August 2: Sugar Allergy

Before bed this evening, my daughter and I were discussing allergies; specifically her nut allergy. We began joking around about various allergy scenarios, which is not a funny topic per se, but humor seems to help her cope with her own allergy. My daughter said "what if I was allergic to candy!", to which I replied, "what if you were allergic to sugar?" After I tucked her in and returned downstairs, I started wondering whether or not people can be allergic to sugar. What I found is. yes, there are people who can have an inverse reaction to sugar if consumed. However, there seems to be a high-degree of controversy as to whether such a reaction can be defined as an "allergy" or just an "intolerance" to sugar. Unfortunately, I found no medical evidence to support one side or the other; granted I didn't research in much depth either, so that evidence may, in fact, be out there and I just didn't find it. Regardless, I did find some consistency in that whether one categorizes a reaction to eating sugar as an allergy or intolerance, the symptoms are basically the same: fatigue, lack of concentration and headaches, to name just a few. And, I can only imagine one hell of a challenge trying to find foods that are edible seeing as some form of sugar is pretty much in everything these days.