Nutrition for allergies: dangerous and healthy foods

General rules

The term “allergy” means a state of increased sensitivity of the body to various irritants (allergens), manifested by a specific reaction based on immunologically (IgE) mediated reactions.
Allergens can be both substances of organic and inorganic origin, as well as physical factors (heat, cold, ultraviolet rays). There are many groups of allergens, the most important of which are: food, medicinal, household, pollen, epidermal, industrial, infectious (fungal, viral, bacterial, parasitic), insect and others. The mechanism of the body's specific reaction to an allergen is the development of sensitization (the production of antibodies in response to the initial entry of the allergen into the body) and the development of an allergic reaction when the allergen re-enters an already sensitized body. An allergic reaction is caused by a number of biochemical processes that occur with the release of biogenic amines ( histamine , serotonin ), which damage cells of various tissues and organs.

Allergy treatment involves, first of all, eliminating or reducing contact with the causative allergen. It is the diet for allergies that is the most important factor, allowing both to exclude a food allergen from the diet in the presence of an allergic reaction to food, and to reduce the general state of hyperreactivity of the body when reacting to allergens of other groups (fungal, household, medicinal, pollen and others), since during this period, any minor irritant can intensify the clinical symptoms of an existing disease ( urticaria , asthma , allergic rhinitis , angioedema ) or cause a new systemic or local (itching of the skin/skin rashes) allergic reaction.

However, diet therapy is of greatest importance in cases where clinical manifestations are caused by allergies to food products, including medications used in the food industry and in raising animals and poultry ( salicylates , antibiotics ). The diet of this category of patients requires the most painstaking and careful correction, but the effect of following an individual elimination or general hypoallergenic diet can be very significant.

An antiallergic diet should be based on a number of principles:

• exclusion from the diet of foods that contain causally significant and cross-allergens;
• exclusion of products with high allergenic activity;
• using only fresh products, excluding genetically modified and shelf-stable products (canned food, preserves), as well as products containing food additives (preservatives, dyes, flavorings);
• exclusion of histamine-releasing products that provoke the release of histamine from the cells of the gastrointestinal tract (coffee, cow's milk, chocolate, orange juice, wheat bran), as well as histamine-carrying products (strawberries, tomatoes, cocoa, legumes, hazelnuts, herring fillet, tuna , smoked meats, spinach, cheeses) containing a large amount of biogenic amines - histamine , tyramine , betaphylethylamine ;
• do not allow excess animal proteins in the diet;
• limiting the consumption of simple carbohydrates and table salt, as well as foods that irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa - spicy, fried, salty foods and alcohol-containing drinks;
• adequate replacement of excluded products to ensure quantitative and qualitative compliance of the diet with the physiological needs of the patient’s body for basic nutrients .

When preparing a diet or if there is a need for its correction, it is important to know what allergenic activity a particular product has, and to have a list of hypoallergenic food products:

• Products with a high degree of allergenic activity include: chicken eggs, crustaceans, cow's milk and whole milk products, chocolate, cheese, fish, coffee, mustard, wheat, nuts, strawberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, grapes, persimmons, cocoa, tomatoes, beets, celery, melon, carrots, pineapples, blackberries, citrus fruits, honey, black currants, pomegranates, mushrooms, spices, sauces, red caviar, canned and pickled foods, smoked meats, carbonated and alcohol-containing drinks;
• products with an average degree of allergenic activity include: pork, red currants, turkey, potatoes, rabbit, peas, peaches, corn, rice, apricots, green peppers, buckwheat, rye, bananas, buckwheat, cranberries;
• Products with a low degree of allergenic activity include: lamb, beef (low-fat varieties), boiled chicken, pumpkin (light colors), zucchini, turnips, squash, green and yellow apples, gooseberries, plums, white currants, green cucumbers, watermelon , almonds, fermented milk products, garden greens, offal (liver, tongue, kidneys), rice, oatmeal and pearl barley, butter, olive and sunflower oil, pears, dried fruits.

