Food Intolerance [EXCLUSIVE]

Summary Lactose intolerance is common and

involves digestive symptoms including diarrhea, bloating and gas. People with

lactose intolerance should avoid dairy products like milk and ice cream.

Summary Gluten is a protein found in wheat,

barley, rye and triticale. People with an intolerance to gluten may experience

symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating and headaches.

Food Intolerance

While completely removing salicylates from the diet is impossible, those with a salicylate intolerance should avoid foods high in salicylates like spices, coffee, raisins and oranges, as well as cosmetics and medications that contain salicylates (20).

Summary Salicylates are chemicals found

naturally in many foods and used as preservatives in foods and medications.

People who are intolerant to salicylates can experience symptoms like hives,

stuffy nose and diarrhea when exposed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates that the use of sulfites must be declared on the label of any food that contains sulfites or where sulfites were used during the processing of food (30).

Summary Sulfites are commonly used as

preservatives and can be found naturally in certain foods. People who are

hypersensitive to sulfites can experience symptoms like stuffy nose, wheezing

and low blood pressure.

Summary There are many foods and food additives

to which people are intolerant. Food colorings, MSG, eggs, aspartame and sugar

alcohols have all been shown to cause symptoms in certain people.

Lactose is a sugar that occurs in milk. People with lactose intolerance do not have enough lactase, an enzyme that breaks lactose down into smaller molecules that the body can easily absorb through the intestine.

Fructose is a sugar present in fruit, some vegetables, and honey. Fructose intolerance can also be due to the lack of an enzyme, although this is rare. In such cases, it is known as hereditary fructose intolerance.

Gluten is a protein that occurs in some cereals, including wheat, barley, and rye. A person with gluten intolerance experiences discomfort, such as pain, bloating, or nausea, after eating foods that contain gluten.

Gluten intolerance is different than celiac disease, which is an autoimmune system response to gluten, and wheat allergy, which is an allergic response to wheat. However, the symptoms of these conditions may be similar.

Salicylates are compounds that occur in many plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. They are also common in artificial flavorings and preservatives, including those in toothpaste, chewing gum, and candies.

Many people are concerned that they may have an intolerance to food additives. However, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, most studies show that few additives cause problems and that these problems affect relatively few people.

People can keep a food diary to document which foods they eat, the symptoms that appear, and their timings. These data can help people and their healthcare providers work out which foods are causing adverse reactions.

Apart from lactose intolerance and celiac disease, there are no accurate, reliable, and validated tests to identify food intolerances. The best diagnostic tool is an exclusion diet, also known as an elimination or diagnostic diet.

Some people find that if they stay off the specific food for a while, they have no reaction when eating it again. This is known as tolerance. Maintaining tolerance is often a question of working out how long to abstain from eating the food and how much of it to eat when reintroducing it. A healthcare professional can help.

With a food intolerance, the amount of the food the person eats is related to the severity of their symptoms. On the other hand, with a food allergy, even a small amount of food can trigger a severe allergic reaction.

There is currently no cure for food intolerances. The best way to avoid symptoms of a food intolerance is to avoid certain foods or eat them less often and in smaller amounts. People can also take supplements to aid digestion.

Physical reactions to certain foods are common, but most are caused by a food intolerance rather than a food allergy. A food intolerance can cause some of the same signs and symptoms as a food allergy, so people often confuse the two.

A true food allergy affects the immune system. Even small amounts of the offending food can trigger a range of symptoms, which can be severe or life-threatening. In contrast, a food intolerance often affects only the digestive system and causes less serious symptoms.

If you have a food intolerance, you may be able to eat small amounts of the offending food without trouble. You may also be able to prevent a reaction. For example, if you have lactose intolerance, you may be able to drink lactose-free milk or take lactase enzyme pills (Lactaid) to aid digestion.

This chronic digestive condition is triggered by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. Celiac disease has some features of a true food allergy because it involves the immune system. Symptoms often include gastrointestinal issues as well as those unrelated to the digestive system, such as joint pain and headaches. However, people with celiac disease are not at risk of anaphylaxis.

