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Food Allergies the Latest Fashion Accessories? ; Most 'Intolerances' Are All in the Mind, Say Experts

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 November 2004, 18:00 CST

DINNER party hosts face a new headache as they struggle to create their mouthwatering menus.

It's not only what to put in, but what they must leave out.

Having accommodated the vegetarian boom, the average host now has to pander to a guest list full of food allergy sufferers.

The number of people professing to suffer from eating intolerances has soared but, according to psychologists, most of the complaints are imagined.

It has almost become a fashion accessory to have one, they say.

Whether it be dairy, gluten or some other ingredient, more and more people are blaming diet for health problems without proper professional diagnosis.

'It has become trendy to have a food allergy,' said Catherine Collins, of the British Dietetic Association.

'People are very food-phobic these days, and I think this is especially a problem with middle class women who want to take care of their bodies. People are now much more willing to medicalise what can be quite trivial symptoms, such as bloating or excess water retention.

'When that leads them to cut out whole food groups such as wheat and dairy that is worrying.' Psychologists at the University of California tested the phenomenon by asking volunteers to fill in questionnaires about their early memories of food.

Their responses were translated into individual dietary profiles, but with a catch. Into each one, the researchers inserted an invented statement about an adverse reaction to a particular food. The profiles were handed back to the volunteers a week later.

When they were subsequently interviewed, about 40 per cent had absorbed the invention as their own declaration and claimed to clearly remember having had the invented allergic reaction. Dr Elizabeth Loftus, whose study is to be published in the journal Social Cognition, said the 'false feedback technique' led to many people vowing to avoid the food in future.

Around one in five people in the UK now claims to suffer a food intolerance.

Some * u t r i t i o n i s t s claim the figure may be as high as 45 per cent.

But a study by the British Nutrition Foundation three years ago found that less than 1 per cent of adults have a food allergy causing a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction, and no more than 2 per cent of adults have an intolerance resulting in discomfort or illness.

It concluded there was no evidence to support the majority of claims and said that many clinics were guilty of offering potentially dangerous dietary advice based on allergy tests of hair or nails with 'no scientific validity'.

Dr Anne Nugent, a nutrition scientist at the BNF, said: 'People often mistakenly believe they should cut certain foods from their diet without having any real testing as they may see an allergy as an explanation for generally not feeling too good.

'Cutting out a certain food group could lead to deficiencies in some nutrients, vitamins or minerals.' r.yapp@dailymail.co.uk

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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