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Food Intolerances

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Food Intolerance
Food Intolerance is often confused with allergies, but food intolerance is a different type of condition altogether. This article describes the causes, the origins, the symptoms, and which available treatments there are which can help to prevent the symptoms.

One of the most common forms of food intolerance is Lactose Intolerance but you should also be aware of carbohydrate intolerance and fruit intolerance.

Just like your car needing fuel to function, your body requires carbohydrate as its primary source in energy. Carbohydrate is considered a major nutrient in your daily diet. There are two other major nutrients being protein and fat. Carbohydrate is classified according to its structure. The basic unit is known as saccharides, which is a simple carbohydrate and commonly referred to as sugar. This includes glucose, fructose and galactose. If you combine two simple sugars, you will get a disaccharide. The disaccharide contains maltose, sucrose and lactose. The third carbohydrate is more complex and is known as polysaccharide, which includes glycogen.

Digestion of food starts in your mouth and moves to your stomach. This proceeds next to the small intestine. Your body requires specific enzymes to process each of these different types of sugars. The enzyme plays the role of a catalyst, which produces chemical change without changing itself. The enzymes such as maltase sucrose and lactase are required to break up the disaccharide. When one of these enzymes becomes inadequate, it results in carbohydrate intolerance.

Carbohydrate intolerance can either be primary intolerance or secondary. Primary intolerance is the result of an enzyme deficiency present during birth or your developing years. Secondary intolerance is the result of a disease in the intestinal tract, which disappears when it is treated properly.

Symptoms
Food intolerances are not usually very harmful to your body but they can cause some unpleasant symptoms, including abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhoea and nausea, which can start to affect you within half an hour of eating or drinking. How severe the symptoms are can vary a lot depending on how much enzyme your body creates and also depends on the amount of food eaten. If you suffer from alcohol intolerance, there are several symptoms you could experience including flushing skin, headaches, feeling sick, palpitations, and generally feeling faint.