Food allergies and food intolerances: understand the core differences in one picture

The most essential difference between the two is "whether the immune system is involved" - allergies are immune-mediated emergencies, and even trace amounts of exposure can be fatal.； Food intolerance is discomfort caused by abnormal digestive function. It is generally linked to intake and is not life-threatening.

[Core comparison quick check card (that is, the "one picture" content everyone wants, it is recommended to save it on your mobile phone)]

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I have been in the clinical nutrition department for 7 years, and I have seen too many people who confuse the two. Last month, a high school student came to the doctor and said that he was allergic to mangoes. Every time he ate it, the corners of his mouth became red and itchy. After careful investigation, he found out that he always ate the skin, peeled it thickly and then ate it without any problems. That was not an allergy at all, but a contact intolerance caused by the aldehyde acid content in the mango skin irritating the skin. He had been avoiding mangoes for three years.

There is also a 3-year-old child. The parents said that they had been tested for wheat allergy, and they were not allowed to eat pasta for half a year. The child lost two pounds. After careful questioning, they found that the child would only get eczema if he ate undercooked cold noodles. It was perfectly fine to switch to fermented steamed buns that had been cooked for more than 10 minutes. In fact, the child was intolerant to incompletely decomposed gliadin, and there was no need to completely avoid the food.

Let’s talk about a controversial point that has been quarreling in the industry for almost ten years: Nowadays, the popular “food intolerance test” on the market, which costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, mostly checks for IgG antibodies. Is it an IQ tax?

The view of the traditional clinical community is very clear: elevated IgG can only mean that you have been exposed to this food, which is a normal immune memory and does not mean intolerance at all. According to this report, it is completely unnecessary to avoid food taboos. On the contrary, it may cause nutritional imbalance.； However, doctors in the field of functional medicine will hold different opinions. They believe that long-term high concentrations of specific IgG may be related to chronic urticaria, recurrent migraines, and refractory irritable bowel syndrome. It is recommended that you try an avoidance diet for 2-4 weeks, observe whether the symptoms are relieved, and then decide whether to adjust the diet structure.

My personal suggestion is not to just look at the test report. The core of all judgments should be based on your own body reaction - if you don't feel any discomfort at all after eating eggs, even if the egg IgG shows three plus signs in the report, there is no need to completely avoid eating it.

Many people always think that we need to rely on close examination to distinguish between these two problems. In fact, ordinary people can make preliminary judgments at home: if you touch a certain food for the first time, you will have swollen lips, wheals on the skin, and breathlessness within a few dozen minutes. Don’t hesitate. It is most likely an allergy. Stop eating immediately. If it is serious, send it to the emergency room immediately. Try not to touch such food again in the future.； If every time you eat something, you experience bloating and diarrhea most of the day or even the next day, and it's fine after one bite, but only occurs after eating too much. It's basically an intolerance. You don't have to completely avoid the food. Try changing the processing method, or eating slowly and slowly in small amounts. In many cases, you can get used to it.

In fact, to put it bluntly, whether it is an allergy or intolerance, your body will never lie to you. Keep that quick check card. Next time you are unsure, just take it out and check a pair. If you are really confused, go to a regular hospital for an IgE allergen test. Don’t listen to the online scams about food taboos, and don’t eat indiscriminately despite the risk of allergies. It’s that simple.