Video: Defining Food Allergies

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A food allergy is an immune system response to a food protein that the body tries to defend itself against. Learn more about defining food allergies with expert tips in this free health video.

Video Transcript

A food allergy is an immune system response to a food protein that the body thinks that the body has to defend itself against it. It thinks that this food protein is harmful. For example, many people can eat peanuts, but a person that is food allergic to peanuts will ingest the peanut and the body sees it as being dangerous or harmful. So what happens is the body releases chemicals to protect itself. This results in allergic reaction. Some symptoms of an allergic reaction are rash, hives, possibly having an itchy throat of tongue. Also it can include having a severe drop in blood pressure, consciousness and it can even lead to death. The top seven food allergies that are put on labels for foods that most people are allergic to are milk, eggs, soy, wheat, peanut, tree nut, fish and also shellfish.

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Defining Food Allergies

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