Article: Food allergy, food intolerance, food hypersensitivity: the silent villains of illness. (includes related articles on anaphylaxis, milk allergy, and food allergy symptoms)

Q: There seems to be general agreement on the subject of food reactions. Many foods affect people in various ways. How would you define the various categories?

A: Food allergy is an abnormal immunological reaction in which an individual's immune system overreacts to foods that are ordinarily harmless. The part of a food to which a person reacts is usually a protein and is called an allergen. Reaction may occur minutes or hours after the food is eaten. Because the immune system proliferates in particular areas, one or several organ systems may be affected, such as skin, lips, tongue, nausea, cramps, sneezing, coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath,,and ...

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