Diet for allergies in adults

The general principles of dietary nutrition for people susceptible to allergies are reflected in the nonspecific hypoallergenic diet - Table No. 5 GA (hypoallergenic), which is based on Diet No. 5 , intended for patients with diseases of the liver and biliary system. In the acute period of an allergic disease, the basis of the diet should be anti-allergenic foods. As a rule, the patient must follow a strict diet until the manifestations of the disease disappear permanently. The duration of such a diet should be approximately 3 weeks for adults and about 10 days for a child.

As the symptoms subside, the menu can be expanded to include products with an average degree of allergenic activity, which are administered in small quantities. First, white bread, boiled lean fish of white varieties, fresh onions, freshly squeezed juices and fruit purees, and compotes are introduced into the diet. In this case, green and yellow vegetables and fruits are first introduced, and in the absence of rashes, after a few days orange (pumpkin) and red fruits/vegetables are introduced.

Each new product should be introduced no more often than once every three days, taking into account the body’s reaction to each newly introduced product. If there are no negative reactions, then this product is safe for health and can be included in the basic diet for allergy sufferers. If after its administration the allergic reaction resumes, then it should be completely excluded from the diet.

Despite the fact that a strict hypoallergenic diet in the acute period of the disease includes a limited list of products, the patient’s nutrition should be physiologically complete, but not excessive in the content of micronutrients (especially proteins) and energy value. It is extremely important to exclude from the menu all allergenic foods and dishes in which they are present even in minimal quantities. So, if a patient has an allergic reaction to chicken eggs, it is necessary to exclude mayonnaise, creams, casseroles, baked goods and all dishes whose recipe includes eggs or its components.

If the causally significant allergen is not known, then all products with a high degree of allergenic activity must be excluded from the diet - milk, eggs, seafood, fish, fish caviar, citrus fruits, tomatoes, honey, chocolate, melon, strawberries, nuts.

The diet is limited to foods containing easily digestible carbohydrates: honey, sugar, sweets, confectionery, jam, chocolate. It is allowed to replace sugar with saccharin , aspartame , xylitol . The diet is enriched with foods containing large amounts of calcium (fermented milk products, cottage cheese), which have antiallergic and anti-inflammatory effects. At the same time, foods containing oxalic acid , which reduces the absorption of calcium.

Salt and all salty foods are subject to restrictions. The diet increases the content of foods rich in vitamins (allowed vegetables and fruits) and bioflavonoids , which strengthen the walls of blood vessels.

Particular attention should be paid to products that have a pronounced cross-allergic reaction. In case of intolerance to one type of food, other types must be excluded from the diet. Below are some of these foods and a list of foods that cross-react with each of them.

• Fish - with all types of river/sea fish, seafood (shrimp, crabs, lobsters, caviar, mussels, lobsters).
• Cow's milk - products containing cow's milk proteins, veal, beef, and products made from them, goat's milk.
• Potatoes - tomatoes, red peppers, eggplants, paprika.
• Chicken egg - chicken meat and broth, duck meat; mayonnaise, quail meat and eggs, creams and sauces containing chicken egg components.
• Nuts - other types of nuts, flour (rice, oatmeal, buckwheat), kiwi, sesame, mango, poppy.
• Bananas - kiwi, avocado, melon, wheat gluten.
• Citrus fruits - all other types of citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, tangerine, lemon).
• Strawberries - currants, raspberries, blackberries, lingonberries.
• Legumes - mango, peanuts, soybeans, lentils.
• Plum - apricots, cherries, almonds, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apples, prunes.
• Kefir (kefir yeast) - yeast dough, mold varieties of cheese (Dor-Blue, Roquefort, Brie), kvass.

Excluded are strong meat, mushroom and fish broths, spices and seasonings, spicy, smoked dishes and sauces. When cooking meat, the first broth must be poured out, and cereals must be pre-soaked in water for 2 hours before cooking.

