Food Sensitivity or Intolerance

"A food sensitivity or intolerance occurs when the body has difficulty in digesting a particular food and therefore reacts against it. In medical terms the body's reaction to that food is to create not IgE but IgG antibodies. These do not spark off ‘allergic’ chemical reactions as do IgE antibodies which is why there may be no immediate physical reaction to the offending food.

 

In normal digestion the foods we eat are broken down (through chewing and the action of the acids etc. in our stomach and our intestines) into their component parts. The useful ones (the nutrients) are absorbed into the blood stream through the digestive tract (or 'gut wall') to nourish the body, the redundant ones are flushed out through the bowel.

 

However, if the foods are not properly broken down through some digestive malfunction the body will either not be able to absorb them properly or, since they have not been properly 'processed', may react against them. In the case of lactose intolerance, for example, the body fails to manufacture the enzyme lactase which is needed to digest the lactose sugar in milk.

 

Without lactase the digestion cannot process the lactose sugar in the milk. The digestion cannot cope with the raw lactose sugar so reacts against it with cramps, vomiting etc.

 

On the other hand, the stomach or the digestive tract may not be functioning properly. The wall of the digestive tract (the gut wall) could have become ‘leaky’ thereby allowing partially digested foods through into the blood stream when they have not been properly processed and can therefore cause all kinds of adverse reactions.

 

In either case, the normal pattern of digestion and ingestion of nutrients has been disrupted and may cause problems throughout the body. Depending on the individual, and the efficiency of their own body systems, the disruption could erupt as a skin rash, a headache, a back ache, wheezing or asthma, hyperactive, disruptive or even autistic behaviour or anyone of an almost unlimited number of symptoms which do not necessarily have any obvious connection with the stomach or the digestion.

 

The initial digestive problem could have been caused by an equally large range or causes. It could be quite simple - like the temporary absence of lactase as a result of diarrhoea - or it could be an accumulation of minor health problems over a number of years which have gradually weakened the mechanism by which food is absorbed, digested and excreted. Viral illness, long term drug use or abuse - both recreational and prescribed - stress or trauma, an accident, an inherited physical susceptibility or weakness or a combination of several such factors.

 

The situation is therefore rather different from a food allergy where a specific person's body for whatever reason reacts against a certain food.

 

In the case of food intolerance or sensitivity, since the body only fails to cope with that food because it is not presented to it in the correct form, if the digestive/absorption problems can be solved, that person may no longer have a problem with that food.

 

However, solving the digestive problem may not be that easy since it, in turn may be connected to many other physical, emotional or spiritual malfunctions which have to be identified and repaired.

 

However, in such a situation, the first sensible move is to reduce the stress on the whole body and emotional system. If specific foods are, through bad digestion or malabsorption, causing bad reactions, then removing them from the diet will relieve the body of the extra stress of trying to cope with them. Eliminating the offending foods however should only be the first, fire fighting measure. Having, hopefully, reduced the reactive symptoms by eliminating the most reactive foods, one needs then to investigate the cause of the digestive malfunction which prevented them being properly processed and absorbed in the first place.

 

In some cases, the very fact of removing the irritant or badly processed foods from the system will allow the body's own recuperative powers to take over and repair the damaged digestive system. However, the body may need help to achieve this repair - change of life style, change of diet, rest and recuperation, medication, nutritional supplementation sometimes even surgery. In some cases, although rarely, the damage may be permanent in which case a restricted diet which excludes the offending foods, maybe the best long term answer."

 

For diners & travellers with food sensitivity or intolerence DietaryCard recommend Custom Card 1.