I believe writers and readers are a step above the great unwashed multitude of people who don’t enjoy the written word, but we are like them in one respect: we want to be healthy. We can’t write our best or receive the most enjoyment from reading if we don’t feel good. I know, I know. When am I going to tell you something that isn’t obvious?

All right, here it is. Many people suffer from an ailment their doctors can’t diagnose. Getting a response such as, “It’s all in your mind,” or “Take some Tums,” isn’t helpful. Doctors are good with problems like broken bones and high blood pressure, but I believe most of them don’t know much about food allergies.

Some food allergies are so severe that people can die from them. Having a patient almost die gets a doctor’s attention. She will act rapidly to find the cause, and if it’s a food allergy (such as peanuts or shellfish) the offending food will be removed from the patient’s diet.

Most food allergies, thankfully, won’t kill us. However, they can make our lives miserable. I won’t include a list of possible symptoms caused by food allergies here, because there are too many of them. A partial list can be found in Wikipedia under the heading “Food Allergy,” but it isn’t all-inclusive. In addition to bodily symptoms, I include anxiety, depression, moodiness and fuzzy thinking in my book of symptoms. One problem people have with diagnosing a food allergy is relating their diverse symptoms to something they ate.

I speak from the perspective of someone who has had food problems most of my life. I haven’t eaten dairy products for forty years. Before I quit, I took tons of a Tums-like product, used eye drops to constrict my pupils, which were always dilated, and had my wife call the paramedics when I thought I was having a heart attack.

How did I discover that dairy products were the culprit? One Christmas I drank several cups of eggnog and got very sick. My wife and I had an “aha” moment, and I’ve been dairy-free ever since.

A couple of years ago I was feeling bad again, to the point where I almost cancelled a river cruise we were scheduled for. We went on the cruise, and one sleepless night on the boat (insomnia is a symptom) I went over all the foods I’d been eating. Everything pointed to wheat. The next day we told the maître d’ to take wheat (gluten) out of my diet (he was already eliminating dairy products).

This worked to some extent. It wasn’t until I also stopped taking a daily baby aspirin that I really felt better. Aspirin isn’t an allergy, at least in my case, but it can do bad things to one’s intestines.

Being gluten-free is popular, nowadays, and many stores post prominent notices about their gluten-free products. This isn’t just a fad; the formula for growing wheat has changed in the last fifty years, making it less digestible.

To net this out, I believe most people are affected adversely by some foods. If these foods are eaten often, they can have a negative effect on one’s quality of life. To feel better and be more productive, find and eliminate them from your diet.  Then get out there and write (or read) that book.