You have a responsibility to know what’s going on in your own body as often as possible.  Sometimes that’s easier said than done, however.  This is especially so with something as “all over the map” as food intolerances.  If you’re looking for some education and support and dealing with shrimp intolerance, you’ve come to the right place.  Here’s what you’re going to want to know.

What is shrimp intolerance?

Firstly, intolerance is completely different from an allergy.  While an allergy is when your body perceives shrimp as a threat that it must destroy, intolerance is simply when your body is unequipped to handle it properly in digestive measures.  Both can be serious in terms of how they feel within your body, but they are different core reactions.

An intolerance simply means that your body is sensitive to shrimp and it cannot digest it effectively, creating symptoms, or it means that you don’t naturally have the digestive enzyme required to properly digest shrimp.  Intolerances can happen at any age and can also appear, then disappear again.  Their severity can vary over time as well.

Studies have shown that sensitization to shrimp can come from either eating it, inhaling its scent, or skin contact [1].  In the industry of working with shrimp (such as processing plants or even restaurants), sensitization can occur easily and create an intolerance over time [2].  Likewise, eating a lot of shrimp on a regular basis can also sensitize you to it, making your body so sensitive that it can no longer properly digest the food [2].

Since the seafood industry it a large employer around the world, particularly in Singapore, it’s thought that shrimp intolerance is more likely than a lot of people even know.  It’s actually not uncommon for people to go their entire lives without realizing that they even had a food intolerance.  It can create a lot of unnecessary discomforts, making the importance of food intolerance testing even more prominent.  Why be in pain if you don’t have to be, right?

Shrimp intolerance symptoms

Symptoms of shrimp intolerance can be hard to catch at first.  They can occur hours after eating the meal, or even a day or two later.  They also tend to get misattributed to other conditions or problems within the body.  Keep an eye out for symptoms including:

  • A need to be near the bathroom after eating shrimp: It’s not uncommon to be dealing with unmentionable symptoms such as diarrhea and even vomiting after eating something that you are intolerant to.  If you find that you need to be close to a bathroom due to the popularity of these kinds of symptoms, it could be possible that something you ate just isn’t digesting effectively and is causing you problems.
  • A mild to moderate dislike of shrimp: Another thing is that you may notice that you develop a mild or even moderate dislike of shrimp all of a sudden, even if you loved it before.  While you might not have been aware of it causing problems in your digestive tract, your body was and you connected those symptoms with the food and now dislike it.  This is hard to rack, of course, since disliking something doesn’t mean we’re necessarily intolerant to it.  This would be a sudden dislike after a strong love of it.
  • Congestion and feeling sick after a meal: If you notice you’re stuffy or feeling sick after eating a shrimp-based meal, even if you were fine before, it could be a food intolerance.  It’s not uncommon to deal with common cold symptoms, even a migraine when it really is an intolerance.

Dieting with shrimp intolerance

If you feel that you might be dealing with shrimp intolerance, a good rule of thumb is to start educating yourself on the prominence of shrimp within your diet.  Is it something that you eat every single day?  How much of it does it take for you to notice symptoms?  What seafood alternatives can you enjoy regularly in place of shrimp?

Either before or after you get a test done, you can make changes to your diet in order to make sure that you are avoiding it in large portions, including when extracts are added to soups or used in sauces.  Proper education on the location and amount of shrimp will be helpful in giving you relief from symptoms.

How to get tested for shrimp intolerance 

If you’re ready to get a test and see what’s going on with your digestive tract, you’ll want to consider our variety of tests.  All done in a lab so that you don’t need to inconvenience yourself, you’ll have the ability to enjoy formal, professional results that you can get right in your inbox.  Along with those results, you’ll also get an informative guide with tips and suggestions to help you adjust your diet properly.  Help for a living with a shrimp intolerance is here, you just need to know where to look for it!

References

[1] Prester, L., 2016. Seafood allergy, toxicity, and intolerance: a review. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 35(3), pp.271-283. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.2015.1014120 

[2] Jeebhay, M.F., Robins, T.G., Lehrer, S.B. and Lopata, A.L., 2001. Occupational seafood allergy: a review. Occupational and environmental medicine, 58(9), pp.553-562. Available at: https://oem.bmj.com/content/58/9/553.short