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What’s a Food Allergy — and What’s Not? | Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter | TED

People often mix up food allergies and food intolerances, even though they require completely different medical treatments. Dr. Jen Gunter explains how allergies quickly trigger the immune system, while intolerances disrupt digestion and can sometimes take days to show up. Learn how to spot the difference and get a better understanding of how your body…

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People often mix up food allergies and food intolerances, even though they require completely different medical treatments. Dr. Jen Gunter explains how allergies quickly trigger the immune system, while intolerances disrupt digestion and can sometimes take days to show up. Learn how to spot the difference and get a better understanding of how your body reacts to food.

Think you know how your body works? Think again! In this TED original series, Dr. Jen Gunter will share the truth about what’s *really* going on inside you. For more, tune into her podcast, Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter:

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51 Comments

51 Comments

  1. kg

    October 19, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    Wow

  2. Psycho

    October 19, 2022 at 3:01 pm

  3. John Braun

    October 19, 2022 at 3:01 pm

    Nice

  4. Dr. Ryan

    October 19, 2022 at 3:02 pm

    I’m a Librarian and I oversee the shipment of books that come into different libraries around Illinois. When we receive LGBTQ Children’s books, I will purposely throw them in the Dumpster and make sure they are under a bunch of other garbage. I also will sneak some of the books home and place them in the oven so they melt. I havnt been caught yet and no one has asked for any type of book like these anyways………!!!!!

  5. John Braun

    October 19, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    Amazing my thanks

  6. Аб дулла

    October 19, 2022 at 3:14 pm

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  7. Kartik Agrawal

    October 19, 2022 at 3:14 pm

    Why countries opt for war rather than solving disputes by dialogue and diplomacy?

  8. Аб дулла

    October 19, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    🇺🇲 TED.

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    — *ANDREW MITROVICA* ✍️

  9. Perceived Velocity

    October 19, 2022 at 3:19 pm

    I know someone who self diagnosed gluten allergies. They visited multiple doctors until they found one who gave them the diagnosis that they wanted to hear. A hypochondriac will be told what they want to hear if they work hard enough.

    • Аб дулла

      October 19, 2022 at 3:22 pm

      Maybe yes! 🤔

      _Maybe no!_ 😊

    • SacchieILU

      October 19, 2022 at 6:42 pm

      Sounds like they had some dismissive doctors who would not take them seriously before that. Theres a serious problem with that.

    • Christiana Vance

      October 20, 2022 at 2:49 pm

      I have a diagnosis of non celiac gluten allergy. I have other auto immune issues. My Dr told me that when people go off of any food long enough, they stop producing the enzymes and create the intolerance themselves. Not the cause for me but it helps me discourage people from following fads and talk to Dr’s 1st and take the blood and endoscopic tests for diagnosis.

  10. Аб дулла

    October 19, 2022 at 3:19 pm

    ‘We must maximize the use of food produced, & reduce food loss & food waste,’ – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s National Goodwill Ambassador for Ireland, Diarmuid Gavin.

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  11. Аб дулла

    October 19, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    TED 😊.
    “The support of tested and dependable friends gives one the strength to hold on to _HOPE_ and to endure successfully even the most challenging knocks in life.”

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  12. Moss

    October 19, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    My body doesn’t tolerate nuts (allergic to nuts), but it does tolerate chocolate 😶 weird. My body also doesn’t tolerate cow’s milk. But it loves oatly milk, rice milk and hemp milk.

    • ©WhatsApp+①⑧⑨⑥⑤①④③②④

      October 19, 2022 at 3:29 pm

      ↪️↪️↗️

  13. elliewellie

    October 19, 2022 at 3:27 pm

    I have a food allergy! Me me me! I’m also super intolerant to aspartame.

    • elliewellie

      October 20, 2022 at 5:25 pm

      @🆆hatsAp+①④①⑦⑧⑨⑦③③⓪② yeah no

  14. Leah McGrew

    October 19, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    I went to an allergist in the 1980s and some in the 1990s who gave me tests and I was allergic to a lot of foods. Recently I went to another allergist – my previous one died in 2004 – and he said I wasn’t allergic to any of the foods. I’m sorry, if I eat an even microscopic amount of corn, I get sick and I can stay sick until I take one of the shots from my previous allergist.

