A Brief History of Food Allergies - an excerpt from The Super Allergy Girl - Allergy & Celiac CookbookTM

 

It is relevant, pertinent, and quite important to provide a brief review of the history of food allergy. This chapter is included to give you power in the form of information so that you can begin to explore your relationship to food as it relates to your health and wellness. For more than two thousand years there has been medical recognition that food can cause illnesses, diseases and health concerns for some people. Hippocrates was a Greek physician who is considered to be the Father of Medicine according the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Over two thousand years ago Hippocrates wrote about the negative efects that food could have on diferent people:

“For cheese does not prove equally injurious to all men, for there are some who can take it to satiety, without being hurt by it in the least, but, on the contrary, it is wonderful what strength it imparts to those it agrees with; but there are some who do not bear it well, their constitutions are diferent, they difer in this respect, that what in their body is incompatible with cheese, is roused and put in commotion by such a thing; and those in whose bodies such a humor happens to prevail in greater quantity and intensity, are likely to sufer the more from it. But if the thing had been pernicious to the whole nature of man, it would have hurt all.”

What this quotation from Hippocrates means to you as a consumer is that since the beginning of medicine there has been a signifcant acknowledgment that food can cause health problems. Tis is not the society that we live in today. For the most part, this knowledge base, which is rich with substantial scientifc research, has all but disappeared from our culture. For that reason, I believe that it is important for consumers to have an understanding of the history of food allergies as it has evolved over time. Historically, physicians were recognized for being able to treat their patients’ illnesses by diet manipulation. Tat means that throughout history, doctors treated illness by changing a patient’s diet.

Click here for the complete paper: A Brief History of Food Allergies
 


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