[Skin and eating, their relationship to myths].
When eating certain foods, one also eats some of its imaginary, physical or moral characteristics by analogy. The skin does not escape this "eating magic", since the skin's appearance is said to mirror one's self and above all one's nutrition. Since pleasure implies transgression, dieting exists to punish and reestablish taboos but also to insure redemption. Patients often distrust certain food that allegedly "damage one's complexion" or "provoke redness, spots and itching". Lists of such foods vary amongst patients, but share common features: these foods are "hot", in Arabic Hâmî. Such concepts, common currency within the Lebanese population, are residues of Aristotle and Hippocrates's medical categorizations. They were developed through centuries by Arab physicians, and remain nowadays among Middle-Easterners as dietary restrictions only. Some physicians therefore feel free to prohibit foods that adolescents are particularly fond of, especially when treating acne. Nutrition has an undeniable importance in a single domain--food allergies. These allergies, frequent amongst infants, are much rarer in adult life. It is thus important to carefully examine patients and investigate their cases in order to determine whether alleged allergies are real and to diagnose them correctly.
Tomb
Roland
R
Département de dermatologie et d'allergologie cutanée, Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth, Liban. rtomb@usj.edu.lb
D018912:Arabs; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000150:complications*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007861:Lebanon; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009753:Nutritive Value; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena