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Food intolerance is probably one of the most annoying things you can experience. Because food intolerance problems express themselves in an inconsistent manner they are harder to locate and diagnose than food allergies which tend to be strong and immediate. Even months of testing and avoiding particular foods may not help you get closer to figuring out the problem. You may need to take a food intolerance test to find the source of the trouble.

The first myth that needs to be disregarded is the one that says that people who are sensitive to particular foods are allergic to them. Food allergies and food intolerances are not synonymous. Indications of food allergies occur suddenly and are generally quite violent. Intolerance to food has less drastic symptoms and can take as long as 3 days to appear. Taking a food intolerance test helps you to find out which foods are the main offenders.

With a food allergy, your body is in fact allergic to the food in question and the reaction is that of your immune system itself fighting back, very comparable to if you were allergic to pollen. With food intolerance, the immune system does not come into the picture.

There are certain food that just do not agree with you. Even if your body doesn't feel like it is being invaded by foreign bodies, your stomach and intestines (where food is digested and the eliminated) will certainly know that something isn't right.

Food intolerance usually happens when your body no longer produces the necessary chemicals and enzymes that aid the digestion of that food in particular. This is common for many people as they grow up, which is why such a large number of people become lactose intolerant, since the production of the enzyme used for lactose digestion decreases after the age of 2. We generally begin to develop symptoms much later, and these tend to be unpleasant.

There are a couple of ways of discovering which foods you are intolerant to. You can reduce your diet to just a few foods that are known to cause the least amount of problems, brown rice, lamb and water are the common starting foods. After about 3 weeks of eating only these foods you can then reintroduce one food at time, every 3 or 4 days. It is a good idea to keep a very thorough diary to see if you get any reactions. After about 6 to 9 months you should have a clear picture of which foods you have an intolerance to.

An ELISA IgG blood test can determine any food sensitivities that you may have. This is a very efficient test as it uses just one drop of your blood to test for over 200 types of foods. Once you know the foods that you can not tolerate and begin eliminating them from your diet, your digestion will improve as well as your energy and your sleep. Another unexpected benefit that everyone loves is rapid weight loss!

Possibly one of the most frustrating things that you can suffer from is food intolerance. To start with, just because you cannot tolerate a food that does not necessarily mean that you have an allergy to it. In this case a food intolerance test is the logical way to go to find out what is causing your problems. When you are allergic to something, the body treats it as a threat and acts to eliminate the problem. An ELISA IgG blood test can determine any food sensitivities that you may have. Another unexpected benefit that everyone loves is rapid weight loss!