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Marc McGovern was one of those kids who ate paste in kindergarten. He’d sneak into the supply cupboard when his teacher wasn’t looking and wolf down a handful of the stuff, which he remembers tasting minty and sweet. Marc continued this habit until one day in the third grade, when he swallowed too much of his favorite adhesive and became violently ill.
 Until early last year, Marc’s over-indulgence in epoxy was his last averse reaction to a meal. “Then one day, after lunch at a seafood restaurant, I found myself dialing 911 after lunch. My face was swollen up and I couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t know why.” It turned out that Marc, who’d been lunching on crab claws for years, had developed an allergy to shellfish and could no longer eat them without blowing up like a balloon.
There are some simple and surprising reasons why many of our favorite foods are less friendly to our systems than others—and why other foods we love can suddenly turn on us after years of our doting affection. And while it’s almost inevitable that most of us will develop allergies and unpleasant responses to certain foods as we grow older, it’s almost always possible to discover and manage these intolerances.
 “As we become older, our bodies become less able to process certain kinds of foods as effectively as they once did,” according to dietitian Karen Levine, R.D. “One of the things that happens is we digest our food more slowly as we age, and if there is some element in that food that our body doesn’t respond well to, it tends to stay in our systems longer.” The longer that food remains in our system, Levine says, the greater the chance our organs have to respond negatively to antigens in the food that we may be allergic to.
A negative response to something we’ve eaten is an all-points-bulletin from your body, according to Dr. Morton Bogdonoff, M.D., a professor of medicine at New York’s Cornell Medical Center. “The first time your body rejects a food won’t be all that bad,” he says. “But each time you eat that food, your body will manufacture more antibodies against it. The more you do it, the more antibodies you’ll manufacture and the worse your reaction becomes each time.”
So what causes these reactions? Why did Marc’s face swell up when he ate crustaceans? It’s all about histamines, Levine says, which are chemicals that are released during an allergic reaction and that cause vaso-dilation or swelling. “That’s why you get that flushed feeling,” she says. “Your body is going after something that it perceives as ‘other,’ and the chemicals it is secreting cause an unpleasant reaction like hives or swelling or itching.”
 Bogdonoff explains that we have in our bodies about three million types of cells, called lymphocytes, that recognize foreign compounds. When these cells locate a foreign protein in something we’ve eaten, they attack that protein. This chemical process is distributed throughout our bodies, dilating blood vessels and creating swelling or hives. “Hives are a kind of alarm, telling you that there’s something going on inside that isn’t good,” Bogdonoff says.
Because reactions to pollens and other allergens also produce hives and rashes, a negative response to what we eat is often mistaken for food allergies, according to Evelyn Tribole, M.S.R.D., a dietitian in private practice in Beverly Hills. “We don’t know why some people have trouble with certain foods and others don’t,” she says, “but we do know that it’s usually a gastrointestinal function and not an issue of allergy when someone has a bad reaction to food.”
Tribole reports that, while forty percent of adults believe that they have food allergies, in fact only about one percent of us actually do. “It’s important to determine what foods we’re allergic to, if any, and what we simply don’t respond well to,” she says, “because there are some foods with great nutritional values that some people won’t eat. Maybe they had a bad response the first time they ate a chili pepper, and they decided they’re allergic to them and won’t eat them again. Meanwhile, they’re missing out on a great source of vitamins A and C.”
 Chili peppers also help relieve nasal congestion and blood clots, Tribole says, “but they sometimes irritate your skin or aggravate your hemorrhoids, so people stay away. Then there’s grapefruit, which is so good for you but which some people think they can’t even be in the same room with. Maybe they’re not allergic to citrus, but to a contaminant or to the citrus peel. It’s not good to miss out on these great foods when you might not be allergic to them.”
Only a small number of foods are responsible for ninety percent of food allergies, according to Suzanne E. Weiss, project editor of Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal. “Mostly people are allergic to things like cow’s milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts, soy protein, and wheat,” she says. An allergist can help distinguish between food intolerance and food allergy with a radioallergosorbent test, a simple blood study with a scary name. “Knowing what you’re actually allergic to frees you up to eat a lot of things that are really good for you,” Weiss says.
Despite the trend toward consuming more whole foods, Levine recommends substituting some processed foods for products that cause an allergic reaction. “The antigens that cause some allergic reactions can be removed from some foods through processing,” she reports. “So if you’re allergic to soy beans or peanuts, you can probably consume processed soy oil or peanut oil without any ill affect.”
Some artificial flavors are also safe substitutes, and in some cases are actually better for us, Levine says. “People who can’t eat salt can use lemon instead, which ups their intake of Vitamin C and adds a similar flavor to food. And staying away from additives is a good way to determine what foods you can best tolerate, and a healthier way to eat, anyway.”
 Tribole suggests that many of us who think we can’t eat fiery Thai or Indian foods are in fact responding to a single ingredient in a spicy dish. “When you’re out at a restaurant, talk to the waiter or the cook about what’s in the dish you just ordered,” she says. “It may be that there’s a pinch of cayenne in there that’s the problem, not the chilies or the other ingredients.”
Weiss says that calling the restaurant ahead of time to inquire about certain dishes is appropriate, but believes that eating at home is best. “The most important thing is to make sure that you’re not limiting your diet unnecessarily,” she says. “If you restrict your diet without the proper knowledge of what you truly can’t eat, you can end up with serious nutritional deficiencies. You want to be able to create a well-rounded diet that lets you eat as many different foods as possible.”
Even paste? Weiss considers this for a minute. “That’s silly,” she finally decides. “Paste should not be eaten.”
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