    • muzzybeat1

      October 19, 2022 at 6:56 pm

      Corn isn’t a human food as it is meant to pass through animal digestive systems and not digest. It’s a seed. It serves the corn plant in distributing seeds around the earth. It serves the plant only. That’s why it shows up in toilets undigested. I recommend reading articles, books, or watching videos from either biophysicist/nutritionist Sarah Ballyntine or Chris Kresser who specializes in ancestral nutrition and functional medicine.

    • Carson Hunt

      October 19, 2022 at 7:45 pm

      Yea sadly her advice of a go see a doctor or allergist isn’t that helpful.
      My allergist was completely useless, couldn’t answer a single question of mine, only tested for the few main ones he wanted ignoring all the things I’ve written in my food journal, and then provided no advice aside from “don’t eat stuff that upsets ur stomach”…
      Kind of hard to do when I was allergic to almost everything he tested me for.
      He also ignored my intolerances/inflammation, and only cared about the allergic reaction test.

      My doctor also has not been much use, no clue if it’s auto immune like crohn’s/ibs, or if it’s just a mixture of intolerance and allergies , as being allergic to so many ingredients has made it hard to figure out.

      Gastroenterologist have done endoscopy and colonoscopy, ofc didn’t solve anything.

      So yea, it’s been years of doctors for me, and literally have been zero help. Maybe it’s cuz my case is complicated, or I have bad luck with doctors, who knows.

    • Leah McGrew

      October 19, 2022 at 9:34 pm

      @muzzybeat1 Yes and I tell people that and they look like I’ve lost my mind. Basically humans might get some empty carbs out of it, but it really isn’t good for humans to eat. Cows, deer and other animals of they like get more value out of it, but more doesn’t mean a lot in the case of corn.

    • Leah McGrew

      October 19, 2022 at 9:35 pm

      I was blessed that my mother had a friend who worked for the allergist I went to so she knew of him. He literally saved my life, and I know of at least one other person who he saved their lives.

    • muzzybeat1

      October 19, 2022 at 9:54 pm

      @Leah McGrew Yep, I agree. We have very different digestive systems from grazing animals.

  15. I hate avocados

    October 19, 2022 at 3:58 pm

    Thank you ❤

    • Leah McGrew

      October 19, 2022 at 4:52 pm

      my wife hated avocados and called guacamole, gackamole or yuckamole.

  16. Helium Freak

    October 19, 2022 at 4:01 pm

    To sum up, a food allergy is something that can could kill you. A food intolerance is something you develop to be trendy.

    • Guilty Pleasures

      October 19, 2022 at 5:18 pm

      That’s not how she explained food intolerances mate. Watch the video again and listen carefully this time.

  17. Shloomy Shloms

    October 19, 2022 at 4:15 pm

    I know people who tell waiters they are allergic to food or ingredients because they don’t like them, not because they have an actual allergy.

    I have also known people who are allergic to (in one case beer) yet every time there was a party there she was chugging beer, and there she went straight to the hospital.

    • Mark Simmonds

      October 19, 2022 at 4:47 pm

      As a professional head chef I cannot stress how much these ‘fake allergies’ ruin it for everyone else. We literally have to stop what we’re doing, 2-stage sanitise a whole workstation, then open new packets of ingredients/wash vegetables again, use a new clean knife/chopping board/utensils. They’re basically making the rest of their table/restaurant wait for no reason. Of course we are happy to do this for people with real allergies.

    • SacchieILU

      October 19, 2022 at 6:46 pm

      I have a dairy allergy but its fairly mild and cross-contamination is usually trace enough that it doesn’t affect me in a meaningful way. I try to specify this when I order but I feel like, from the other side of things, I am not taken seriously very often. I have to be very selective where I eat because I know places that don’t adjust to my needs.

      So while it may be inconvenient, please treat an allergy claim as real, for those of us who have them.

  18. Lara

    October 19, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    No adult has enough enzyme to digest cow milk lactose… It’s not intolerance… 😒Go vegan 😄

  19. Mark Simmonds

    October 19, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    I’m allergic to people with fake allergies.

  20. muzzybeat1

    October 19, 2022 at 6:38 pm

    “Talk to your doctor.” Yeah, because doctors have SO MUCH training in nutrition. I’m pretty sure that most medical degrees require either zero or one course in nutrition. If you do talk to a doctor, find one deeply knowledgeable in nutrition like either Chris Kresser’s team or Sarah Ballyntine’s or find a local nutritionist who is very oriented towards gut health well (most don’t focus on that but focus on outdated academic training).

