While the Bland Diet is not usually used to treat asthma, it does help prevent an allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, which has similar symptoms as asthma. Food allergies can cause mild symptoms, but anaphylaxis can result in death if untreated. The Bland Diet can help prevent this by identifying the foods that cause an allergic reaction.
Asthma and Allergies
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma is a chronic condition in which your lung’s airways temporarily become narrow, making it difficult to breath. Asthma can be caused by airborne allergens or by a reaction to factors like stress, anxiety, exercise and cold air. Symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, a tight feeling in the chest and coughing. These symptoms are easy to confuse with symptoms of a food allergy.
Food Allergies
The Bland Diet is not used to treat asthma, but rather to diagnose food allergies that cause anaphylaxis, a condition in your body with symptoms similar to asthma. Anaphylaxis occurs when your body reacts to a food by widening your blood vessels until your blood pressure drops. Symptoms include wheezing, difficulty breathing, throat tightness and faintness. If left untreated, it can be fatal.
Bland Diet
The Bland Diet, also called the Elimination Diet, is designed to help you identify your food allergies in order to prevent a reaction like anaphylaxis. At the beginning of the diet, your diet is extremely restricted, composed of foods that are not known for causing a reaction. To identify which foods you are allergic to, you add in one food at a time over a period of a couple of weeks, according to the CFIDS Association of America, which focuses on chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome.
Identifying Allergies
On the initial diet, you eat most fruits and vegetables but avoid corn, peas, beans and citrus fruits. You can eat most meats, but no processed meat. Finally, you can eat grains that do not contain any gluten. Over the next couple of weeks, you add in other foods one at a time, waiting in between to see if you have an allergic reaction. Once you identify a food that causes mild or serious symptoms, you can eliminate it from your normal diet, helping to control your allergy.
