Food Intolerance vs Food Allergies
I remember on my birthday as a kid, I use to bring sweets and treats to my friends to the school to celebrate the big day. You could really felt in the atmosphere, everyone excited for the big bag of candies were going to get at the end of the class. Now these image is nearly impossible. 1 in 12 kids have a food allergy, so schools don’t allow anymore to bringing food to share with other kids. The most common allergies between the youngest are nuts, eggs and soy.
Pollution, different food habits, personal hygiene and climate warming have lots to do with this.
Among adult people, the percentage has also increase, but the tendency is to suffer more food intolerance (or sensitive).
So firstly let’s see the difference between allergy and intolerance.
Allergy is an overreaction of your body (your immune system) to a protein that it’s perceived as dangerous. To take the invader out, our immune system uses all its resources to expel it quickly. It uses mucous, causes vomiting, diarrhea, swelling, redness, stomach pain… to drive that allergen out of our body.
Our immune response is known as inflammation, and this reaction meant to heal and protect the body. And the response occurs within minutes.
Food sensitives start out in a similar way, the immune system overreact to an harmless food, but our body responses take a bit longer to show up, it can appear in hours or even days. And the symtoms usually are more vague, headache, fatigue, brain fog, sleep problems, irritability… Although our body react later and its symtoms look less sever, we still have to pay attention to this dangerous food and protect our body from them.
The best way to find food sensitives is through an elimination diet. A diet that removes suspicious foods for a period of time, around 24 days, to be reintroduced one at a time to see whether the symptoms resurface or not. It is very important to keep a food diary to record how the body reacts and how you feel.
The food to avoid would be:
- soy
- dairy
- eggs
- fish
- shellfish
- gluten
- nuts
It is a simple method to discover some sensitive reactions, but we must be disciplinated. Also be attent to don’t lid to food deficiency in the areas of nutrients we are avoiding.
If you discover you suffer from food sensitives or allergies, don’t panic. It’s not the end of the world and we are here to help you. It will take you some time to addapt. You will have to make some changes in your diet and probably the best way is you starting to cook more, so you will have more control over what goes into your plate. There are still tons of food you can eat, focus on lean protein, vegetables, fruit, seeds, pulses and cereals without gluten as millet or quinoa.
Be positive, you are in the right place 😉