Healthy Hunterdon

Is Your Food Making You Sick

Nicole Schaldone - Is Your Food Making You Sick

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Transcript

Welcome to Healthy Hunterdon, brought to you by Hunterdon Healthcare. This program will provide health, fitness and nutrition tips from leading professionals.

I am Nicole Schaldone, a Master’s prepared Registered Dietitian with Advanced Gastroenterology and Nutrition, a specialty practice of Hunterdon Medical Center. Today’s topic is: Is Your Food Making You Sick?

There are different kinds of reactions to foods. Working in a gastroenterology practice as a dietitian, I often see patients with different GI or gastrointestinal issues related to their food. There are different kinds of reactions to food… whether it be a food allergy, a food intolerance, or a food sensitivity. Each of these can cause different symptoms.

A food allergy will cause an immediate reaction to food. You may have heard people having severe reactions to, perhaps, peanuts or milk or meat. Some of these allergens are common allergens that can cause severe reactions including vomiting, swelling of your face, throat… rashes, or other reactions. These kinds of reactions definitely are important for patients to find out what food is triggering this allergic reaction because the severity of these reactions can become increasingly more severe as you’re exposed to these toxins. These are foods that are normally healthy for other people that are causing a serious reaction for the individual and it’s definitely important for them to find out the trigger and avoid it at all costs. You could see a food allergist or a dietitian to try and get more information and figure out which food is causing the allergy for you.

A food intolerance doesn’t mean you’re going to have a severe immediate reaction but it does mean that food definitely bothers you. An example of a food intolerance might be lactose intolerance or dairy, or someone may get a lot of bloating, gassiness, possibly vomiting or diarrhea caused by different, like dairy, or other foods that are causing some sort of intolerance for them. A food intolerance is an issue where food is not being absorbed, broken down, or digested properly. In the example of lactose intolerance, the enzyme lactase is not being produced in adequate quantities to break down that dairy product. So something that normally wouldn’t bother most individuals could be a major problem for someone with lactose intolerance. By either avoiding those foods that are causing that intolerance or taking an enzyme that helps you to break that food down, you may need some advice from a dietitian or from your doctor to find out some more tips how you can get your nutrition that you need and how avoid those foods that are causing an intolerance issue for you.

Food sensitivity, on the other hand, is a much more mild reaction… but it’s a cumulative effect of eating a food over time that for some reason is causing an immune reaction in your body. It could cause generalized symptoms… headache, fatigue, gas, bloating or other GI distress. Over time, being exposed to different foods that are causing an immune reaction in your body can cause you to have this food sensitivity. You could see a Registered Dietitian to get tested for food sensitivity and find out whether your food is making you sick. For more information you could always call Advanced Gastroenterology and Nutrition  to make an appointment or The  Center for Nutrition and Diabetes Management  to speak to a professional and get more tips to find out if your food is making you sick.