Qualitaly_112

AUG. SEP. 2019 X healthy diet, consumption has shifted to derivatives of unleavened cereals. However, at this point, the research of the product composed of fewer added ingredients or additives becomes fundamental, bearing in mind that the possibility of gastrointestinal disorders may appear, however, especially with excessive consumption.” AT PAGE 28 Qi Feeling good at the table Intolerances. Do you know how to manage them? The number of consumers suffering from food intolerances is growing. But the catering industry does not always show that it understands the subject, often neglecting the fact that it is a serious disease that requires special attention... By Dr. Barbara Panterna First of all, I would like to clarify what food intolerances are and the difference between intolerances and allergies, given the confusion that I often find in people on these issues. Intolerance is, in simple terms, the difficulty of the body in digesting certain foods with the subsequent appearance of non-specific symptoms such as abdominal swelling, headache, diarrhoea, neurological, dermatological, respiratory disorders, etc.. Intolerances, such as favism, or the better-known lactose-related intolerance, are caused by an enzymatic or receptor deficiency. In subjects intolerant to lactose, in fact, there is no lactase enzyme able to break down the lactose (the sugar present in milk) to make it more digestible. In these people, the introduction of lactose will develop a series of annoying symptoms that can undermine their quality of life, so should not be overlooked. With intolerance, it is important to stress this, the immune system is not activated, it is often dose dependent and is not always easy to diagnose. Food allergy , on the other hand, consists of an immune reaction that is triggered by the ingestion of a certain component of the food (usually a protein) to which the body is particularly sensitive (e.g. allergy to caseins , i.e. milk proteins). Food allergies are not ‘dose dependent’, which means that even a small amount of food is sufficient to trigger an immune reaction and can lead to death with the most fearsome event, anaphylactic shock. As far as coeliac disease is concerned, which is now widespread in the world population, a parenthesis must be opened. It represents a serious pathology of the digestive system linked to the intolerance of a protein, gluten, present in many cereals such as wheat, spelt, barley, kamut, spelt, triticale and oats. In this case, however, we will also have a massive activation of the immune system by the lymphocytes of the intestinal villi that makes the small intestine increasingly less able to absorb nutrients causing very serious physiological changes. As previously mentioned in other articles, today food intolerances are widespread and are not only a fashion as many restaurateurs think. As a doctor, I can tell you that about 50% of the Italian population is lactose intolerant and more and more people are celiac or otherwise sensitive to gluten because lactose and gluten, for some years now, are widely used as food additives, and therefore present in many foods that do not normally contain them such as meats, sauces, jams, drugs and many preparations. This is a fact and anyone in the catering trade must take it into account. In this article, in fact, I would really like to try to sensitise you to this subject. I find it useless to propose, as happens now in all restaurants, the list of all the allergens and ingredients in the dish if then almost no one provides the customer with alternatives. In most Italian restaurants a celiac person cannot eat! Those who are lactose intolerant almost never find alternatives, and often restaurateurs are not well informed about which foods contain gluten for example and which do not, or what is really lactose and where it is, so they are convinced to offer a gluten-free dish, for example, even if it is not, and consequently a large slice of the population, not to be put at risk, give up the restaurant. So how can we manage intolerances? For lactose the situation is simpler: in the meantime, the restaurateur will be able to use, for example, lactose-free cheeses, which are now widely available on the market, as is the case for lactose-free milk. It is very important to always read the ingredients of what we use, often lactose is also present in nuts or in the preparations to flavour the dishes, so beware of the so-called hidden lactose. The person intolerant to lactose, however, to not renounce pleasant convivial situations, can get lactase tablets in pharmacies to be taken MAGAZINE