FOOD INTOLERANCE AND YOU - Fitness and Aerobics a Healthier Lifestyle

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FOOD INTOLERANCE AND YOU

If you're body cannot tolerate a particular food, or one of its
ingredients, then you will experience a reaction - the type of
symptoms that arise are very individual specific and it is not
possible to say that, for example, apples will cause headaches
or milk will cause stomach problems.

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YOU CAN BE INTOLERANT OF ANY OF THE
FOLLOWING:
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A complete food such as milk, soya, apple, egg, pork,
wheat, mushroom, chicken, lettuce.

A naturally occurring chemical such as:

~ salicylate in many herbs, fruit and vegetables
~ tyramine in aged meat, cheeses and wine
~ purines in protein foods
~ amines in cooked foods
~ solanine in vegetables or
~ naturally occurring msg (monosodium glutamate)

Details of food chemicals can be found in the Library on
this website: CLICK HERE

An added ingredient that does not occur naturally in the
food – such as a preservative, coloring, flavor or
antioxidant.

In a complex food, i.e. any processed food, you could be
sensitive to one of the ingredients. For example, in
bread it is possible to react to wheat, preservatives,
yeast, or bleaching agents.

What is the difference between allergy and intolerance?
An allergy causes a very specific immunological
reaction in the body that can be observed and can be
diagnosed by various tests. Food intolerance does
not cause this type of reaction and cannot be tested
for in the same way. This lack of a specific immune
reaction and inability to test "scientifically" has led
to many doctors denying the existence of food
intolerance.

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WHAT CAUSES FOOD INTOLERANCE?
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There is no simple answer to this. Many reasons have
been put forward including the lack of a particular enzyme,
that it is inherited, induced by stress or illness, the result
of an impaired immune system, the result of biochemical
individuality, environmental pollution, lack of adequate
nutrition...

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IF FOOD WAS MY PROBLEM SURELY I'D KNOW,
WOULDN'T I?
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How I wish this was could be true. Sadly, if you have eaten
the same food every days for years you will not know if it is
causing a problem. It is only by removing the suspect food
from your diet and then testing it that you will know for
definite if that food is a problem.

The body has an amazing ability to cope and that is what it
will do until it reaches a point when it can no longer tolerate
the onslaught and more serious health problems begin to
emerge. For example, you can have been plagued by minor
problems for years then get a nasty virus and find that you
simply just do not get well again. You are mystified and so is
your doctor. Or, you can change your diet to a more
"healthy" one and feel great for a while and then find
you're getting fatter, more tired etc...

Having said all of that it is possible that you do know and
instinctively avoid certain types of food, you may have
refused certain types of food as a child but been made to eat
them because they were "good for you" (children who are
"picky" eaters could be signaling a food intolerance problem)
and you may know that some foods give stomach problems or
a hangover effect but because you enjoy them or they are
"good for you" you keep on eating them.

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WHY HAS MY DOCTOR NEVER MENTIONED FOOD
AS A POSSIBLE CAUSE OF MY SYMPTOMS?
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Our western doctors are trained to look at symptoms and to
treat them. Rarely do they look for the underlying cause. So if
you present with a rash, migraine, or joint pain you are more
likely to be given medication than be offered help with re-
evaluating your diet. This is simply their training.

It is also the case that there is no simple test for food
intolerance. If a doctor suspects a food problem then he has to
rely on you to carry out the elimination diet, the testing and
has to accept your findings. He has little control and no
objective measure of how reliable your findings are. Many
doctors are very uneasy about this situation.

Thankfully allergies are now more widely understood and
accepted and hopefully in the future food intolerance will
become more accepted.

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AT WHAT AGE DO SYMPTOMS OCCUR?
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They can occur at any age. They can be short term problems
or lifelong conditions. If not identified early on then they
can lead to more serious problems in later life: for example,
colitis in a child that is caused by milk intolerance can lead to
Crohn's disease in adulthood.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF TODAY’S COURSE:
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Sara Race has wonderful website that contains a huge
amount of information about food intolerance. There
are also testimonies, research information, book reviews,
free recipes, and a notice board.

Click here to read the many food intolerance articles her site.