    • DayoftheRobot

      October 20, 2022 at 1:31 am

      You should also be cautious of people who are implementing dietary interventions based on latest results for small studies that are not replicated in large studies and RCTs. I do appreciate people who do not dismiss new findings though, it’s just that professionals generally don’t recommend based on emerging evidence that is outside of practice guidelines.

  21. Ares W.

    October 19, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    Idk what you’d call my allergic. Can’t be just shell fish because fish also irritates me. But crab and shrimp has literally sent me to the ER without eating. Just being around it. Last tike the doctor told me if it didn’t get better he was about to put me in an induced coma.

  22. It's Iz

    October 19, 2022 at 10:16 pm

    thank gd I’ve seen an uptick in people mixing up lactose intolerance and food allergies and for the love of Gd, the way people with lactose intolerance act is NOT safe for people with food allergies and should NOT be encouraged in people with food allergies.

  23. Donna Haynes

    October 20, 2022 at 6:19 am

    A doctor gave me a list of foods to avoid in order to avoid migraines. I saw a nutritionist to learn more about this. She recommended an allergy test. My mother had told me about having to fast before her allergy test, so called the allergist to confirm whether i needed to fast for some period. They told me nope. eat whatever you want. when I went in for the scratch test, every single thing I had eaten for the past almost 24 hours showed up as a mild to moderate allergic reaction. i abandoned the “migraine diet” the doctor had given me and tried the “allergy diet” that was recommended. The migraines came back full strength. Just thought i’d share my experience.

  24. None of your Damn Business

    October 20, 2022 at 7:48 am

    *Here comes the science again🙄*

  25. Iron Maiden

    October 20, 2022 at 7:51 am

    Talk to a Naturopath. Not a Doctor. Thats like taking you car to a mechanic to have window tint applied.

    • 🆆hatsAp+①④①⑦⑧⑨⑦③③⓪②

      October 20, 2022 at 12:48 pm

      ✍️☝️Thanks for that remark!
      Always good catching up with you, Leave me a msg I’ve got something essential to share

  26. phonzy

    October 20, 2022 at 8:53 am

    This settles it, I’m allergic to berries 😢

    • 🆆hatsAp+①④①⑦⑧⑨⑦③③⓪②

      October 20, 2022 at 12:48 pm

      ✍️☝️Thanks for that remark!
      Always good catching up with you, Leave me a msg I’ve got something essential to discuss

  27. plantpowerednerd

    October 20, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    Thanks for talking about Coeliac/Celiac Disease 💚 really helps people understand why it’s so important for us to be gluten free

  28. Christian Williams

    October 20, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    What we should be asking ourselves is what caused our gut to be so damaged that it would let undigested proteins get thru our intestine and into our blood, which then gets attacked by our immune system. Food allergies and food sensitivities all starts with a leaky gut, which is caused mainly by our modern day of eating, drinking, and mainly our modern way of farming, and then treating people with chemicals like antibiotics. We have been destroying our guts and gut flora for a few decades now with the chemical revolution. We saw a huge uprise in digestive, and neurological issues at the end of the 1980’s when they started spraying glyphosate on wheat to kill it early so they could bring it early to market. Then they started doing the same thing to beans and other grains that has to be dried before harvesting. Now there is so much chemicals in the environment and they purposefully put some more in the food afterwards that the gut has no chance, and simply falls apart.

  29. Mary Lane

    October 21, 2022 at 3:17 am

    He’s back to me!
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    He’s showering me with love! 💕❤️
    Our relationship is now perfect just as the way I wanted it. All thanks to (Baba Steve Spells)

    • Mary Lane

      October 21, 2022 at 3:17 am

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    • Mary Lane

      October 21, 2022 at 3:17 am

      His IG page is (dr_steve44)

  30. Reoh

    October 21, 2022 at 7:30 am

    Jokes on me, My body is allergic to itself.

  31. Janafernandes805

    October 21, 2022 at 11:20 pm

    I have some food allergies.

  32. NOVIANISYA MAHARANI SUSANTO

    October 22, 2022 at 7:01 am

    I also have an allergy to shrimp, it started when I was 10 years old. It is true “we should consult a doctor”. At first my mother thought I was allergic to all seafood but after being checked it was only shrimp allergy. Allergies that appear when I eat already are the appearance of redness that is very itchy and hot, the worst condition at that time was that I had shortness of breath.

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