Do you find that you feel ill after eating? Do you avoid social settings and restaurants because you dont know what, when or where you might have unplesant effects from food? You are certainly not alone in your concerns. A food intolerance, similar to an allergy but not as powerful, might be the reason for your discomfort.

Certain enzymes are required to break down different types of food; if your body lacks them, it can cause a food intolerance. Unlike food allergies, the response to the food in question may be delayed. This can make it rather difficult, at times, to identify the "trigger food" for an intolerance.

Some usual intolerances - some of which you may already have heard of before - are lactose intolerance (i.e. the inability to process dairy products) and gluten intolerance (i.e. the inability to process wheat products or gluten). However, there are more types of intolerance than these, and most of them will produce unpleasant symptoms.

Diarrhea, flatulence, constipation, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), pain and fatigue are among the possible symptoms of food intolerances. The best way to really prevent these symptoms to occur is to refrain from eating the foods in question, and the best way to find out which foods these is to undertake a food intolerance test.

The elisa (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) food test is a common food intolerance test, which involves having blood collected-usually from the fingertip-either at home or in a doctor's office. A lab then analyzes this sample for reactions with certain foods. A strong reaction will cause many IgG antibodies to be present in the blood; the more antibodies there are, the stronger the reaction will be.

Results of food intolerance tests are able to reveal how much was produced, and from which foods it resulted. Different providers use different scales, however they all measure the same thing basically: the production of antibodies. It should be clear which foods - if any - are the cause of intolerance reactions. Studied did show that this kind of test is particularly effective in finding out the source.

If you learn that you are intolerant of a particular food, you can take several steps. Most obviously, you can remove that food from your diet. Depending on the food, it may be simple or very difficult to avoid. Manufacturers have marketed "safe" products for the more common intolerances, such as dairy, but other intolerances will require you to read ingredient lists and ask questions. While watching ingredients closely may be inconvenient, it's better than experiencing symptoms of food intolerance. Relief from symptoms makes a food intolerance test well worth the cost and effort.