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The phenomenon of Allergy in the human body is more or less like an immune response of the body. In this the body mistakes an ingredient in food as harmful. The food ingredient usually happens to be protein. As a result of this it creates a defense system (or say the antibodies) to fight against it. The symptoms that develop as a result of this are called as the allergic symptoms which usually occur because of the antibodies battling against the foreign Particle (invading food in case of food allergy). Food allergy can be developed against a large variety of food items, of which the most common food allergies found in the people are because of peanuts, fish, shellfish, milk, eggs, soy products, tree nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and almonds) and wheat. People often confuse food allergy with food intolerance and food sensitivity. Whereas the food allergy is an immune system response of the body against some foreign entity (food item), food intolerance is only a digestive system response of an individual’s body that has nothing got to do with the self defense mechanism of the body. It is a simple process and may occur when something in the food irritates a person's digestive system. It may even occur in cases where the individual is unable to properly digest or breakdown the food item consumed. One such very common intolerance is the intolerance to lactose, (lactose is a milk sugar found in milk and other dairy products). Adults usually cannot digest milk as it is, infants may have intolerance to many things. Food allergy is a severe issue where as the food intolerance can be easily dealt with and may also be over come in due course of time. As a matter of fact Intolerances to most of the food items in the childhood is over come by the time the child hits adolescence or becomes an adult. Food allergy, which is a complicated phenomenon of the body usually, affects only about 4% of teens and adults and about 5% of the children, whereas the Food intolerances happen to be much more common. As a matter of fact nearly everyone at some point of time or other has had an unpleasant reaction to something they have eaten. May be a few of such intolerance last but most of them may only be momentary thing and may disappear is a very short span of time. Some people have specific food intolerances like Lactose intolerance. This is the most common and the most widely spread type of food intolerance and affects almost 10% of the Americans and a large part of the populations across the world. Food allergy and its symptoms may range from mild to severe. In some cases the allergic reaction can be triggered only with small amount of food whereas other may tolerate some more quantity without suffering any of the symptoms. Whereas in case of the food intolerance the person may suffer from minor or mild symptoms like nausea, diarrheas, vomiting etc. which eventually disappear even without any treatment. Many a time's food intolerance symptoms are not taken seriously by patients. Follow the link to know more on symptoms of food intolerance and analyze yourself.
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