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| The Most Common of All Food Reactions |
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Food reactions is described as the intolerance or adverse reaction to certain foods or their ingredients. This reaction can take place anytime one these intolerable foods are consumed. Sometimes there needs to be a larger quantity of the food eaten, and sometimes the reaction can take place when only a miniscule amount of the food is indigested. Most of these adverse food reactions do not involve the immune system and in most cases they are not life threatening. This is also not the same as in food poisoning, where by the toxic substance in the food is the cause of the symptoms. Consuming foods in which a person has a reaction to can eventually cause long term health risks.
Food that is consumed is basically broken down by with the help of enzymes. These are the proteins that are made by our body in order to complete the digestion process. When some is lacking these critical enzymes it will cause the food to remain in larger pieces which are not able to pass into the blood stream from the small intestine. This undigested food puts osmotic effects by drawing fluids and salts into the stomach area, moving towards the large intestines. This allows for the fluids and salts to turn the undigested food in our large intestines into acids such as; carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulphide. The hydrogen is one of the gases that cause the bloating in most food reactions. The gases exit through the wall of the intestine and into the blood stream, which is eventually expelled through the lungs.
One of the most intolerant types of food, that causes food reactions is cows milk. It contains a form of sugar called lactose. It more commonly referred to as being ‘lactose intolerant’. When you have a lack of the enzyme lactase, which is produced by the cells in the lining of the small intestine, then it is unable to breakdown this lactose for digestion purposes. A more obscure type of food reaction is called carbohydrate intolerance which is the factor that denies heavier people from losing weight. Having a lack of the enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase can cause the an alcohol reaction more commonly referred to as flushing or the Asian flush. This enzyme is responsible for the breakdown of alcohol in the body. Even when a small amount is consumed, an alcohol reaction can take place.
There is a very wide variety of food reactions that people can experience. While most are not life threatening, some can be. Food reactions also vary from geographical locations through the world. While an intolerance to lactose may be more common in the Asian and African nationalities, it is less common in the western and northern Europeans.
New born infants tend to have more of the lactase enzyme, and as a result, any signs of food reactions due to being lactose intolerant will not until around the age of two. At that time the body is known to make less of the lactase enzyme. Most people will develop a lactose food reaction at a much later time in their lives. Some may even be in their late adult years. |
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