause a person a great deal of stress as they tend to be underdiagnosed by primary care physicians and overdiagnosed by everyone else. Working with a team consisting of yourself and/or your child, an allergist, and a qualified dietitian will help ensure that you only eliminate necessary culprits and that you do this with confidence and ease.

Christina Can help you and/or your child with:

Single or multiple food allergies
Education and elimination of food allergens immediately after diagnosis or as a refresher later in diagnosis
Development of a nutrition plan to meet your unique needs with diagnosed food allergies
Manipulating recipes to create delicious allergy-free meals with minimal stress

By meeting with Christina and sitting down for a food allergy education, you will leave feeling confident on how to eliminate the allergy (-ens) from you current diet, how to quickly scan ingredient lists to find the key words identifing your allergen, and how to cook delicious and quick meals while keeping your body safe and healthy.

Allergy Terms You should Know

Food Allergy: an allergic reaction can vary in severity, but it is a reaction to a food not otherwise expected and targeting one of the following organs: the skin, the intestines, the respiratory passages, and the brain. When an allergy gets into your body and comes into contact with a targeted organ, your body's defensive antibodies come to the rescue. When the allergen and your antibodies fight one another, histamine is released which disturbs your tissues.

Food Intolerance: While an allergy is typically caused by the protein content of a food, an intolerance is more commonly due to an enzyme deficiency that makes the digestion of a food difficult. An intolerance will upset the intestines, possibly causing you abdominal discomfort/diarrhea/bloating, but does not irritate the other organs.

What is a Food allergy? What are Signs/Symptoms?

Our bodies can produce antibodies, immunoglobulin E (IgE), against certain foods. If that specific food is ingested and then binds with IgE, an allergic response will take place. Although food intolerances may also cause an abnormal response, it does not involve the immune system like food allergies do.

Most Common signs and Symptoms:

Hives, itching, or skin rash
Swelling of the lips, face, tongue and throat
Wheezing, nasal congestion, or breathing difficulty
Abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting
Dizziness, lightheadedness, or fainting

Anaphylaxis signs:

Swelling of the throat and air passages making breathing difficult
Shock, with a severe drop in blood pressure
Rapid, irregular pulse
Loss of consciousness

Major Food Allergens and Food labeling

In effect as of January 1, 2006, a comprehensive food labeling law required all food labels to clearly state whether the food contains a major food allergen.

A major food allergen, accounting for more than 90% of all food allergies, is one of the following foods or is an ingredient that contains protein derived from one of the following foods:

milk
eggs
peanuts
tree nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, pecans)
soybeans
wheat
fish
shellfish (such as crab, lobster, and shrimp)

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