So,as a type two diabetic I now need to drop coffee and choose between crack cocain or crystal meth.

What the pediatric allergists who respond to parents' questions in Living Without magazine say is that they're learning that food allergies aren't necessarily obvious. Unfortunately, a good many that cause the symptoms I've had don't show up at all on allergy tests.

Both my parents had significant digestive problems that were never diagnosed as anything organically wrong. I suspect that both probably were wheat intolerant. For all I know, I could be celiac. However, as long as I've been mostly gluten-free but for the occasional lapse, it would do no good to undergo a scoping since I'd have to eat gluten regularly for a couple of weeks or more to damage my intestinal lining enough for celiac disease to be detectable. No thanks! I'm not willing to be sick again for that long a time to find out what I already know: I feel lots better and have no digestive problems when I avoid all gluten. 

My sister has had allergy tests but none have shown any results for the foods she knows she can't eat. She refused to drink milk as a child and told me not long ago that that was due to her feeling intensely nauseated every time she ingested anything containing milk. Naturally, the doctor urged Mom to tempt her with puddings and other foods containing milk so that she got adequate calcium. She said that all that stuff made her sick, but as a kid, she hadn't much choice but to eat it anyway. People simply didn't realize when she and I were kids that digestive upset could be caused by mild food allergies.

Also, allergists are now figuring out that people with respiratory allergy problems such as I had regularly each spring and fall often do far better once they identify foods that they may also be sensitive to and eliminate those foods from their diets. For some reason as yet unknown, allergic reactions can be linked so that eating foods you react to can make other allergic reactions worse even though you've not been around any respiratory allergens. I had almost no sense of smell for several years. Within a couple of weeks after cutting all gluten and dairy out of my diet, it gradually came back. I haven't taken a decongestant since late last summer when I was stupid and ate a lovely crusty dinner roll with a creme brulee for dessert at a favorite restaurant. I awoke the next morning with my sinuses going berserk, and my digestion was messed up for three days. I used to take decongestants daily in both spring and fall.

There's now even a condition that's been informally termed "gluten-brain" which manifests as an inability to concentrate, short-term memory lapses and general muzzy-headedness with sometimes symptoms that would suggest mental illness. MRI's may show indications of brain damage in such people. Take them off all gluten, and they gradually improve.

So, no, as Wgal said, allergies don't necessarily manifest in the extreme form of anaphylactic shock.

Also, there's evidence mounting that the extreme reaction of so many more children to peanuts as well as the dramatic increase in various allergies among children today may be due to our being far too clean. I see people on one Disney World board I read saying that they ALWAYS carry hand sanitizer and never let their kids go on public transportation or amusement rides without using hand sanitizer after each time. If one of their kids touches a railing anywhere, they make the kid use hand sanitizer. Can you imagine what they'd do if the kids came in the house covered with mud? Probably scrub them down with Clorox! Small wonder then that our immune systems may have so little real work to do that they turn to regarding foods as threats and triggering allergic reactions. That's one theory, anyway. 

All the preservatives, food colorings and artificial flavorings in foods have also been implicated.