Diagnosing your Condition

Anthony J. Cichoke writes on Better Nutrition of September 2000, "Often, when people experience an unpleasant reaction to something they've eaten, they assume they have food allergies. Although approximately 40 percent of Americans believe they have food allergies, only about 1 to 3 percent of Americans actually suffer from food allergies. What many believe is an allergy may simply be a food intolerance."

Hence for this reason a table is presented below to help all diagnose their condition to make it easer, either to control or to treat. The good thing is that both conditions as Anthony J. Cichoke continues can be helped by supplemental enzymes. Read also full article - Enzymes to the Rescue.

While food intolerance is caused by lack of an enzyme (or more than one) to completely digest the food, food allergy is incited by food proteins that trigger the immune system to over react. While supplemental food enzymes replace the missing enzymes in food intolerance and help in the complete digestion of foods (carbohydrates and fats), in allergy cases they help break down food proteins before they are recognised by the immune system.

Different enzymes exist to break down different foods. For example, lactase breaks down lactose in milk and dairy, amylase starches; and bromelain, protease and papain break down proteins. All these enzymes and others are available from this web site.

Symptoms Comparison

The aim of this table is to help you distinguish between a food allergy and a food intolerance. Remember that the former involves a reaction by the immune system to the proteins while the latter a lack of enzyme to a particular component of the milk. So, let us say that every time you drink milk you react. If your symptoms fall under those of an allergy, the cause of the problem is one (or possibly more than one) of the milk proteins, while if your symptoms fall under intolerance, the cause is the left over of the lactose sugar which remains in your system due to lack of the enzyme lactase to break it down.

Whey can be used in food products in a variety of forms. Dried whey is one of the least expensive sources of solids that can be used in food. Dried whey can contribute a slight dairy of fermented flavour and serves as a source of reducing sugars. The protein content is very low and little functionality can be expected. The majority of whey used in food applications is in the form of whey protein concentrates (WPC). WPC 34 with 34% solids can be used in a number of applications to replace non-fat dried milk. The protein is all whey rather than mostly casein and is not as functional when thermal stability is required. It is capable of forming gels and is good at emulsification and foaming. It finds many applications in dried mixes, in fillings and in sauces. There has been an explosive increase in WPC products that contain 80% or more protein. Initially the main use of these ingredients was in applications that required high gel strength. They are also functional in sterile nutritional products where they function well as emulsifiers and help to retard long-term gravitational creaming. Whey protein isolates contain at least 90% protein and can be produced either by ion exchange or by a combination of microfiltration and diafiltration. These products are extremely low in lipid and are very clear in solution. Their main application is in fluid nutritional beverages.

Lactose vs Fat

With a lactose content of 52 per cent in skim-milk powder, one may realise how dangerous the current fad is for using low-fat ice-cream, yoghurt, cottage cheese etc., instead of full-fat products. Such low-fat foods are made from skim-milk powder and contain 3 to 5 times as much lactose as the equivalent full-fat foods. Sometimes skim-milk powder is even added to butter. Therefore one should read the label and avoid butter that lists 'non-fat milk solids' as one of the ingredients.

Skim-milk powder is also a favourite additive to many other commercial foods, such as bread and other baking products, sausages and margarine. The health-food industry is equally fond of adding lactose to many. Lactose is often used as a filler in white tablets. Cell salts are almost pure lactose. One should try avoiding white tablets if the label does not state that they are free of lactose or are low-allergy tablets.

Skimmed milk also contains more lactose than whole milk. As a general rule, the thicker the milk the less is its lactose content. As for Cheese, the older and mature the cheese is, the less lactose it contains. Some very mature cheeses, such as parmagian may contain no lactose at all.

Quick checklist for milk products

The products in the table below contain milk or any of its components. Always check the ingredients label.

A detailed list of food products derived from milk.

Products marked with a "*" may not necessary have derived or contain from milk. This depends on the manufacturer.