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Being unable to tolerate a food can be very aggravating. A food allergy, by contrast, is easy to spot, as you will react very quickly after ingestion. But an intolerance takes longer to become evident, and the person who has it might not even realize the cause. Or you can go out of your way to eliminate certain foods, and still not discover what the culprit is. So, a food intolerance test can determine the culprit a lot better than food elimination.

Many people think that being intolerant to a certain food is the same as being allergic to it. This is a myth. Having a food intolerance is very different from having a food allergy. Food allergies cause problems that are very severe and occur very quickly, while food intolerance results in symptoms that are less serious, and may not appear for as long as 72 hours. You can quickly learn which foods are giving you problems by taking a food intolerance test.

With a food allergy, your body is in fact allergic to the food in question and the reaction is that of your immune system itself fighting back, very comparable to if you were allergic to pollen. With food intolerance, the immune system does not come into the picture.

While your body will not react as if it is infected by something foreign, your body's digestive organs (like your stomach and intestines) will respond negatively to many ingredients in food, simply because they are not tolerant of those particular ingredients in those foods.

Food intolerance generally occurs because your body stops producing certain chemicals or enzymes that help in the digestion of that particular food. This happens to quite a number of us as we grow up. This is why so many people are lactose intolerant, as the enzyme produced to properly digest lactose actually decreases in production from the age of 2. It isn't until we are much older that we begin to develop symptoms, which are sometimes quite unpleasant.

You can find out what foods you cannot tolerate in a number of ways. You can do this by reducing your food intake to a small number of foods that it is known cause the smallest number of problems. It is common to begin with such foods as lamb, water and brown rice. If you eat only these foods for about three weeks, then you can begin to reintroduce other foods one at a time, every few days. You should keep a detailed diary and record any reaction you have. After 6 or 9 months you will probably have an clearer idea of which foods you cannot tolerate.

Another means of finding out which ingredients your system cannot cope with is the ELISA lgG test, specifically designed to determine food intolerances. More than 200 foods can be examined that way, with only a small amount of blood needed to do so. When you begin cutting out the problem foods, you generally discover that you are more energetic, you digest the remainder of your foods more easily, and sleeping is facilitated as well. Lots of people also enjoy the extra advantage of a quick weight loss!

Possibly one of the most frustrating things that you can suffer from is food intolerance. To start with, just because you cannot tolerate a food that does not necessarily mean that you have an allergy to it. In this case a food intolerance test is the logical way to go to find out what is causing your problems. When you are allergic to something, the body treats it as a threat and acts to eliminate the problem. An ELISA IgG blood test can determine any food sensitivities that you may have. Another unexpected benefit that everyone loves is rapid weight loss!