Over recent years there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people suffering with a food intolerance. We sometimes take for granted the amazing variety of food we have available to us in the UK, but this can often be processed and full of refined sugar.

Nearly all foods require an enzyme for proper digestion. According to the British Allergy Foundation, enzyme deficiencies are a common cause of food intolerance. Certain chemicals in foods and drinks can cause intolerance – for example, amines and some foods have naturally-occurring chemicals that can have a toxic effect on humans.

Food intolerance and food allergies are very different and the following ways show why.

Food Allergies

• A reaction from your immune system as it mistakenly treats proteins found in food as a threat

• Can rapidly trigger typical allergy symptoms, such as a rash, wheezing and itching, after eating just a small amount of the food

• Common food allergies in adults are fish, shellfish and nuts, and in children it’s usually milk, eggs, peanuts, other nuts and fish

• Can be serious

Food Intolerance

• Does not involve your immune system – there is no allergic reaction, and it is never life-threatening

• Causes symptoms that come on more slowly, often many hours after eating the problem food

• Only results in symptoms if you eat reasonable amounts of the food (unlike an allergy, where just traces can trigger a reaction)

• Can be caused by many different foods

As food intolerance is not as serious as a food allergy, many people often ignore the symptoms and continue to suffer whilst eating the foods that might be causing the problem. Symptoms of food intolerance can be a mixture of tummy pain, bloating, diarrhoea, migraines, vomiting and lethargy after eating, and they usually come on within a few hours after eating the food.

Symptoms can be related to other health conditions

The symptoms of a food intolerance can also be related to a number of other health conditions, so if you are experiencing them it is important to visit your GP to find out the cause. Your GP may ask for a skin prick test or order some blood tests to find the cause, neither of which are 100% reliable. Therefore, keeping a food diary is the best way to try to figure out what you might have an intolerance to.

Note what you eat, what symptoms you experience and how long after eating the food they appear. Once you have a good idea which food is the problem, eliminate it from your diet for 2-6 weeks to see if the symptoms improve. Then if you want to, you can reintroduce the food gradually and see if the symptoms return.