ABSTRACT
Food intolerance has been the subject of confusion and controversy. There are several different types of individual adverse reactions to foods generally termed food allergies by both physicians and the public. Food intolerances may be divided into two broad groups: immunogenic compounds, which can be split into and other compounds. Some commonly allergenic foods, such as cow's milk, are complex mixtures of allergens. Soy protein has been consistently one of the several major foods implicated in causing hypersensitivity in over 90% of children with documented adverse food reactions. The three major classes of nonimmunological food intolerances are: metabolic food disorders, idiosyncratic reactions, and anaphylactoid reactions. The known metabolic food disorders involve naturally occurring substances exclusively, because they involve genetically determined deficiencies that either affect the host's ability to metabolize a food component or enhance the sensitivity of the host to some foodborne chemical via an altered metabolic pattern.
