Food Allergies and Sensitivities (Video)

There is increasing concern today about food allergies and sensitivities, and how people are affected by what they eat. Dr Joe Kosterich talks about food allergies and sensitivities, including what they are and the differences between the two, common allergies and sensitivities, how to tell if you have a sensitivity, and the importance of reading food labels.
There’s increasing concern today by people about food allergies and sensitivities, and how/what they eat affects them.
Hi, I’m Dr. Joe.
One generation ago, people pretty much just ate what was on their plate. There was the occasional person that was allergic to strawberries or shellfish and that was about it. These days we have a lot of people who have allergies or sensitivities to a variety of foods.
Point number 1 – if there’s one take home message in all of this, this would be it: there is a difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity.
A true allergy is mediated through the immune system and is like a hyperdrive reaction to a particular substance. Typically people will come out in a rash, it may be across the whole body, it will be very itchy, it will occur within a very short space of time of eating that food. A classic rash people will be familiar with is penicillin, obviously that’s not a food but the same thing happens with strawberries or bee stings. You can come out in a rash within a matter of minutes of exposure and, as I said, it’s very itchy. It’s not as subtle condition, you don’t have to scratch your head and think, “Am I allergic to this or not?” Obviously, if you have that sort of reaction, those sorts of foods are to be avoided. It’s almost a “No Questions Asked” situation.
Sensitivities are slightly different. You won’t get necessarily that type of reaction, or if you do it will be extremely mild. The sorts of symptoms people can get with food sensitivities may be more related to their gut. They may feel a bit queasy, they may feel a bit nauseated or bloated, some people may get diarrhoea.
Now, it’s not the same as an allergy, as we’re seeing, for obvious reasons. Sensitivity means the body doesn’t like a certain amount of a particular food. The best example, to keep it simple, may be if you were sensitive to strawberries, say, you could eat 3 strawberries and not have a problem. If you ate 10 strawberries you may find you get some of those symptoms. So there’s going to be an amount that the body will tolerate and that may be a reasonable serve, it may be a tiny amount.
When it comes to food sensitivities probably wheat and gluten is the most common one. Dairy is up amongst it and citrus for some people as well, but less commonly.
Now with gluten sensitivity there are people who have actually a condition called Coeliac Disease and that’s quite separate and beyond the scope of this video and those people can’t have any gluten products at all. For all the rest of people who have a sensitivity to gluten, they’ll find if they ate maybe some bread and some pasta and some cake that they may get this bloating and discomfort in their abdomen. They feel a little bit sluggish maybe, a bit of a headache, just not quite right. Those people go on a very low gluten diet, they may well feel better for it. Now, after this there may be a level of intake of gluten that they will feel ok with. It’s not prescriptive, one can’t stand here and say you can have one slice of bread or one and a half slices or half a serve of pasta, but there’s going to be an amount you’ll find.
Now, I should say at this point that these sort of areas are controversial and there’s a school of thought, particularly in medicine, that says that these things almost don’t exist, and there’s another school of thought that thinks it’s widely under diagnosed and not recognised.
In my opinion, keep it fairly simple. Be guided in this sort of a situation about what your body is telling you. We all know the feeling when we’re eating stuff that doesn’t agree with us. This is one instance where we probably don’t need anybody else’s opinion. If foods are not agreeing with you, you’ll know. And if foods do agree with you, you’ll also know.
So, often the simplest thing – and I’ll tell patients this in the surgeries – go for a couple of weeks – if we’re suspecting a sensitivity to a particular food and gluten being commonest – go on a gluten free diet for a couple of weeks, see how you feel. There are a couple of possibilities. You’ll feel a lot better: well, that pretty much gives you an answer. You can then reintroduce some of the foods and see how you feel. If you feel suddenly worse: well, it’s a no-brainer, we know what we need to do.
If you go on a gluten free diet for a couple of weeks and you don’t feel any different, well, clearly gluten is not the problem and you don’t have a sensitivity. If you go on it for a couple of weeks, you feel better, you reintroduce a bit of gluten and you feel still ok, well, that’s telling you’ve found the right level.
So it isn’t quite as difficult as it can be made out to be.
Gluten in particular, we seem to be hammering this, is very ubiquitous in our food. If you look at the labels on foods, even the ones that you wouldn’t think have gluten in them, may well have them. Even cornflour stunned me the other day at the supermarket: if you look at some corn flours you’d think they’d be made out of corn, right? They’re actually made out of wheat flour. So read the labels, it is worth your while.
All right. So food sensitivities are actually quite common, and the main reason it’s common is because of the amount of gluten that is in our diet. It doesn’t mean we can’t have it, it doesn’t mean it’s bad for you, it does mean that for some people there’s a level beyond which the body isn’t comfortable with it and the body will let you know. And, as we said previously, there are things like bloating, a bit uncomfortable, maybe feeling a bit nauseated or a bit sluggish, headaches, those sorts of symptoms, none of which are specific to this condition. But, again, if you feel worse after you’ve had a bowl of pasta, it’s a bit of a pointer.
Alright, so to sum up, an allergy is not a sensitivity, the symptoms you get will be quite different. You’re not sure? Certainly have a bit of a chat with your doctor about it. There’s not a lot to do by way of tests, in some instances there might be a couple of things to check but more often than not it’s going to be a little bit of trial and error. And it’s about finding the right level for your body.
With the body, it needs a lot of different things but too much is going to be a problem, too little for some may be a problem, it’s going to be the right amount that you need and that is going to be different for different people. So, if you’re thinking different foods disagree with you have a chat with your doctor, try doing a bit of an elimination type diet for a couple of weeks, see how you go and then be guided from there.