[Margarita]

I've known two or three people who speak of being "allergic" to white sugar, and have completely eliminated it from their diet. Now, I'm not knocking their choice, because they look and feel a lot better after kicking the sugar habit. I also agree that refined sugar is Bad For You in a variety of ways. However, I'm questioning whether it's possible to have a true allergy to sugar, in the same way that one can be allergic to nuts or shellfish. I'm not talking about diabetes, by the way, just allergies. Does anyone have any good information on this?

[britomart]

As far as I know, sugar cannot be an allergen... I think people can have intolerances to white sugar, similar to lactose intolerance -- there's an enzyme in the intestine which might be missing. Sugar also aggrivates existing allergic reactions, which might be what the person was concerned about... This is stuff I learned doing research when I was diagnosed hypoglycemic. People generally feel better having cut white sugar out of their diets (or refined sugar in general), but it doesn't mean they were allergic to it.