POISON IN EVERY FOOD

Evening Star, Issue 19290, 1 July 1926, Page 12

POISON IN EVERY FOOD

WHAT A HEADACHE MAY MEAN Supporting Dr W. Soltau Fenwick’s declaration that practically every food is a poison to one person or another, a Harley street physican explained recently to a*‘ Daily Mail 1 reporter that the effects are known as anaphylaxis, or hypersonsitiveness to certain proteins. Asthma, he said, is one of the most common results of eating certain foods, which are perfectly wholesome for the great majority of people hut act like poisons to others. Gout and lumbago, hives, eczema, headache, gastritis, and migraine are other consequences. He added: “ There is no doubt that the malaise, or feeling of discomfort many people suffer from after luncheon or dinner, is due not to unwholesomeness of food, or eating too much, but to eating food which is a poison to the particular individual. > Protein, of which a good example is the white of an egg, is the substance of which our muscles and other _ tissues are chiefly composed. Every individual is hypersensitive to one protein or another. Oatmeal may be a poison to one person, wheat bread to another, milk, eggs, meat, shell fish, strawberries to others. Epileptic fits may be caused by certain foods and cured by their avoidance. A patient of mine suffered from such severe giddiness that he was afraid to go out of doors; ho also had gastritis. Skin tests proved that he was over-sensitive to eggs, milk, butter, and tomatoes, and when these were omitted he was completely cured. Headache, the most common symptom, may be caused by one meat or another, or soup made from it; by eggs, cheese, milk, tomatoes, mushrooms, and even by fruits and fruit juices. Doctors can now desensitise a patient in many cases so that he may be able to eat the food that caused his trouble without ill-effects.”