6. Gastrointestinal Allergy (Food Allergy)

Food allergy is defined in the medical textbooks as "an uncommon symptom complex due to ingestion of specific food or drug allergens, manifested by nausea, vomiting, crampy abdominal pain, and diarrhea." According to The Merck Manual, gastrointestinal symptoms from food are often secondary to digestive enzyme defects as in celiac disease and disaccharidase deficiency.

Celiac disease is intestinal malabsorption characterized by diarrhea, malnutrition, a bleeding tendency and low calcium in the blood. The presence of this disease is just another symptom of toxicosis and an enervated state of the body. When the need for this "disease" is eliminated by the body, this condition will be corrected along with allergy symptoms.

Disaccharides are complex carbohydrates which must be broken down into two monosaccharides in order to be absorbed. This is accomplished by certain enzymes which are always present in healthy individuals. If a person is enervated and toxic, bodily functions are impaired and malabsorption may occur. If we remove the causes, the body will heal.

6.1 Symptoms

The severe but rare acute reactions to food are characterized by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and violent abdominal pains. Less severe reactions—chronic crampy pain, diarrhea and, Often, skin rash—are more common.

These are typical signs of not only food poisoning but any kind of poisoning where the body rejects this substance to protect its integrity.

6.2 Normal Digestion Entails Neither Indigestion Nor Allergy

Such affections as hay fever, asthma, eczema, certain cases of sinusitis, headache and other troubles are often attributed to food allergy. These symptoms indicate acute eliminative response involving a great tax upon the body and requiring the cooperative efforts of several organs. The chief concern is not with the character of the reaction but with the causes of the need for the reaction.

Dr. Shelton points out that if undigested proteins are injected into the body, they produce disease, while the same protein taken into the bloodstream after thorough digestion produces no trouble. He concludes that food allergy is due to failure of the digestive system to properly prepare the food for introduction into the blood. This failure may be due to the following reasons:

1. Weakness of the digestive function. Putrefactive bacteria in the intestinal tract decompose proteins and form toxic substances which may be absorbed. Toxicosis is present in all cases of allergy.
   
2. Unfitness of certain types of protein food for assimilative purposes. Many of the proteins of our conventional diet require a large amount of breaking down by the digestive juices, a task often beyond their powers. It taxes the strongest powers of digestion to deal, with the highly-complex animal albumens—the more complex these are, the more tax they place upon the organism. Allergy has never been observed as the result of a fruitarian diet.
   
3. Food taken in excess of the normal capacity of the digestive enzymes. All allergies result from a long-standing poisoning of the body by protein excess.
   
4. Foods taken under physical or psychological stress will not be digested properly. Wrong combinations of food, work, fatigue, fever, pain, fear, worry, anxiety and other emotional factors inhibit the digestive functions.
   
5. Proteins, if cooked, coagulate and do not digest. Their subsequent putrefaction results in many toxic byproducts.

Hygienists know that protein allergy is the outgrowth of toxicosis. An impairment of the nervous system due to toxicosis results in impaired digestion, checked elimination and a derangement of all of the nutritive and defensive faculties of the body.

Many of the organs of the body produce a substance called histaminase, which serves to neutralize histamine, thus defending the body against its influence. Any derangement of the nervous system and any general toxic state will result in the inability of the various organs and tissues to produce the neutralizing substances necessary to counteract the poisons entering the body from the digestive tract. Allergy is impossible in the healthy individual.

6.3 How Not to Create Food Allergies

In order not to have food allergies, you should take these simple measures:

1. Restore and maintain the efficiency of the digestive system. This can best be done by giving the digestive tract a thorough rest through a fast. After that, healthful living will maintain efficiency.
   
2. Eat only such protein foods to which we are biologically adapted. This would consist of the proteins found in fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
   
3. Do not consume proteins in excess of digestive capacity. When nuts or seeds are eaten, they should be limited to a maximum of 4 ounces per day. We can do very well on less than this, however.
   
4. Eat all foods in proper combinations and under such physical and emotional conditions that will not inhibit digestion.