| Adverse reactions to food |
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Not all reactions to food are an allergy, although it is sometimes pretty hard to distinguish them, even for doctors! So, how can you tell whether you had an allergic reaction or not? Intoxication When food is contaminated with bacteria or bacterial products (toxins), it can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Shrimps or tuna that is not stored properly can also contain toxins. Some fish even carry their one toxin while they are still alive! This is what we usually call food poisoning. The difference with food allergy is, that is starts a little later, a few hours after eating, and you don’t get the other symptoms associated with food allergy. And if someone else has eaten the same dish, he or she will also be sick… It usually takes up to a day (or more) to disappear. Pharmacological effect That is a difficult way to describe food or drinks that contains stuff that will give us all the same symptoms. For instance: when you drink a lot of coffee, you will get palpitations and feel a bit agitated. That is just the caffeine working! If you eat a big amount of food containing a lot of histamine (Parmezan cheese, sauerkraut etc), you can get flushes, stomach ache, head ache etcetera. Some people have these complaints even after eating a little of these products. Bad luck..  IntoleranceSome people are unable to tolerate some foods because their body is just unable to handle them. People who have lactose intolerance for instance, lack an enzyme in their bowels, so they can not break down the sugars in milk. If they do drink milk they get diarrhea and pain in the stomach. The difference with an allergy is that when they add the enzyme to the milk, they can drink it. A person that is really allergic to milk can’t do that. |
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