When choosing products, it is extremely important to pay attention to the presence of food additives, which in many cases are allergens, and also to know their coded designation. The following food additives pose the greatest danger:

• Antioxidants: E 321 ( butyl hydroanisole / butyl hydroxytoluene ).
• Preservatives: E 220-227 (sulfites), E 249-252 (nitrites), E 210-219 ( benzoic acid and derivatives), E 200-203 ( sorbic acid ).
• Dyes: E 122 (azorubine), E 102 ( tartrazine ), E 110 (yellow-orange), E 124 (red cochineal), E127 ( erythrosine ), E 151 (diamond black BN).
• Flavorings: B 550-553 (glutamates).
• Flavoring additives: E 621 ( monosodium glutamate ), E 622 ( monosodium glutamate ), E 623 ( monosodium glutamate ), E 624 ( monosodium glutamate ) and E 625 ( magnesium glutamate ).

It is advisable to prepare dishes in the diet by baking or boiling; frying foods is not allowed. This provides chemical sparing of the gastrointestinal mucosa and reduces the absorption of allergens in the intestines. For complete digestion of food proteins, which are potential allergens, it is recommended to eat fractionally and reduce the size of portions.

Main allergen products

Unfortunately, the list of products that can become a catalyst for an unwanted reaction is quite wide. First of all, you need to pay attention to the color and taste of food. Bright red, orange, burgundy, as well as sour, sweet and spicy foods should be excluded from the diet.

Forget about industrial sweets, cookies, canned food. It is better to prepare all your food at home to always be sure of its quality and composition. A visual table listing undesirable products looks like this:

It is also necessary to completely eliminate all spices and sauces from the diet and try to reduce salt intake.

Particularly dangerous and harmful products for allergies

Of particular danger are alcohol, caffeine, sour and bright fruits, all types of seafood, as well as pickles, canned food and all industrial products containing dyes and preservatives. You should reduce them as much as possible, or better yet, stop using them altogether.

Authorized Products

The anti-allergic diet includes lean (without skin) boiled or stewed dietary meat of chicken, rabbit or turkey. Wheat, buckwheat and oatmeal porridge are allowed from cereals.

The first courses are prepared without frying in a weak vegetable broth with the addition of various garden herbs. Potatoes, boiled in individual pieces or mashed in water, are allowed as a side dish.

The diet may include yogurt without additives, fresh low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat fermented milk products, bran/whole grain bread, durum wheat pasta, and dry biscuits.

Fats include vegetable sunflower or olive oil. Vegetables: lettuce, cucumber, stewed/boiled zucchini, cabbage, onion.

Table of permitted products

Hypoallergenic products

Similar to the prohibited categories, there is also a table of permitted products that are not dangerous in the event of an existing or existing tendency to allergies.

The diet of a child in the case of regular occurrence of food reactions is not much different from that of an adult. Since the body is growing and developing, it is especially important to monitor the balance of the menu: nutrients of all types, including proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, should be consumed daily. A proper diet will make your baby’s life easier and allow him to forget about serious unpleasant exacerbations.

Fully or partially limited products

An anti-allergenic diet involves excluding from the diet such products as meat and fish broths and all first courses based on them; fatty red meats, smoked meats, duck, goose, whole milk; most sausages, chicken eggs, “red” fish of all kinds; chocolate, citrus fruits, flour products and sweets, seafood (shrimp, mussels, squid), honey and honey products (jelly, propolis), any salty foods, pickled vegetables, canned food; culinary and animal fats, cream, salty and fatty cheeses, sour cream, sweet curds.

Products containing quickly digestible carbohydrates - sugar, confectionery, jam, honey, ice cream, jams, sweets - are excluded. Pasta, semolina, soy, and white rice are also subject to restrictions.

