What is a food intolerance / allergy ?

How often do you here someone say there never used to be any food allergies when I was younger. To some degree they are right, there has been an increase in food allergies and food intolerance this may be down to a number of things the quality of the food that we eat, environmental factors. What people generally do not understand is the difference between a food allergy and intolerance.

What exactly is a food intolerance?
Food intolerance should not be confused with a food allergy. With a food allergy symptoms can be very extreme and cause life threatening situations, where as a food intolerance may show up with symptoms such as (IBS) irritable bowel syndrome, unexplained tardiness, eczema, migraine, hives or asthma. Symptoms may appear over a few hours or a few day.

Often people suspect a food alergy and want to get themselves tested, these tests can be very expensive and it is important not to just take a food out of your diet without replacing it with an adequate substitute. As you may leave yourself lacking adequate vitamins and minerals. I would always suggest that it is a good idea to see a wellbeing clinic nutrtional therapist as they can often work out what foods are causing you problems and tell you what to replace in your diet.   

Comments

[Amy]

My son suffers from food allergies as well as we gets really bad I hay fever in the summer. He has been suffering from it for years and to be honest the only relief I have been able to give him is with Flonase over the counter which I randomly came across on "kiwi drug" news like 3 weeks ago and he seems to be such a happier child since he's started taking it. Don't get me wrong he still has his food allergies but at least his sneezing and runny nose is one less thing for us to worry about.