subject: How Food Additives Can Trigger Your Allergies [print this page] A common cause of food allergies is the food additives that we find in many of our foods. Whether we buy pre-packaged foods from the supermarket or eat in fancy restaurants, it can be hard to escape the sheer prevalence of additives in the foods that we eat. So what are the additives that we should be concerned about?
MSG is one of the more well known additives that many people know to avoid. MSG is often added to foods, especially Chinese foods, to enhance their flavor. Common symptoms experienced by those who are sensitive to MSG are palpitations of the heart, weakness, sweating, headaches, nausea, and tightening of the face.
People with asthma can also experience difficulty in breathing after eating foods with MSG. Another health problem, even among those who are not particularly sensitive to the additive, is that it is strongly suspected to be toxic to brain cells with the effect of triggering strokes, tumors, and other illnesses.
Sulfites are another group of additives that are added to thousands of foods. It is a great food preservative and can preserve food long beyond its normal shelf life. Among fresh fruits, you will most commonly find it on produce such as potatoes, greens, avacados and others.
You will also find it being added to certain fish. If you eat out in restaurants, and are addicted to salad bars, be aware the sulfites are very often added to the vegetables - again to extend their shelf life. And, among those wines that list the ingredients, you will often find it listed on the wine bottle as well. In short, it is hard to avoid sulfites. Unfortunately, especially for asthmatics, sulfites have a reputation of triggering severe and sometimes life threatening reactions in them.
If you have a child who is experiencing rashes, skin eruptions, hives and the like, try this experiment. For at least two weeks, put them on a food diet that includes zero additives in their foods. If current studies are accurate, approximately 75 percent of these kids will have a decrease in their symptoms in that period of time.
This alone shows just how much effect that the addition of additives can have on our well being. Every parent should, as much as possible, try to eliminate as many foods with additives from their and their children's diet.
Preservatives are a godsend for food producers in helping to keep their products looking fresh and tasty for longer periods of time. At some point, however, all of us who eat these additives will have to make our own determination as to whether the benefits are worth the assault on our health.
