Food Sensitivity or Self-Deception?

Adverse reactions to ingested food cause a wide variety of conditions, syndromes, symptoms, and diseases1 , 2 for which general descriptive terms such as food intolerance or food sensitivity are useful. These can be applied not only when the reaction has a clearly defined metabolic, pharmacologic, or immunopathologic basis, but also when the mechanism is unknown or disputed. The provoking agent may be a single food or ingredient, but sometimes — particularly in IgE-mediated food allergy — many different foods are involved.Even the most experienced clinician may have difficulty elucidating the exact relation between dietary constituents and the clinical phenomena observed . . .