Vinegar, all seasonings (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, horseradish), mushrooms, eggplant, melon, pineapple, butter dough, as well as red and orange fruits/vegetables (tangerines, tomatoes, red apples, oranges, beets, radishes) are excluded from the diet , carrots, radishes, strawberries, strawberries), nuts (peanuts and hazelnuts), coffee.

It is prohibited to include in the hypoallergenic menu any products containing food additives (dyes, preservatives), fruit/vegetable juices from prohibited berries, fruit tea, sweet carbonated drinks and all drinks containing alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Table of prohibited products

Hypoallergenic diet menu (Diet mode)

The food menu of a hypoallergenic diet during the acute period includes a small amount of permitted foods; as the patient recovers, the diet expands, taking into account the patient’s individual sensitivity to a specific product. Below is a sample menu for the week.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Products that are approved for consumption

It is necessary to consider which vegetables are considered hypoallergenic, since the diet is based on these products. Hypoallergenic products of plant origin do not have a negative effect on the intestines and digestive system.

Article on the topic: Allowed foods to eat if you have allergies

To eliminate allergic manifestations, you should add allergen-free foods with high levels of starch and fiber to your diet. They are quickly digested and prevent gastrointestinal irritation.

Dietary hypoallergenic vegetables:

• cabbage (both cauliflower and white cabbage);
• carrot;
• beet;
• greenery;
• garlic and onion;
• cucumbers;
• radish
• zucchini;
• potato;
• asparagus;
• peas.

Other hypoallergenic products that may be on the menu include:

• fermented milk: kefir, low-fat cottage cheese, fermented baked milk;
• chicken, rabbit and beef;
• dietary fish;
• cereals: pearl barley, oatmeal, rice and semolina;
• white or green fruits (pears, gooseberries, apples, and certain varieties of cherries are considered hypoallergenic);
• dried fruits;
• weak green tea and compote;
• simple, biscuit cookies;
• inconvenient types of bread.

Dish recipes

The recipes are relatively simple and do not require special culinary skills. Some of them are given below.

First meal

Chicken soup with spinach

Prepare low-fat chicken broth (boil the meat without the skin). Add onion, spinach, sour cream and cook until tender. Season the finished soup with dill and a small piece of butter.

Cream of Turkey and Cauliflower Soup

Boil the turkey (200 g) in the first water for 30 minutes, then drain the broth and cook together with the shredded zucchini and cauliflower in the new water for another 40 minutes. Remove the meat from the soup and blend the vegetables in a blender until pureed. Add chopped turkey meat, season with sour cream and herbs.

Second courses

Boiled chicken breast with vegetables

Boil the chicken breast for 30 minutes, cool and cut into portions. Boil the vegetables - Brussels sprouts, green peas and green beans. Serve together, seasoning the vegetables with olive oil.

Dessert

Baked apples

Wash the apples, put them in the oven and bake until done at 1800 C.

For children

A hypoallergenic diet for children is based on similar principles. However, it is important to understand that an unreasonably long stay of a child on it can lead to protein-energy and micronutrient deficiency with impaired physical development. Such a strictly restrictive diet can only be used as a “starter” for 7-10 days, and after identifying the causative allergenic foods, the child should be transferred to an individually selected hypoallergenic diet.

If allergies occur in a breastfed infant, a hypoallergenic diet is prescribed to the nursing mother. At the same time, it is not recommended to cancel breastfeeding, given its benefits for the child’s health compared to artificial feeding. When mixed feeding, you cannot immediately exclude complementary foods containing vital nutrients , especially products containing animal proteins (meat, cottage cheese, dairy/fermented milk products), minerals and vitamins (vegetables, fruits).

A careful individual approach to the selection of complementary feeding products is required, taking into account their tolerance. If a child has an allergy to cow's milk proteins, you should switch to feeding with specially developed infant formulas-hydrolysates, which are created by complete or partial hydrolysis of milk proteins (whey proteins or casein). In the presence of mild forms of allergy to cow's milk proteins, therapeutic and prophylactic mixtures “ Nutrilak GA ”, “ Nutrilon Pepti TSC ”, “ Alfare ”, “ Tutteli-Peptidi ” and others are recommended. Such mixtures can be prescribed for up to 3 months or more, starting from the first days of a child’s life.

