The Increase of Allergies and Sensitivities
Allergies and sensitivities seem to be on the increase, more and
more people seem to be suffering from them nowadays. Food
allergies and sensitivities seem to especially be on the
increase and many health problems are associated with them.
What are the reasons for the increase in food allergies and
sensitivities over the past few years? The leading theories are
that a combination of consuming high amounts of similar foods on
a regular basis, consuming food with preservatives, consuming
foods with added food colourings, consuming foods with added
flavour enhancers, the use of antibiotics during rearing of
food, the use of herbicides and pesticides in production of food
are all playing havoc with our immune systems. The adulteration
of the food we eat by the food industries is making our immune
systems react to every day food.
It is believed that the average person eats the same ten foods
per week; this is a major facture in the increase of
hypersensitivity in today's modern society. Our digestive
systems are becoming insufficient which is allowing food
particles to retain their antigenicity and to enter our systemic
circulation which provokes our immune system to react to them as
they were a foreign protein. Food allergy and sensitivitivies
can cause health problems such as aches and pains, ADHD,
anxiety, arthriti, asthma, bloating, Celiac disease, chronic
fatigue, chronic infections, dizziness, eczema, enuresis (bed
wetting), fibromyalgia, hyperactivity, Irritable Bowel Syndrome,
lethargy, migraine, nausea, PMS, psoriasis, recurrent ear
infection, recurrent sinus infections, Rhinitis Sinusitis and
Urticaria.
Food sensitivities and allergies cause the body to be
constantly combating what it sees as a foreign invader, the
immune system expands large amounts of energy trying to defend
the body. This constant battle against what should be harmless
food proteins can lead the body to let in via the back door more
serious health problems such as cancers and autoimmune
conditions.
Life style and environment also plays a large part in the body's
susceptibility to allergies. Atmospheric pollution which is high
in busy cities has a detrimental effect on human health.
Examples of sources of pollution are burning fossil fuels,
agricultural spraying, smelting and waste incineration. Many
people find that their food allergies get better when they leave
city life. People are not only effected by outdoor pollution but
also indoor pollution, our homes are full of pollutants such as
formaldehyde, tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide,
asbestos, dust mites, toxins from plastics, xylene from paint,
toluene di-isocyanate from varnish.
The human body is constantly working in harmony; it's regularly
systems stopping trouble before it ever happens. Health problems
only occur when the body's defences become over run. This is
called body overload, it is important to understand body
overload to understand allergies. The human body can cope with
small amounts of different stressors such as stress,
environmental pollution, alcohol and nutritional deficiency all
of which are common in modern life. The problem comes when the
body tries to cope with more than one stressor and it reaches
its threshold level, it can only take one allergen and the
threshold will be reach causing all sorts of health problems.
This explains why someone who has a food allergy can eat that
food on holiday whilst they are relaxed and in a cleaner
environment, for example a beach holiday but when they come back
to their stressful city job they become unhealthy again. When
the human body gets affect by an allergen it will show up in its
weak organ, this is an organ that will show an allergic reaction
first. For example; someone with hay fever may well get a runny
nose - their target organ.
The human body is finding it hard to cope with life in the 20th
century because it has not really changed that much since the
Stone Age. On the other hand, life in the 20th century is very
different to that of what a Stone Age man would be used to. Our
ancestors did not eat grains or dairy foods, their diets
consisted of fresh meat and fish, fruits, nuts and water. In
contrast, our modern day diet consists of wheat, dairy products,
processed foods, refined foods, foods with additives and
preservatives, high amounts of salt within our food, foods
sprayed with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, microwave
foods, foods with high amounts of sugar, smoked meats and fish
and stimulants such as tea, coffee and alcohol. With this
nutritional bombardment upon our stone aged bodies it is no
wonder why allergies and sensitivities are on the increase.
Some scientists think that man has not adapted yet to tolerate
grain products as we only started to be cultivating grain ten
thousand years ago, a short time in evolution. This may explain
why allergies to wheat are very common.
Another modern day invention which was not around a lot in Stone
Age times is heat. Stone Age man eat a lot of raw food, cooking
destroys a lot of valuable nutrients and enzymes. Raw food also
needs a lot of chewing which not only breaks down the food but
also mixes essential digestive enzyme when it is in the mouth
enabling proper digestion of the food in the stomach. Today;
most processed and fast food is soft which does not help with
proper digestion.
In conclusion, modern day food that is produced by the food
industry is high in fat, high in sugar, highly process, high in
salt, high in chemicals and dowsed in pesticides, fungicides and
herbicides. Although our bodies have not changed much since the
Stone Age our diet is far from the simple foods that our
ancestors consumed. Adulterated food together with environmental
pollution and modern day stress that we endure in our city has
lead to the increase of allergies and sensitivities in the 20th
century.