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Know the Difference Between a Food Allergy and a Food Intolerance

Symptoms that a person is having after ingesting a food may be symptoms of a food allergy or they may be symptoms of food intolerance. How do we know the difference between food allergy and food intolerance?

One way to distinguish between the symptoms of food allergy and food intolerance is to look for the cause of the symptoms.

Food symptoms can have different causes including food poisoning, a histamine toxicity, being lactose intolerant, reacting to food additives, reacting to sulfites, having a gluten intolerance, and also psychological triggers. Other medical causes can also be having an ulcer or cancers of the GI tract.

Microorganisms, such as bacteria, cause food poisoning and the products of them called toxins. Contaminated meat can have similar symptoms as a food allergy reaction, but it is really a food poisoning and not an allergic reaction.

Histamine toxicity is when histamine is present in a food and the histamine allergy is what is causing the reaction. You can have histamine in high levels in cheese, certain wines and some kinds of fish such as tuna and mackerel. The histamine in fish is thought to come from contamination by bacteria, especially if the fish was not refrigerated properly. The reaction you will have after eating a food with a high level of histamine will be very similar to the reaction you might have to a food allergy. The reaction to a high level of histamine is a histamine toxicity reaction and not a food allergic reaction.

A lactase deficiency in individuals or intolerance for lactose can also be confused with having a food allergy. When an individual does not have enough lactase in their system to digest lactose that they consume it forms gas, which causes bloating, abdominal pain, and sometimes diarrhea. A doctor can run tests to see if you are lactose intolerant.

Sometimes food manufacturers add products to enhance taste, color or to protect against microorganisms. These substances that are added are compounds that may cause an adverse reaction in some individuals. A common substance in this category is MSG, and sulfites, and food coloring. Sulfites can actually occur naturally in certain food items or they can be added to prevent mold growth or to hold crispness longer. Individuals with asthma may inhale the gas that sulfites give off and then have an asthma attack. Food additives can also cause headaches, facial pressure, chest pain, and also feelings of detachment in some individuals, flushing or a feeling of warmth. These are adverse reactions to the substances added to the food and not an allergic reaction to the food itself.

People who are gluten intolerant have a disease called gluten-sensitive enteropathy or celiac disease. It is an immune system disease because the immune system responds in an abnormal way to gluten. Gluten is part of wheat and other grains. Reacting in a negative way to gluten is not a food allergy but part of the disease.

There may also be individuals who have a reaction to certain foods that are triggered by a psychological trigger such as an unpleasant event in the person's life that they then associate bad feelings with a certain food that was present during that unpleasant event and then eating that food even years later will trigger these unpleasant memories and cause a reaction.

True food allergies are those reactions that occur as a result of the immune system response to a specific food or food protein when that item is ingested.

The body mistakenly recognizes the food allergen as something harmful instead of something healthy to eat. Any food item can cause an allergic reaction within the immune system. Approximately 12 million Americans have food allergies. Up to 8% of children have food allergies and approximately 2% of adults have food allergies.