NO-ALLERGY DIET: COFFEE, CHOCOLATE AS SPECIAL FOOD PROBLEMS
Coffee. Doctors such as Theron Randolph feel that coffee should be eliminated entirely if an allergic person is to find any relief at all from food allergies. The caffeine alone will make your heart race, your blood pressure climb, your nerves jangle and your kidneys and adrenal glands work overtime – allergies or no.
Switching to a decaffeinated brew may not help. Some doctors report that certain people are allergic to the chemicals used to remove caffeine from coffee beans. Which just goes to show that coffee, like any processed food, has its share of additives and pesticide residues. To add fuel to the fire, most coffee beans are roasted with gas heat – a growing source of allergy problems. And coffee drinkers tend to take their brew several times a day, every day – a sure sign of allergic addiction. Add it all up, and it comes as no surprise that coffee wreaks havoc with so many allergy diets.
Cola drinks and other soft drinks, which also contain caffeine, can aggravate allergy. So can chocolate. Your wisest step is to wean yourself not only from coffee, but its cousins, too.
Chocolate. Just what is it about chocolate that puts it on so many allergists’ blacklists? For one thing, chocolate sweets, sauces, icings, puddings and cakes are full of sugar, which may cause problems on its own, as we’ve just mentioned. But there’s more to chocolate’s bad reputation than sugar. One doctor in particular – Joseph H. Fries, affiliated with Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, New York – feels that the many additives that embellish chocolate are the real culprits (Annals of Allergy).
Even ‘pure’ chocolate is a highly complex product. Like coffee, it contains methylxanthines and other drug-like substances. Plus it’s loaded with phenyl-ethylamine, a substance that produces a giddy response comparable to an amphetamine high.
If you are truly allergic to chocolate, you’ll also have to be careful to avoid its close relatives – not only cocoa, but cola and karaya gum (often listed as ‘vegetable gum’). Luckily, nature has given us carob – a dark, sweet powder that can be substituted for chocolate. Carob powder and carob snacks can easily be found in all health food stores and many supermarkets.
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