Food intolerance and allergies are rampant and a hot topic of conversation lately. There’s online mail-in food sensitivity tests, doctors specializing and food allergies and lots of treatments and solutions promised by the internet.

But what exactly is going on in your body? How do you know if you are allergic to something or just intolerant? Do you have weird symptoms such as “random” headaches or itchy ears that you can’t seem to explain?

As with most things, it all starts with food, is closely tied to your gut and in this case has a lot to do with your immune system.

Your guy houses 70-80% of all immune system cells! That means that your digestive system is one of the first lines of defense in your immune system and healthy gut flora (keeping the good bacteria in your gut happy) is of paramount importance to keep your immunity top-notch.

Food Intolerance

An intolerance, which can also be called a food sensitivity is when your body has an adverse reaction to a specific food or ingredient. These include both genetic and non-genetic problems digesting certain nutrients in food and include:

• Lactose or Fructose Intolerance

• Sensitivity to certain carbohydrates

• Difficulty digesting fats

• Sensitivity to certain additives, minerals or pesticides

If you are lactose intolerant, that’s an easy thing to identify and subsequently avoid. But what happens if you are sensitive to a random food coloring? Reactions to sensitivities can vary widely from person to person and can be anything from an upset stomach to severe migraines. The problem is that when you expose your body to a food that your sensitive to over and over, you create chronic inflammation in your body that suppresses the immune system and can cause a whole host of problems. If you’re dealing with unexplained physical symptoms (anything from headaches, to seasonal allergies, to asthma and more), then there may be an underlying hidden food reaction that is either causing some of the symptoms or making them worse.

Food intolerance and sensitivities generally do not go away specially if they are genetic. However, sometimes healing your gut can make a sensitivity go away as it can be directly caused because you do not have the appropriate enzymes and gut lining to support digestion of that food.

Food Allergies

Allergies, as opposed to intolerance, create an immune response in your body and involve your entire immune system. A true food allergy is one that is triggered by an allergen and your body responds within 15-30 minutes. Allergies cause physical reactions such as hives, asthma and difficulty breathing and are the only type of food reaction that can result in anaphylactic shock. Think peanut and strawberry allergies.

Non-Allergic Hypersensitivity

The third type of food reaction is hypersensitivity. Like with allergies, there is an immune response in your body, however, they cannot result in anaphylactic shock. These tend to have more chronic symptoms and ongoing inflammation and are associated with disorders such as Grave’s disease, Lupus, Celiac’s and Chron’s disease.

So how can you tell the difference?

The difference between an allergy and everything else is pretty easy to figure out. An allergy is an immediate, physical reaction that can be lethal. A food intolerance is a physical reaction, but it just doesn’t have an immune response and more often than not, has a digestive reaction. A non-allergic hypersensitivity does have an immune response as your body attacks food or itself thinking they are pathogens but cannot result in anaphylactic shock and is associated with chronic illnesses and autoimmune disorders.

But how can you know what you are sensitive to and if it’s causing any symptoms? While you can take a food sensitivity test, we recommend you do it under the supervision of a healthcare professional as the results largely can vary widely day to day and they are not an exact science. Our preferred way of finding out is through an elimination diet. They only true way to figure out if a food is affecting you is by removing it altogether, evaluating how you feel, and then reintroducing it and watching out for symptoms (see our 10-day challenge here).

For hypersensitivities and allergies, it’s best (and often the only choice) to just avoid the food entirely. For intolerance, there are some that are genetic but there are some that are contributed by an unhealthy gut or problems in your digestive system. Even healthy foods can cause a reaction!

Food can contribute to your well-being or contribute to you feeling crummy (even if you think it’s unrelated!). Getting to know your body and what it reacts to is the best way to figure out what approach and lifestyle works for you. And when in doubt, call us!