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WHAT DO FOOD ADDITIVES INCLUDE FOR APPENDIX VI

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:57:57 +0000

Preservatives, E200-297. These prevent bacteria and fungi from decaying the food. Over 40 are approved for use in Britain, and the amount that can be used is limited by law. Those most dangerous to health are the nitrates and nitrites (E249-252) which have been used for hundreds of years to make bacon and ham – they are potentially carcinogenic. Because of the long tradition of use, and the fact that the characteristic flavour of bacon cannot be produced in any other way, these preservatives are difficult to outlaw.

Preservatives are used in almost all wines (but see p333). One group of preservatives, the benzoates (E210-219) sometimes seem to cause sensitivity problems in people who are also sensitive to aspirin and/or tartrazine (El 02). The sulphites, metabisulphites and sulphur dioxide (E220-227) can trigger off asthmatic attacks because they have an irritant effect on the airways.

Antioxidants, E300-321. These stop fats and oils from going rancid. These are restricted to certain foods and the amount used is limited by law. Those most likely to cause health problems are BHA and BHT, (E320 and 321). One study showed BHT to cause behaviour disorders in animals.

Emulsifiers, stabilizers and thickeners,

(E322-495). These improve texture. The

amount that can be used is not limited, but they are restricted to certain foods. Several of those permitted in Britain are banned by the EEC because they are potential carcinogens – these include E430, E433 and E435.

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THE ELIMINATION DIET/STAGE 2: REINTRODUCTION PHASE

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:45:37 +0000

Wait until you have been free of symptoms for two or three days, but don’t wait any longer than this. Begin by testing foods that are probably not the cause of any trouble – things you do not eat every day. Choose items that you like – if the foods pass the test, then you can incorporate them into your menus, which will allow you to eat less of the exclusion-phase foods. Throughout the reintroduction phase it is vital that you keep your diet varied and do not eat too much of any one food. In particular, do not eat any one food every day. Continue to record everything you eat, and your symptoms – if something goes wrong, this record will prove invaluable.

Only test one food at a time. Eat a normal-sized portion of the food in question, for lunch and supper. Notice any changes that occur at the time, or later in the evening, or the following day. Most symptoms will show up within this timespan, although bowel symptoms may take longer – they can occur anywhere between four and 48 hours after the food is eaten.

If there is no reaction by the following day, eat two portions of the food again. Should you get no reaction this time then repeat for a third day. If there is still no reaction, then the food can be considered safe, but avoid it again for four days (to offset any possible effect of eating it for three days in succession) before beginning to eat it once more.

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PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR FOOD ALLERGY

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:32:17 +0000

The aim of the preventive measures described here is to reduce the child’s exposure to potent allergens, and other factors that can trigger off allergy, during the early phases of life. The measures are relevant to any Type-1 (IgE-mediated) reaction to food, whether that food causes an immediate, violent reaction centred on the mouth and lips, or a much more delayed reaction such as asthma or eczema. In general, however, the former are more difficult to prevent, because the child can become sensitized by such minute amounts of food. In the case of asthma, rhinitis and eczema, a mixture of allergens may produce symptoms: the effect of allergens in food may be exacerbated by inhaled allergens such as pollen, or by allergens touching the skin. For this reason, any preventive measures must include inhalants and contactants as well as foods.

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FOOD PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN: A LINK BETWEEN THE FOODS THE MOTHER ATE AND HER BABY’S SYMPTOMS

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:17:12 +0000

Interestingly enough, the researchers did notice a link between the foods the mother ate and her baby’s symptoms. They observed that the colic was worst in those babies whose mothers ate all the commonly implicated foods such as milk, eggs, chocolate, nuts and fish. The fewer foods the mother ate from this list, the less severe was the colic. They concluded that the mother’s diet ‘may influence the likelihood of infantile colic in breast-fed children, but that the source of the colic cannot be attributed to a single dietary component [ie milk]. It may however involve a variety of foodstuffs.’ Despite this clear statement of their findings, this paper is widely quoted as showing that there is no link between colic and maternal diet.

Other evidence supporting the second point of view comes from a retrospective study of 68 children with proven sensitivity to cow’s milk. When the medical history of these children was investigated, it turned out that a very high proportion had persistent screaming and colic as babies. This is only circumstantial evidence for a link between food sensitivity and colic, of course, but it is of interest. And it gives support to the idea that treating the colic is important, because the children in the study all had serious health problems as a result of their sensitivity to milk – problems that might have been avoided if they had been taken off cow’s milk at an earlier age.

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DIAGNOSING FOOD INTOLERANCE

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:30:57 +0000

Skin-prick tests do not work in the case of food intolerance, as we have already seen, and sadly there are no other simple tests to take their place. The only reliable way to discover if a food is causing illness is to eliminate it from the diet, then reintroduce it and observe what happens. This is not as easy as it sounds, because few people are sensitive to just one food, and eliminating different foods one at a time rarely has any substantial effect. All the offending foods have to be cut out simultaneously for an improvement in health to occur. Without such a return to health, the effect of individual foods cannot be tested, simply because the symptoms vary so much from day to day anyway.

The standard test used for diagnosing food intolerance is die elimination diet, in which all or most of the commonly eaten foods are avoided for a period of one to three weeks. If an improvement in health occurs, then foods are reintroduced individually and their effect assessed. Every doctor working in this field has a slightly different approach to the elimination diet – some begin with a complete fast, others allow anything from two to 50 foods in the initial stage – but the results show a remarkable consistency. The patient often feels a great deal worse initially, but then recovers fairly spectacularly on day six or seven. Occasionally the process takes a little longer, but if there is no improvement after about three weeks then the diet should be abandoned. Detailed advice on how to carry out an elimination diet, how to prepare for it, and what to do afterwards, are given in Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen.

The elimination diet is a fairly lengthy and tiresome procedure, and sometimes the results are not entirely clear-cut. But it is the only diagnostic process that can be recommended. Some of the alternatives on offer from both doctors and fringe practitioners are considered on pp96-98, and readers are urged to look carefully at this section before wasting time and money on bogus diagnostic tests.

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