ABSTRACT
This chapter presents case histories that are intended to give only a brief glimpse of an extraordinarily varied group of illnesses. Bread, for example, is poison to the coeliac patient. Milk causes colic, flatulence and diarrhoea if drunk by a person who lacks the appropriate intestinal enzyme. A helping of broad beans can induce an attack of acute haemolytic anaemia in a person whose red blood cells lack the protective enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. This illness is called ‘favism’. Such reactions to foods are sometimes called ‘food allergy’. The chapter discusses the precise meaning of the word allergy. It considers the more general questions of food intolerance. Some children have an attack of asthma every time they eat eggs. The slightest trace of egg, even when hidden as a trace additive in puddings/cakes, may be sufficient to set off an attack — in the most sensitive individuals of all – entering a room in which eggs have recently been beaten.
