In desperation, the secretary suggested that Henderson relax with the office staff in the afternoon and have a snack. Once he did so she was able to comprehend his words and directions somewhat better. For this man, a snack meant only one thing: eggs. In fact, he had eggs for breakfast, egg salad for lunch, and some dessert containing eggs at dinner almost every day. His secretary literally “egged him on” to have eggs at break time, as well.

When I finished taking this man’s history I told him, “Mr. Henderson, I think you are allergic to eggs.”

He jumped from his chair and said, “Doctor, you obviously didn’t understand what I just told you! Let me repeat it: eggs are the one food I know agrees with me. Now you tell me I may be allergic to them. That doesn’t make any sense to me at all.” He was clearly on the point of walking out of the office. He knew what he was allergic to and what he wasn’t. This episode took place in the late 1940s. I had just finished a rather intensive study of drug addiction and had privately reached the conclusion that food allergy and drug addiction were aspects of the same problem. I decided to explain the problem to Henderson in terms of addiction. I explained that he seemed to have a three-hour “high” from eggs, after which he started to come down, with attendant symptoms of confusion and fatigue. He had to eat eggs every three hours or so in order to remain “high.”

This made some sense to him, and he agreed to take a test to prove its validity. Since it takes between two and three days to clear any particular meal from the intestines, Henderson ate no eggs, or product containing eggs, during the next few days. He suffered from withdrawal symptoms, and was so weak that he could not get out of bed to go to work.

He began to feel better after the eggs were entirely out of his system. Then he came back to my office, where he was fed eggs in a testing room. Within less than an hour, he had returned these eggs, through violent projectile vomiting, halfway across the room. He was terribly embarrassed, but amazed to see that his “favorite” food really did not agree with him at all.

By staying off eggs for six months or so he was able to break his addiction to them. After that, he was able to reintroduce eggs into his diet, but only once every four days, in order to prevent the addiction from reforming. By controlling this and other food allergies, he was able to restore his ability to think and dictate clearly.

Henderson’s case is fairly typical of food allergies in general. The man had multiple symptoms, including some which are vaguely called “mental” problems. Yet they were not “mental,” in the usual sense of that term: they stemmed from actual, physical exposures, and not from psychological conflicts.

The basis of the problem lay hidden from sight and could not be readily deduced by the patient himself. In fact, common sense had led him to believe that eggs relieved his symptoms, when, in fact, they caused them.

The relationship between eggs and Henderson’s fatigue was suspected on the basis of his history, but it was demonstrated by an actual feeding test, a procedure which will be described more fully later.

One should not conclude from this story that eggs, in and of themselves, are somehow particularly addicting and dangerous. One could substitute any commonly eaten food, or combination of foods, in this story, and it would still be realistic.

Food allergy is the result of an interaction between an individual and his own particular environment. Whether or not a person actually develops a food allergy depends, first of all, on his ability to react. Anyone can develop such an ability, but people with a family history of-allergy have a greater chance of becoming sick in this way. If a patient tells me that he suffers from hay fever, for example, or that one or both of his parents does, I am more likely to suspect the existence of food allergies in his case. But a lack of overt allergies is no guarantee that the person cannot develop hidden food allergies.

Second, the development of such allergies depends on exposure. The more frequently a person is exposed to a food, the greater is his tendency to become addicted. An unusual, massive exposure can also trigger a susceptibility problem. Some patients, for example, appear able to tolerate wheat in moderate doses. But a big spaghetti dinner might bring on obvious symptoms. As can be seen from the addiction pyramid (page 18), the most rapidly absorbed portions of food, such as sugars and alcohols, are more readily addicting than more slowly absorbed foods.

Even more addicting than foods per se are food-drug combinations. These include alcoholic beverages, which are mixtures of ethyl alcohol and various food fractions. Alcoholism is, in a sense, the acme of the food-addiction problem (see Chap. 10). Coffee is a natural combination of a food (the coffee bean) and a drug—caffeine. Some kinds of coffee contain 2.5 percent caffeine. Chocolate, cola drinks, and tea are similar food-drug mixtures.

