Thursday, September 3, 2009

Food Intolerances

By Charlie Monaghan Carter

If you are among the ever-growing percentage of the worlds population that suffer from food intolerances, then you will be face with the task of restricting your diet.

If you have a fairly common allergy or intolerance such as dairy or gluten, then finding foods that are dairy or gluten free isnt too difficult, its when the intolerances get more intricate and uncommon that they become a problem. Also, another big problem for people with food intolerances is eating out at a restaurant for example. A lot of the time, chefs will not understand the implications of a given food on a person with intolerances.

A well-intentioned chef may sometimes put a little flour into a sauce to thicken it up, believing that such a small amount will not trigger the intolerance. If the person does not seize up and start choking there and then, they believe all is well and the trace of flour went unnoticed. However it is not until the food is digested that the intolerance takes effect around an hour after its consumed, and then the effects can last for several days.

This makes eating out very difficult for people with food intolerances and its not always easy or possible to give a chef a list of foods to avoid putting into your meal, and you will notice that eating out starts to become something of a gamble and the more foods you are intolerant to, the higher risk the gamble becomes as its more likely that you will eat something that will upset you. Sooner or later, people may realise that its hard to find good food that doesnt contain any of the common foodstuffs people are intolerant to, so dont be surprised if the amount of dinner invitations drop as people tire of trying to accommodate you.

Foods that your body has an intolerance to make very hard work for your body to digest, so you should avoid foods that trigger your intolerances at all costs so that your body doesnt have to be put though the trauma of struggling with something. However if you only then eat a few foods that you know are safe, there is a chance that you will develop intolerances to them as well.

It is important to monitor what you eat and to be aware that this can happen. It is also important for this reason to maintain as wide a diet as possible. This can be difficult, as many people find foods that dont upset them and stick to those as the wider range of foods you eat, the more likelihood there is that you will be intolerant to one or more of them.

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