What is the difference between food sensitivity, food intolerance and food allergy?
A. “Food sensitivity” is a term applied to two different categories of abnormal reactions to food components: food allergies and food intolerances. Food allergies involve the body’s immune system and can be clinically diagnosed using a blood test. Food allergic hypersensitivity reactions may occur immediately (IgE-mediated food allergies) or they may be delayed (e.g. as with Celiac disease). Food intolerances aren’t mediated by the immune system. Food intolerances include genetically acquired defects like lactose intolerance as well as adverse reactions caused by unknown mechanisms (so-called “idiosyncratic reactions”). Lactose-intolerant individuals have lost the metabolic ability to produce an enzyme (lactase) that digests lactose, the main sugar present in milk. Food allergies can be life threatening. With the exception of asthmatic individuals who are sensitive to sulfites, however, food intolerances generally do not result in death. In fact, individuals with food intolerances can
