food intolerance and allergies(blood test) or a skin prick or scratch test. Patients usually know
their IgE mediated reactions because they are generally quite
obvious. There is a small frequency of this type of food reaction.
Subsequently many allergists say the suffering individual does not
have food allergies.
Our bodies, though, can react in many different ways to a food.
It can be a direct IgE mediated type of response as mentioned; an
IgG response (a delayed response to food); immune complexes,
which exist in the body for very short periods of time but can be
deposited in joint space or other tissues; biochemical reactions
like MSG (monosodium glutamate); neurochemical responses to
the chemical structure of a substance like aspartame; an enzyme
insufficiency such as lactose intolerance where the enzyme is lack-
ing to break down milk sugar; or an enzyme lack (disaccharidase)
on the folds of the intestine, resulting in carbohydrate malabsorp-
tion in the gut; lectins on foods that may react to one’s blood type;
absorption of toxic organic acids derived from bacteria and fungus
in the gut; the white blood cell, or leukocyte, just reacting to a food;
certain foods affecting the autonomic nervous system differently
(parasympathetic and sympathetic); and other ways we can react
to food.
This is why I use “food intolerance” as a catch-all definition for
any reaction to a food instead of using the term “food allergy.” This
tends to be a less “politically” charged definition!
Testing for Food Intolerance
Testing for food allergy or intolerance is controversial and de-
batable. When I talk to patients, I tell them there is no one test that
can test for all the ways their body reacts to foods. Many tests are
not completely accurate; there are many false positives. (A false
positive is when the test says there is a reaction when there really
isn’t.) Though not perfect, a test can still be valuable clinically yet
have a significant amount of false positives.
For example, if ten foods showed up on whatever allergy test
you take as positive and only three are true reactants, but you