Despite the fact that our culture treats these beverages as harmless foods, many researchers now consider them to be potentially harmful mixtures of food and drugs. Caffeine, even in modest amounts (a few cupfuls of tea or coffee), can affect the heart rate, heart rhythm, blood-vessel diameter, coronary circulation, blood pressure, urination, and other bodily functions.5 Knowing the billions of doses in which these substances are taken and the often compulsive way in which people crave their favorite beverage, one begins to suspect the existence of a widescale food-addiction problem in the United States.

Other environmental factors which may cause addictions include tobacco, drugs, and environmental chemicals. All of these may have a cumulative effect. Pollens, dusts, molds, danders, and other inhaled substances are less apt to be associated with addictive responses because exposure to them is seasonal or intermittent.

It is natural to want to know how common these food allergies or addictions are. In my experience, food allergy is one of the greatest health problems in our country. Combined with the chemical-susceptibility problem, which is discussed later, it is a growing source of ill health and particularly of those chronic, vaguely defined problems which almost never respond to conventional medical treatment.

Marshall Mandell, M.D., author of a recent book on allergies, has estimated that “50 to 80 percent of the daily medical practice of many doctors” is the result of allergy and chemical susceptibility.6 The late Dr. Arthur Coca believed that as many as 90 percent of all Americans had one or more food allergies.7

Many of the people reading this book are probably suffering from some form of these problems; and the majority of their chronic illnesses which do not respond well to conventional therapy are probably caused by some undiagnosed allergy or susceptibility.

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Unfortunately the process is very slow (even the best filters only produce 5 gallons a day) and uses up large amounts of tap water to produce a relatively small amount of filtered water (up to 10 gallons per filtered gallon). Many of the natural minerals in the water are removed at the same time, leaving a product with an indifferent taste. Without minerals, water loses its characteristic flavour, and since we probably need certain amounts of minerals in our water, this highly purified water may not even be very healthy.

More worryingly, a few molecules can get through the membrane along with the water, including some chlorinated compounds which are known to be injurious. These tend to concentrate in the filtered water, making the original problem worse. This difficulty is easily overcome, however, by combining the reverse osmosis unit with an activated carbon filter. Systems of this type produce a water of very high purity, which may be needed by some patients with severe chemical sensitivities. However, the problem of low mineral content has still to be overcome, and anyone drinking this sort of water constantly may need a mineral supplement. Expense and slow filtering speed are the other main drawbacks to this type of system.

Some doctors report that patients with extreme sensitivity to chemicals react to water that has been in contact with plastic, because minute quantities of material leach out of the plastic into the water. This is unlikely to be true except for a tiny minority of highly sensitive patients. Where such problems are suspected, reverse osmosis units in non-leaching plastic or stainless steel housing are a possible solution. The former are available in Britain, but stainless steel units are only sold in the USA, and the cost of importing one is likely to be very high. Check that plastics really are the source of the problem before pursuing this option. Drinking mineral water in glass bottles for a while should provide a good test. If you are s’till having problems on this type of water, write to the manufacturer to check that the water is not stored in plastic before bottling. Always bear in mind that it could be something other than water causing your symptoms.

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Celery, fennel and celeriac

Avocado pears Lettuce

Swede (can be eaten raw, grated, in salads, as well as cooked)

Watercress Spinach Alfalfa sprouts

Okra (also called bhindi, or ladies’ fingers) Asparagus

Meat and fish

Turkey

Duck

Goose

Rabbit

Pheasant or other game Lamb

Fish (except smoked fish and shellfish)

Fruit

Gooseberries

Blackcurrants

Redcurrants

Bananas

Pears

Kiwi fruit

Mangoes

Pomegranates

Lychees

Passion fruit

Guavas

Starchy foods

Rice

Millet

Buckwheat

Turnips

Parsnips

Yams

Sweet potatoes Plantains Wild rice

Tapioca Sago

Chestnuts

Chickpeas (also a good source of protein) Pumpkin

Oils

Olive oil Sunflower oil Safflower oil Rapeseed oil

Coconut oil and creamed coconut

Snacks

Pumpkin seeds Macadamia nuts Pistachio nuts Cashew nuts Brazil nuts Pine nuts

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The major domestic allergens are house-dust mite, moulds, and particles of animal skin. Suggestions for eliminating these are given on pp66-8. If the child has not shown eczema or any other allergic symptoms by its first birthday, then pets can probably be allowed into the house again, but watch the child for symptoms and bear in mind that these can take some time to develop.

