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.

You may have heard of two of the common food intolerances, lactose intolerance (in which the body cannot process dairy products) and gluten intolerance (in which the body cannot process wheat products, also known as gluten). Several other types of intolerances exist, as well, and all of them are associated with unpleasant symptoms.

Diarrhea, flatulence, constipation, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), pain and fatigue are among the possible symptoms of food intolerances. The best way to really prevent these symptoms to occur is to refrain from eating the foods in question, and the best way to find out which foods these is to undertake a food intolerance test.

A common test for food intolerance is the elisa (this stands for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). In this test blood is normally collected from the fingertip, either at home or at a doctor's office, and then a lab analysis is done to test for reactions with certain foods. A strong reaction can produce a large amount of IgG antibodies in the blood stream; the more that there are, the worse the reaction will be.

The food intolerance test will show the extent of the intolerance and the type of foods that cause it. While different testers use different scales, all food intolerance tests measure the same thing -- the body's production antibodies. The results of the test should make apparent which foods (if any) are the cause of intolerance reactions; studies have shown that measuring antibody production is an effective means of discovering the source of food intolerances.

If you find out you have a food intolerance, there are several steps you can take. The most obvious step is to remove said food from your diet - this can range from simple to quite difficult, depending on the food. For the more common intolerances, such as dairy, manufacturers have marketed 'safe' products, but for others you'll simply have to read ingredient labels and ask questions. This may be inconvenient at times, but it's certainly better than the symptoms. In the end, a food intolerance test is well worth the cost and effort.