What is an Allergy?

Allergy was a term coined back in the early 1900s (1906) by a Clemens E. von Pirquet, an Austrian pediatrician famous for his work on bacteriology and immunology, and Bela Schick, known for the Schick test (testing for diphtheria).

Pirquet and Schick together coined the word allergy to describe a hypersensitivity reaction to horse serum. The word itself comes from "allos" which is Greek for "other" or "strange" and "ergon" which is Greek for "work" or "urge". So, an allergy is, simply put: a strange working in the body.

Nearly 6% of children and 1-2% of adults suffer from food allergies. In cases where people suffer from allergies, most people are allergic to about four foods and in rare cases more. Because of how important it is to know which food allergies one has, diagnosis should only be trusted from a medical professional.

It is also important to note that there are also differences between an allergy and an intolerance to food.

• Allergy: An allergy is a response from your immune system. Common food allergies include peanuts, tree nuts, milk/dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, yeast, chocolate and shellfish. (None of these foods will ever appear on Cooking with Limits.)
  
• Intolerance to food is a non-immune system response and is more common than food allergies. Like food allergies, intolerances can be severe or mild. Common intolerances include gluten, lactose, fructose and yeast. (None of these foods will ever appear on Cooking with Limits either.)

The biggest difference between an intolerance and an allergy is how you treat the two. For intolerance, it usually is a dose issue. So, you may be able to eat two cups of corn, but not three. With an allergy, even the slightest amount could send you to the ER.

Whether you are intolerant to certain foods or allergic to foods, the main treatment advised by most doctors is avoidance of the foods causing the problem. Obviously, there are cases where allergies are so severe that simply avoiding or limiting exposure to foods may not work and other treatments will be required.

Avoidance is challenging, however, avoidance is a reasonable treatment option: avoiding foods, while difficult, isn't on the same level of difficulty as going through years of chemotherapy. That being said, avoiding foods is easier if you know more about the food and know ways to make the foods in the limited diet taste better. And that is the point of Cooking with Limits.