Before we get into food allergies and food food intolerance, let’s look into adverse food reaction. Adverse food reaction is an abnormal clinical response associated with food. Adverse food reaction are divided into two categories which are immune mediated (food allergy) and non-immune mediated (food intolerance).
Food Allergy
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)stated that food allergy is defined as adverse health effect due to specific immune response and occurs reproducibly upon exposure to a given food. Food allergy may be caused by genetic susceptibility, stress and low immunity. In some cases, it may cause fatality. Food allergies begin during childhood and it occurs within minutes or an hour after eating.
How is food allergy diagnosed?
- The symptoms must have an underlying immunologic basis.
- Occur with each exposure to the suspect food.
These are the top 8 food allergens account 90% of the food allergies.
- Milk, egg, peanut, wheat, soy, tree but, fish, crustacean shellfish.
Symptoms:
- Rash, itchy skin, redness, inflammation, chest pain, anaphylaxis (life threatening) and etc.
Food Intolerance
Food intolerance is defined as the difficulty in digesting certain food. The most common food intolerance are lactose intolerance and yeast intolerance. Contrary to food allergy, food intolerance is not life threatening and it can begin at any age. The symptoms usually delayed onset.
Symptoms:
- Acne, inflammation, redness, dry skin, cramps, bloating, headache and etc.
Both FI and FA share these same symptoms:
- Nausea or stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, stress and anxiaty.
One of the diet that I’ve read to overcome both allergy and intolerance is food avoidance diet however, doctor’s advice is the top priority.
