What is Food Intolerance?

Food Intolerance is an adverse reaction to certain foods or ingredients that occur every time the food is eaten particularly when larger quantities are consumed. This adverse is called "Food Intolerance" and causes negative impacts, ranging from gaining weight to chronic illnesses.

How Does Food Intolerance Take Place?

Food intolerance happens when certain food or ingredients in a food are not digested well. The reason for incomplete digestion is due to a lack of certain digestive enzymes required to digest that particular food. Enzymes turn proteins into amino acids. Without them, proteins go straight into the bloodstream and lodge in the intestinal wall, sometimes in a membrane around a joint or even the brain. Antibodies quickly find these partially-digested components and indicate to the rest of the bodies and this triggers the immune system. The defense system gets activated by treating these amino acids as if they are foreign substances and attacks them as if they were a bacteria or virus.

As the result of this attack, inflammations occur on the body and side effects start to come to surface. The symptoms are often mistaken for common health problems such as headache, diarrhea and bloating and it can vary from person to person. Food intolerance symptoms do not surface immediately after the sensitive food is taken. Though it is not life threatening, it will create discomfort and inconvenience to our daily routines.

In case the patient would consume the same food, without being aware of it, many chronic illnesses start to develop.

Food Intolerance is Different from the Food Allergy

Food Intolerance should not be confused with food allergy.

An allergic reaction happens rapidly, and can be triggered by even the tiniest amount of allergen. In an allergic reaction, the immune system produces IgE antibodies, our defense against foreign substances that our bodies perceive as harmful. This can result in rashes, swelling or breathing difficulties and, in extreme cases, anaphylactic shock resulting in death.

Intolerance is defined as a temporary adverse reaction that does not involve the immune system. Reactions are likely to be less severe and can take up to three days to appear and last for weeks. In most cases, a significant amount of the trigger food must be ingested. Someone might have four tablespoons of milk and be fine but then have a fifth and feel terrible. This situation is not related to your immune system. In this respect, it is very different than the food allergy.

Food Intolerance is a more Common Disease Than Presumed.

According to the World Health Organization, half of the world population has food intolerances. There are 1 billion people diagnosed with food intolerance and WHO forecasts that this figure will reach 2.5 billion in the year 2015 (WHO, JUNE 2006).

Food intolerances may lead to many illnesses such as the following: obesity, inability to lose weight, migraine, edema, gas, bloating, chronic fatigue, constipation, skin problems (e.g. acnes, itching, neurodermatitis, chronic eczema etc.), rheumatic diseases, asthma, diarrhea, stomach cramp, depression, sleep disorders, headache, respiratory tract diseases, chronic pharyngitis, frequent cold, mouth ulcers, epigastric pains, crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, frequent flu, chronic nasal draining, ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), psoriasis and urticaria.

21st century research revealed that Food Intolerance is the underlying reason for many of the diseases/conditions with unknown causes or specific treatment.

The research study published by the two giants of world's allergy research, York University and Yorktest in UK, at the end of 2009, has explicitly portrayed the correlation between the food we eat and chronic diseases. New findings have created hope for diagnosed illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatism and psoriasis.

Rates of Recovery

This exciting research was conducted by the York University among 5000 patients who did York Test in the beginning. They excluded the bad foods in their diet and 75% of these patients indicated serious recovery within 3 weeks.

The illnesses with their respective indicated recovery rates are the following:

• Gas and fullness complaints (91%)
• Stomach problems (90%)
• General pains (88%)
• Colitis (88%)
• Chronic fatigue (87%)
• Urticaria, Itching (84%)
• Rheumatism (74%)

These statistics clearly present the fact that a food, which we eat and consider as innocent, may have caused major disturbances to us for years.

In order to better understand the Food Intolerance, let's have a glance at Susan's true story:

SUSAN'S STORY

Susan had a healthy childhood. She was rarely affected by flu or colds. When she was 21, she started having intestinal problems. She suffered from diarrhea over a long period of time. Even though it got better over the years, she could never completely recover. Her intestinal problems put her in difficult situations.

As years passed, her condition worsened and the pain increased. Her physicians diagnosed her with "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" IBS and was advised to avoid situations that caused stress or anxiety.

In addition to her intestinal problems, she developed a strange headache on the left side of her brain. Painkillers had no effect. Her headaches became so severe that they began to cause nausea. She started spending most of her time in bed, even the sunlight bothered her. As the attacks routinely happened, she saw her physician again and was diagnosed with migraine.

In the following years, she did not consume any of the food or drink known to increase migraine attacks, such as chocolate and alcohol, but she continued to have migraine attacks and was very lethargic, especially in the mornings. She became more fragile, sensitive, and nervous compared to before.

In addition to all these symptoms, she started experiencing problems with her knees. By the time she was 34 years old, she could neither jog for her daily exercise, nor ride a bicycle. The pain spread to her other joints. She felt tired during the majority of her life.

When her doctor told her that everything she was feeling was psychological, she trusted him. As time passed she began questioning his diagnosis. She is now married and has a great job that she loves. She has a happier and more comfortable life than before. Since she did not have any more psychological problems, she wondered why she was still suffering from her health problems. Her physician ran a new check-up and nothing wrong was found with her. Again, she was told it was all psychological.

Susan read an article about 'Food Intolerance" a few months later, where similar problems to what she had been going through were mentioned. When she consulted her doctor about food intolerances, her physician was indifferent towards the concept. He told her that the food could not be the cause of her physical pain. The following year, her condition worsened.

Susan's former doctor, retired and a young doctor replaced him who was very interested in her condition. He also believed that her problem could really be related to the food she had been consuming. He advised her to change her food intake. At first, her new diet made her feel tired, and she still suffered from severe migraine attacks.

But after a few days, her health improved. She began to wake up before her alarm clock went off. This was an important sign for someone who was normally very tired and could not wake up. When she got up from bed, she realized her knees did not hurt as much and she could easily walk up and down the stairs.

In the following weeks, she no longer felt tired. Her mind was clear and the migraines were gone. As time went by, she realized that she has completely recovered. When she saw her physician again, she could not even express how good she felt. Her physical pain disappeared and her attitude had changed.