The best diet for food allergies will vary from person to person and often relates to the specific type of food allergies a person has. This means someone who is allergic to peanuts will likely not have the same diet as someone allergic to shellfish, and neither of them will want to have the same diet as someone who is allergic to milk, wheat, and eggs. Anyone with a severe food allergy should consult a physician or other health professional, such as a dietitian, to devise the best diet for food allergies in his or her case.
Certain general guidelines, however, can be established to come up with the best diet for food allergies for a person. One of the simplest things to consider is for someone to eliminate foods that contain the item to which he or she is allergic. Determining a food allergy can be somewhat intuitive, but a physician should usually be consulted as well to determine the full extent of an allergy. Once this is done, then the best diet for food allergies for that person can be established and he or she can create a list of foods he or she can eat.
Creating the best diet for food allergies a person may have is not always as easy as simply eliminating food items a person knows he or she is allergic to. This is because other foods can often include the food that causes a reaction in a person, so seemingly innocuous foods can end up triggering an allergic response. One of the best ways to deal with this is to carefully read labels and packaging for prepared foods or even unprocessed but packaged foods. A diet for someone allergic to peanuts may include pretzels, however, some pretzels could be made or packaged in the same facility as peanuts, and peanut dust could end up on the pretzels.
This is what makes reading packages for warnings about these kinds of dangers so important. There are also other terms a person should look for related to his or her allergy. Someone allergic to wheat, for example, should also watch out for gluten, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and vegetable starch. Someone allergic to milk would want to beware of lactose, lactoglobulin, and casein or sodium caseinate. This is why working with a doctor, dietitian, or other health care professional is often vital in creating the best diet for food allergies a person may have.