Food Intolerance

Editor -I was disappointed with judy Butriss's article on food allergies and intolerance.1 The usual hostility was displayed to ideas that cannot be proven and science was used as an excuse to reject outright the idea of food intolerance.

The issues of food allergy and food intolerance were confused and presented as one, it seems, in order to invalidate any opinion other than medical opinion. This was sad, as the author refused to acknowledge the fact that many people have experienced improved health once they restricted their diets to foods that did not cause any kind of deleterious response—defined by the exacerbation of certain chronic conditions such as fatigue, asthma, gout, acne, etc. It is easy for someone who has no experience of a traditional or alternative health craft to denigrate it. Absence of proof is not proof of absence, and applies in this case.

I have chronic asthma and have heard that, in the case of people with asthma, intolerances to wheat and dairy products are evident. Both apparently cause increased mucus production in the respiratory tract. I have also heard that avoidance of these foods would result in considerable cessation of symptoms of dyspnoea and productive cough. I was initially sceptical to say the least as little was ever mentioned of this in our medical “bibles.”

By chance, I ran out of brown bread one day and neglected to buy any for the next two days. My normally three times a day dyspnoeic episodes started clearing within a week. By avoiding wheat products for an additional week I experienced only one episode. The next week when I experimented by decreasing my intake of dairy products I experienced no nasal congestion for the first time in my life and found that my breathing was considerably easier. On some days I actually forgot to take my medication, such was my symptomatic relief.

I am not the first person with asthma who has reported relief of symptoms of their condition on reducing consumption of certain foods and I assure you I will not be the last. My symptom relief cannot be explained by medical science as yet. Am I lying, or perhaps in a state of “self delusion?”

I believe that my experience and that of many people who have found an improvement in their health on removing certain foods from their diets says more than any article written by someone who does nothing more than parrot the existing medical view towards nutritional therapy. To anyone interested I would recommend Nutritional Medicine by Dr Stephen Davies and Dr Alan Stewart.

Tarek S Arab, sixth year medical student, King Abdul Aziz University Medical School, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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studentBMJ 2002;10:1-44 February ISSN 0966-6494

1. Buttriss j. food intolerance: sifting the facts from the fantasies. studentBMj 2001;9:416.7. (November 2001.)