Before you move on to the next chapter or skip ahead to a chapter you find more fascinating, I’d like to take the opportunity to dispel some of the most common myths about food allergies. By clearing any cloud of misinformation
from your brain, I can free up some space for the more accurate and useful information I present later in this book. The following list reveals the most common and tenacious myths:

It’s nothing more than a stomachache. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you have nothing more than a stomachache, but you should still have it checked out, especially if your stomach aches soon after you eat a specific food. Without an accurate diagnosis, you’re at a higher risk of experiencing a more severe reaction later and being unprepared to deal with it, if, in fact, it turns out to be allergy related.

A little taste can’t hurt. To your immune system, even a tiny amount of a problem food is enough to trigger an all-out attack. People with severe allergies can have life-threatening reactions when the same spatula used to serve a cookie containing the allergen is used to serve up their supposedly allergen-free cookie.

A tiny bit may actually help. Although some food allergy treatments call for exposing the immune system to increasing amounts of a known allergen to desensitize the immune system, trying to do this on your own is very dangerous.

Food allergies make me hyper. Food allergies are often blamed for psychiatric disorders, such as ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). Although food may play a role in the severity of the symptoms, food allergies are not the root cause or even a strong contributor. You’re better off seeing a psychiatrist and therapist to receive a proper diagnosis and treatment.

Epinephrine is a dangerous drug. Some doctors refuse to prescribe epinephrine, particularly for children, because they think it’s a dangerous drug. The fact is that epinephrine is a very safe drug, and for a huge majority of food allergy sufferers, the benefits far outweigh the risks.

You’re allergic to any food that causes problems. Foods can cause problems for all sorts of reasons, including other ingredients in the food, toxins, high concentrations of histamine, bacteria, and viruses. Don’t assume that just because a particular food gives you the collywobbles that you’re allergic to that food.

The peanut allergy is the most common. Peanut may very well be the most common allergy in some populations, but the prevalence of a particular food allergy varies according to age and culture. Kids are more likely to be allergic to peanuts, milk, and eggs, for example, while adults are more prone to seafood allergies. People of Jewish decent have a higher prevalence of allergy to sesame. In Japan and other countries in which fish is a staple, fish allergy is more common.

If you weren’t allergic to it before, you can’t be allergic to it now. As explained earlier in this chapter, in the section “Investigating the Conspiracy: Allergens and Other Contributing Factors,” the onset of a food allergy is brought on by a genetic susceptibility and exposure to the problem food. The more exposure to the problem food, the higher the risk of developing an allergy to it if you’re susceptible. However, some food allergies, including milk and egg allergies, tend to develop earlier in life, whereas seafood allergies tend to appear later in life.

Bona fide food allergies are rare. Approximately 7.5 percent of the population of the United States has a bona fide food allergy, and the incidents of food allergies seems to be on the rise.
I’m allergic to food additives. Food additives can trigger reactions, even severe reactions, but these are not allergic in nature. Reactions to food additives are chemical reactions that produce symptoms very similar and perhaps even identical to those of allergic reactions.

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