When is it an intollerance or allergy?

[Dillie]

I have IBS which is largely controlled through diet.

I know that milk/diary can give me problems, and also some breads/cereals.

For example I can eat wraps without an issue, but a slice of bread will cripple me!! Whats that all about!

Now last night my dh brought some sour cream and onion pringles. I had about 4 crisps and within 20 minutes I was in agony with a colic type pain in my stomach.

I took my meds and had a half glass of lactofree milk (that has the enzyme in it) plus lots of hot water and although still feeling a little sore inside, its ok.

Now how does the allergy/intollerance work? what is the difference? I must admit, its something that I have never really understood fully

you kind of need a decent qualification in immunology to really understand it and even then it isn't going to be perfect - it's a very complex issue.

Allergies are quite closely defined as things that will produce an IgE antibody response that can, in extreme cases, lead to anaphylaxis. These are relatively well understood in terms of process but not so well in terms of how or why they arise.

Intolerance - the only ones that are properly defined and understood are lactose intolerance (a deficiency in the enzyme lactase means that lactose cannot be digested by the human body, but becomes available to the gut bacteria, resulting in gas production and increased gut motility) and coeliacs disease (gluten intolerance that results in the immune-based destruction of the gut villi, leading to poor absorption of nutrients and eventually possible malnutrition). Other digestive enzyme deficiencies could cause other food intolerances but they are less common.

The sort of food intolerance you are talking about is poorly understood and therefore not easy to define. You may have a problem with yeast, which might explain why bread is more of a problem than wraps (I don't think wraps need yeast to make them, unlike bread). If you have dairy issues then sour cream Pringles are a bad choice anyway (actually Pringles are a bad choice at all times, full of junk!)

HTH

I always thought, on a very simple level, that an intolerance affects the part of the body that is exposed, eg the gut when talking about food intolerances. An allergy is something that affects the whole body, eg skin or lungs.

I'd say you were both sort of right. The IgE response means that several things are affected while intolerances mainly affect the gut. However those gut problems can lead to problems elsewhere in the body - gluten intolerance is linked to osteoporosis, for example.

There was an interesting thread about additives in bread on mumsnet a long time back. It was called something like if you think you have problems with wheat. Worth trying to find it.

@ thumbwitch I know they are bad and full of junk, but I havent had any in possibly years, so I thought a taste wouldnt do any harm! Yeah right!!!!

Thanks for the input .. my sister and I were discussing it at length the other night (she is gluten & wheat) but we couldnt agree on if its an intollerance/allergy as the reaction was so quick!

the reaction time isn't relevant from what you said tbh - intolerances will kick off quickly as well.
Unless it's instantaneous including swelling of tissues, in which case chances are it's a full-on allergy with potentially dire consequences, it could still be either. The way to check is to have skin prick tests done by the doctor.