Nutrition is the human being's ability to absorb and use the elements necessary for growth, development, and living healthy and productively for a long time. Adequate and balanced nutrition habits acquired during childhood are very important for living a quality and long life.
Food allergies and intolerances affect human life starting from infancy. The nutrition of individuals with food allergies should be taken into consideration from a very young age, and it should be ensured that the foods that individuals exclude from their diets due to food allergies do not lead to inadequate and unbalanced nutrition.
Everything we eat can cause a positive or negative reaction in the body. If you are intolerant to a particular food and continue to eat it, your body will cause an inflammatory reaction that can occur in a variety of conditions that affect your lifestyle, such as headaches, chronic pain, digestive disorders.
FOOD ALLERGY AND INTOLERANCE ARE COMBINED TO EACH OTHER. SHOULD NOT BE MIXED
We can call the immunological or non-immunological situation in the body created by the nutrients we take into our body or other factors that can be taken with food, 'food reactions'.
We can divide food reactions into two.
The first groupis where no allergic symptoms appear in your body and there is no overreaction of the immunological system, but it occurs as an abnormal result of other mechanisms. >It is 'food intolerance'.
Food intolerance can be seen as a result of metabolic disorder in the body, toxic substances in the food, pharmacological properties of the food or infectious causes. According to the British Allergy Foundation's estimate, 45% of the population in Europe and the USA has health problems related to food sensitivity.
The second group. are hypersensitivity reactions of the immunological system to foods. These hypersensitivity reactions may occur as a result of reactions in which immunoglobulin E (IgE) molecules, which are an important part of the defense system, play the leading role, or reactions in which the Ig E molecule does not take part. The server can also be observed. This group is defined as 'Food allergies'.
Inflammation, which occurs when the immune system reacts to foods that vary from person to person, causes different diseases (obesity, metabolic syndrome, chronic iron deficiency, gas, bloating, It may cause indigestion, diarrhea, celiac disease, Chron's disease, hypertension, dermatitis, eczema, acne, hyperthyroidism, autism). The common cause of these diseases is chronic inflammation.
Research shows that food allergies affect approximately 1 percent of adults and approximately 8 percent of children. Food intolerances are much more common. The most common specific food intolerance is Lactose intolerance, and its incidence is high in our country.
WHAT ARE THE TESTS APPLIED IN FOOD ALLERGIES?
1.Dietary elimination; Some foods are eliminated as a result of the history taken from the patient. The success of these diets depends on the correct identification of allergens and the elimination of all allergenic foods responsible for the diet. It is necessary to be careful during dietary elimination, especially in children. It is important to replace the removed food with a suitable one in order not to affect the child's growth and development. Another important point is not to cause vitamin and mineral deficiency in the child.
2. Skin tests (prick, seratch, intradermal, saft)
3.Total and Specific IgE measurement (RAST)
4.Double Blind Plesoba Controlled Food Provocation Test: It is considered the gold standard in the diagnosis of food allergy. One of the challenge tests. First, if there is a suspected food, it is removed from the diet for 15 days. If the symptom disappears, direct RAST or provocation tests are applied. If there is no specific suspected food, the most allergenic foods (milk, eggs, peanuts, strawberries, tomatoes, seafood) ) is discontinued. The observation period after the test is applied is 2 hours for reactions that develop through IgE.
5. Lymphocyte Proliferation test
6.Basophil Histamine Release Test
7.Food Intolerance Test
Food intolerance test is a method used to identify food items that may cause chronic inflammatory reactions. It is a diagnostic test. Although there are different types of the test, due to accuracy and diversity, the most ideal is the test performed on blood taken from the arm. With this allergy test, all subgroups of Ig antibodies formed in the body against various foods are detected. Food-specific Ig panels are used as a diagnostic tool in food sensitivity.
The body's defense system produces antibodies against foods that touch us. If there is a problem in the body's immune system against a food, it begins to form Ig type globulins called antibodies. These antibodies combine with the proteins of undigested foods. In food intolerance tests, these foods are determined and it is revealed exactly which food touched the individual.
Some of the tests popularly applied today are the York test, Pinner test and Cambridge tests, and with these tests, foods that increase the levels of IgG antibodies are identified. .
Also, another test method that has become popular recently is LTT (Lymphocyte Transformation Test), which is a Type IV allergy (hypersensitivity) to foods, metals and various allergens. )It is a type of laboratory test used in the diagnosis.
Patients with food intolerance should be advised to avoid dietary triggers as soon as possible for 3-4 weeks for symptoms to improve. At the same time, patients should be provided with information about suitable alternative foods with a similar nutritional profile to maintain nutritional adequacy during dietary exclusion. In this process, dietary diversity should be increased, nutritional adequacy should be ensured, and food intake should be gradually reintroduced with the least negative impact on the gastrointestinal microbiota.
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