'I can’t eat eggs as I get a severe stomach ache', or 'can’t eat pineapples! I break into rashes'. What do these reactions signify? Is it a disease or an underlying ailment? Well, what you're suffering from is simply food allergy or sometimes food intolerance.
What is the difference between food allergy and food intolerance?
These conditions can be observed in anybody, irrespective of their age or sex. Basically food allergy is caused when our immune system, which is responsible to keep our body free from any kind of infections, fails to produce enough amounts of antibodies to destroy the harmful toxins or bacteria and thus end up giving us an allergic reaction.
However, every time a person reacts to food, it is assumed that it is an allergic reaction. Some 20% of people believe they are allergic to one food or another, but the truth is that food allergy is actually rarer, with about 2 in a 100 of the adult population actually having adverse reactions to foods. Remember food allergy is different from food poisoning or food intolerance (lactose intolerance/milk intolerance) because all the symptoms of food allergy occur within a few minutes to an hour of eating a smallest bite or piece of allergens.
A food allergy can initially be experienced as an itching in the mouth and difficulty in swallowing and breathing. Then, during digestion of the food in the stomach and intestines, symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain can set in. When food reaches the airways, it can cause asthma. As the allergens travel through blood vessels, they can cause lightheadedness, weakness, and anaphylaxis which is a sudden drop in blood pressure. Incidentally, the gastrointestinal symptoms of food allergy are very much similar to the symptoms of different types of food intolerance. But food intolerance symptoms are very mild and not immediate (and are mainly due to insufficiency of a particular enzyme or chemical required for digestion) and life threatening while in case of allergy, it can be fatal if not treated quickly. Did you know these 10 foods could cause allergies in children?
Food intolerance is reversible while food allergy is not. A person can overcome food intolerance as the time passes e.g. a child maybe lactose intolerant at the age of 5, but then after 10 years, he/she may be able to take milk and milk products. This is mainly because the body has developed its enzymes and can tolerate that particular food item.
In young children, the prevalence of intolerance to cow’s milk is 1.9-3.2 percent, and allergy to eggs is 2.6 percent. However, as children grow, they outgrow the intolerance, while adults usually do not. In adults, the most common foods that cause allergic reactions are: shellfish, such as shrimp, crab fish, lobster, and crab; and in beans and nuts, soybeans and peanuts are one of most allergenic foods and frequently cause very severe reactions, including anaphylaxis.
Allergy to peanuts is established in childhood and usually maintained throughout life. Remember children are more likely to outgrow intolerance to cow's milk or soy formula than allergies to peanuts, fish, or shrimp.
Diagnosis of food allergy
It is very simple to differentiate food allergy from other food disorders. One of the simplest ways to diagnose a food allergy is to do a detailed assessment of one’s history. If you don’t find any answers to the existing food allergy in the history then the following questions should be asked to confirm their food allergy:
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- What was the timing of the reaction? Did the reaction come on quickly, usually within an hour after eating the food?
- Is the reaction always associated with a certain food or something like cosmetics etc? Here are some tips to deal with cosmetic allergies.
- Did anyone else get sick after eating the same food?
- How much did the patient eat before experiencing a reaction?
- What was the exact composition of the meal consumed?
- The first and the most important step you should take is visit the family physician as soon as you experience any kind of food allergy or intolerance.
- Do not panic and start the medications immediately. In case of children, stay calm and make sure to give each and every detail to the pediatrician.
- Talk to your child’s school teachers and to the parents of playmates about the child’s allergies and its precautions, like letting them know about the foods your child is allergic to and its medications or the first aid that can be given for any sudden allergic reactions.
- Always keep an identity card in your child’s pocket with the name, address, list of food allergies, guardian’s contact details and family physician’s contact details, so that it can be used in case of an emergency.
- Meet a dietitian and get a suitable healthy nutritious diet planned, to keep away from the foods to be avoided with and balance the nutrient intake.
- Always read the food labels carefully before buying any kind of ready to eat foodstuff from the market to check for ingredients you are allergic to. Here are 6 foods that are definitely not gluten free.
- When in restaurants, keep it simple and avoid anything that is unknown. Or ask for a detailed composition (about the ingredients being used) of the dish, if trying a new recipe.
- In fact, you can also opt for food intolerance tests as a precaution.
- If you are unsure whether you have an allergy or hypersensitivity, withdraw the food for two weeks, then reintroduce it to see if there is a reaction.
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