The Ubiquitous Foods - Often Allergic

By Phil Bate PhD

The Definition of Ubiquitous - Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time; omnipresent.

There are many foods or additives in our culture today that are truly ubiquitous. Soy and corn are two of the most ubiquitous of foods, and both are close to the top of the list of allergenic foods. Milk is another ubiquitous food.

In addition to foods, we have a whole list of ubiquitous additives. These are preservatives used to keep foods from spoiling too soon for the market. (What do these do to we humans?) Other additives enhance the flavor,

It’s only in fairly recent times that this is so. Only a hundred years or so ago, this was not a problem. Our forebears only ate what was available to them, and the modern chemistry wasn’t available. "Better Living Thru Chemistry" - bah humbug!

It’s well known to allergy researchers that eating the same foodstuffs over and over can cause both allergies and food sensitivities to become active. The same goes for additives causing chemical sensitivities.

Let’s look at corn first. Now, there’s even genetically modified corn - basically different - and a "new" food in effect. Our bodies do not have many generations of use to get used to this new food. Since corn (and beans) were discovered in the "new world" of the Americas relatively recently insofar as evolution is concerned, only the various "Indians" are immune to these foods as they have been eating them as a staple for thousands of years.

Scientists have found that this genetically modified corn is actually dangerous to many humans, and it’s been banned for human use, and supposedly may only be used for animal feed. (What happens to these molecules in the animals that we are eating?)

If you believe this "ban" is effective, I have some stock in a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan that you’ll want. Genetic engineering of corn is done because it‘s cheaper to grow. Given the profit incentive, and human greed, it is a sure thing bet that this corn, known to be dangerous, is in the human food chain. That’s a no-brainer!

Corn was already one of the top allergenic foods, and this genetic modification makes it even worse! Corn is responsible for more chronic headaches than any other substance. While I was in active practice, I found that taking patients off all corn products (more difficult to do all the time) "cured" most chronic headaches, including those of my wife!

Talk about ubiquitous? Corn is in virtually everything. In Florida, there are only two breads out of hundreds on the shelves that do not contain corn. Almost everything that is "sweet" contains corn sugar (dextrose). It’s cheaper than plain old sugar. Pick up a dozen cans or bottles or boxes in your super market, and read the labels. Look for the words: dextrose, dextrin, corn syrup, starch, modified starch, etc. I’ll wager that 9 or 10 will have these words somewhere in the list of ingredients. Can you really think that none of these have come from genetically engineered corn? And even if that’s not true, this amount of corn in different forms causes allergic problems, that few people are even aware of.

Soy is another ubiquitous food. Look at the packages of "finger foods" such as chips, or almost anything fried. Depending on the crop and time of year, Soybean oil or corn oil is the cheapest (both are simply labeled "vegetable oil), so naturally one (or both) are used in almost all products that require oil. Frying with either creates "trans-fats" known to be dangerous to all of us.

I happen to be allergic to soy. My symptoms include "tennis elbow", and various joint and muscle pain. There is only one brand of bread I can eat regularly. There is only one "snack food" I can eat. Virtually all chocolate contains soy lecithin. How many other people are allergic or sensitive to soy and are suffering various symptoms, completely unaware that this is an allergy? (If you’d like a list of possible allergy symptoms to check, go to: http://www.DrBate.com. Click on Alternate-Health, and then click on Allergy. This list is hard to believe for most! )

Soy is also unusual in that it contains the female hormone estrogen. Many researchers now are wondering if this is a major reason for younger and younger sexual maturation of young girls in our culture. (Asian girls have matured earlier for a long time.) Is this a good thing?

Milk is another ubiquitous food. However, unlike corn and soy, it has been used for thousands of years, and most people are not allergic or sensitive to it. It’s in everything, from cheese to glue.

Because of the lack of refrigeration, milk was not drunk by adults very much until recently. This may be responsible for many adults becoming "intolerant" to milk. It is thought that this is a sort of "use it or lose it" in human evolution. We have lost an enzyme that is needed to correctly digest milk in the gut. If the milk isn’t digested, it ferments and causes methane gas - smelly and noisy in most. (60 million years ago or so, we lost another very important enzyme that transforms blood sugar (glucose) into vitamin C!)

And, there’s another factor to consider. When I was a boy, milk came in glass bottles, and the cream was at the top. If you wanted "whole milk" you had to shake it up. Then "modern" science came along, and milk became "homogenized". This method actually breaks up the milk molecules into smaller molecules. One of the large molecules that’s broken up into smaller ones was not digested in the original form, but passed thru the gut. One or more of the smaller molecules created by this large molecule breakup was in a form that the brain of some people decided was allergic. (I’m one of those - I can eat cheese, and some ice creams, but only non-homogenized milk. It’s pasteurized, but NOT homogenized. Few stores even carry it today.)

Another important factor in milk today is the antibiotic addition. Most cow herds have various diseases such as tuberculosis in some or many of the cows. About half of the antibiotics used in the world today are used for animals. Is this part of the reason that bacteria is becoming resistant to many antibiotics? There are still a few "certified" herds that can produce non-pasteurized AND non-homogenized milk that is really fit to drink. But, it’s not cheap, or easy to obtain!

Unfortunately, few people are even aware of the above, and fewer still ever read the labels, and/or think about what might be causing their symptoms. The profit system in all our foods puts most of us at risk. Oh well…….