I’ve recently had a few people tell me that they are allergic to everything, so I thought I would write a post to address what that means and the best way to approach these super-allergies. People who are allergic to everything often have outward signs of their allergy: eczema, asthma, hives, itching, headaches, sinus infections, they feel stuffed up, can’t breath, feel tired and overwhelmed.
Allergic to everything is no fun and there is a not-so-easy way out of this mess and it comes in the form of a diet called an allergy elimination diet.
What Does Diet Have to do with Allergies?
The first question that pops into most people’s head when I tell them to try a diet for their allergies is: what does a diet have to do with allergies? After all, they may be allergic to something in your environment. Environmental allergies happens to a lot of people in spring when there are dramatic increases in pollen, but it can also occur in winter when we are spending more time inside and there is less fresh air in the house. But there are good reasons why, even if you have environmental allergies that you would want to try the allergy elimination diet:
The key to understanding using diet to control your allergies are these points:
- The first is that there is very little you can do to change the outside world. Yes, you can stay inside when the pollen counts are high, but what if your problem is the mold in the house? Food allergies are something you can change easily: simply avoid the food and you solve the problem. By reducing your food allergies, you are reducing the overall “allergic load” on your body, so that when you do encounter environmental allergies, they are less likely to impact you.
- The second reason why using diet works to reduce allergies has to do with your immune system. Most people are unaware that over 80 percent of the immune system is located surrounding the digestive system. This makes sense because, when you eat foods, you are bringing the outside world into your body and your body has to determine whether this “outside world” or food is safe or not. When you are constantly eating foods that you are allergic to, you cause your immune system to become hyper-aware – leading to a more allergic you.
Food Allergies and Food Intolerance
Before we move on to the diet, I should spend a moment explaining food allergies and food intolerances:
- Food Allergies: A food allergy generally means that your immune system is attacking the food you are eating as if it were a foreign invader. The body produces immunoglobulins (Ig for short) that attach to the protein in the food and then you immune system creates inflammation to try and rid itself of the foreign “invasion”. It is fairly easy to discover food allergies as there are a wide variety of skin and blood tests that can measure your body’s immune response (or the amount of Igs in your body).
- Food Intolerance: Food intolerance is different. The classic food intolerance is lactose intolerance, where your body lacks the ability to digest the sugar in lactose. There are many other intolerances that are the result of different parts of the immune system being activated (other than the Igs), sensitivities to certain foods, inability to digest other foods, or a toxic reaction.
The most common food allergies and intolerances are: eggs, grains (especially gluten grains), soy, nuts, shell fish and seafood.
Allergy Elimination Diet
The best way to uncover your allergies is to do an allergy elimination diet. You will find different types of these diets all over, but this is the one I recommend:
For two weeks, remove the following foods:
- Food Additives: Including monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial preservatives,sweeteners, flavors and all food colorings.
- Grains: Avoid all gluten-based grains, including: wheat, spelt, barley, kamut, rye, oats or triticale. Avoid pasta, flour, breads, cereals, cookies and other foods made with gluten grains. You should also exclude corn, along with high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, vegetable oils, corn chips and popcorn.
- Alcohol: Avoid beer, wine and other alcohols. If you are really strict, you want to avoid mouth wash with alcohol and cough medicine containing alcohol.
- Citrus Fruits: Including, tangerines, oranges, grapefruits, limes, lemon and any other citrus fruits.
- Shellfish: These include, crab, lobster, clams, mussels and other shellfish.
- Nuts: All nuts, including peanuts, pecans, walnuts, cashews, pistachios and other nuts.
- Diary: All sources of dairy, including butter, cheese, milk, cottage cheese, whey protein, yogurt, sour cream and other dairy foods.
- Soy: Soy is in a lot of processed foods, so you have to watch our for this, including tempeh, edamame, soy nuts, textured soy protein, tofu.
- Eggs: Yolks and the whites.
- Sweeteners: honey, fructose, dextrose, maple syrup, white sugar, maltose.
Foods that may be allowed include:
- Grains: You can choose any of these grains: rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, foods such as rice cakes or crackers made from these grains are okay.
- Fruits and Vegetables: All vegetables and fruits are okay except the citrus fruits and strawberries. Salad greens are generally great, as are broccoli, cabbage, carrots and other vegetables.
- Beans: All beans are okay except soy beans.
- Protein: Meat is generally okay.
If you find you react to a food that is generally considered safe (I’ve seen this with potatoes), then add that to your avoid list. The foods you crave, unfortunately are often the foods you are allergic to, so be prepared to have some serious cravings. The foods you crave are also the ones you should reintroduce first. I generally recommend that you stay away from all allergic-like foods for two weeks and then start testing. You test by trying just one food at a time (per day), you should also consider eating a lot of it to make sure of the reaction. Wait a day or two and then try the next food.
There is hope if you are allergic to everything. Following an allergy elimination diet is hard, but it is the best way to find foods that don’t agree with you.
READ PART TWO OF THIS ARTICLE: Allergic to Everything, Part Two
Thank you Dr. Scott!!
