When most people think food allergy, they think an immediate collapse to the floor, the face turning blue. Yes, this is one type of allergy, the sort everyone fears when they hear about a peanut allergy for example.

Possibly more common is the "delayed onset" food allergy, where symptoms do not appear for hours or even days. For example, when I eat wheat, I don't notice any symptoms for about 24 hours. Some people might take two days before they feel anything. In rare cases, symptoms may not appear for a week.

This makes the job of determining what you are allergic to very difficult.

List of Common Allergens

Here are 20 of the most common allergenic foods:

• Cow's Milk
• Wheat gluten (gliadin)
• Gluten (in wheat, oats, rye and barley)
• Yeast
• Egg Whites
• Cashew nuts
• Egg Yolk
• Garlic
• Soya beans
• Brazil nuts
• Almonds
• Corn
• Hazelnuts
• Oats
• Lentils
• Kiwi fruit
• chilli peppers
• Sesame seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Peanuts

If you think you might be suffering from a food allergy, but are not sure which food is causing the problem, start by cutting out all of the above foods.

Other foods commonly associated with allergic reactions (although not necessarily delayed) include:

• Spinach
• Shrimp
• Oranges
• Chicken
• Strawberries
• Tomato
• Pork
• Beef

See the related story Self-Testing for Allergies for a suggested approach.

Note to humans:

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