If you notice symptoms of food intolerance, do not start a restrictive diet. Let’s grab a pen and paper and start journaling! With this, we can also help the gastroenterologist to establish an accurate diagnosis – advises Dr. Erzsébet Pászthory, a gastroenterologist and internist at the Gastroenterology Center, whom we asked about the importance of a food diary.
“I don’t like” foods and food intolerance
When we eat a bowl of popcorn and sip a glass of soft drink while watching a movie, between two action scenes, we don’t necessarily think about the variety of substances and food components we introduce into our body, which can even be a challenge for it to process.
– Food and food components that enter our digestive system can basically cause complaints in two ways: in the form of food intolerance and food allergy. Of these two, food intolerance is a more common manifestation, which can affect 10-30 percent of the population, he explains dr. Elizabeth Pászthory.
Food intolerance is a less serious condition compared to allergy, and can be briefly described as the inability of our digestive system to properly process certain foods or food componentsi. Classic food intolerances are caused by an enzyme defect (we see this, for example, in the case of lactose intolerance), but various components of our diet, food additives (e.g. sulfites, monosodium glutamate), natural chemicals in food (e.g. histamine) or toxins can also trigger our complaints. If we only start from how many thousands of additives are used in the food industry, to add flavors, colors, appropriate texture and shelf life to processed foods, you can already guess what great challenges our digestive system has to cope with.
Of course, food intolerance also consists of many puzzle elements, so among other things, the condition of the digestive system, possible absorption disorders or the functioning of digestive enzymes also have an effect on its development. Overall, it is an extremely unpleasant condition that can manifest itself in the form of very diverse symptoms and can make the lives of those affected miserable. In addition, these symptoms often appear delayed, even hours or days after eating, which makes it difficult to detect the food causing the problem.
This is how a food diary can help with the diagnosis of food intolerance
As Dr. Pászthory emphasizes, if you experience symptoms after eating certain foods, it is advisable to keep a food diary, first for yourself, before meeting with a gastroenterologist. In the diary, the type, method of preparation, quantity of all food and drinks consumed in the 48 hours prior to the complaints must be listed item by item (e.g. 2 slices of sliced meat, 1 dl of kefir, 1 small plate of soup, a handful of peanuts) and the time. It is important that if we bought ready-made food (e.g. yogurt, bread or cold meats), we also write next to it what the product was made of (brand name, fanciful name), since it is possible that the additives in it (flavourings, spices, preservatives) cause our complaints; we also note how we combined the given food in our diet (don’t forget about the used food flavorings).
In addition to listing the dishes, we also list our complaints (when they appeared, their nature and intensity). Finally, it may be useful to record other factors (e.g. training after meals, physical activities; medications, dietary supplements, herbs, and alcohol consumption). (Food diaries can be kept in paper or digital form, but they are also available in the form of mobile applications.)
In the second step, the food types or food combinations that appear repeatedly are highlighted from the detailed diary. This condensed list is extremely useful for both the professional and the patient in several ways. On the one hand, temporal relationships are easier to see in action (since symptoms of intolerance develop more slowly than food allergies), and this indicates a direction for the doctor to start investigating in the direction of food allergy or food intolerance. With its help, the patterns formed by the combination of certain foods and symptoms can emerge (e.g. bloating and diarrhea after consuming dairy products may raise the suspicion of lactose intolerance). Our detailed list of medical examinations (with blood tests, exhalation tests and the elimination diet) we can get a more accurate picture of the intolerance, which can also help the dietician a lot in planning the recommended diet.
– It must be emphasized that the professional recommendations themselves recommend this method, and at the same time warn against commercially available IgG-type tests, the results of which cannot be considered of diagnostic value, so you should not start any diet based on them! warns Dr. Erzsébet Pászthory, gastroenterologist at the Gastroenterological Center.
Source: Center for Gastroenterology
Source: www.patikamagazin.hu
