I found this article to be one of the best I’ve read so far about the connection between diet, allergies, and mental health.

They explore the connection between behavior and diet–something that has been known since the 1940s.   They observed during WWII that schizophrenia cases went down in Germany and Holland because grains were scarce.

It is disgraceful that Big Pharma was allowed to trump diet in the treatment of schizophrenia….especially when one realizes the drugs that they have foisted on the hapless mental patient contained antihistamines–an indicator that they knew brain allergies were at the heart of the problem.

I disagree with the concept of neutralizing doses of allergens…it just doesn’t make sense to me to give the allergens to people to help them overcome it.  The fact that they don’t have symptoms does not mean they aren’t allergic anymore.  In my experience, I didn’t have symptoms of celiac or gluten intolerance that were noticeable–yet I was eating wheat every day.  This didn’t mean I wasn’t allergic–it meant that I wasn’t reacting to it because my immune system was not functioning and could not muster a response in the traditional sense.  My response after beginning the GAPS diet and now when I am accidentally exposed to gluten proves that allergy.

I’m pretty sure I was tested for wheat allergy by an ear, nose, and throat doctor who looked in my nose, and said I had the tell-tale blue veins of allergies.  He knew I was allergic to something…but he couldn’t determine what that allergy was–the traditional tests did not reveal allergies.  And yet, here I am, some twenty years later, figuring it out.  My immune system was compromised and did not respond to allergens appropriately, even though I appeared healthy.  At that point, I had had one dental amalgam in baby teeth, and had been exposed to mercury, lead, and arsenic through coal dust.  I had also had mercury exposure through Rho-Gam shots.  Plus the toxins from pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers in my food–all known to compromise the immune system.

As the article states, I don’t think mental patients should be given drugs until they are put on an elimination diet.  It is nothing short of a miracle how a good diet can restore health and it’s nothing short of criminal to give them drugs that are questionable in their efficacy and many times cause harm.

The article also mentions salicylates.  They have popped up on my radar lately, so I thought I’d post a link to a pretty good website on what they are, what they do, and foods that are high in salicylates.  **edited to add:  here’s the link to the website’s guide to foods that contain salicylates.