!! I will keep my GI appoinment just incase we are missing something.
Juicing and staying away from processed food complety is the way im going to go. I ate some lays chips today and swelled up and had a rash on my arms.. stupid me! When I eat other foods that im “supposedly” allergic to I have tingly lips and numbness along with the unpleasant IBS and or vomiting. Im tired of being sick and Im ready to take control of my life. I have asked my husband to by me a juicer and if I don’t have one by next week I will by it myself
Thank you for your honest oppion, i will keep you posted.
Kimberly
Hello, I have been seeing my allergist for about 1.5 months now and have 26 food allergies. The weird part is i can eat something, and test negative then eat it awhile longer and test positive for it. I frustrated, discouraged and scared to eat. I went to the hospital two days ago because of a allergic reaction. Waiting on blood work results to see if i have an autoammune disease. Wondering if you can shed any light on what might be going on with me.
Thanks,
Kimberly
Hi Kimberly,
People who have a lot of allergies find that it is typical that they become sensitive to a food that they eat a lot of. This can be very frustrating, you finally find something you think you can eat and then you become sensitive to it. I don’t know if I have an explanation for you except to say that I see it happen all the time.
For me, this kind of sensitivity often comes down to gut health. I would suggest that you stay away from the common allergens listed above and then consider juicing (as strange as that might sound). I would suggest juicing mostly greens. Juicing seems to fix a lot of gut problems.
Best of luck,
Scott
Thank you Dr. Scott. My husband I are 100 % convinced that all of this is gut related. Have you ever heard of “leaky gut”. I go see my GI doctor again on the 16th. Thanks again.
Kimberly
Hi Kimberly,
Yes, leaky gut is a big issue. I suspect that leaky gut has a lot to do with eating foods (mostly grains) that have toxins unless they are prepared properly or avoided.
Thank you Dr. Scott.
I saw my allergist again today and she told me that she does not think i am have food allergies, even though skin test show me having a reaction. Im convinced it is “leaky gut”, but dont know what to ask GI doctor to test for. Im frustrated, and really dont know what or where else to turn. I know that food makes me sick, but can not find a cause. Do you have any suggestions for me to take to my GI doctor?
Your help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Kimberly
Kimberly,
Your GI doctor will not acknowledge leaky gut (unless they are very progressive) and I don’t find it a very helpful diagnosis because a lot of people have it.
Here is what I would suggest: Eat a diet that just contains veggies and meats. If you have any vegetables that you feel you are allergic to stay away from those as well. Avoid all vegetable oils as well as all sugar and grains.
While you are doing this, I would also suggest that you try juicing. A simple carrot juice with a few greens is a good way to go. If you can afford a juicer, that is the best way to go. As strange as this sounds, juicing goes a long way to normalizing gut function and once your gut is in order the rest of the symptoms should become better.
Good luck,
Scott
i have an eye alergy, alergic conjunctivitus, i have it worse in the summer as i have a slight alergy to grass pollen but pretty much all year i have this alergic conjunctivitus, even with eye drops and anti histamines. ive seen the alergy specialist and she said its something in the air since my eyes are reacting the worst. so she said its unlikely its something in the diet. is this accurate? and would it be worth me trying to do any of this???? xx
Hi Beth,
I’d say that your allergy specialist is right and wrong. Yes, it’s true that airborne allergies are likely the cause, but I think you can lower the overall allergic response with a diet like this. You can give it a try and see if it works, if you don’t see a change in a week or so then food is not the issue with you. To me, it is worth a week or two out of your life to give it a try.
Best of luck,
Scott
decided to just give up the gluten, so any wheat products, since my mums been off it for years and brags about the difference its made to her, 2 days into this diet so far and already feeling the difference, just needed to know that giving up cakes and biscuits would be worth it, so far so good, thanks alot for getting back to me
Hello. I am 32 year old and have a 5 month old son. He has a really bad eczema and for the past 3 months I’ve been trying to figure out the cause of it with no results
I did everything I could, I cut out diary, wheat, corn, nuts, fish, potatoes, tomatoes…….. Nothing seems to work 
My diet includes rice cereal, rice milk, bananas, apples, peaches, deli turkey slices, homemade soups with beans, chicken, pork, carrots. But sometimes I get extremely hungry and sometimes I will eat something else like bagel or sausage…… I REALLY want to keep breastfeeding my baby, but running out of ideas what else I can change in my diet……Any suggestions ? Any “safe” food you can recommend me ? Everybody tells me what to out of my diet, but I I want to know what I CAN EAT ??? Please help !!!
Hi Mary,
As far as the avoid list, I would remove dairy, nuts, eggs, citrus fruits and soy. I would also try to avoid the processed meats or foods with artificial anything in them. This means that you are making most of your own food.
As far as the add list, I would include as many vegetables as you can eat. Beef, lamb, chicken are all fine. Cold water fish (unless you are allergic) should be okay. I would also include fish oil (this is great for people with eczema); if you can’t do fish oil, use flax oil.
You do want to keep breastfeeding as long as you can; many people say that the start of eczema in children happened when they started giving them formula.
Good luck,
Scott