WHAT IS FOOD INTOLERANCE?
Most people can eat a variety of foods without problems throughout their life but a percentage of the population may have adverse reactions to certain foods or food components. Adverse reactions to foods may be caused by food allergy or food intolerance.
What is the difference between food allergy and food intolerance?
Food allergy is a specific form of intolerance to food or one of its components, which activates the immune system. An allergen that causes a series of chain reactions in the immune system, including the production of antibodies.
These antibodies trigger the release of chemicals such as histamine, which causes various symptoms such as itching, rhinorrhoea, coughing or wheezing. These allergies are often inherited, and they usually show up early in life.
Food intolerance affects the metabolism but not the immune system of the body. A good example is lactose intolerance, which occurs in certain people because they lack a digestive enzyme called lactase, which breaks down milk sugar.
Food intolerance occurs when the body cannot properly digest a certain type of food, they are quite varied and capable of manifesting digestive disorders such as a swollen belly, dermatitis, tendency to obesity, fluid retention, headaches and migraines, childhood hyperactivity, aggression or decreased physical performance, and it may cause a feeling of nausea, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Eliminating these foods from the diet plus adequate medical treatment produces a clearer and rapid improvement of these symptoms.