Food sensitivities, taste changes, aphthous ulcers and atopic symptoms in allergic disease.

Abnormalities in taste and buccal sensation, and production of abdominal symptoms, are associated with ingestion of specific foods by atopic individuals as shown by Food Sensitivity Analysis. Of 61 atopic patients all had abnormalities in buccal sensation and up to 87% related nausea or other abdominal symptoms to ingestion of specific foods. Eighty-two percent had positive skin tests to foods, 56% had a history of aphthous ulcers and 18% could associate development of the ulcers with ingestion of specific foods. Application of the responsible allergen to the ulcer base produced severe pain in these atopic patients. The patients with hay fever all had abnormalities of buccal sensation. Analysis of abnormalities in buccal sensation following consumption of food allergens appears to provide a sensitive discriminatory method for the identification of specific foods responsible for the multiple symptoms characterizing the allergic syndrome.