Tag Archives: Food

Food

Health Food Stores Battle Food Allergies

At health food stores, customers are complaining about food allergies more often now with statements like, “I can’t eat this”, or “I can’t eat that.” Why do so many people, especially those who frequent health food stores, believe they have food allergies? It’s funny, I’ve never heard anyone say, “I’m allergic to coffee, cookies, cakes, popcorn, pizza or candy”, and yet these are things that people ingest regularly without a second thought. So, what’s up with all these health food store shoppers who have food allergies?

Food allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to a protein molecule in the offending food. This can happen even with those who stick to food from health food stores. The body is unable to break down that particular protein molecule, so it reacts by trying to “get rid of it”. It produces a chemical called ‘histamine’ and symptoms appear in the form of rashes, hives, itching, wheezing, breathing problems, and lots of mucus being expelled through the mouth, nose, ears, lungs, or sexual organs. More serious reactions from food allergies are: vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness, drop in blood pressure, or even death.

Intolerance to certain foods is different than true food allergies, and this is a more common complaint at health food stores. With food intolerances like lactose intolerance, where a person has difficulty breaking down the sugar in the milk, the symptoms are much milder. One may have some bloating, excess gas, cramping or diarrhea. While food intolerance is unpleasant, it is not life threatening like food allergies can be in some severe cases. The usual distresses are intolerances to wheat, soy, dairy and anything at health food stores that the shopper feels is too expensive.

The question that customers at health food stores ought to ask is not, “What food am I allergic to?” But rather, “Why is my immune system reacting to what should be health food?”

When determining specific food allergies and intolerances, some factors to consider are:
1. What is the trigger food?
2. When am I eating the trigger food?
3. Am I improperly combining fruits and vegetables or grains or meat and dairy?

The list can be quite exhaustive to hunt down the offending trigger food and how it is being consumed. In fact, most food allergy experts will tell you to keep a diary of everything you eat, and when you find the trigger food to just avoid eating it. Well, that sounds simple, but if you react to many things, including those that should be health food, it’s not so simple? Of course, you can eliminate the most common triggers to food allergies like: corn, wheat, eggs, dairy, and peanuts, but if that doesn’t work, then what? The truth is, your immune system can overreact to many substances. The best way to address food allergies is to strengthen your immune system and get in balance with all the systems of the body. Shop health food stores for specific foods to feed your 5 main systems equally: immune, endocrine, digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems. This may be difficult at typical health food stores, but searching online will produce results.

When you feed all your body parts with healthy, whole food nutrients, and eliminate the fake, processed foods in your life, your 5 systems can come into a perfectly natural balance. Then you can eat what you know you should be eating. It is better to strengthen the body’s systems with properly combined health food and ward off illness and disease the natural way. When you consume the right nutrients, the body operates at optimum levels for a more relaxed, healthy life. You have access to so much good nutrition at health food stores and plenty of options for avoiding food allergies or intolerances that it’s a shame to limit your choices unnecessarily.

Food

Bad Foods For Diabetics – Avoid These 5 Foods

If you have diabetes, you are forbidden from eating certain foods! They are the foods high in carbohydrates, and foods high in fat. Refined sugar is another bad food for diabetics. You should also put an end to consuming excessive alcohol, and tobacco products. It is absolutely needed that you should avoid bad foods for diabetics. If you are aware of the foods to keep off, you will have more chance to keep off diabetes from you, or at the most you can manage your diabetic condition with ease. Here you have a brief description of the diabetic foods that are considered as bad for diabetics.

Foods high in Starch

Starches are nothing but carbohydrates whose function is to convert the consumed food into glucose. Glucose is the energy source for your body following digestion of foods. Starches can be had in great quantity from breads, rice, cereals, and root vegetables. Starch foods should not be consumed in large volume as they are bad foods for diabetics. However, carbohydrate foods should not be totally discarded from your menu. For instance, potatoes are high in starch but they are good source of protein to build your body. So you cannot keep off high carb foods as a whole. Eat a little bit!

Fatty high in fats

There are foods high in saturated fats which you should avoid as far as possible when you have diabetes. These foods include butter, margarine, and whole milk. Dietary products such as cheese and ice-cream are not at all recommended for diabetics as they are highly forbidden as bad foods for diabetics. Whole milk is to be curtained from consuming as fats form the prime component.

Refined sugars

If you have sugar intakes in the form of direct sugar, high fructose syrup, and candy sweets you will notice rise in sugar with these foods. But you cannot completely avoid all sugar. Indeed, you need to consume certain foods with less sugar ingredient in different forms of foods or small snacks.

Cholesterol foods

Cholesterol part of any food is harmful for health as it may worsen diabetic condition and increasing blood sugar in the bloodstream. Egg yokes, organ meats like liver, and brain are very bad foods for diabetics.

Excessive Alcohol drinks

Though alcohol is a pleasant drink to warm up your body, its role to control blood sugar is zero. Indeed, consuming excessive alcohol worsens the diabetic condition and spoils your health starting from damaging your liver, and then heart.