Food intolerance is a detrimental reaction, often delayed, to a food, beverage, food additive, or compound found in foods that produces symptoms in one or more body organs and systems, but generally refers to reactions other than food allergy. Food hypersensitivity is used to refer broadly to both food intolerances and food allergies.[1]

Food allergies are immune reactions, typically an IgE reaction caused by the release of histamine but also encompassing non-IgE immune responses.[1] This mechanism causes allergies to typically give immediate reaction (a few minutes to a few hours) to foods.

Food intolerances can be classified according to their mechanism. Intolerance can result from the absence of specific chemicals or enzymes needed to digest a food substance, as in hereditary fructose intolerance. It may be a result of an abnormality in the body's ability to absorb nutrients, as occurs in fructose malabsorption. Food intolerance reactions can occur to naturally occurring chemicals in foods, as in salicylate sensitivity. Drugs sourced from plants, such as aspirin, can also cause these kinds of reactions.

Food intolerance reactions can include pharmacologic, metabolic, and gastro-intestinal responses to foods or food compounds. Food intolerance does not include either psychological responses[3] or foodborne illness.

A non-allergic food hypersensitivity is an abnormal physiological response. It can be difficult to determine the poorly tolerated substance as reactions can be delayed, dose-dependent, and a particular reaction-causing compound may be found in many foods.[4]

Food intolerance is more chronic, less acute, less obvious in its presentation, and often more difficult to diagnose than a food allergy.[8] Symptoms of food intolerance vary greatly, and can be mistaken for the symptoms of a food allergy. While true allergies are associated with fast-acting immunoglobulin IgE responses, it can be difficult to determine the offending food causing a food intolerance because the response generally takes place over a prolonged period of time. Thus, the causative agent and the response are separated in time, and may not be obviously related. Food intolerance symptoms usually begin about half an hour after eating or drinking the food in question, but sometimes symptoms may be delayed by up to 48 hours.[9]

Reactions to chemical components of the diet may be more common than true food allergies,[citation needed] although there is no evidence to support this. They are caused by various organic chemicals occurring naturally in a wide variety of foods, animal and vegetable, more often than to food additives, preservatives, colourings and flavourings, such as sulfites or dyes.[13] Both natural and artificial ingredients may cause adverse reactions in sensitive people if consumed in sufficient amounts, the degree of sensitivity varying between individuals.

Pharmacological responses to naturally occurring compounds in food, or chemical intolerance, can occur in individuals from both allergic and non-allergic family backgrounds. Symptoms may begin at any age, and may develop quickly or slowly. Triggers may range from a viral infection or illness to environmental chemical exposure. Chemical intolerance occurs more commonly in women, which may be because of hormone differences, as many food chemicals mimic hormones.[citation needed]

A deficiency in digestive enzymes can also cause some types of food intolerances. Lactose intolerance is a result of the body not producing sufficient lactase to digest the lactose in milk;[25][26] dairy foods which are lower in lactose, such as cheese, are less likely to trigger a reaction in this case. Another carbohydrate intolerance caused by enzyme deficiency is hereditary fructose intolerance.

The most widely distributed naturally occurring food chemical capable of provoking reactions is salicylate,[18] although tartrazine and benzoic acid are well recognised in susceptible individuals.[29][30][31] Benzoates and salicylates occur naturally in many foods, including fruits, juices, vegetables, spices, herbs, nuts, tea, wines, and coffee. Salicylate sensitivity causes reactions to not only aspirin and NSAIDs but also foods in which salicylates naturally occur, such as cherries.

Salicylate-containing foods include apples, citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, and wine, while reactions to chocolate, cheese, bananas, avocado, tomato or wine point to amines as the likely food chemical. Thus, exclusion of single foods does not necessarily identify the chemical responsible as several chemicals can be present in a food, the patient may be sensitive to multiple food chemicals and reaction more likely to occur when foods containing the triggering substance are eaten in a combined quantity that exceeds the patient's sensitivity thresholds. People with food sensitivities have different sensitivity thresholds, and so more sensitive people will react to much smaller amounts of the substance.[5][9][20][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] e24fc04721