Intolerance to food could be lifelong cause of bloating, stress, headaches

Your body rejects food in more ways than one, which is why paying attention to food intolerance is a fresh new idea to try.

During a forum in Taguig City, Dr. Julien Kirby of Cambridge Nutritional Sciences (CNS) emphasized the difference between food allergies and intolerance, and how you can ruin either your day or your life by eating the wrong thing.

"When it comes to knowledge about food intolerance, it does take quite a bit of education to get it separate. Most people confuse it with food allergy and that's a bif trouble," Dr. Kirby said.

Dr. Kirby said allergies lead to chronic inflammation, whereas intolerance can only cause a gradual appearance of symptoms that can last for many days.

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Symptoms of food intolerance could latch onto its victim for years in the form of constant bloating, weight gain, headaches, constipation, skin problems, diarrhea, bronchitis, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, depression, and, most especially, stress.

"They're not life threatening but they're a pain to your wellness," said Dr. Kirby.

"Stress actually knocks out a certain part of our immune system and it starts harming your gut very quickly. If you’re under stress, where do you feel it? You feel it in (your gut), don’t you?" he added.

Like a frenemy you've become so familiar with, you can easily avoid things you're allergic to. Unfortunately, most people go through their whole lives eating things that they never knew was extremely bad for them.

Symptoms of both allergies and intolerance can be reversed by the elimination of the food, but the exact triggers to a person's intolerance are difficult to track and they cause several different symptoms.

An allergic reaction to food is quicker to make changes in your body than when you eat food your body simply cannot tolerate. Dr. Kirby said the latter can be more difficult to pinpoint.

Intolerance is caused by an absence of an enzyme to process a certain type of food, like milk to a lactose intolerant person. Other causes of intolerance are limited to the digestive track, where the a person's gut can be sensitive to different things.

Moreover, every person is entitled to their own group of food they cannot tolerate. Dr. Kirby said this can be dated back thousands of years ago to that catchy Roman proverb: "What is food to some may be fierce poison to others."

The CNS has developed the food intolerance test (FIT) where your nutritionist can perform a comprehensive study on your diet record and laboratory tests to issue you an accurate list of what you eat and what you should avoid. 

The first to provide to use FIT technology in the Philippines, LifeScience Center for Health and Wellness, said they have so far found that 99% of Filipinos are at risk to these effects of food intolerance. — LA, GMA News