You Might Also Like: Eating, Interrupted

**Mia Silverman** (0:06)
A lot of people think that what I have is inconvenience to them, and I'm sorry, but if it's inconvenience to you, how do you think it feels to be the one that's living with this every single day?

**Cynthia McFadden** (0:15)
This is Eating, Interrupted, where we dig into the real stories in science behind how food can interrupt everyday life, from the very first bite to the complex journey that follows. I'm your host, Cynthia McFadden.
Hi, everybody, and welcome to Eating, Interrupted. My name's Cynthia McFadden. In my past life, before leaving NBC News a couple years ago, I'd spent 30 years working in network news, traveling to the world's hot spots and reporting on a wide variety of topics. Along the way, I was honored to spend a decade as the anchor of ABC's legendary program Nightline. So if there's one thing I love, it's asking questions. Hearing people's stories and trying to make complicated things make a little more sense.
And when it comes to digestion, complicated can be an understatement. For millions of people, eating, something we do every day, isn't simple. A single bite of the wrong thing can set off a cascade of reactions in the body, and that's because gastrointestinal health is incredibly nuanced, complicated, and something we're still learning more about all the time. But one thing is clear, when food and the body stop working well together, the impact on daily life can be profound. And for me, this is personal. Back in college, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. As a freshman, I was having terrible pains in my belly. Pain so acute, it dominated everything in my life. Some days, I could barely walk, study or even get out of bed. I felt as if someone had a knife inside of me and they were trying to dig their way out. So when it comes to having a, let's say, tricky relationship with food and digestion, I have been there, which is why I think this podcast is so important. Eating, Interrupted is for anyone who has ever felt confused by how their body reacts to food, and for those who want to better understand what's actually going on beneath the surface, real stories, and the science behind them. So with that, let's get to our first episode.
Okay, so today we're diving into the world of food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities, terms we hear all the time, but what do they actually mean? Are numbers going up? And if so, why? And what's it really like to have to live every day knowing that a simple bite of the wrong thing could be life-threatening? To help us better understand all of it, I'm joined by our go-to expert for this series, Dr. Mark Pimentel.
Hey, Dr. Pimentel. It's so great to welcome you to the show.

**Mark Pimentel** (3:19)
It's great to be with you today, Cynthia.

**Cynthia McFadden** (3:21)
Well, before we dive in, we're going to be spending a lot of time together. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

**Mark Pimentel** (3:26)
Well, I'm excited to be on this show with you. First of all, I'm a gastroenterologist here at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. I grew up in Canada, but I've been in Los Angeles for 30 years, so I've got accustomed to LA life. But my research focuses on the microbiome in the digestive system and irritable bowel syndrome and other disorders of the gut.
That's what I do research on and see patients on a weekly basis.

**Cynthia McFadden** (3:53)
Why gastroenterology with all the possible specialties to choose from?

**Mark Pimentel** (3:58)
People ask me that all the time. I want to say my favorite color is brown, but that's not the truth. It's the fact that I think the digestive system is extremely complex. It's been around longer than the heart, longer than so many other organs, because even a worm has a digestive tract. I thought it was fascinating.

**Cynthia McFadden** (4:17)
Today we're going to talk about food allergies and how they differ from things like intolerances or sensitivities. Let's start with allergy. What is a food allergy?

**Mark Pimentel** (4:27)
Food allergies are essentially, you've eaten a food and your immune system does not like the food you've eaten. It's an activation of your immune system in response to something that you've been sensitized to or you're sensitive to. Food allergy means you take a food or you ingest a food and you literally have a reaction. Sometimes you need hospitalization. It's so bad. Intolerances are different. In the case of intolerances, it's basically food that goes into your gastrointestinal tract, and you feel uncomfortable from a digestive point of view. So you might have diarrhea, you might have bloating or gas, and those are the symptoms you might more experience from intolerance.