Photo Caption Lactose intolerance is a common type of food intolerance. Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images A food intolerance is an adverse reaction to a type of food ingredient. Although similar to a food allergy, food intolerance does not involve the immune system. To determine what food ingredient is causing problems, you may need to do a cleanse or elimination diet. Certain foods are more likely to cause intolerance and you should eliminate these foods during your cleanse.
Food intolerance appears when your body does not produce enough of a certain enzyme that helps digest a specific type of food. Lactose intolerance is one of the more common food intolerances. The BBC reports that food intolerances seem to be genetic. Lactose intolerance, for instance, is much more common in Asian, African and Mediterranean populations. Symptoms of food intolerance include nausea, bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea. These symptoms can begin within hours or days of eating the food.
The simplest way to determine if you have a food intolerance is to remove the suspected food from your diet. If your symptoms improve, try to reintroduce the food. But, your doctor may be able determine if you have a lactose intolerance. If you want to try a cleanse or elimination diet, you should remove the suspected food from your diet for three weeks. It takes 21 days to clear out the immunoglobulins that your body produces in response to problematic food.
Many people do not know what food could be causing a reaction. If this is the case, you should avoid the common foods that cause food intolerance for the full three weeks. These foods include dairy, wheat and gluten, corn, rice, soy, eggs, fish, shellfish and nuts. You should also avoid alcohol because alcohol intolerance is common. During your cleanse, you should also reduce your intake of stimulants, additives, processed foods, sugar and fried foods.
After your three-week cleanse, add one food back into your diet for the challenge phase. Return to your elimination diet for two days to ensure that no symptoms are reoccurring. If no symptoms appear, try to add a different food or beverage back into your diet. Continue to slowly add food back into your diet, returning to your elimination diet for two days in between each new food. You may want to keep a food diary to keep track of what foods you have tried. If your symptoms reappear, then you can identify the food intolerance based on what ingredient you recently started consuming again.
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