So what is a food intolerance?
Food intolerance, or non-allergic food hypersensitivity, is a digestive system condition. It involves some sort of unwanted reaction, which is the result of the body’s inability to break down a particular food, drink, food additive or compound found in foods.
Precisely how is a food intolerance brought about?
Responses to chemical products in the diet (i.e. food intolerances) are far more commonplace than true food allergies.They occur more commonly in females, which may be because of hormone variances, as many food chemicals replicate hormones.
They are caused by a range of chemicals (both natural and artificial) in a wide selection of foods. Most food intolerances develop from an insufficiency in, or lack of, certain chemicals or enzymes within the body, required in order to process a certain food substance.
Digestive enzymes are proteins that break down the sugar and proteins in foods, converting them into a form that is absorbable by the body. If you cannot produce an adequate amount of the necessary enzymes, your body will be unable to digest the sugar or protein, bringing about digestive system issues.
They may also be a result of poor absorption of nutrients (as occurs in fructose malabsorption) and by the release of chemicals within the body when the particular food, drink, additive or compound is consumed.
Pharmacological reactions to naturally-occurring compounds in food items, or chemical intolerance, may occur in individuals from both allergic and non-allergic family backgrounds. Signs or symptoms can start at any age, and may develop swiftly or bit by bit. Reasons may range from a viral infection or disease to environmental chemical exposure.
How exactly does a food intolerance vary from a food allergy?
Food intolerances are commonly confused with food allergies, because similar symptoms can present from ingesting offending food products. Having said that, in fact, they are totally different.
Food intolerance is a digestive system reaction to the inability to digest certain elements in food, which doesn’t activate the body’s immune mechanism. On the other hand, a food allergy is an unnatural response to foodstuffs, which is activated by the body’s immune system. A genuine food allergy involves the presence of IgE antibodies against the particular food, but a food intolerance does not.
In an allergic attack situation, your immune system actually builds antibodies against a particular food protein. Therefore, when you take in a food that you are allergic to (such as peanuts, shellfish etc), there is an immediate reaction (often within minutes).
This divergence is really important because, whilst a food intolerance may cause some frustrating symptoms (see below), it’s not life-threatening and symptoms often come on more gradually – typically about thirty minutes after eating or drinking the food in question, but now and again as much as two days later. An allergy, in contrast, is commonly a much more dangerous and might even be life threatening in the case of severe allergies (e.g. through anaphylaxis).
So how is food intolerance clinically diagnosed?
Food hypersensitivity (food intolerance) is more chronic, less acute, less evident in its manifestation and frequently more difficult to diagnose than a food allergy. This is especially so because the body doesn’t create antibodies to defend itself against the toxic chemicals and the response typically occurs over a prolonged amount of time.
They are therefore most regularly clinically diagnosed by way of a very simple trial and error strategy – a dietitian or nutritionist goes through a process of elimination with the individual, removing assumed problematic foods and systematically re-introducing them back into the diet, on the lookout for corresponding improvement and deterioration of symptoms.
Alternative methods of diagnosis include hydrogen breath testing for lactose intolerance and fructose malabsorption and ELISA testing for IgG-mediated immune responses to particular foods.
What are the most common indications of food intolerance?
“Food intolerance” is a broad phrase used to refer to a wide array of adverse physiological responses, which will cause symptoms in one or more bodily organs or systems. Symptoms will therefore range from person to person and will usually depend upon the kind of intolerance. Food intolerances can for that reason be grouped according to their mechanism. For example, food intolerance can present with symptoms impacting the skin, respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract, either individually or in combination.
A few generic symptoms include bloating, gas, stomach soreness, diarrhea, heartburn, indigestion and queasiness, which all indicate a negative reaction to the food that’s been ingested. The discomfort that is felt is caused by the inability of our body to breakdown the food and process it normally and properly. Other sorts of well-known symptoms include welts, water retention, sweating, fast breathing, rashes and migraine headaches. Food intolerance has been linked with, to name a few, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, inflammatory bowel diseases (such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) and chronic diarrhea.
A couple of examples of food intolerances
Lactose intolerance
The most widespread food intolerance is to lactose, found within milk and other dairy products. Lactose intolerance is caused by the body’s incapacity to effectively breakdown high levels of lactose, which is the primary sugar in milk.
This is due to the lack or absence of the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose into simpler forms, so that it is more readily aassimilated into the blood stream. Basic symptoms of lactose intolerance include diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting, cramping pains and bloated tummy. These symptoms can occur between 30 minutes to two hours after eating or drinking something that includes lactose.
Gluten intolerance
Gluten intolerance is also a common form of intolerance. Gluten is a protein composite present in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley and rye.
Although coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder brought on by an immune response to gluten, it actually also leads to gluten intolerance and can produce temporary lactose intolerance.
Managing food intolerance
Once the offending food or foods have been determined, the best way forward is to refrain from those wherever possible. Fortuitously, nowadays there are a selection of tailor-made foods on the market to make life easier for people with a food intolerance. For instance, soya milk.
Nevertheless, with any diet with limited or restricted food choice, it is very important make sure that you are still obtaining all of the vitamins and minerals you need daily. This can be achieved through careful and practical meal planning. Intense food intolerance can bring about unnecessary weightloss and, from time to time, may even result in the individual becoming malnourished.
Those with a food intolerance often find it beneficial to supplement their diet with specialist meal replacements (shakes) and/or protein powders, which are nutrients-fortified. These are available as gluten, dairy, sugar, yeast and wheat free drinks and are simple and fast to build into your daily lifestyle.
* Before changing your diet or taking health supplements, always be sure to consult your doctor or qualified health practitioner (particularly if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on medications).