I am so pleased to welcome Sherilyn Powers this week’s Rave Reviews Spotlight Author. Please visit this LINK to see all the stops as part of her tour. So please welcome Sherilyn to Fiction Favorites.

Eliminating Top Food Allergens
By Sherilyn Powers
Author of I’m Not Crazy… I’m Allergic!

One of the things that is difficult in a journey to identify if you have food allergies or sensitivities, is where to start.
According to most allergy sites there are between eight and eleven top allergens that are most likely to cause issues. These are usually identified as mustard, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat and sulphites.
Usually peanuts and shellfish are an “all or nothing” type of reaction. It seems that when people develop allergies or sensitivities to these, it doesn’t stay just annoying but quickly goes serious. Not everyone reacts like this but the majority seem to.
The other foods seem to be a little less critical for people and they are good to start your elimination diet.
Things to keep in mind as you eliminate a food is to make sure you aren’t getting it anywhere. Read labels. It doesn’t matter if eggs is the last thing on the list (supposedly meaning there is less of it than anything else), if you are eliminating eggs, don’t eat it.
The same thing goes for eating food where you don’t have control over all the ingredients ie. fast food. Unless you can look up their ingredients or allergy list, don’t chance it. The more diligent you are to ensuring you are not exposed to that food for the required time, the better result you will get when you reintroduce it if you do have a sensitivity/allergy to it.
Another thing to note… you may have to do an elimination of a food more than once. Sometimes the first time you take a food out, you don’t get a definite reaction. After a few other things have been eliminated, you can try that food again and see if your reaction is any stronger.
If you find that you take out a food, feel better for the week to ten days, and then feel horrible when you reintroduce it – congratulations! You have found something you would be better off avoiding. However, you aren’t done yet.
The bad news is… most people aren’t just allergic/sensitive to one thing. For a lot of people, once their bodies “decide” to react to one thing, it isn’t long before another one or two pop up.
In my book “I’m Not Crazy… I’m Allergic!” I go more in-depth with elimination diets and the things to help identify if you have unknown allergies or sensitivities.

Sherilyn Powers’ contact information:
Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/imnotcrazyimallergic
Twitter: @SPowersINCIA
Website:  http://imnotcrazyimallergic.com