Food allergies

I recommend different food ingredients to be used by patients suffering from various ailments as many of the food ingredients contain phytochemicals which can effectively help overcome the disease. This is also in line with the thinking ‘Food is your medicine’.  

One of the recipes I suggest is the soup of the leaves of Moringa and moringa leaves made into ‘keerai’ along with mung dal and coconut grating. This is very helpful in correcting Iron deficiency anemia and also osteoarthrosis.  Moringa leaves are highly nutritious and are rich in fiber, vitamins and trace elements, Manganese, Magnesium, Lysine, Riboflavin, Calcium, Thiamin, Potassium, Iron, Protein and Niacin.  Moringa also contains all 8 essential amino acids and is rich in flavonoids, including Quercetin, Kaempferol, Beta-Sitosterol and Zeatin. Other interesting aspect why I promote it is because of the reason that it can also thrive in tough climates and poor soil and can be readily grown even outside your compound wall.

But yesterday when I was recording the medical history including dietary habits, known allergy etc, of a patient on first visit to our centre (65 year old lady) she said twenty years ago she developed urticarial rashes all over the body after consuming moringai keerai. I doubled checked on her is that rashes because she came into contact with the leaf-eating caterpillars that are normally seen during monsoon. She distinctly remembered that there was no caterpillers in the trees and the leaves were not plucked by her and there was no exposure. After long gap she tried again she again developed the allergic reaction.

I discussed it Vd.S.Suman Ali, the medicinal plant expert and President of CTMR, prompt came the answer that the allergy may be due to presence of sulfur compounds though in traces. The patient confirmed she is allergic to sulfur. So what we think is insipid and safe could cause an allergy to someone. I write this to inform ‘One man’s elixir could be other man’s poison’.