Food Intolerance May Be The Cause Of An Uneasy Feeling After A Meal
“Food intolerance a digestive system response to certain foods”
Our genes and the environment work in synergy to make us who we are. Furthermore, our health is a combination of a number of external and internal factors and one of the most popular factors and perhaps the most significant one, is food. In this age of instant over sharing and aesthetic over quality, we often see but don’t really understand what is on our plate.
What Is Food Intolerance?
Food intolerance isn’t a widely popular or understood concept, as it should be. One tends to think that a particular dish was ‘undercooked,’ or a ‘spice’ perhaps overpowered the whole dish, or else the food contained something that didn’t quite agree with you. So, food intolerance is more often than not, ascribed to a physical reaction of discomfort after eating certain foods. But seldom, do people realize that they may be intolerant towards a food or an ingredient.
Intolerance And Allergy
Many often get confused and think that food allergy and food intolerance are the same, but they are not. A food allergy is caused due to an immune reaction towards a specific food protein (allergen) and food intolerance is actually a digestive system response to certain foods. Food allergy is an acute immediate reaction, whereas food intolerance is a chronicle reaction. For example, lactose intolerance is a condition where one’s body cannot successfully digest milk. It does not make a person allergic to all milk by-products.
It is most essential to know what foods or ingredients one is intolerant to, because long-term consumption of non tolerated foods causes gut inflammation and may lead to the development of various chronic diseases. This in turn, may result in several other health problems and serious chronic conditions. Elimination of diets based on food intolerance testing is recommended in irritable bowel syndrome (lBS) atopic dermatitis and more such conditions.
Diagnosis And Tests
Most doctors believe that the protein microarray food intolerance test is a better tool for identifying food Intolerance in the most non-invasive, adjuvant, objective and quantitative manner. The information provided by this test provides insight for diet planning in terms of avoidance or usage of alternate sources for certain foods. Patients can further seek effectual guidance and interpretation of the reports from a gastroenterologist and a dietician to correct their to eating habits.
However, those taking the test need to keep some points in mind: patients need to include everything they normally eat in their diet for at least two weeks before testing. Also, this test is not recommended for children under two years of age and pregnant women.