advice
Food
Sensitivities
Are you allergic, or simply sensitive to certain foods?
Tracy Kwong explains the difference
A
ccording to AllergyUK, a
health charity in the United
Kingdom, 45 percent of the
UK population is estimated
to be suffering from delayed food
reaction. But what about Hong
Kong? Up to now, there are no
specific studies on the prevalence of
food sensitivity for the Hong Kong
population. Although, according to
research from a leading local wellness
test in Hong Kong, 95 percent of
people who took the test were found to
be sensitive to at least one food. Eggs
(including chicken and duck eggs),
cow’s milk and its products, and gluten
are always the top offending foods in
Hong Kong.
Allergic or sensitive, what’s the
difference?
‘Food allergies,’ ‘food sensitivities’
and ‘food intolerances’ are often
used interchangeably to describe any
unpleasant experience after eating the
‘wrong’ food. It can be very confusing
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to differentiate between the three as
they share many of the same signs
and symptoms. Technically speaking,
allergies and sensitivities involve our
immune system. This is why people
with these two health concerns
usually go for blood tests, hoping to
measure the level of antibodies (like
IgE and IgG) in the blood, which could
be interpreted as our bodies’ signal
against specific foods. A food allergic
reaction can be very frightening and
even life threatening, with symptoms
that usually develop within a few
minutes to two hours after eating foods
that contain allergens. On the contrary,
symptoms of food sensitivities take
hours or days to show up and look
less dramatic and acute than that of
food allergies, making it even harder to
pinpoint the culprits.
Food sensitivity from a medical
point of view
The detailed mechanism of food
sensitivity is largely unknown. A more
95 percent of people
who took the test were
found to be sensitive
to at least one food.
Eggs, cow’s milk and its
products, and gluten are
always the top offending
foods in Hong Kong
widely accepted explanation for
food sensitivity is that food should
normally be digested to its simplest
form – amino acid, glycerol and simple
sugar – for absorption and converting
into energy. However, when food
doesn't break downfully, some of the
undigested proteins enter the immune
system and trigger the secretion