Customer Reviews

Food Allergies: The Complete Guide to Understanding and Relieving Your Food Allergies

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This book is practically an encyclopedia of food allergies written for ordinary people. The author is a physician and allergy specialist with almost 40 years of experience in the field. He describes how in the beginning of his career, he had not been trained to recognize food allergies in his patients, but over the years, he became more and more sensitized to the kinds of symptoms that food allergies can cause. Over time, he noted that many of his patients were allergic to the same common foods, especially what he calls the MALS foods, MSG, acidic foods, low calorie sweeteners, and sugar. The skin tests that are so much relied on for detecting environmental allergies are less informative with food allergies. In response, he has developed a method for identifying food allergies that uses a diet that eliminates common allergy causing foods and then gradually re-introduces them while the patient notes when the symptoms lessen or begin to reoccur. This diet is described in the book, together with possible rotation menus and lists of additional foods that cause problems for some people and may need to be avoided.

If you try to read this book from cover-to-cover, you will find that it is rather repetitive at times, and the organization seems in some places to be more stream-of-consciousness rather than logical. At times the avoidance of technical language or explanations seems almost evasive, and it's amazing how a doctor could write an entire book about allergies without once using the word histamine. Since the book is addressed to general readers, it does not contain in-text references to scientific studies. Nevertheless, the bibliography is replete with such references, adding credence to Walsh's message.

This book confirmed many of the phenomena that I had observed about my own food sensitivities. For example, Walsh explains that allergies are additive, so that's why I can pet a cat so long as it's not hay fever season, or I can drink a small glass of milk now and then, but not a big glass every day. Walsh also suggests that readers should trust their instincts- -if they have a strong feeling that a food is making them sick, there is a good chance that it really is. After reading this book, there is no longer any question in my mind- -food can make you sick, and you can feel a lot better once you figure out what you've been eating that is causing you trouble.

Dr. Walsh has done it again, written a clear, and easy-to-read book about why people with food allergies need to pay close attention to what they eat.

With so much mis-information in the popular press about food allergy and how to treat it, this book is one that health professionals can feel confident recommending to their clients.

It's refreshing to find a physician that is so well-informed not only about the science of food allergy, but of the day-to-day details of how this translates when you go grocery shopping or want to dine out in a restaurant.

If you have a food allergy, suspect you might or know someone who does, this book is a valuable guide that will help you understand more about how your body works and how you can work with your body to achieve optimal health and wellness.

Immediate relief! That was my reward for reading this book and putting it into practice. It has my full recommendation for anyone suffering from the effects of allergies. This author is sympathtic and the book is easy to read. It is apparent that the doctor has scaled his vocabulary WAY DOWN to facilitate the reader's ability to concentrate on WHAT he is saying, rather than be dazzled by how brilliant he is. After battling allergies for 25 years, he has brought me new weapons. I thank the good doctor and am in his debt.

Dr. Walsh's book is very easy to understand. He gives examples of patients he's treated plus he uses many metaphors to help explain medical terms that a non-medical person might not understand. I was just diagnosed at 27 with a severe allergy to wheat plus various other allergies. Why all of the sudden? He answers this question plus many others in this book. A must for anyone suffering from food allergies!!!!

I have been migraine-free for five years since reading this book!

I had tried Imitrex, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, biofeedback, chiropractics, herbs, oral sprays and everything I had heard of for migraines except Botox injections and nerve severance.

My general practitioner, second opinion doctors and neurologists told me to avoid red wine, Chinese food and chocolate. Their "migraine diet" came from the back of an Imitrex pamphlet (keep in mind, this was five years ago).

When I told my doctor about my self-diagnosis of food intolerances from this book, she tried to act like she already knew this. Then why didn't she diagnose me? Why didn't she put me on an elimination diet? Why didn't she send me to a nutritionist, allergist or immunologist? Why did she put a teenage liver on codeine permanently and say I would have to live with it or grow out of it?

If your doctor is not part of the Nutritional Enlightenment, YOU NEED THIS BOOK to help you find the right specialist.

Even if this book isn't all inclusive, it will introduce you to the basic concepts and terms to Google and talk to your practitioner about.

I am not sensationalizing that this book changed my life. I almost didn't graduate high school because of migraines, and now I have a computer science degree.

I have multiple severe food allergies (eat something that touched a peanut and end up in the emergency room with a swollen face type deal). I came to this book looking for tips about good avoidance and some explanations about the actual chemistry of the reactions themselves. All I got were a few dismissive lines about how people with severe allergies just need to avoid the foods that make them sick. Thanks. If you have a more subtle problem, like eczema you can't seem to shake or migraines, this could be the book for you, but I didn't find it to be helpful.

Well written. Clearly written. Empowering. This book is a must for anyone who would identify, or rule out, food allergies and sensitivities as causes of distress in their lives.

This is a book that cuts the subject of food allergy into small, easily digestible pieces, and guides us along the path to understanding.

Food Allergies: The Complete Guide to Understanding and Relieving Your Food Allergies is truly a complete guide. It is a book that leads us along its well designed paths with both care and patience.

This is a book that every person should read, think about, and keep as a reference. Those who recognize that they are plagued with allergies and sensitivities will reap immediate rewards, for therein are the words of a man, a practicing physician, who speaks to each of us with kindness, understanding, knowledge, and humility. Over the years he has struggled to learn how to help himself and his patients overcome their allergy-related illnesses. He takes us down the road that he followed, tells us of his mistakes and his successes, and helps us understand and overcome our allergy-related illnesses more quickly than he overcame his own. Dr. Walsh tells us that we- each of us - knows ourselves better than any physician can possibly know us. That we must trust in ourselves and in our own observations, and that we must search out physicians to help us who are willing and able to do the same.

For those who have allergies and sensitivities but have not recognized them, and for those whose allergies and sensitivities will surface in the future, reading Food Allergies will plant seeds of awareness that will make traveling future roads to wellness easier.

My husband suffers from Gluten intolerance as well as food allergies. The gluten issues were quite easy to control....no wheat. But the food allergies are a nightmare. If you are allergic, you feel like you have the flu all the time. This is the only book we have found that gives you an in-depth look at what you should look for and avoid. Because the author suffers from the same thing, his findings are from personal discovery. There are additives in everything we eat that can make you sick, if you suffer from allergies. There are things occurring naturally in foods that can make you sick. This book can help you live a much better life. It's all about knowing what the the allergens are and avoidance.

I found out about this book at truthinlabeling.org and have found it *very* helpful in helping to understand some digestive problems I've had - particularly after eating out, and more often at Asian restaurants. I have 3 friends with similar problems and they have all been enlightened by this book. I'm more careful about what I eat, and I'm being further helped by some plant enzyme therapy. This book was a wonderful catalyst to help me take control of my life!!!

Though it does contain some interesting information, the book seems to be written for somebody with the IQ of a donut. He starts by detailing all his education, and then continues to talk down to the reader. He also repeats himself without adding any detail. (Yes, we learn that he really likes corn on the cob!) The contents of the book could easily be boiled down to 10 pages without missing anything important. Also, don't expect to find much of anything concerning 'classic' food allergies here.

As a saving grace, there are a few nice charts and tables at the end to help pinpoint MSG content in fast foods and elsewhere.