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.

There are several common food intolerances, some that you may have heard about before include: gluten intolerance (experiencing the inability to process wheat or gluten products), also lactose intolerance (body's intolerance to dairy products). There are also several other types of food intolerances and they will all produce unpleasant effects.

The symptoms of food intolerances may include diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, and pain. The best real way to prevent these symptoms is simply not to eat the foods in question - and the way to discover just which foods these are is to take a food intolerance test.

One common type of food intolerance test is the elisa food test (it stands for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Blood is collected, usually from the fingertip. This may be done at home or at a doctor's office. It is then analyzed at a lab for reactions with certain foods. Strong reactions will produce many IgG antibodies in the blood; the more are present, the worse the reaction.

The food intolerance test will show the extent of the intolerance and the type of foods that cause it. While different testers use different scales, all food intolerance tests measure the same thing -- the body's production antibodies. The results of the test should make apparent which foods (if any) are the cause of intolerance reactions; studies have shown that measuring antibody production is an effective means of discovering the source of food intolerances.

There are several things that can be done if you find you have food intolerance. The first step to take is to remove the problem food from your diet. Removing the food from your diet can be an easy or difficult step depending on the nature of the food. Manufactures are now making substitute for some common intolerances, such as those with reactions to dairy products. Other intolerances can be avoided by carefully reading the manufactures label for the list of ingredients. Depending on the severity of your symptoms, a few minutes spent reading a label can be worth the time spent.