Dealing with food intolerance

Many people often find dairy products difficult to digest while others cannot digest gluten or spinach.

Many of them say, doctors suggest they avoid lactose or dairy foods, spinach, various types of pulses in order to reduce food intolerance. 

Food intolerance and sensitivities are extremely common among people these days and often create bloating, gas or other types of digestion problems.

It is quite a complicated process to diagnose who has sensitivity to which food item and therefore, suggestions are complicated as well.

Food intolerance refers to the difficulty to digest particular foods. The difficulty happens due to lack of enzymes or allergic ingredients in the particular food.

It is necessary to identify the specific food that cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach ache, rashes, bloating and so on. One can make a food diary and mark the day of troubled stomach and make a list of food eaten on the day. It will help identifying the foods that one is sensitive to.

Those who have intolerance to lactose or dairy foods and gluten or wheat cannot digest such foods. Such sensitivity shows up since the childhood.

Many who have had their gallbladder removed by surgery often face difficulty digesting fried food.

Indigestion may be caused by many other reasons such as troubled gallbladder or stones in the pancreas, IBS and many more. It is necessary to identify the reason behind it rather than blaming foods randomly.

There is no built-in enzyme in our body to digest fibers and therefore, it is very natural to feel heavy after eating food enriched with fiber. We have to understand that fibers are very useful for our health. We cannot skip milk, egg, fruits and vegetables in the name of food intolerance as it may cause deficiency of vitamin and minerals in the body.

*AFM Helaluddin is a medicine specialist. The piece published in Prothom Alo print edition has been rewritten in English by Farjana Liakat