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Article: Food Allergies and Sensitivities
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy throughAdolescence
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Thomson Gale. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Food allergies and sensitivities
Definition
A food allergy or sensitivity is a person's immune system reaction to eating a particular food.
Description
The word allergy comes from two Greek words: alos, meaning "other" and argon, meaning "action." When one has an allergy, he or she has a reaction other than the one expected.
Food
allergies
and sensitivities are the body's reaction to a specific food. In a food allergy or sensitivity, when the child eats a particular food, (such as eggs, for example) usually by the time the eggs reach the stomach or the intestines, the body reads the presence of eggs as an allergen (something harmful). It sends out immunoglobulin E (IgE), an ...