Food intolerance is, itself, another umbrella term, since it covers a whole range of adverse reactions to foods with a variety of causes, including:
• False food allergy
• Histamine
• Other chemicals in foods
• Enzyme defects
• Other causes
Food intolerance is also found associated with other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, candidiasis, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. Some people suffering from these diseases find the conditions improve through changes in diet, although the specific reasons for the links between such diseases and food intolerance are not known.
Some foods can trigger reactions directly in susceptible individuals. Chemical components in certain foods bind to mast cells (cells in solid tissue where IgE antibodies lodge in the case of true allergy, see page 15), which ther release chemical messengers in the same way as if they had bound to IgE antibodies. However, the immune system is not actually producing antibodies, even if the resulting symptoms are identical to those of true allergy. This is known as ‘false food allergy’.
False food allergy can be detected by modified versions of standard laboratory tests for true allergy. It is thought that some genetic defect or underlying nutritional deficiency might be the cause.
The chemicals in foods known to cause false food allergy are:
• lectins found in peanuts, beans and pulses, and wheat
• peptides found in egg white, shellfish, pork, fish, chocolate, tomatoes and strawberries
Other foods thought to contain substances that cause false food allergy in susceptible people are buckwheat, mango, mustard, papaya, raw pineapple and sunflower seeds. Coeliac disease, a form of wheat and gluten intolerance, is possibly caused by a related mechanism.
For the individual, the symptoms of false food allergy are the same as true allergy, and the treatment will also be much the same. The diagnosis and separate definition is valuable, however, in that it can help in planning diets that avoid potentially harmful foods.
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