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Food Intolerance Symptoms Explained

by Donna Mastriani on Aug 23, 2024

Food intolerances have risen in recent years even more than food allergies. For example, a UK survey conducted in 2020 showed that approximately 32% of the participants suffer from lactose intolerance, which was the highest percentage compared to other food allergies. Due to the rising number of individuals with food intolerance, it's approximated that 20% of people worldwide suffer from food intolerance.

What is food intolerance?

Food intolerance, also known as food sensitivity, occurs when you have difficulty digesting a specific type of food or different types of foods. Often, food intolerance results in gastrointestinal symptoms like gas, diarrhoea, stomach pain, and others. Food intolerance or sensitivity is often not serious. However, it causes symptoms that can make you uncomfortable, hindering your ability to do daily activities. Food intolerance is often a result of the body being unable to digest food properly or that particular food irritating the digestive tract.

Common causes of food intolerance

Experts need to find out why people develop food intolerances. However, some people get them because the body produces insufficient enzymes or chemicals to break down that specific food. When food isn't broken down in the small intestines, it's then moved into the colon, where it causes food intolerance symptoms that we often experience. 20% of people worldwide suffer from food intolerance.

20% of people worldwide suffer from food intolerance.

Some people, however, have a gut that is sensitive to specific types of foods or ingredients, and upon consumption of such foods, the gut experiences symptoms. In such cases, you must avoid these foods that cause intolerance symptoms. Some people, however, develop food intolerances following the development of specific conditions such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. There could also be more conditions that can cause food intolerances. The conditions that can result in food intolerances affect the intestinal tract in one way or another. When the intestinal lining of your stomach is damaged, it cannot produce chemicals to break down food, and hence your body experiences symptoms as it tries to get rid of th undigested food. However, once you get a diagnosis for these underlying conditions and treat them, you can cure food intolerance because your intestinal wall health will be restored, and your body can easily produce chemicals to break down those foods that it couldn't.

What are the symptoms of food intolerance?

Symptoms of food intolerance take time to appear, starting after a few hours or a few days. However, the severity of these symptoms depends on how much food you've consumed. The more you consume foods you're intolerant to, the more severe your symptoms will be. Common symptoms of food intolerance include:

Joint pain
Diarrhoea
Stomach pain
Gas
Headache
Runny nose
Bloating
Malaise

Since food intolerance symptoms can take up to three days to appear, it can be hard to figure out which specific food caused the symptoms. That's why we advise you to take an Allergy and Intolerance Test to help you know which food intolerance you're suffering from. An intolerance and allergy test checks for all common food intolerances and allergies by testing them against your blood sample.

Food intolerance diagnosis

If you've been having symptoms that point to you having food intolerance, you must talk to your doctor about it. We advise you to do this because there are many chronic conditions with similar symptoms, and you need to know if those are causing your symptoms or not. Underlying conditions, especially the ones affecting one's gastrointestinal tract, often cause food intolerance or symptoms similar to those of food intolerance. Diagnosing these conditions helps you manage the conditions, which often result in a lack of food intolerance or symptoms. Even though dealing with food intolerances caused by these underlying conditions can help relieve symptoms, it's not a sure way of dealing with them. Treating the root conditions is a better way to manage food intolerances as it can eliminate them. However, you can take an Allergy and Intolerance Test if you're sure of the absence of underlying conditions. Such a test helps with determining what food intolerances you may have in your body. The test is straightforward, and you must send your blood sample to the lab for testing. Once you're aware of your food intolerances, you can manage your diet to keep you from suffering food intolerance symptoms. You can always contact a dietitian or seek help from your doctor if you're finding it difficult to replace the food you need to eliminate from your diet due to food intolerances. Often, you're supposed to replace that specific food with something that offers the same nutrient value as the food you're intolerant to. That way, it prevents you from suffering nutritional deficiencies.

How to treat or manage food intolerance

The best way to deal with food intolerance is to eliminate that food from your diet. Eating small amounts of intolerant food doesn't cause symptoms for most people. If you're like this, you can always consume small amounts of that food, especially if you need it for nutritional purposes. If you're suffering from food intolerance due to a lack of sufficient enzymes, you can check whether you can find any help from over-the-counter pills. For example, people with lactose intolerance lack sufficient lactase enzymes required to break down the sugar lactose. Fortunately, there are over-the-counter lactase enzyme pills that one can consume to help digest lactose. If you have such an option, you can always use it whenever you can avoid the food you're intolerant of to avoid symptoms that follow afterwards. However, if you don't have such an option, you'll have to consume minimal amounts of that food or eliminate it from your diet. If you're already suffering from food intolerance symptoms, you can get relief from taking over-the-counter drugs that will help with the symptoms. For example, antacids and antidiarrheals. These OTC drugs can help relieve the symptoms of food intolerance, which can interfere with the quality of your life. However, the long-term treatment is to avoid those foods.

Complications of food intolerance

The only complications you can have from food intolerance are deficiencies from lacking certain vitamins and nutrients in your diet. However, this is easy to deal with or manage. Whenever you have food intolerances, a professional will help give you alternatives of foods with the same nutrient profiles or even recommend vitamins you need. For example, if you have lactose intolerance, you can take lactase pills and easily deal with your lactose problem. You can also replace dairy with plant alternatives, which have added vitamins and nutrients for your benefit. So, even though food intolerance can cause deficiencies when you eliminate certain foods, you can always manage this issue by supplementing those foods with others or getting supplements if you have too many food intolerances and your diet can't meet your nutritional needs.

Final thoughts

Food intolerance causes an upset stomach and digestive problems because you're intolerant or sensitive to those foods. To determine which food intolerances you're suffering from, you can take an Allergy and Intolerance Test to help diagnose. Even though there currently isn't a cure for food intolerance, eliminating intolerant foods from your diet will help you manage food intolerances.

Author: Donna Mastriani, S.N.H.S. Dip., Nutritionist / Care Manager

Donna has a diploma in Advanced Holistic Nutrition and 10 years customer service experience so is perfect as the Customer Care Manager, who manages the 24/7 team for global support.