By Mark Pitstick, MA, DC

Continued from part 1 of this article…..

After 30 days of eliminating a food, re-introduce it to your diet and see if there are immediate inflammatory responses such as rash, itching, burning eyes or sinus drainage. Next, wait two days to see if any bowel, mental or musculo-skeletal symptoms arrive. If that food seems OK, add it to your diet but no more than three times per week. Then test another food until you’ve gone through the list of suspected food allergies.

In my opinion, a nutritional-based healthcare program is the best way to test for food allergies. The best ones I know of include Nutrition Response Testing, System Strength Analysis, Applied Kinesiology, Contact Reflex Technique, Bio-Meridian and Stressor Nutrient Balancing. Do a search for one of these techniques and find the best practitioner near you. Feel free to contact me if I can help you or your loved ones in any way.

These methods detect stressors such as food allergies and offending foods. Treatment includes avoiding offending foods for 90 days and perhaps taking digestive enzymes and/or betaine hydrochloride to facilitate elimination of food residues in the body.

Food allergies can also be nature’s way of saying it doesn’t like the quality of that food. For example, were the tomatoes you ate chemical-free or not? Was the beef grass-fed and pastured raised? Pasteurized milk from pen-raised cows receiving hormones and antibiotics is understandably more likely to cause health problems than certified raw dairy products from pasture raised cows.

Likewise, people are often allergic to “commercial eggs”—those from chickens raised in unhealthy conditions. In this case, the words “organic” and “free range” can’t be trusted due to business lobbyists affecting food-labeling laws. “Organic” chicken eggs can only mean that the hens were fed organic feed—even though they were raised in cramped cages. Similarly, “free range” eggs can mean that the chickens had access to a small concrete pen during half of their short lives.

Allergies to farm fresh or pastured hen eggs are rare and the eggs are more nutritious and healthy. Likewise, some people with wheat or other grain allergies can handle products from Europe that have not been subjected to genetic modification, herbicides and pesticides. Read books and articles by journalist Michael Pollan to learn more about this topic that is so important for the health of you and your family throughout the generations.

The health status of a person also affects what foods he or she is “allergic” to. For example, foods containing yeast (wine, beer, aged cheeses, bread, pretzels, cider) may be especially problematic for those with an overgrowth of yeast in their body. Also, if a person’s filtration organs (colon, liver, kidneys) are overwhelmed, a person may be “allergic” to more foods than if those systems were functioning normally.

By the way, some environmental allergies (pet hair, dust, mold, pollen, grass and other unavoidable particles) are actually secondary allergies because of primary food allergies. Many clinicians have found that “environmental allergies” decrease or disappear when food allergies are addressed

In short, becoming truly healthy and eating moderate amounts of healthfully raised foods may be the solution versus avoiding supposedly allergenic foods the rest of your life. Work with your health care practitioners to see how this applies to you.

– Mark Pitstick, B.S., M.A., D.C., has over forty years experience and training in hospitals, pastoral counseling settings, mental health centers, and holistic private practice. His training includes a premedical degree, graduate theology/pastoral counseling studies, masters in clinical psychology, and doctorate in chiropractic. His book Radiant Wellness: A Holistic Guide for Optimal Body, Mind and Spirit was endorsed by Drs. Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Bernie Siegel and others. Mark has been a frequent radio and TV guest and hosted a nationally syndicated radio show. He has presented many workshops on holistic health and spiritual awareness. He has been a review editor and regular contributor to many magazines and e-zines. Mark founded the Radiant Wellness Center and the Stressor-Nutrient Balancing healing method.

Disclaimer: Listing improvements of past patients’ problems does not imply a guarantee for those with similar conditions. I do not claim to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. I do teach people and health care professionals how to assist the body in healing itself of imbalances.