The trouble with food

Adverse food reactions that wreak havoc in the body.

OUR solar system is merely a component of the universe. The planets revolve with intricate precision, but if for one split second, the Earth stalls, imagine the colossal wave of destruction.

Unlike the exactness of celestial bodies, our bodies take many hard knocks, and sometimes our well-being spins out of orbit due to certain morsels that we consume.

For the blessed majority, their digestive system is like a food receptacle, causing no trouble. Unfortunately, for the minority with a variety of intestinal peculiarities, such as food allergies and intolerance, eating a meal is a dicey experience as digestive torment often follows ingestion of “trigger” items.

Food reaction symptoms are sometimes confused with leaky gut syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, infective gastroenteritis, and food poisoning.

Food ‘maladies’

In Asia, the Chinese in particular believe that there is a balance in the body determined by the type of foods consumed, namely “heaty” and “cooling”. Nuisances like mouth ulcers, sore throat, skin boils, constipation, fever, toothache, nose bleeds, gosh, even cold sores, are often linked to taking heaty foods.

Other ailments like lethargy, weakness and rheumatism are attributed to cooling foods.

Going nuts: Common culprits known to frequently cause food allergies are peanuts, tree nuts, shell-fish, fish, eggs, dairy and wheat products.

The rationale is simplistically devoid of scientific logic, but the deep-rooted belief is adherent to the concept of yin and yang. If heaty, one consumes cooling foods, and vice versa.

Nutrition provides the human body with fuel for energy, building blocks for structures, and raw materials for the myriad metabolic processes. Under physiological circumstances, ingested food become digested, absorbed, and assimilated into the body.

The metabolic waste is processed in the liver, which is later channelled to be disposed of. So what is the problem?

Just like drugs, certain foods can wreak havoc in susceptible individuals. It can cause a whopping headache, an incessant itch, or one may be floored by intestinal turmoil. These are known as food reactions, which include food allergies and food intolerance.

To commence with the confusion, one can be allergic and intolerant to the same food, or allergic for one, and intolerant for the other person.

Food allergies

Many people erroneously attribute negative food reactions to allergies, but in fact, true allergy constitutes only between 3% to 5% of these incidences.

In sensitivity to a particular food or its component, the body mistakenly regards the incoming protein fragment as “hostile”, and in an attempt to protect the body, produces an antibody to this agent. These antibodies cleverly tag specialised immune cells, known as mast cells, and confer them immune memory.

Upon future exposure to the particular food, the tagged antibodies lock in the offending agent, like a password logon, opening a page where a cascade of chemicals are released.

One notable compound is known as histamine, which is the culprit for the various symptoms of allergy, depending on where it is released. In the skin, it causes dilatation of blood vessels, leading to redness, hives, rashes, itchiness and flushing.

In the airway, it causes mucous production and swelling, leading to nasal congestion, throat irritation and chest tightness, occasionally with difficulties in breathing.

In the gastrointestinal tract, allergy to the specific food can induce pretty nasty stomach upsets, with nausea, vomitting, abodominal cramps and diarrhoea, to mention a few.

In severe cases, there is a sudden drop in blood pressure and severe bronchoconstriction, culminating in a life-threatening situation known as anaphylaxis.

In contrast to food intolerance, food allergy symptoms occur rapidly after ingestion of the offending food. The common culprits known to frequently cause food allergies are peanuts, tree nuts, shell-fish, fish, eggs, dairy and wheat products. However, an individual may be allergic to any food.

Food intolerance

The majority of food trouble is caused by intolerance of what is in the food, or the food itself, rather than allergy. The immune system is not involved and the typical antibodies are not activated.

The manifestation is a direct result of the body being unable to handle the food item, with consequent symptoms which may mimic allergy, such as nausea, abdominal cramps, bloating, diarrhoea, itchiness and non-specific skin rashes.

The most common type of food intolerance is that to lactose (cow’s milk sugar), the digestion of which requires an intestinal enzyme called lactase to break down the sugar. As a result of deficiency of this enzyme, susceptible individuals often have gaseous bloating, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea after consuming milk, ice cream and cheese.

Intolerance to a group of chemicals known as amines are often overlooked as the cause of headaches, in particular migraine and cluster headaches. Histamine and tyramine are breakdown products of proteins in meat, cheese (especially aged cheese), wine and fermented soy products.

The levels are particularly high in cured meat, sausages and poorly kept foods. Certain overripe fruits like banana and avocado contain increased levels of tyramine.

A peculiar form of toxic food reaction to frozen sea food is known as scombroidal toxicity. Sea catches that are not immediately refrigerated or poorly cooled in the market place are subject to bacterial degradation, accumulating high levels of histamine.

Greenlip mussels cooked in white wine is fabulous, but the frozen stuff could potentially turn the insides out and the lips blue with stomach cramps!

Glutamate is a non-essential amino acid found in our foods and contributes to the brain’s pool of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters). Modified into the salt form, it is widely known as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and has gained worldwide popularity (or notoriety) as a taste enhancer. The “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” occurs in individuals intolerant to MSG and describes the unpleasant hours after a tasty meal in Chinatown.

Though anecdotal (until there is enough scientific evidence), the symptoms include headaches, flushing, abdominal discomfort, insomnia, irritability and chest tightness. Pending further studies, it would be prudent not to sprinkle MSG onto our breakfast cereal.

Among Caucasians, a certain sensitivity to wheat, rye and barley, notably to a component protein found in them, called gluten, afflicts about one in 250. One has to differentiate true wheat allergy from gluten intolerance.

The former presents rapidly after consumption of wheat-based items and is in the form of an immune reaction. However intolerance to gluten, a.k.a. celiac disease, builds up over time, aided by genetic predisposition. The body produces antibodies to gluten, which assaults the intestinal lining, causing flattening of the hair-like villous projections, thereby leading to malabsorption of nutrients.

Symptoms vary and can cause confusion, with constipation, diarrhoea, cramps, bloating, nausea, etc, making early diagnosis difficult.

If one were to think that the story of food reactions ends here, there is more bad news. In days of antiquity, food was as organic as the word goes and animals back then had plenty of exercise, as they ran for their lives.

Modern day livestock are bred in confinement and are loaded with drugs and hormones. Convenience has reached a point where almost all of the foodstuff on the shelves today are processed, and anything with a shelf life that extends beyond natural freshness has chemicals added.

Salicylates, nitrites, sulphites are but a few of the well known additives that act as preservatives. There are also colouring, taste enhancers, stabilisers, emulsifiers etc, that literally numb the senses.

The list of food reactions is exhaustive, but enough has been said to impress upon the reader that the common symptoms are those related to the digestive system. Identifying the root of food reactions is difficult.

Furthermore, the approach to allergies and intolerance are different, thus the delineation of the underlying problem is essential for effective management.

One can start with a food diary, pinpointing reactions, time of ingestion, and type of foods consumed. However, if the allergy is severe, forget the notes and seek professional help.

The bizarre permutation of food reactions due to a particular food protein, natural substance in food, substances added by bacteria, fungi or man, can lead to a spectrum of intestinal upheavals that is often misdiagnosed, possibly inflating the incidence of such vague disease baskets like the irritable bowel syndrome and the leaky gut syndrome.

To add to the perplexity, one is not only mistaken for the other, but can transform to another.