Discover which foods are making you sick!

A food sensitivity or food intolerance is caused by the inability to digest a food. This occurs in the digestive tract and not the bloodstream, like a food allergy. Symptoms are usually a "delayed onset", where symptoms do not appear for hours or sometimes days. Food sensitivities are not fixed or permanent and can come and go during the course of one's life.

Strangely, people often crave foods to which they are sensitive to. Some researchers suggest that our bodies can become addicted to the chemical messengers, such as histamine or cortisol, which are secreted by immune cells in response to allergens in the body. The body may experience a soothing response from the presence of chemical messengers, therefore increasing the desire to eat more of that food.

Note that food sensitivities and allergies can change every year. Once "diagnosed" with a food sensitivity or allergy, this does not mean it will hold true for the rest of your life. Your body is always changing, adapting, and healing. This is why we encourage our patients to get tested at least once a year. 

In our clinic we have a saying... "We Don't Guess... We Food Test!". The proof is in the report. 

Too much of one food. You can become sensitive to any food you eat too often. (This is why it is great to eat a variety of different foods.) Many people eat a relatively small number of foods several times a day and multiple days a week. For example, wheat, a very common food sensitivity, is found in breakfast cereals, the bread used to make a sandwich at lunchtime, and the spaghetti eaten at dinnertime. 

Leaky gut syndrome. The digestive tract plays a vital role in preventing illness and disease by providing an impenetrable barrier. Small gaps develop between the tightly woven cells making up the gut walls when the lining of the small intestine is inflamed from a food sensitivity. This is called "leaky gut syndrome". With leaky gut syndrome, partially digested dietary proteins can cross the intestinal barrier into the bloodstream (where it is not supposed to be). These large molecules can cause an inflammatory response, producing symptoms directly in the intestines or throughout the body. Additionally, hundreds of yeast and bacteria are released from the gut into the bloodstream where they can cause infection in the muscle, joints, bones, teeth roots, coronary arteries, or even the brain. The early introduction of solid foods to infants before six months of age contributes to leaky gut syndrome and subsequent food allergies and sensitivities. 

Deficiency of probiotics. One of the causes of leaky gut syndrome is a decrease of probiotics or "friendly" bacteria in the intestines. The friendly/good bacteria help maintain the health of the intestines by producing fuel for intestinal cells and killing bad bacteria. Parasitic infections, treatment with antibiotics, stress, poor diet (sugar and flour), smoking, excessive alcohol use, and candida overgrowth can disrupt the proper balance of friendly bacteria to bad bacteria. 

Over-worked immune system. There are many daily stressors that can put a strain on our immune system including constant stress, exposure to air and water pollution, and pesticides/chemicals in our food. These constant stressors make the immune system less able to respond appropriately to antigens in food.

Genetics. Food intolerances and allergies seem to be hereditary. Research indicates that if both parents have allergies, their children have a 67% chance of developing food allergies. When only one parent has an allergy, the child has a 33% chance of developing that food allergy. Specifically, a person may inherit a deficiency of an enzyme like lactase, the enzyme that digests dairy or lactose. 

INFLAMMATION!! Inflammation is one of the BIGGEST drivers of weight gain and disease in America. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol are ALL inflammatory based conditions. Food sensitivities cause systemic inflammation throughout the body, beginning in the gut. For example, in people with a gluten sensitivity, the immune system attacks the intestinal cells to which gluten attaches and inflames the gut. When the lining of the gut is inflamed, the body is prone to even more food sensitivities and reactions causing the problem to spiral out of control. Remember, the small intestine is where you absorb your nutrients. So, if you are sensitive to gluten and are consuming it daily, you are destroying the lining of the small intestine leading to nutrient deficiencies. It is the nutrient deficiencies that can lead to a whole host of symptoms and conditions. This is why we also test for deficiencies along with food sensitivities. 

Most people eat foods they have become sensitive to several times a day. Every time that food enters the body, the immune system whips itself into a frenzy. A food sensitivity can be hard to spot as symptoms can be delayed up to 72 hours after eating. Without knowing or awareness, the damage is repeated over and over, meal after meal. Eventually, inflammation seeps throughout the body, establishing an environment for weight gain and chronic disease.