Food Allergy vs Food Intolerance

I recently came across a podcast from the Home and Holiday Podcast talking about food allergies and food intolerance and their differences. I found it to be an interesting topic when listening to it, so I've just decided to do a recap on what I got from it and my opinions on the discussion.

What is a Food Allergy?

Well first of all, a food allergy is an immune system reaction involving histamine (a protein that's helps with the body's immune response). It can cause many different symptoms such as swelling, itching, drop in blood pressure and it can even be life threatening.

Someone who has a food allergy will usually carry an Epipen around with them, which they can either inject on themselves or have someone around do it for them when they are having an allergic reaction. It contains a chemical called epinephrine (hence the name EPIpen) that can increase heart rate, blood pressure, strength of your muscles and your sugar metabolism when it gets into your bloodstream. When injected, the epinephrine in the Epipen should reverse the effects of the allergic reaction and bring your body back to a normal state. The Epipen is shaped like a thick marker pen and has a needle at one of its ends which is used to inject the epinephrine.

A food allergy is fairly easy to detect/diagnose as it only takes a few seconds to minutes to see an allergic reaction occur when you eat the food that causes your reaction. It is usually developed when you are a baby as well, also making it a little easier for you to know what you can have and what you should stay away from early on. Parents should use this as an advantage when their babies start eating solid, to try different types of food. Around 1 in 10 people with food allergies are able to grow out of them.

What is Food Intolerance?

Food intolerance is when the body does not digest food properly (e.g. lactose) or some foods are just irritating to your body. Some of the symptoms can be cramps, nausea and also mood changes due to a gut-to-brain feeling/reaction (when your gut is upset, it will tell your brain and then your mood can lower just like when you are not feeling well), causing nervousness and headaches.

It is harder to diagnose food intolerane as you may not get the reaction straight away, it could take a few days to start seeing symptoms (instead of a few seconds, minutes or hours like a food allergy). To try and find out if there is a food giving you problems, an idea would be to go through a food elimination diet. This is where you choose a food you suspect may be causing the problem and you take it out of your diet for 1 - 2 months. Once you've passed the time, you can slowly try adding it back to your diet. You can also try preparing the foods you cook in a different way when you start adding them back into your diet.

There are many discussions about whether food intolerance is an actual problem for the people who claim to have it or just an excuse for those not wanting to eat properly; basically another unhealthy obsession. The longer you stay away from a certain food you dislike, the harder it gets to try and eat it again. It's an easy option to tell yourself that it makes you feel a certain way though it may just be you trying to convince yourself and others. The same things happens when you are growing up. When you are young your parents most likely make you eat healthy foods, even though they may not be your favourites. As you get older, you will become more and more indecent with the food choices you make.

In my opinion, I do think that food intolerance is a real problem, but some people may be taking it out of hand by over-exaggerating with a food they dislike and claiming it causes them problems and symptoms.

Food Intolerance Increase?

There is now a genuine increase in people with food tolerance.

The increase is mainly due to the way we are now overloading the body with things it is not really meant to metabolize. E.g. food colouring, preservatives. The body overreacts to the things its not used to having in the body, and then eventually starts overreacting to many of the things we eat everyday.

It's easier for our bodies to now overreact to many of the foods we eat, as there is more and more food being produced nowadays with new additives and chemicals. The fact that these foods are also becoming a little cheaper and easier to get a hold of doesn’t help. Even things such as fruits and vegetables may have a few things added to them unnaturally to make them last longer or have a specific look or taste.

Food Intolerance For Me?

I actually eat ALOT, you'll always hear me saying "I'm hungry" and my mum always nags at me for eating too much. But there are a lot of things I really do not like to eat (some I don't even want to be close to because I will smell it), some I am probably better off without and some I should get back into the habit of eating. A few of these things are:
• Ketchup (my number 1 hate)
• Milk\Cow's milk ()
• Chocolate
• Watermelon
• Butter ()
• Pineapples
• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Mayonnaise ()
• Cheese ()
• Salad Cream
The ones with a star next to them mean that I don't eat them by themselves, like milk in cereal, a stick of cheese, just butter on bread, mayo as a dip etc, but if a small amount of it is mixed in with something else, then it should be fine to eat. But the rest I just really dislike eating altogether. If I do eat them, a few minutes later I would start gagging or have that sick feeling and its like it becomes harder to breathe and something is stuck in my lungs or throat so no air can be taken in or out for a few seconds. But actually being sick is quite rare. I'm also pretty sensitive to the smell of a lot of things, like I pick up smells easily, (probabably to make up for my bad eye sight) so if I start to smell something made of strawberries, bananas etc like lollipops or smoothie, the gag reflex will start.
I wasn't always picky about the food I ate but since I've been feeling like this with some foods, it just happens. I did have a problem when I was younger that made my stomach pretty sensitive to food, so maybe that could be a factor affecting my eating habits. Or its just me being different.

Final Thoughts...

I feel like people need to try and get out of their comfort zone when it comes to eating a variety of good, natural foods. People may be scared to try something new because its not what their used to. They may feel like they won't like the taste or enjoy it as much as what they eat in their normal diet, but they can never know until they really try. I'm sure that if we are able to explore different foods from different countries and cuisines, we will find more food we like that will also be beneficial for us!

What are your opinions about all of this?

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Thanks for reading