It's easy to get confused between food allergy and food intolerance. Although the two conditions are quite different, the symptoms are often similar. Both are adverse reactions or symptoms that take place every time contact is made with a particular food or food ingredient. In food allergy the body sees an otherwise harmless food as unsafe and activates the body's defence mechanism or immune system. It is this activation of the immune system that causes the symptoms of food allergy.

Most allergic reactions to food are caused by a small number of foods, including milk, eggs, soya, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat in children. Many of these reactions are outgrown in early childhood, and in adults most allergic reactions are to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. Wheat, nuts and dairy are often the hardest to avoid in everyday foods - it often seems like everything you eat contains one of the three. Only a small fraction of the population has a genuine allergic reaction to food.

In fact, in Australia, only about 5 to 8 percent of children and 2 percent of adults have a true food allergy. When a reaction to a food occurs that does not involve the body's immune system, it is called food intolerance. This is not a food allergy. Allergy symptoms may include hives, swelling around the mouth, diarrhoea, vomiting, stuffy nose and hay fever symptoms, eczema (a skin rash) and anaphylaxis (a potentially life-threatening reaction that affects the whole body). For more information on Food Allergy, CLICK HERE.

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