Food Intolerances 101 by Shauna Lee Sexsmith

What is a Food Intolerance?

Food intolerance is an unhealthy reaction to a specific food that typically should cause no threat to health at all. This reaction can lead to an array of uncomfortable symptoms such as IBS, migraines, skin problems, digestive disorders, fatigue, weight problems or just a general feeling of “not being up to snuff.”

What is the difference between an Allergy and an Intolerance?

Food intolerance is quite different from an allergy and one should not be confused with the other. Food allergies trigger off an immune response but because they trigger a different kind of antibody, the immune response is different than what occurs when one simply has intolerance. With allergies, sufferers experience an immediate, alarming and sometimes deathly reaction to foods that the majority of people can eat without any problem at all. With food intolerance, the reaction is very different, as the food generally has to pass through the digestive system first before an immune response is instigated. This results in a delayed reaction of hours or even days and the symptoms are much more general, less severe but more likely to result in a chronic health condition. A food intolerance can also be due to enzyme deficiencies which prevents the break down of food for absorption as found in lactose intolerance.

The severity and rapidness of a food allergy makes the diagnosis of “something you have just eaten” pretty easy to identify. Sufferers know that if they keep clear of that food there is no reason why they cannot lead a healthy life. Also allergies are generally something we are born with and stay with us throughout our life. The delayed and relatively mild reaction of food intolerance makes it very difficult to associate negative symptoms such as abdominal bloating or fatigue with something you ate 12 hours ago. Also as the symptoms can relate to so many other health conditions, isolating food as the problem is difficult. If food intolerance is disregarded, sufferers carry on for years with a chronic condition of lower grade health because they’re eating the offending food every day.

What causes intolerances to food?

There are many reasons why food intolerance can develop; some we know about and some remain for the time being a bit of a mystery. Like allergies they can be a genetic fault in the immune system that sends out the wrong signals to attack perfectly harmless food molecules instead of harmful pathogens. Food intolerances can also develop through prolonged poor health. This could be anything from contracting a nasty stomach bug while you are on holiday to a resistant infection that results in long term antibiotics. These non-immune food intolerances may result from poor digestibility due to low enzyme levels, as is the case with lactose intolerance, or from an adverse chemical reaction to naturally occurring components in foods or their preservatives, such as with histamine or sulfite sensitivity. To complicate matters, reliable tests to diagnose non-immune food intolerance are only available for a small number of foods, which makes assessing the existence of these conditions a largely subjective exercise.

Food intolerances linked to a diet-rich in processed foods?

While it's anyone's guess as to whether the actual prevalence of non-immune food intolerances is increasing, there are some strong reasons to think they are. As American diets include higher amounts of processed foods every year, our intake of staple processed ingredients like wheat and fructose is also increasing. Average per capita intake of fructose appears to have increased by an estimated 32 to 48 percent between the late 1970s and 2004, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts also point out that the quality of the ingredients we eat has changed. As food engineering has increased the average percentage of gluten in wheat from 4 percent to about 14 percent, according to Alessio Fasano, director of the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. Our processed diets also contain more preservatives and artificial chemicals, some of which have been implicated in triggering adverse chemical reactions in susceptible people. Some speculate that while small quantities of any of these ingredients would not be problematic, repeated exposure to high amounts of them may expose the fault lines of our old-fashioned digestive systems, which have not evolved as fast as our modern diets. There appears to have been a dramatic rise in suspected food intolerance linked to today’s modern manic lifestyles, leading to increased interest in the subject.

How do you treat food intolerance?

So what do you do if you suspect you have food intolerance? There are two approaches to overcoming the negative symptoms of food intolerance. Initially the aim is to, as with allergies; isolate the offending foods to offer symptom relief

1.      If you suspect food intolerance, keep a food journal for two weeks that includes times, foods, portion sizes, and any symptoms experienced. Then, bring your journal to a gastroenterologist or registered dietitian who can evaluate the relationship between the timing of your symptoms and food(s) eaten. The problem with food intolerance is it is very difficult, even following an elimination diet, to isolate the offending foods.

2.      If you have isolated your offending foods, eliminated them from your diet and are experiencing improved health then you need to address enforcing a healthier lifestyle. Remember with many food intolerance cases it is often unhealthy lifestyle practices that result in digestive problems and food intolerances. For full health restoration, combining a healthy diet, stress management, time out to have fun, relaxation and activity with your food intolerance diet plan is the most effective way of returning you body back to full health.

Hungry for more? Please feel free to post any questions or concerns on our page and we will answer them to the best of our ability. If we feel your questions are outside the scope of our knowledge base, we will do our best to guide you in the right direction of professional services that would be better suited to answering your questions.