Food Intolerance

Illness triggered by certain foods

There are many different causes of food intolerances. Similarly, the symptoms are manifold: skin irritations, gastro-intestinal dysfunctions, asthma, or rheumatic problems.

Food intolerances are categorised according to their effects:

• Intolerances: usually the result of an inherited or acquired enzymatic defect or deficiency, which disrupts metabolism so that food components cannot be properly digested.
• Allergies result from the immune system reacting with certain allergy-triggering substances (allergens), which the body regards as “foreign”.
• Pseudoallergies are also reactions to certain substances in food on a dose-dependent basis. The symptoms are similar to "true" allergies, but pseudoallergies do not involve the immune system.
• Toxic reactions are reactions to certain substances contained in food (e.g. mould or plant toxins) or to toxic residues in the local environment.