When allergies appear in children after 3 years of age, it is important to develop a hypoallergenic diet that, along with taking into account the physiological needs for the child’s specific age and physical activity for basic macro/micronutrients and energy needs, would reduce the allergenic load on his body. In this way, you can achieve longer remission or complete relief from allergies. When creating a menu for children, it should be taken into account that in most of them, tolerance to the allergen product gradually increases and may even disappear by school age.

When creating recipes for dishes for such children, it is important to know that tolerance to a number of products (milk, chicken protein) increases significantly when consuming cooked foods. When developing an individual diet for a child, you can take the standard 5 GA Diet and, based on its principles, create an individual full menu for the child.

What is a hypoallergenic diet?

A hypoallergenic diet implies the exclusion of all foods with high allergic properties from the diet. The diet is selected individually, since the causes of the disease are very different.

The hypoallergenic diet includes foods that are gentle on the digestive system. Such nutrition normalizes physiological cycles in the body, while covering the need for proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other microcomponents and vitamins.

Important! Almost every hypoallergenic diet involves reducing the amount of salt. With this diet, you can consume no more than 7 g per day.

A hypoallergenic diet per day should include:

• 400 g carbohydrates;
• 90 g proteins;
• 80 g fat.

Important! Part of the diet must consist of animal products.

Reviews and results

According to patient reviews, a hypoallergenic diet can minimize the severity of clinical manifestations and increase periods of remission in its chronic course.

• “... About 3 years ago I began to choke because I couldn’t breathe through my clogged nose. Then a feeling of tightness in the chest and tears began to appear, the eyelids swelled, and small red dots appeared on the skin, very itchy. I contacted an allergist. During the examination, it turned out that I had such a reaction to flour - I work as a baker at a bakery. I had to apply for a transfer to another job and exclude from the diet all products containing flour and cereals. A month later, my condition improved significantly, but I love bread so much that sometimes I break down. The rash appears again, and I go on a diet”;
• “... A diet in combination with antihistamines helps a lot. When the first allergic reaction occurs, I cleanse the body (take an adsorbent and fast for 1-2 days), then go on a diet”;
• “...I have been allergic for almost two years now. I don’t know exactly what I can and cannot eat, and what food causes my allergies, so I try to stick to a general hypoallergenic diet and take Enterosgel during exacerbations”;
• “...I have been an allergy sufferer for almost 10 years. At first I was skeptical about the diet, considering it something unimportant in treatment. I hoped more for medications, but over time I realized that diet is the most important part of treatment and now at the first sign I go on a diet.”

Features of the diet for allergies

The transition to a hypoallergenic diet is carried out in several stages, each of which must be performed sequentially. If you know exactly what food causes the reaction, then immediately stop eating it. Also follow the given steps.

1. It is necessary to spend 1-2 days of fasting on water. Every day you need to drink at least 2 liters of clean drinking water at room temperature. This “entrance” will prepare the body for the gradual intake of products from the therapeutic diet. Be sure to consult your doctor before starting a fast!
2. On the third day, include in your diet porridge with water, vegetable soups without sauteing and oil, as well as bread made from durum flour. You should eat only these foods for about 3-4 days. If there is no reaction to the skin or mucous membranes, then feel free to proceed to the next step.
3. At the final stage, introduce lean varieties of meat and poultry, permitted vegetables and fruits, weak green or white tea, unsweetened crackers and dry breads into your diet. You should stick to this list of products for at least 2-3 weeks and only then can you diversify your diet with permitted berries and fermented milk products.

Yes, such a diet, especially its beginning, is difficult to maintain, but you will feel light and begin to look better after getting rid of a couple of extra pounds.