Do you often find yourself feeling sick after meals? Do you dread eating out because you never know which meal, which day, what time will trigger unpleasant symptoms? You're not alone. You could have a food intolerance - a condition similar to a food allergy, but not as severe.

Certain enzymes are required to break down different types of food; if your body lacks them, it can cause a food intolerance. Unlike food allergies, the response to the food in question may be delayed. This can make it rather difficult, at times, to identify the "trigger food" for an intolerance.

There are several common food intolerances, some that you may have heard about before include: gluten intolerance (experiencing the inability to process wheat or gluten products), also lactose intolerance (body's intolerance to dairy products). There are also several other types of food intolerances and they will all produce unpleasant effects.

Food intolerances may cause bowel problems, such as diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, as well as fatigue and pain. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of food intolerances is simply to avoid eating the foods that cause them, and the best way to discover what foods cause intolerances is to take a food intolerance test.

The elisa (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) food test is a common food intolerance test, which involves having blood collected-usually from the fingertip-either at home or in a doctor's office. A lab then analyzes this sample for reactions with certain foods. A strong reaction will cause many IgG antibodies to be present in the blood; the more antibodies there are, the stronger the reaction will be.

Results of food intolerance tests are able to reveal how much was produced, and from which foods it resulted. Different providers use different scales, however they all measure the same thing basically: the production of antibodies. It should be clear which foods - if any - are the cause of intolerance reactions. Studied did show that this kind of test is particularly effective in finding out the source.

There are several things that can be done if you find you have food intolerance. The first step to take is to remove the problem food from your diet. Removing the food from your diet can be an easy or difficult step depending on the nature of the food. Manufactures are now making substitute for some common intolerances, such as those with reactions to dairy products. Other intolerances can be avoided by carefully reading the manufactures label for the list of ingredients. Depending on the severity of your symptoms, a few minutes spent reading a label can be worth the time spent.