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  Allergy Matters: New Approaches to Allergy Prevention And Management
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 The amount of wheat and gluten-free foods on our shelves has doubled in the last three years as many people have stopped eating wheat, thinking it causes allergies leading to weight gain, tiredness and sneezing. But in truth a wheat allergy is very rare and the real issue is wheat intolerance.
Only about two per cent of people suffer from a proper wheat allergy, where the sufferer gets a rapid, intense reaction like a swelling or a rash within minutes of eating a certain food, and most people who complain of a wheat allergy never get these intense, quick reactions.
What people actually suffer from is bloating, low mood and fatigue, which is not an allergy but an intolerance.
One of the main problems is no one knows exactly what triggers sensitivity to a particular food or why it causes issues in the body. One theory suggests that eating a food too often triggers a malfunction in the digestive enzymes which normally digest the food correctly, meaning it remains in the system too long and causes problems.
Intolerance could also be caused by a condition caused leaky gut, where the lining of the gut becomes damaged and the normal process of breaking food down into simple molecules that are easily absorbed no longer functions optimally.
Food poisining or a mineral deficiency could cause leaky gut and as the molecules do not enter the bloodstream as they should the body sees them as invaders and attacks them triggering problems such as sneezing, bloating or fluid retention as the body tries to eliminate or reduce the "poison" invader.
Wheat might be an issue as of all the foods we eat wheat has the potential to be in very single food. We commonly follow diets of cereal (breakfast), sandwiches (lunch) and pasta (dinner) thereby placing wheat in each and every meal. Even if we avoid obvious foods such as these wheat is still found as a flavour stabiliser in foods such as yoghurts and soy sauce.
The wheat we eat today also contains higher levels of lecithins, which can trigger allergies and raise proteins which lead to coelic disease, an intolerance to the protein found in wheat called gluten.
However, before you ditch all wheat and wheat containing products it's important to ensure symptoms are not caused by other factors such as obesity, depressioj or low libido. Symptoms can be a result of lifestyle and not necessarily a food allergy.
If you have symptoms such as bloating, fluid retention, nasal congestion, headaches, extreme fatigue or joint pains after eating wheat then it may be worth trying an elimination diet to see if there's a link.
To do an elimination diet you need to cut out wheat from your diet for one to two weeks and keep a symptom diary to see if any changes appear. You then reintroduce a food to see if it causes the symptoms again. An elimination diet should be followed under the supervision of a doctor and if you have symptoms such as wheezing or swelling or sever intolerance symptoms you must always consult a doctor.
You should also note that two or three days into your elimination diet symtpoms may appear as a result of withdrawl from a trigger or suspect food. If the symptoms don't appear when they're reintroduced there's no intolerance. If symptoms do appear then you will need to find out your tolerance or threshold to wheat containing foods.
Just because you have an intolerance it does not mean you'll never be able to eat the food again. Simply cutting down to a smaller serving or one serving a day or every other day can be enough to control symptoms.
You may also find that after a period of reduced exposure to a food or complete avoidance of a food you will be able to start eating it again at some stage in the future.
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