Do you have a salicylate sensitivity?
Salicylates (or Salicylic acid) is a natural compound found in many healthy natural foods. They are usually beneficial as they have anti-inflammatory properties. Aspirin and ibuprofen contains salicylic acid for this exact reason – to reduce inflammation and pain.
Unfortunately for some people salicylates cause an allergic reaction within the gastrointestinal tract resulting in painful symptoms, including bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. This occurs because the body creates an inflammatory reaction in response to consuming the food (even though normally they are considered anti-inflammatory foods).
Salicylate sensitivity is often not considered as a potential for illness and disease by doctors because it has only recently been researched and recognised as a problem by researchers who study the effects of food and diet. The only way to test for a salicylate sensitivity/allergy is to eliminate these foods from your diet and then slowly re-introduce them.
It is important to stop taking aspirin (or any salicylate containing anti-inflammatory medication) if you are testing for a salicylate allergy/sensitivity.
Here’s some guidelines to follow:
Below you will find a good guide to the salicylate containing foods (taken from Henry Osiecki’s book – The Physician’s Handbook of Clinical Nutrition).
The foods listed on the left are the types of food that salicylate sensitive people should find easier to tolerate and the foods in the column on the right are foods for these people to avoid.
If you eliminate foods that contain high salicylates, and it has a beneficial effect on your body, I’d love to hear from you.
Send me a message to let me know.