Fewer than 1 in 13 children and 1 in 10 adults have proven food allergies. But many people think they have food allergies.

Food intolerance means you may have digestive tract symptoms after eating a certain type of food. For instance, lactose intolerance can cause gas, bloating, and belly pain after drinking milk. A food allergy (hypersensitivity) causes your immune system to react strongly to a food. For instance, a peanut allergy can cause life-threatening symptoms. Food intolerances can be very uncomfortable. But they are not life threatening.

Also, someone with 2 allergic parents is more likely to develop food allergies than someone with 1 allergic parent.

Food allergens are parts of the food that cause an allergic reaction. They are proteins within the food. These proteins aren't usually broken down by the heat of cooking . In some cases, a person with a food allergy may be able to eat cooked foods but not the raw foods.. Talk with an allergist before eating any food that you have been allergic to in the past.

An allergic reaction usually starts within a few minutes. But symptoms can begin up to 2 hours after eating the food. You may first have itching in the mouth as you start to eat the food. If you have severe food allergy symptoms, the mouth itching can quickly lead to more serious symptoms. These include hives, coughing, shortness of breath, swelling, vomiting, diarrhea, and drop in blood pressure. In some people this happens within minutes of eating a food. For other people, the symptoms take longer to develop. The amount of food eaten can affect how fast symptoms appear and get worse. Exercise, illness, or asthma also can affect this.

Peanut allergies are serious and can be fatal. However, children are more likely to outgrow allergies to milk, eggs, or soy than allergies to peanuts, fish, or shrimp.

This is called cross-reactivity. Proteins in melons are similar to proteins in ragweed. People with ragweed allergies might find that eating cantaloupe will cause itching in the mouth. An itchy mouth alone is not often a symptom of a severe allergy. But if a food causes your mouth to itch, don't eat it again until you talk with your allergist.

Meat contaminated with bacteria can cause what seems to be an allergic reaction. But it's really a form of food poisoning. Some fish that are spoiled or kept at too warm a temperature have high levels of a chemical called histamine. This may cause what appears to be an allergic reaction in some people. This reaction is called scombroid (histamine) poisoning.

Once you and your healthcare provider have identified the food that you are sensitive to, you'll need to remove the food from your diet. To remove the food, read the detailed ingredient list for each food before you eat it. Many allergy-producing foods such as peanuts, eggs, and milk appear in foods that you may not think they would be in. For instance, peanuts are often used as a protein source. Eggs are used in some salad dressings. Removing the food is the first step in treating a food allergy. For some foods, such as peanuts, there are alternative treatments. These treatments, called oral immunotherapy (OIT), involve slowly eating increasing amounts of the foods to raise a person's tolerance to the food. This must be done carefully and under the close supervision of an allergist. This is a treatment. But it's not a cure for food allergy. The goal is to reduce the frequency and severity of allergic reactions. The OIT peanut treatment is approved for children ages 4 to 17. Talk with your healthcare provider about treatments available for food allergies.