The other major airborne allergen is pollen, which is best avoided by planning the time of birth (if you can!). A baby born between September and February has the best chance of escaping hay-fever, while one born in March or April runs the greatest risk. If one or both parents is a hay-fever sufferer this particular form of family planning may be worthwhile.

Apart from allergens, there are various non-specific irritants that can make allergies more likely. Tobacco smoke is one and industrial air pollution another. A study in Sweden found that asthma and hay-fever were more common in children living near a paper factory than those living in an unin-dustrialized area. Children whose parents smoked showed more allergic problems, and so did those whose houses were built on badly drained land. The researchers concluded that these houses had more moulds growing in them. The highest risk of asthma and hay-fever was in children who were exposed to the mould allergen and to both forms of pollution – factory fumes and tobacco smoke.

Infections of the throat and chest can sometimes trigger off allergic reactions. Exactly why this should happen is not known, but there is evidence that viruses can have various unexpected effects on immune cells in the area. One effect may be to make IgE production more likely. All babies get colds and coughs, of course, and there is no point in worrying about this too much. But if there is a way of reducing exposure to infections then try to do so. For children with very high IgE levels, keeping them away from creches and playgroups until three years of age may be advisable – many infections are picked up at such gatherings. There needs to be quite a severe risk of allergy to make this worthwhile however, and the benefits to mother and child of attending such groups will usually outweigh the risk.

Any severe form of stress can also trigger allergies in the susceptible child. Serious illness or surgery during the first year of life is one such stress, and unnecessary surgery is best postponed.

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The proper name for Matthew’s condition is the hyperkinetic syndrome – although hyperactivity is often used as a diagnostic label, it is actually just one aspect of that syndrome. Other terms used for this collection of symptoms are minimal brain dysfunction and attention deficit disorder.

Estimates of the prevalence of hyperactivity range from 1 per cent to 20 per cent. Boys appear to outnumber girls by about five to one, but it may be that girls with the problem are less overtly hyperactive, and tend to display more subtle symptoms, such as inattention, speech disorders and mood changes, which may not always be identified as hyperkinetic syndrome.

The aggressive, destructive behaviour that is often seen in hyperkinetics usually develops later than the other symptoms, and may be largely a response to feelings of frustration that stem from the other symptoms. Hyperactive children may ‘grow out of it’ in time, but this takes a long time and their behaviour tends to get worse before it gets better. Their inability to concentrate or order their thoughts means that they generally do not learn much at school, even though they may be quite intelligent. Some have difficulty in writing and spelling. There is evidence of criminality and psychotic behaviour in some hyperkinetics when they reach adulthood, so it is advisable to try to sort out the problem sooner rather than later.

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The best illustration of this is the failure to identify wheat as a factor in coeliac disease until the 1940s. It took a famine in Holland at the end of World War II to remove wheat from the diet, and an observant doctor to recognize that his coeliac patients were miraculously cured. Similarly, the islanders of Guam have traditionally used the seeds of the false sago palm, a type of cycad, as food. Although they suffered from a high incidence of senile dementia, no-one made any connection between this and the cycad seeds. But in the 1950s an epidemic of dementia began, which continues to this day. Scientists have traced it back to the war years, when Guam was occupied by the Japanese, food was desperately scarce, and the islanders-had to rely heavily on false sago palm as a result. A constituent of the seeds has proved to be responsible for degeneration of the nerves and brain.

A third example comes from China, where a cancer survey showed an unusually high level of oesophageal cancer in one province (the oesophagus is the tube that leads from the mouth to the stomach). The local tradition of making pickled vegetables in huge vats which were left to mature for months proved to be the cause. The thick layer of mould that grew on the pickles was producing carcinogens (cancer-producing compounds) which seeped into the pickles. Even though the mould was scraped off before the pickles were eaten, enough carcinogens were there to give susceptible people cancer.

The moral of these stories is not that food in general can cause fatal diseases – the cycad seeds and mouldy pickles are extreme in that respect. The important lesson to be learned here is that history is sometimes a poor guide to diet.

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