Food Allergy

Food allergies and food intolerances are wrongly considered to be much more common than they actually are. A food allergy is a reaction to a protein in the offending food and involves the immune system. Food intolerances, on the other hand, do not involve the immune system.

When an allergy or intolerance is suspected, the first step is to have it medically diagnosed as quickly as possible to avoid further adverse reactions. Additionally, the use of unsupervised diets for its treatment can, in some cases, result in malnutrition and failure to thrive. Diagnosis involves many stages including medical history, clinical tests and exclusion diets.

Treatment/management involves complete exclusion of the offending food from the diet. This may sound easy in theory, but can be difficult in practice as the offending food may be an ingredient in other foods. Reading food labels is vital. Additionally, some allergies may be transient i.e. outgrow the allergy.

Nutritional advice may also be necessary. If one food needs to be excluded from the diet, this food can be replaced with a food of relatively similar nutritional value. However, if a whole food group needs to be excluded (as is the case in cow's milk allergy), nutritional adequacy may become an issue.

 

Download the NDC's guide to Understanding Food Allergies and Food Intolerances