Kokova Magazine

With the highlight on intolerance during Food Allergy and Intolerance Week 23rd - 29th January 2012, we have a few frequently asked questions to help make some sense of this complex condition.

What is the difference between food intolerance and food allergy?
According to the medical charity Allergy up to 45% of the population suffers from some sort of food allergy or food intolerance. It's really important to distinguish food intolerance from food allergy; there is often confusion about what is meant.

If you have a food allergy, eating the tiniest amount of the food may trigger a serious allergic reaction. Normally symptoms arise within a few minutes of eating or coming in to contact with the offending food, although they may be delayed by up to a couple of hours.

Although true food allergy can be hugely significant for those who suffer it is actually quite rare with approximately 2.5% of the population diagnosed.

Leaving food allergy aside, this leaves a very large group bracketed as 'food intolerance' or 'food sensitivity' sufferers.

Food intolerance can take on different forms and includes coeliac disease; 1% of people in the UK have a specific immune reaction to gluten (found in wheat, barley and rye) which means that eating gluten damages the lining of the small intestine and affects other parts of the body as well; and lactose intolerance; the inability to break down milk sugar (lactose) which is due to an enzyme deficiency, usually runs in families and can result in severe gut reactions.

Food intolerance sufferers also include those with chemical sensitivities to food ingredients such as food additives and other chemicals. Examples of such chemicals include histamine, caffeine, sulphites and amines such as tyramine.

The majority of the 45% of the population that have symptoms of food allergy or food intolerance, do not come under any specific defined category.

What about them?
Recognising that food is a trigger for a particular set of symptoms is not easy when, unlike food allergy and chemical sensitivity, where the symptoms are often immediate, food intolerance symptoms appear hours, and often up to two or three days, later.

For these sufferers there is often no clear diagnosis and it is usual that we, or our medical practitioner, will treat the symptoms rather than the cause.

How do food intolerances manifest themselves?
According to the leading medical charity Allergy UK, common symptoms that food intolerance can contribute to include:

Is someone born with a food intolerance or can it be triggered later in life?
Genetics certainly can play a role in some forms of food intolerance, for example coeliac disease and lactose intolerance. In the majority of other cases, food intolerances develop following a change within your body; foods that are normally eaten without ill affect now become foreign and reactive.

Our digestive system contains more immune cells and produces more antibodies than any other organ in the body. Our gut lining acts as a second 'skin'; a highly selective barrier that is in place to protect our internal environment; protecting us from harmful toxins, bacteria and incompletely digested foods, yet making sure that essential nutrients and digested foods are freely allowed into the bloodstream.

This balance between an efficient passage of nutrients and the restriction of the entry of larger molecules, such as larger proteins, is critical. If the barrier fails for any reason, causing what is called 'leaky gut', this leads to an increase in the passage of allergens and larger food particles triggering multiple complex immune responses.

So what can cause the damage in the first place?
Well there are many factors that can be involved. This could be anything from contracting a nasty infection, to the result of taking long term antibiotics or the frequent use of painkillers. It could be the result of an unhealthy diet; high intakes of sugar, saturated fats and salt, processed and heavily refined foods, caffeine and alcohol. A poor diet combined with high levels of stress or anxiety can make the situation even worse.

Can a food intolerance go away with time and/or the right diet?
Identifying the foods from your diet that your body is reacting to, and then removing them from your diet is key.

There is recent research which points to links between the presence of IgG antibodies to foods in the blood, and markers of inflammation. This makes sense of the long held and successful strategy of elimination diet based on food-specific IgG antibody reactions.

If you have symptoms and also have IgG antibodies to certain foods in your blood then removing those foods can reduce the inflammation and the symptoms.

In one survey of over 5000 people, commissioned by Allergy UK, 76% of people showed a noticeable improvement in their ill health symptoms when removing foods from their diet that were identified by the YorkTest food IgG test.

For many people, cutting out trigger foods from their diet for six to twelve months is enough time to allow the lining of the gut to heal and for the inflammation to subside.

Has there been a rise in cases of food intolerance in recent years? What can this be attributed to?
The rise in food allergies over the past few decades is certainly pronounced and has been well documented. By contrast 'food intolerance' is a rather ill-defined grey area, an umbrella term used to cover a multitude of different symptoms. It is something that requires far more research in the future, especially as an estimated 45% of the UK population suffers from food intolerance.

Can people tolerate a particular food in isolation but find it problematic when combined with something else?
If someone is intolerant to a number of different foods, having one food on its own can cause symptoms but combining a number of different foods can compound the problem, making the reaction worse; for those with symptoms of food intolerance the average number of trigger foods is six (6).

Food elimination diets are often tricky as you can cut out one trigger food but still be eating other foodstuffs that cause reactions. This is why it is important to be tested against a wide range of potential trigger foods in order to discover your own, individual, food intolerance profile.

Do you think there is a better awareness now amongst doctors and the general public about the importance of being tested for food intolerance?
Even though food intolerance has been widely discussed in the media, there is still huge confusion and ignorance about how it can be treated effectively. For example, many people are still unaware that they are able to do something about their symptoms by identifying their own trigger foods.

How does the YorkTest food intolerance test work?
The YorkTest food intolerance test a finger prick blood test. It only requires a few drops of blood that can be easily be collected by yourself at home.

The blood sample is posted to the YorkTest specialist laboratory where your unique profile of food intolerance is assessed against 113 different foods. This is done by assessing whether the IgG antibodies in your blood react to the various food ingredients.

YorkTest has over 25 years of experience of offering food intolerance programmes, and has published survey data to show that, in those with chronic symptoms, over three quarters will show significant benefit if they remove those foods that have shown a reaction in the YorkTest test.

Unlike other kits, The YorkTest also includes two telephone consultations with a qualified nutritionist who will offer specific individual advice and help on how to incorporate the recommended diet changes. A 12 week food diary with diet tips is also provided to help you keep track of the changes you are making to your diet.

If I have been avoiding a certain food for a while as it caused me a reaction but it doesn’t show up on my results, does that necessarily mean I'm not intolerant to it?
No, in order for an antibody reaction to occur it needs to have a trigger. If there is a negative result for a food you have a known sensitivity to, it may be because you have already identified the food as a problem and have not eaten it for a while. If you know that you have a reaction to a certain food type you must continue to avoid it even if it doesn't show up as a positive on the test results.
www.yorktest.com