What should you know about au food intolerance?

Bloating, abdominal discomfort, excess wind, diarrhoea, or nausea may follow a particular ingredient when the body has difficulty digesting or processing it. Similar symptoms can come from several gut conditions, so a food association alone does not confirm intolerance.

Food intolerance generally does not involve the rapid immune reaction seen in food allergy. It may depend on the amount eaten, the ingredient, digestive enzyme activity, or sensitivity to substances naturally present in food.

Hives, swelling of the lips or tongue, throat tightness, wheezing, or collapse after eating point to a possible allergic reaction rather than a routine intolerance. Persistent digestive symptoms may also reflect infection, coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or another condition needing assessment.

Keep a diary of foods, portion sizes, symptom timing, bowel changes, medicines, and relevant activity. Bring it to a GP or dietitian, who can judge whether a structured elimination and reintroduction is suitable and whether targeted testing is warranted.

Avoid removing broad food groups without professional guidance, especially for children, during pregnancy, or when weight is falling. Restrictive diets can reduce protein, fibre, vitamins, or minerals and can make the true trigger harder to identify. Commercial intolerance panels do not all diagnose the same mechanism, so discuss what a proposed test actually measures.

Call emergency services for breathing difficulty, throat or tongue swelling, collapse, or rapidly spreading hives after food. These are warning signs of a potentially severe allergic reaction and should not be managed as intolerance.

Book prompt medical review for blood in the stool, persistent vomiting, dehydration, fever with significant abdominal pain, symptoms waking you from sleep, unexplained weight loss, difficulty swallowing, or continuing diarrhoea. Seek earlier advice if symptoms affect a baby, young child, or someone who is medically vulnerable.

Ask which diagnoses fit the timing and type of symptoms, whether allergy assessment or another test is indicated, and how to reintroduce foods safely. Request advice on maintaining nutrition if a suspected trigger is a staple food.