Among the allergies rampant in American lives today,food allergy is one of the top three. However, somepeople misdiagnose food allergy as food intolerance.An allergy to food is when you have an adversephysical reaction to a food item after eating it. Themost common food allergy is a Peanut Allergy, whichaffects from 1% - 1.5% of the population. It is alsopossible to outgrow a food allergy over time, howeverwith a peanut allergy, this is rather unlikely.Before we go any further let's define exactly what a food allergy is. Food allergies can be broken downinto 2 categories. The second category is foodintolerance. This is actually caused by the fooditself and is not a function of the immune systemitself overreacting to the food or food additive. Whatactually happens with food allergies is that peoplewith allergies produce IgE antibodies to specificepitopes in the food allergen. Allergic reactions tofood can be fatal almost immediately following theingestion of food.Probably one of the most prevalent and dangerous ofthese food allergies are people who are allergic topeanuts. Less severe reactions to food allergies areoropharyngeal pruritus, angioedema, stridor, cough,dyspnea, wheezing, and dysphonia.Symptoms Of Food AllergyFood allergy is an allergic reaction to certain typesof food. Aside for the similarities in symptoms, afood allergy is more severe than food intolerance.Someone with food intolerance can eat small portionsof the food he is allergic to.A food allergy can be treated as soon as the symptomoccurs. Unfortunately the best way to avoid foodallergies is to have a food allergy test done and thento avoid the foods that show positive on the test. Asof now, a shot of epinephrine is the most effectivetreatment for food allergy and other types ofallergies.Although food allergies cannot be prevented, the bestway to defeat it is by staying away from the food aperson is allergic to. Making the right diagnosis onfood allergy versus food intolerance can be tricky.Welcome to the world of food allergies andintolerances.A Child Can Outgrow Food AllergyFood allergies affect an increasing number ofchildren, with peanut allergies being the mostprevalent, (to date an estimated 1-2% of childrensuffering from the possibly life threatening allergicreaction).So it offers some measure of hope, to parents of foodallergic children, to know that around 1 in 5 childreneventually go on to outgrow their food allergy.Children and adult allergies follow differentpatterns. A food allergy in your child is most likelyto come from milk, eggs and peanuts. A food allergy inyour child may be prevented by avoiding high-riskfoods.