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The body is an amazing machine that is capable of telling us when something is not right by displaying symptoms and sometimes disease (dis-ease). Symptoms of food intolerance and food allergy can happen after consuming certain foods or beverages and the reaction can vary from a few hours to a few days, hence making it difficult to diagnose the food or beverage causing the problem in the first place . It should also be noted that food intolerance is different to food allergy. In my opinion, food allergy is more immediately life threatening than food intolerance. Keep in mind that external chemical intolerance or environmental sensitivities such as fragrances, fabric additives, detergents and pollutants can also impact our health.
Some of the other food intolerance symptoms can be linked to natural colours and natural flavours in food and drinks which may have been passed by food standard organizations. Many people are deceived because they believe that if the food or drink ingredients list natural colours or nature identical ingredients then the product is safe. Annatto is a natural colour and yet some people react to this and I believe my daughter is one of these people as she tends to get quite irritable after having a food that contains Annatto . Annatto is often added to ice-cream and certain cheeses for example but also many other foods. Glutamates are also a problem for many people. MSG or 621 is added to many foods and it is naturally occuring in tomatoes, grapes, plums, prunes, broccoli, English Spinach and many more. To learn more about glutamates you can purchase a book of your choice through this page.
This next category related to intolerance is only really discovered through your own research or with the assistance of such people as a dietitian or naturopath who has an understanding of the impact of food chemicals on the body. When you mention naturally occuring chemicals in food, most people conjur up an image of a chemical that has been added to food by a food manufacturer. In actual fact, naturally occuring chemicals are in fruit and vegetables and these can be a major cause of food intolerance symptoms. They are called naturally occurring because the plant naturally contains them as its own protective mechanism. These natural chemicals are called Amines and Salicylates. While a larger number of people are more prone to a salicylate reaction, there are others that have amine reactions. I am one of those people that reacted quite strongly to amines. We used Friendly Food in our house for many years whilst in the process of healing our bodies so we were able to accept a wider variety of foods. You can read my story in one of my other posts.
Removing the food additives and preservatives from your diet can be enough on its own to reduce food intolerance symptoms. This change alone can bring about an improvement in your health. A book we use and have found to be very useful for understanding additives in food is called Additive Alert written by an Australian author named Julie Eady. Additive Alert is an extremely comprehensive guide to food colours, food additives, food preservatives, additive numbers correlated with additive names, the symptoms and dangers associated with each additive and it also includes a handy additive card that you can pop in your purse and pull it out to hold up against the ingredient list of a product when grocery shopping. A great book to have on your shelf so you can pull it out as needed. Once you learn about the impact of food preservatives and additives, you will want to change what you buy. The benefit of that is that you will notice a change in the way you feel, your energy and health.
Some common food intolerance symptoms are listed below and separated out for children and adults.
Children:
Adults:
This list is by no means exhaustive but gives you a guide to food intolerance symptoms. If you have some other symptoms you would like to share then please email me and I will add them to the list.
In conclusion, I would like to add that when you do make dietary changes, you can sometimes expect that behaviour or a feeling of general well being, can be worse for anywhere up to two weeks as the body rids itself of some of the chemicals it has been tolerating for so long. You will often see this in children who suffer from food intolerance symptoms, as they seem to suffer more prominently during the elimination phase, from any of the above mentioned symptoms, before they again sprout their little angel wings that you knew existed all along.
Posted in Food Intolerance, Food Intolerance Symptoms | Tagged allergies, amines, coeliac, food allergy, food intolerances, lactose intolerant, MSG, naturally occuring chemicals, salicylates, symptoms of food intolerance, wheat intolerance, wheat intolerant | No Comments »