Do you know what a food allergy is? A study several years ago showed that twenty-five percent of adults believe they have food allergies. According to doctors, the number of adults who actually have food allergies is more like one or two percent. Intolerance Or Allergy? One reason some people think they have a food allergy when they really don’t is because they’re confusing a food intolerance with an allergy. Food Intolerance A food intolerance–like the common lactose intolerance to milk–occurs when the body lacks certain enzymes to suitably digest a type of food. If you are lactose intolerant, you might experience gas, abdominal pain, and diarrhea from drinking milk or eating ice cream because your body can’t digest the sugars in the milk.