My Best Health

Being unable to tolerate a food can be very aggravating. A food allergy, by contrast, is easy to spot, as you will react very quickly after ingestion. But an intolerance takes longer to become evident, and the person who has it might not even realize the cause. Or you can go out of your way to eliminate certain foods, and still not discover what the culprit is. So, a food intolerance test can determine the culprit a lot better than food elimination.

To start with, just because you cannot tolerate a food, that does not necessarily mean that you have an allergy to it. They are just simply not the same thing at all. If you have an allergy, the symptoms usually come on without warning, and are anything but mild. Intolerance is more mild and slower to appear. A food intolerance test, however, can clue you in to what should be avoided.

When you have a food allergy, you have an allergic reaction to a particular food, and your immune system fights back much the same as it does if you have an allergy to pollen. Food intolerance is different in that the immune system is not involved in the body’s reaction.

While your body will not react as if it is infected by something foreign, your body’s digestive organs (like your stomach and intestines) will respond negatively to many ingredients in food, simply because they are not tolerant of those particular ingredients in those foods.

When the body of a person stops to produce particular enzymes or chemicals, which help in digesting a specific food, then there is food intolerance. Many people experience this during their growing stage. Hence there are people who are intolerant to lactose, since the enzyme produced to digest lactose is decreased from the age of two years. Only when a person grows older, he develops symptoms that are unpleasant.

To discover what foods you are intolerant to, reduce your diet to water, lamb and brown rice only. These foods rarely cause problems in the average person. Eat just these foods for approximately three weeks. When you do decide to reintroduce foods to your diet, just introduce one every 3 to 4 days, not several at once. Keep a very detailed diary so you can discover possible causes if you do have a reaction. It should be clear within 6 to 9 months as to exactly which foods you are intolerant to and should avoid.

An ELISA IgG blood test can determine any food sensitivities that you may have. This is a very efficient test as it uses just one drop of your blood to test for over 200 types of foods. Once you know the foods that you can not tolerate and begin eliminating them from your diet, your digestion will improve as well as your energy and your sleep. Another unexpected benefit that everyone loves is rapid weight loss!

Food intolerance generally occurs because your body stops producing certain enzymes that help in the digestion of that particular food. If you suffer from this problem, a food intolerance test is the logical way to go to find out what is causing your problems. The key here is to remember that just because you cannot tolerate a particular kind of food; it does not necessarily mean that you have an allergy to it. Once you know the foods that you cannot tolerate and begin eliminating them from your diet, your digestion will improve as well as your energy and your sleep. Another benefit that everyone loves is rapid weight loss!

– Robert Harrison