Food Intolerance

Definition of Food Intolerance:

“Food intolerance is a reproducible adverse reaction to a food or food chemical and that has neither immunological mechanism nor psychologically based”. However, in above definition dosage does not taken into consideration. Consumption of certain foods into large quantities may cause for the disease condition in specific individuals, although such reactions not taken into account of food intolerance category. Any food, however harmless but, if taken in excess can be harmful like, consumption of excess food rich in fructose (apples, pears and honey) in early childhood results in loose stools (diarrhea) due to the osmotic effect of unabsorbed fructose. Similarly, it has been reported that children fed with chicken

However, avoidance of milk products may control symptoms but, problematic for optimal bone mineralization, resulting in osteoporosis and other adverse health outcomes. Diet with complete elimination of dairy products may lack some key nutrients such as calcium, vitamins A and D, riboflavin, and phosphorus. Pre-hydrolysed milk (LACTAID) and fermented products, such as yogurt and cheeses have better tolerance than regular milk moreover, soy milk and rice milk are also well-tolerated by LI diagnosed patients. Orally administrable pharmaceutical preparations containing lactase, derived from various sources (plant, bacterial and yeast) have been developed for the treatment of LI, suggesting alleviation of symptoms but, different preparations seem to vary in their effectiveness and not helpful in all

Intake of certain drugs and food chemicals that interfere with the activity of amine breaking enzymes.

3. Due to consumption of certain foods such as strawberries, shellfish and alcohol that triggers an abnormal release of histamine and other mediators of inflammation by mast cells.

Histamine is a diamine and chemical mediator commonly thought to raise the symptoms similar to those of an allergic reaction. It is the degradation product of histidine produced by microorganism and can be found in products like, cheese, alcoholic beverages, and fermented foods with high quantities. Furthermore, intestinal bacteria can also decay histidine and produce histamine in gut. However, histamine is rapidly inactivated by the di-aminoxidase (DAO), largely produced in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, the ingestion of large quantities of histamine does not produce disturbances in normal subjects. Nevertheless, there are some drugs (e.g., chloroquine, pentamidine and other) or ingestion of other diamines can impede the DAO activity, thus producing typical histaminic intoxication symptoms. Such an example is the scombroid syndrome, culminating from ingestion of spoiled fish, in addition to this, there are other two diamines namely putrescein and cadaverin present in spoiled fish, which obstruct the DAO. A histaminic reaction culminated to erythema, vasodilation, tachycardia, hypertension, migraine, vomiting and diarrhoea however, the symptoms generally resolved in few hours and the mortality