Asthma and nutrition. Part 2.

Food challenges

If you suspect food sets you off, you can find the culprit a number of ways. Food sensitivity tests can see if you react to a wide range of foods, alternatively you can try to identify your triggers yourself by doing an elimination diet.

An elimination diet works by cutting all the suspect foods out of your diet for 2 weeks. You then re-introduce them one by one. So day one, introduce the one food you miss the most. Eat it a couple of times in the day and monitor your reaction for the next three days (during which time you should not introduce another suspect food.) If you have no reaction then you can assume that particular food is fine for you and try out another suspect food. Repeat the pattern and monitor your health for 3 days before introducing the third food. If during the reintroduction period you do get an attack, leave that food out of your diet for a couple of months and then try it again.

Foods that have been implicated in asthma are the mucous-causing foods such as dairy (although many people find eating yoghurt is not a problem for them when dairy in general is), avocado, banana, processed foods (including ‘junk’ food). refined foods (made with white flour – white bread, white pasta, biscuits, cakes etc), alcohol. Also implicated are wheat and wheat based foods, and sugar which includes dried fruit. (Continue)