Define Nutritional Management of Food Allergies and Food intolerance?

In this unit we will be discussing the adverse reactions associated with food. You may have read or heard of cases, wherein an individual after consuming specific foods have reported immediate and often dramatic physical reactions such as vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, wheezing, swelling of the airways, a severe drop in blood pressure etc. On the other hand, you may have also come across individuals, who cannot tolerate particular foods say milk, wheat products etc. For example, people with lactose intolerance cannot digest the sugar lactose, in milk. They develop gas, bloating, and abdominal pain when they consume milk products. These are, in fact, different conditions, which link food to adverse reactions. Food allergies and food intolerance can cause much more than annoying gastrointestinal symptoms. And in some cases they cause no obvious symptoms until a chronic disease shows up later in life. Therefore it is important to detect and treat food allergic and food intolerance as early as possible. In this unit we will learn about different types of adverse food reactions - their cause, effects and the dietary management.

Objectives

After studying this unit you will be able to:

• Classify adverse food reactions, a differentiate between food allergies and food intolerance,
• Discuss the etiology, clinical manifestation, metabolic aberrations and complications, linked with adverse food reactions,
• Explain the diagnosis of adverse food reactions, and
• Describe the dietary management of patients with food allergies and food intolerance.