Allergies to food are becoming an epidemic in the United States. You have probably seen numerous television programs and newspaper articles in recent past that address this issue. That's because food allergies can drastically alter your health! You may find it surprising that researchers and health practitioners have estimated that up to 80% of the United States population suffers from some sort of food allergy. With this may sufferers, it is important for us all to learn about food allergies and how to identify them.

The most severe form of food allergy often gets the most attention. Many of you have, most likely, heard of anaphylaxis shock. Anaphylaxis shock is a drastic bodily response to an allergen or foreign agent. For example, there exists within our population people who are deathly allergic to shellfish or certain types of nuts. We hear horror stories of these people dying because they ate a single walnut or a soup with bits of clam. While these types of allergic reactions to food are rare, they are the result of anaphylaxis shock.

For the rest of us, food allergies fall along a spectrum of almost undetectable to painful but not life-threatening. The symptoms of food allergy are as varied as the foods we eat, but, no matter the severity, it is important to your overall health to:

Identify and Eliminate foods from your diet that cause you to have an allergic response

Use the tabs above to explore the other basics of food allergies. Or, if you already have a suspicion that you might have a food allergy, use the navigation to the left to learn more about identifying, tracking and dealing with food allergies.