Food allergies are those that are quite often immune mediated – meaning that they could be life threatening quite often if they are anaphylactic. Food intolerance / sensitivities usually produce a milder reaction such as fatigue, or loose stools, flatulence, skin rashes, congestion among other symptoms. Mild allergies may produce similar reactions too.

With food allergies, the body’s immune system produces a class of antibodies called the IgE immunoglobulins, where as with food sensitivities or intolerance, the immune system produces a class of antibodies called IgG immunoglobulins, both of which are accurately tested using blood. Severe food allergies such as those that can cause anaphylactic reactions and can be tested using scratch tests, however, these tests quite often produce false positive results due to other factors that the individual might be undergoing such as stress, prescriptions they might be using, among others, and this can be quite traumatic for a person who shows positive to everything under the sun!

Both of these reactions are immune mediated so in order to treat them or get relief, most people use antihistamines and other allergy relief medication. However, to get true relief, you must look at what caused the immune system to cause a hypersensitive reaction / or dysfunction in the first place and treating the root cause will quite often treat the mild allergies and intolerances, but not severe anaphylactic allergies.

By: Sushma Shah, Naturopathic Doctor, at the Nature’s Intentions Naturopathic Clinic.