Allergies, Food Sensitivies and EOE

Lactose intolerance is not a food allergy. When patients are lactose intolerant they no longer produced the digestive enzyme lactase. There are other enzymes, palatinase, sucrase, isomaltase involved in digesting sugars. If one lacks these enzymes, they could get bloating, gas and abdominal pain with eating.

An endoscopy with a disaccharidase test can distinguish if one lacks these enzymes. On the other hand food allergies can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating and itching. Food allergies can be detected by antibodies in the blood or skin prick tests.