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The threat of allergy is at its peak, with a new genre of allergy rising with every passing day. Allergies are essentially a situation in which your immune system responds too strongly to a stimulus. While this may sound good, it is a toxic and potentially deadly situation for your body. The pace at which allergy is replicating simply indicate the looming catastrophe ahead for human kind. Food allergy is one such evil manifestation which can challenge the intake of food or proper diet, putting human life at stake.

Common Food Allergies
The most common foods causing allergic reactions in adults include: shellfish such as shrimp, crayfish, lobster, and crab; peanuts, a legume that is one of the chief foods to cause severe anaphylaxis, a sudden drop in blood pressure that can be fatal if not treated quickly; tree nuts such as walnuts; fish; and eggs. Beside this, there are many food allergens causing allergies among children like eggs, milk and peanuts. But usually it is observed that children are ore likely to outgrow allergies to milk or soy than allergies to peanuts, fish or shrimp. The food that adults or children react to are those foods they eat often. For example in Japan, allergy to rice is more frequent than in Scandinavia, where codfish allergy is quite common.

Limiting the diet or food intake as you are wary about food allergy is not the solution for the problem. Many people suffering from food allergy unnecessarily avoid the proper intake of food making them their own victim of health. A study reveals that nearly 28 percent of parents thought their children to have at least one food allergy during their initial 2-3 days years of life. But it is rather a fear than a fact, as in reality only 8 percent children had food allergy.

Differential Diagnoses
People often mistaken food intolerance for food allergy. Food allergy occurs when the immune system mistakenly recognizes a food as harmful, and reacts against it. Allergic reactions can occur in the skin, respiratory system or gastrointestinal tract, causing swelling, hives, sneezing, nausea, abdominal pain, wheezing, shortness of breath or a drop in blood pressure. People can and do die from severe allergic reactions to food. Food intolerance occurs when the body has difficulty digesting food. It does not involve the immune system, generally causes milder reactions only in the gastrointestinal tract, and requires larger amounts of food to provoke a reaction. While both food intolerance and food allergy cause discomfort, food intolerance is not considered dangerous, and can sometimes be prevented with dietary supplements. So a differential diagnosis is needed for distinguishing food allergy from food intolerance or other illnesses.

Diagnosis of Food Allergy
We cannot deny the fact that food allergies can be serious and life-threatening, unless the food causing the allergic reaction is discontinued. But no need to make all those wild guesses and create panic about food intake resulting in inadequate nutrition. Self-diagnosis of food allergy can be a bit difficult, unless you keep a detailed food diary for 2-3 days before visiting a physician. It should include all details like what did you eat, when did you eat and how long after you ate it that you had a reaction and what were the symptoms and how long did they persist with or without any medication. Food diary is an easy and convenient way for patients to keep record of their food intake and its reactions so that the exact history can be passed on to the physician. This will help your physician to analyze your medical history and diagnose the problem as to what exactly is the cause for your food allergy helping you to eliminate that specific food from your diet.

Allergy Test
The fastest way to test allergies is the prick skin test; where a drop of extract from the suspected food is placed on the skin, and a tiny needle is used to prick the skin at the place of the drop. A patient who develops a reaction at the injection site may have an allergy. However, this test does not confirm the allergies and may even be falsely positive. So, the physician may carry out a blood test. The most common blood test, a radioallergosorbent test (RAST), measures the IgE antibodies to a specific food in your blood to get to know the allergen.

Treatment
The best treatment is to never eat the foods you are allergic to. Learn to read food labels and spot other names for problem foods. For example, milk may be listed as "caseinate," wheat as "gluten," and peanuts as "hydrolyzed vegetable protein." If you do eat a food you are allergic to, medicines can help. You may be able to stop a mild reaction by taking over-the-counter antihistamines. You may need prescription medicines if over-the-counter drugs do not help or if they cause side effects, such as making you feel sleepy.

If you have severe food allergies, your doctor will prescribe an allergy kit that contains epinephrine and antihistamines. An epinephrine shot can slow down or stop an allergic reaction. Your doctor can teach you how to give yourself the shot.

So a proper food and diet mechanism can be followed with proper diagnosis and treatment of food allergy, abstaining the food you are allergic to. So no need now to cut or control your diet as you need to eliminate only the allergic food from your staples.