The prevalence of food allergies In children, adolescents and young women it seems to be increasingly higher (Tang & Mullins, 2017).
The number of people who call themselves “allergic” to certain foods is overestimated both for the inappropriate use of the term “allergic”, and because we tend to explain very varied symptoms or pathologies, with allergy or intolerance to certain foods.
This has contributed to creating the common belief that a food intolerance can explain extremely different ailments and symptoms (from simple migraine, irritable stain-sieved stone syndrome) which still do not have a confirmed etiology from the presence of specific biomarkers.
The same Ministry of Health has published a document (“Food allergies and consumer safety – Document of guidance and state of art Italy 2018”), where a series of tests are collected that evaluate alleged food intolerances, but that have no scientific validity.
Following rigidly unnecessary dietary restrictions can have worry and sometimes harmful physical consequences. Especially in pediatric subjects there may be problematic consequences even from a psychological point of view.
In a study conducted by Dalla Grave et al. (2008), in fact, cases of Anorexia Nervosa developed in individuals who followed the dietary indications of a food intolerance test.
An entrance path to eating disorders?
Today we know that in the digestive system there are numerous nerve cells that “dialogue” with the cerebral neurons and even seem capable of influencing each other (Michael Gershon, 2020) through the vagus nerve.
Some gastrointestinal symptoms including dyspepsia (in the absence of organic damage), they are often caused by stressful factors and not by the intolerance of some foods.
Young women or normal -praised teenagers who complain of gastrointestinal symptoms whose explanation is given to food intolerances, however they can start diets that involve the elimination of numerous foods. This restriction aims to reduce dyspeptic symptomatology, but it can in some subjects, increase the risk of developing a food disorder.
Following a rigid diet, in fact, can facilitate the movement of the control from general aspects of life to a predominant control over nutrition: Check the power supply to regain control that I have lost or I can’t find in other areas of life.
From the diet to the real eating disorder
Thus begins to invest excessively in the evaluation of the power controlwhich leads to stiffening even more food rules and diet. This causes a low weight to which symptoms of malnutrition are connected including the sense of early fullness linked to the slowing down of the gastric emptying.
Selective attention to abdominal sensations leads to increase control of nutrition (which initially had brought a benefit to gastrointestinal symptoms). But this time he exacerbates the symptoms of malnutrition, thus trapping the person in a real eating disorder.
Furthermore, since the reduction of caloric intake and food (such as carbohydrates or dairy products) often determines, in the short time, a reduction in gastrointestinal symptoms, promotes the formation of extreme and rigid cognitive dietary rules.
Maintaining constant adherence to these dietary rules is difficult and in the long run, impossible. The inability to maintain control over the imposed rules can be interpreted by some people as evident lack of self -control. This leads to the temporary abandonment of the control of the food, causing real binge.
These follow intensification of concerns by weight and shape of the body that encourage further dietary restrictions. Again we find ourselves trapped in a complex mechanism: a eating disorder.
What is the correct attitude towards food intolerances or allergies?
It is important to always contact expert allergologists who can verify the real presence of food intolerances and recommend medical exams of certain scientific validity.
If we are faced with a conclated eating disorder and a food intrarance, how to move?
Also in this case, a medical assessment of an allergist is appropriate that can confirm the real presence of an intolerance.
If this pathology is not confirmed, as in most cases happens, it is important to help the person suffering from a eating disorderto undertake a psychological path Evidence-Based Like the CBT-E (Da Grave, Calugi & Sartirana, 2018).
This treatment will help the person face excessive concerns towards some foods. It also creates a wider self -assessment system and not based in a predominant way on the control of nutrition, weight and body shapes.
