Explain the Food Intolerance?

What is food intolerance? How does it differ from food allergy? Food intolerance like food allergy is an adverse reaction to food. Food intolerance is different from food allergy in that it does not involve the body's immune system. Food intolerance is a digestive system response rather than an immune system response. It occurs when a food component irritates a person's digestive system or when a person is unable to properly digest or breakdown, the food. It is a non-allergic hypersensitivity, which can occur for variety of reasons.

It may be triggered by a physical reaction to a rood or food additive or caused by a metabolic reaction to an enzyme deficiency such as the inability to digest milk properly (lactose intolerance), by pharmacologic agents in foods, by food poisoning such as ingesting contaminated or spoiled fish, or a food idiosyncrasy such as sulphite-induced asthma. The situation is therefore rather different from a food allergy where a specific person's body for whatever reason reacts against a certain food. Here, the most likely causes are food intolerance or excessive consumption of a certain type of food. Many factors may contribute to food intolerance. In some cases, as with lactose intolerance, the person lacks the chemicals, called enzymes, necessary to properly digest certain proteins found in food. Also common are intolerances to some chemical ingredients added to food to provide colour, enhance taste and protect against the growth of bacteria. These ingredients include various dyes and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer. Let us get to know about these factors in details.