Thirty years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I was plagued with dry, itchy red patches on my face. It wasn't until my daughter was a year old and we had moved to a mini-farm and bought a goat, that I realized milk didn't really agree with me. I was a round-about way to discover a milk allergy, but since I didn't care for goat's milk and quit drinking it, I discovered the dry patches clearing and my stuffy head and bellyaches gone.

It wasn't until the 80s that I discovered naturopathy and food tolerances, that I began to research alternate cooking methods. I removed dairy from my diet and learned to bake with soy milk and egg replacer-just in case I had an egg allergy too. Soon I was feeling better. Many years later the headaches and stuffiness and stomach upsets showed up again. This time it was wheat that was the suspected culprit, so I experimented with baking with rice flour and barley flour and gluten-free baking mixes. My baked goods were quickly devoured by my family and my health once again improved.

The main food allergens are wheat (gluten), dairy, corn, soy, and egg. Removing these foods from the diet for three weeks then introducing one at a time, is a simple test for discovering food allergies. If you get symptoms (headaches, stomach upsets, rashes, stuffiness) when you return the food to your diet, you are most likely allergic. People think it would be too hard to eliminate dairy or wheat. But if you are proactive, it's not that difficult. There are many web sites to help with recipes and even support groups to share stories. And labels marking foods as dairy free or gluten free is common now.

If your allergy is like mine, an intolerance, getting a little dairy or wheat or corn from a hidden source, doesn't hurt too much. Some people are severely allergic or have an auto-immune disease that precludes gluten in all it's forms-including soy sauce or vinegar. There are websites and support groups for this type of problem too.

Taking care with what you eat will help you in other ways-lowering cholesterol and keeping a desired weight. It is worth it to learn new habits.

Learn more about this author, Nancy Canyon.
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