Many people ascribe their various symptoms to food and many such sufferers have started on exclusion diets. True scientific evidence that food does harm in most circumstances is weak, although adverse reactions to food certainly exist. These can be divided into food allergy and food intolerence. It is commoner in children than in adults. About 1 to 2% of adults are affected and the figures in children vary from 2.5% to 5%.
Food allergies can vary from one to another. But with true food allergies one should avoid that food always. Sometimes accidental exposure can occur. Adults tend to be allergic to fish, shell fish and peanuts while children tend to be allergic to cow's milk, egg white, wheat and soy. Peanuts are very allergic and peanut allergy persists throughout life. Common ones are cow's milk, eggs, sea food and pork. Plants too can cause food allergy. Amongst the fruits known to cause allergy are papaw, banana, manggo, wood apple. Children are more likely to get this but often outgrow it. Adults can get it for the first time and it rarely disappear. Babies get cow's milk allergy but tend to grow out in 3 to 4 years.
How does food allergy manifest?
It can manifest as abdominal pain, vomiting, urticarial skin rash which is very itchy, sneezing. Some can be life threatening with breathing difficulty and swelling in the deeper parts of the neck compressing the breathing passage. Food allergy can also result in eczema and asthma. These tend to affect young children and are often due to egg. Runny nose and asthma may be precipitated described due to milk and chocolates.
Food intolerence e.g.; Lactose (the sugar in milk) It is different from food allergy though it may be difficult to differentiate at times between the two. It is a difficulty in digesting certain foods. The symptoms take longer time to appear than food allergy. It can be due to different reasons like lack of an enzyme to digest a particular food.
A common condition is lactose intolerence in children. This is commonly seen following a viral diarrhea specially after been unnecessarily treated with an antibiotic. Due to this the enzyme lactase which is found in the superficial layers of the duodenum and the upper small intestine is missing because the superficial lining cells are destroyed and there is a no enzyme lactase. Owing to the lack of lactase enzyme the disaccharide lactose sugar in the milk including the breast milk cannot be broken down to mononosacharide glucose and galactose to be absorbed. As the undigested lactose goes down to the large intestine it is converted to lactic acid by the intestinal bacteria which prolongs the diarrhoea. The stool on testing has sugar and the pH is acidic. These children are present with persistent diarrhea not responding to different drugs unnecessarily given by less well-informed doctors. The treatment is to stop feeding the child with milk including breast milk for a few days till the cells producing the lactase enzyme are replaced.
The other causes of food intolerence are chemicals food additives; food poisoning due to the toxin of the bacteria Staphylococcus after eating stale food. This is often reported in the press where workers in a factory in the free trade zones are admitted to hospital after their lunch meal. Some of them can get serious but more often they are not.The latter is short term. There can also be long term food intolerance when there is abdominal bloating, cough.
1. Migrainous headaches, cough and runny nose. Migraine follows the intake of foods such as chocolates, cheese, and alcohol which are rich in tyramines. Patients on some drugs are more prone to this problem.
2. Irritable bowel syndrome. In some patients this seems to be related to ingestion of certain foods.
3. Chinese restaurant syndrome. Monosodium glutamate a flavor enhancer used in cooking Chinese food may produce dizziness faintness, nausea, sweating and chest pains.
4. Diarrhea as referred to earlier is a manifestation of food intolerance.
