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