Food intolerance

Intolerance to certain foods to a greater or lesser degree is actually quite widespread and occurs in about 2% of the population at large. The figures are higher for children under the age of five but many of them tend to grow out of this condition. The presence of a low tolerance threshold in susceptible children has sometimes been linked with trace elements such as lead or chromium. Nowadays a food intolerance databank has been established in the UK and considerable information is available to enable parents to avoid trace element-containing foods. 

The demand for natural foods in the western world is linked in with the concept of unprocessed and free from any artificial ingredients . In actual fact, virtually all foods are processed nowadays, not the least of which is to maintain the freshness demanded by the customer and to provide sufficient vitamins from chemically manufactured sources. For example, it has been calculated that to provide sufficient vitamin C from a natural source such as a lemon for the population of the UK would require lemon groves covering a third of the area of the UK and a more conducive climate Paradoxically, the concept that all natural substances are harmless whereas all artificial substances are harmful is often misguided since laboratory-made substances used as additives are often chemically identical to the natural substance and have invariably been tested against a wide battery of screens before being introduced up to carefully controlled levels into food. 

Food intolerance occurs when a food ingredient cannot be metabolised. The commonest food intolerance is lactose intolerance. This occurs when the enzyme lactase is absent. This happens when humans do not consume milk after weaning a state which is the norm in most of Asia. Thus it is possible that the bulk of the world s population is lactose intolerant. 

Some individuals have convinced themselves that they have a sensitivity to some food or other which might or might not be true. 

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Noninfectious causes of acute diarrhea include drugs and toxins (Table 18-3), laxative abuse, food intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease, ischemic bowel disease, lactase deficiency, Whipple s disease, pernicious anemia, diabetes mellitus, malabsorption, fecal impaction, diverticulosis, and celiac sprue. 

An important point is that food allergy can be, and should be, distinguished from other forms of food intolerance where the pathogenesis is non-immunological... 

Sampson, H.A., IgE-mediated food intolerance. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol., 81,495,1988. 

Owing to the extreme sensitivity of certain susceptible individuals, an increasingly important concern among consumers is adverse reactions that occur as a consequence of food allergies or intolerances. Food allergies involve an abnormal immune response while food intolerances do not involve the immune system. 

Food intolerances are mostly caused by substances other than proteins and affect a limited number of individuals. Examples include sulfite-induced asthma, lactose intolerance, MSG-induced headache and flushing, etc., yet these substances are only associated with these symptoms and remain unproven as causative agents. Significant levels of these non-flavor ingredients are typically required to elicit this type of reaction, and there is no evidence that flavoring substances are involved (Taylor and Dormedy, 1998). 

Trends in Food Production Food Allergy or Food Intolerance ... 

Non-allergic hypersensitivity reaction corresponds with the traditional term food intolerance . It affects about 20% of patients, inducing symptoms similar to those observed during an allergy bout, however, it is triggered by non-immunological mechanisms. 

Carter, C.M. and Finch, H.E. (1993). Food intolerance, in Macrae, E., Robinson, R.K. and Sadler, M.J., Eds., Encyclopaedia of food science, food technology and nutrition. Academic Press, London, pp. 1993-2011,... 

Causes are largely unclear complaints of food intolerances are often made, but clear evidence of specific and consistent adverse effects is hard to obtain (a distinction is drawn here from genuine dietary allergy which responds to avoidance of the offending item, for instance shellfish, and use of oral sodium cromoglicate). The basis of irritable bowel syndrome rests somewhere in the hinterland of perception of dysfunction, and otherwise normal but exaggerated physiological colonic responses. 

Aside from the fact that chemical substances make them sick, some MCS patients also develop allergies and food intolerances. It s best to let yourself be treated by a therapist or doctor who can test for such things. Here, too, avoidance is the best medicine, as opposed to using all sorts of medications intended to suppress the allergic reactions (although in cases of anaphylactic shock, medicine is a matter of life and death ). Allergy and food intolerance treatment now includes a number of methods, such as low-dose antigen therapy (LDA), enzyme-potentiated desensitization (EPD neutralization injections) and the provocation/neutralization method (injections). 

Food allergy is an adverse reaction to food normally observed in susceptible individuals. This adverse effect or allergy is mediated by a classical immune mechanism. The allergy is very specific to the food in question. Thus, the true allergic reaction to any food is the result of an oversensitive reaction of the body s immune system. Food intolerances are non-immune-mediated adverse reactions to a specific food (Fig. 10-2).14... 

Nonallergic hyperreactivity corresponds to the traditional notion of food intolerance. It is a syndrome in which dysfunctions are similar to those observed in the course of allergic diseases, induced by various mechanisms, excluding immunology-related factors. Nonallergic hyperreactivity occurs more frequently than allergy. Morbidity rate in children is approximately 20%-50%, while in adults it is estimated to be approximately 20%. Attention is drawn to the fact that the enzymatic system in children is less mature, so the capacity to bind chemical compounds by plasma proteins is poorer, and so is the blood-brain barrier permeability by low molecular weight compounds. 

Schafer, T., Bohler, E., Ruhdorfer, S., Weigl, L., Wessner, D., Heinrich, J., Filipiak, B., Wichmann, H.E., and Ring, J. 2001. Epidemiology of food allergy/food intolerance in adults Associations with other manifestations of atopy. Allergy 56(12) 1172-1179. 

Sulek, A., Noworolnik, K., Podolska, G., Dziuba, J., and Konopka, I. 2007. The effect of plant protection substances on toxic and allergenic compounds in seeds of selected plants. In Allergens and Compounds of Plant Raw Materials and Foods Inducing Food Intolerance. Proceedings of II Scientific National Conference, Olsztyn, September 19, 2007, 41 (in polish). 

A special POC food intolerance test (antigen-specific IgG test) has been prepared to account for an increasing incidence of food intolerance implied in different disease states. It can detect a total of 57 different antibodies. There are possibilities to analyze more than 150 different components or antigens from about 20 pL of sample using a biochip-based allergy test (ImmunoCAP IS AC) (Samson, 2001 Duran-Tauleria et al., 2004 Lidholm et al., 2006). 

Clinical Laboratory International—IgG4 ELISA to identify food intolerances. CLI. 2005. 29(2) 33. 

Celiac disease, enteropathy of small intestine, is more common than it is expected. This is one of the most common food intolerances, occurring with frequency of... 

Calcium sorbate range of food intolerance reactions... 

Calcium benzoate Benzoates (E211-E213) have been associated with the full range of food intolerance reactions. 

Worm, M., Vieth, W., Ehlers, I. et al. 2001. Increased leukotriene production by food additives in patients with atopic dermatitis and proven food intolerance. Clin Exp Allergy 31 265-273. 

The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has proposed a revised nomenclature for allergic and related reactions (Johansson et al., 2004). According to this proposal adverse reactions to food should be termed "food hypersensitivity." The term food allergy should be used when immunological mechanisms have been demonstrated, and includes both IgE- and non-IgE-mediated reactions. All other reactions, which have sometimes been referred to as "food intolerance," should be termed nonallergic food hypersensitivity (Fig. 3.1). 

Knibb, R. A., Booth, D. A., Platts, R., Armstrong, A., and Booth, L. W. (1999). Psychological characteristics of people with perceived food intolerance in a community sample. J. Psychosom. Res. 47,545-554. 

Vatn, M. H. (1997). Food intolerance and psychosomatic experience. Scand.. Work Environ. Health 23(Suppl. 3), 75-78. 

Pastorello, E.A. 1997. Study of Nutritional Factors in Food Allergies and Food Intolerances. European Commission, Brussels, ISBN 92-827-9554-3. 

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