Product Description

• A leading international authority on food allergy and intolerance provides invaluable advice for achieving dramatic and long-lasting improvements in your health.

• Explains how sensitivity to foods is responsible for many chronic and misdiagnosed ailments such as migraines, sinus problems, and persistent fatigue.

• Includes a step-by-step process for identifying food allergies and intolerances and reshaping your diet for better health.

Many people suffer from chronic, unexplained health problems--migraine headaches, poor digestion, recurring sinus symptoms, aching muscles and joints, persistent fatigue--whose causes remain elusive, even to doctors. When conventional tests fail to provide a clear-cut diagnosis, doctors often suggest that these symptoms are due to stress or anxiety, but now Jonathan Brostoff and Linda Gamlin demonstrate that quite often food allergies and food intolerance are the true culprits in these situations.

The authors provide clear explanations of the causes of, as well as the differences between, food allergies and food intolerance and offer numerous case studies on problems all too familiar to many readers. More important, they provide much-needed solutions and treatments for these problems. Along with a wealth of illustrations and charts, Food Allergies and Food Intolerance includes an invaluable step-by-step process for diagnosing food intolerance with a three-stage elimination diet and a system of gradual food reintroduction. A must for anyone who suspects a chronic condition may be linked to dietary sensitivity, Food Allergies and Food Intolerance supplies information that often results in dramatic and long-lasting improvement in people's health and in their lives.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 9 reviews)

Great Book!

This book is great. It has helped me immensley to understand food intolerances. I would recommend to anyone wanting to know more about the way foods work in our bodies.
October 20, 2008

Valuable, surprisingly readable, and nearly exhaustive

It is no surprise that this outstanding book is in its third edition. It contains a wealth of information for anybody with food allergies or food intolerance or anybody who thinks he or she might have food allergies or intolerance, and even for people (and doctors!) who would never think their health problems or their patients' problems could be due to eating foods that don't agree with them.

The authors make a distinction between food allergies, which typically involve mast cells going haywire, and food intolerance which results in symptoms not directly attributable to mast cell reactions. This is a very important distinction beyond the terminology since some doctors are skeptical about food causing sickness unless the mast cells are involved. The authors show, citing numerous clinical studies, a lot of research work, and specific individual examples, how food allergy and intolerance works, and they present a program to guide the reader to identify possible causes. They also give a step by step guidance on how to conduct various diets, including the elimination diet that may allow the reader (with his or her physician) to identify foods that are causing health problems. It's not just asthma and hives and other obvious symptoms that could be caused by food allergies or intolerances. The authors argue very convincingly that a host of other discomforts (and worse) could have as their cause and/or their trigger, certain foods. The most likely suspects in the American diet are wheat, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, coffee, tea and alcohol. The authors also point to the possibility of sensitivity to a host of man-made chemical substances that can cause debilitating symptoms

What makes this one of the best books of its kind that I have ever read (and I've read many books on food and health) is the wealth of information presented, the crystal clear writing, and the frank expression of the controversy surrounding how foods might cause disease. Additionally, the authors shed a lot of light on the complexities involved in digestive and immune system response to foods and how befuddling these complexities can be for lay persons and professionals alike.

Also covered are how microorganisms, especially what the authors call "gut flora," affect food absorption and digestion, and how they can cause disease. I learned a lot about how our bodies, along with the trillions of microbes we harbor, can either work together or at cross purposes. The material on how antibiotics or exposure to certain chemicals can alter our gut flora and trigger allergies or intolerances is just fascinating.

Brostoff and Gamlin also cover how food allergies and intolerances affect infants, children and nursing mothers. They are specific about what foods can be at fault and how to avoid them and even which foods can be substituted for suspected culprits.

And the symptoms themselves--asthma, running nose, headaches, migraines, arthritis, muscle and joint pain, rashes, hives, diarrhea, bloating, gas, irritable bowel syndrome, all kinds of inflammation, strange discharges, hyperventilation, and many more--are described and given their possible cause from foods.

There are ten appendices covering such things as "Synthetic Chemicals in Food and Water," a nice discussion of bottled water and water filters and how they work, "Medicinal Drugs," "Nutritional Supplements," "Synonyms for Food Ingredients," (useful when reading labels), etc.

The fact that this book is a little out of date (third edition, copyright 2000) should not deter you from reading it. Yes, there is some controversy about some of the conclusions the authors come to; but they tell you where there is disagreement and why.

Do yourself a favor. If you have any sort of unexplained symptom or have friends or relatives with unexplained symptoms, read this book. There is nothing else quite like it in print that I know of. Certainly nothing on the same level of value to the general reader. In fact, I would go so far as to say that were this book more generally read, an incalculable amount of pain and suffering might be avoided.
February 27, 2008

Great overall information on food allergies vs intolerance

This is a concise and well written book for someone who is experiencing distress due to a possible food allergy or intolerance. The author writes in a clear and informative manner delineating the difference between an allergy and intolerance....something my doctor never touched upon. I would recommend it as a must read for anyone who is experiences any sort of food related reaction.
February 24, 2008

too wordy and outdated

This book does have some good information on food allergies and food intolerances, but the 470page book could be about 150 pages. The authors go on and on about all sorts of stuff that isn't directly related-- way to wordy. No many references and it seems like a lot of the information is opinion. Also, I've found more updated information on the internet.
December 11, 2007

Extremely informative book

This book has a tremendous amount of useful information about the relationship between food and well-being. I spent 15 years and a lot of money trying to get help for my various symptoms only to be told I was a nervous person, and my mental state was probably causing my physical problems. I recently suspected I had food allergies and took dairy out of my diet with amazing results. I suspect I'm also allergic or sensitive to other foods and am getting ready to embark on an elimination diet. This book is informative but doesn't preach that food allergies are the cause of all symptoms. It gives other possible causes for specific symptoms. It's a great tool if you've exhausted other means and hope for feeling well. I now have hope that I could feel fantastic in the not-too-distant future. I also found a wonderful doctor who actually listens to me and doesn't brush me off. It's not wise to totally self-diagnose, you need a doctor who will listen and work with you.
February 15, 2007

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