Brostoff and Challacombe, editors of this hefty volume (1032 pages in all), find unacceptable the position of the conventional physician which states that if the "mechanism is not understood then food allergy does not exist, especially if the symptoms of the patient do not fit into a conventional diagnostic pigeonhole." They have assembled the contributions of an impressive roster of 83 international clinicians, researchers, and teachers in an effort to "provide a scientific basis for the clinical observations of food allergy and intolerance."
Part I of the book is devoted to a discussion of basic mechanisms, structures, and functions of the gut, secretions, handling of antigens, and mechanisms of damage. This section provides a comprehensive and updated review that is valuable to the reader in immunology, allergy, or gastroenterology.
In part II, the contributors describe food components and their reactions and give examples of foods as allergens, eg, milk, fish,