Food intolerance is not the same as a food allergy. A food allergy is when the body’s immune system reacts abnormally to specific foods. This reaction normally occurs immediately. It is obvious where there can be a swelling of lips or tongue after eating something like peanuts or shellfish. People are usually aware of these.
Food intolerance is a reaction to food you’ve eaten. It’s rarely serious, but it can make you feel unwell. The most common symptoms of food intolerance include bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain, skin irritation and tiredness. With food intolerance the symptoms may be caused by difficulties digesting certain substances in food. These poorly digested foods feed and encourage pathogenic bacteria which can lead to a toxic state within the intestines. This can cause damage to the gut wall causing it to be more permeable creating a state known as leaky gut. The antibody produced against these food intolerances is called an IgG antibody. The reaction from this can be a delayed onset as the reaction may take from one hour to three days.
In order to improve this situation and help alleviate common symptoms, we have to look at taking out the problematic foods for a period of time in order to heal the digestive tract and then re-introduce the foods bringing them back in one at a time. Here at Nutrition4Living we can carry out the food intolerance tests getting the results back within two weeks and then start a programme to heal the digestive system.
These tests should be done in conjunction with a healthcare practitioner as when people are taken off certain foods their diet can be very limiting and people are unsure of what they can eat. We need to ensure if you are leaving out foods for a particular length of time then you are getting these nutrients from somewhere else.
Other tests are also available if applicable to the client such as:
- Adrenal Stress Profile
- Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis and Parasitology tests
- Various Hormone Panels
- Organic Acid Tests