If you have a food intolerance, you know how aggravating it can be. Intolerances aren't allergies, which means that they sometimes have an effect, and sometimes don't. In this framework, you could avoid a food for weeks, and still not discover exactly what is causing your illness. If this has happened to you, you might want to try a food intolerance test, to explore the food related symptoms more closely.

The first legend that needs to be dispelled is that people who are intolerant to certain foods are allergic to those food items. Food allergies are not the same as having an intolerance to those foods. The symptoms of food allergies are usually strong and come on quite suddenly, whereas food intolerances usually cause symptoms that are less severe, and can take up to 72 hours to appear. By taking a food intolerance test you will quickly discover which are the offending foods.

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 usually happens when your body no longer produces the necessary chemicals and enzymes that aid the digestion of that food in particular. This is common for many people as they grow up, which is why such a large number of people become lactose intolerant, since the production of the enzyme used for lactose digestion decreases after the age of 2. We generally begin to develop symptoms much later, and these tend to be unpleasant.

When trying to determine foods that your body is intolerant to you have a few different options. One way is to eliminate everything in your diet except the few foods such as; brown rice, lamb and water that most don't have issues with. Eat only these foods for approximately three weeks. Then after the three weeks you can start to reintroduce one new food every few days. If you keep a food diary throughout this process you will be able to document which food you had problems with and which your body processed normally. In 6 to 9 months of continuing this process you will have a pretty good idea what foods affect you negatively.

Taking the ELISA IgG blood test to check for food intolerance is another means of figuring out which foods your body will not tolerate. Over 200 foods are tested using only a couple drops of blood. You will notice that you sleep more soundly, your digestion will improve, and you will feel more energetic when you are no longer consuming foods that you are intolerant to. Weight loss also occurs at an accelerated rate, which many people find pleasing.