Eventually, with the help of a treatment called neutralisation therapy, she was able to bring the symptoms under control again. She established that she was originally sensitive to wheat, oranges and milk, and that she had acquired new food sensitivities during the early stages of the elimination diet by eating too much of certain foods, such as bananas and rice. By a mixture of dietary restrictions and ongoing neutralisation therapy, she improved considerably. The eventual outcome was that she was substantially better than she had been at the outset, although she never regained the really excellent state of health that she experienced in the second week of the diet. If she had had detailed guidance about the elimination diet, and clear advice concerning the pitfalls of eating too much of any one food, she would undoubtedly have got through the elimination diet successfully in the first place, would not have developed new food sensitivities, and would have been healthier overall at the end of the treatment.
Food allergy is an all-out reaction by the immune system against food.
The symptoms are usually centred on the mouth, lips and tongue, and although some people have nothing more than an odd tingling sensation after eating certain foods, for others the symptoms are very violent with swelling around the mouth and throat, and a sharp drop in blood pressure that produces general collapse and can be life-threatening. This frightening reaction is known as anaphylactic shock. Except in a few rare cases, it comes on within minutes of tasting the food. Food intolerance is nothing like this. It comes on much more slowly after eating the food for one thing, and the foods to blame are often those eaten very regularly, such as wheat or milk, so that the symptoms from one meal tend to overlap with those from another meal.