Food Allergy

Food allergy is an adverse reaction resulting from an inappropriate immunological response to a food antigen. It usually presents itself as a multi-system involvement. Definitive treatment of food allergy is strict elimination of the offending food from the diet. Symptomatic reactivity to food allergens is generally very specific, and patients rarely react to more than one food in a botanical or animal species. If elimination diets are prescribed, care must be taken to ensure that they are palatable and nutritionally adequate. Patients must have a good knowledge of foods containing the allergen and must be taught to scrutinise the labels of all packaged food carefully. This book examines the effects of food allergies, as well as the various treatments that are available for this condition.