New Year, Healthier You
It’s 2023; the gym is always full, your fridge is packed with fresh produce, and you are telling yourself that this is the year that your resolutions will stick! Whether it is eating healthier, losing weight, or becoming more consistent, sticking to those resolutions can be tough, especially when you have unknown factors that are hindering your progress.
Did you know that a possible root cause for a lack of motivation, bloating, or even brain fog can stem from food sensitivities?
Keep reading to discover how food sensitivity testing can help you accomplish your goals this year!
What are food sensitivities and what are the symptoms associated with them?
When your immune system “doesn’t like” something, it creates antibodies in response to this dislike. The immune system has different types of antibodies, including IgG, IgA, and IgE, just to name a few. When you have a food sensitivity, it triggers your body to make an IgG mediated response to the specific food. Whereas food allergies tend to have immediate and potentially life-threatening reactions, food sensitivities tend to be delayed and cause symptoms such as brain fog, bloating, and inflammation due to the immune reaction. These symptoms can severely impact one’s life, by making everyday activities harder to accomplish with increased discomfort. If these feelings are common for you, food sensitivity testing can benefit your life in many ways!
How can identifying food sensitivities help you achieve your health goals?
Motivation may just be one of the hardest factors that can either hinder or facilitate an individual in achieving their health goals. Motivation is difficult when you are facing symptoms such as bloating, brain fog, and inflammation. In this section, discover how food sensitivity testing can help with symptom management, keep your motivation up, and hold you to your health goals!
Most people have experienced what is called brain fog, which describes general confusion and forgetfulness. When people experience brain fog, it is usually associated with feelings of fatigue and difficulty with concentration, which are also symptoms of food sensitivities. Brain fog can be triggered by the inflammation experienced due to food sensitivities. With food sensitivity testing, identifying offending foods can target what is causing your brain fog, and can contribute to an increase in concentration and reduction of inflammation, which in turn can help with motivation and healthy lifestyle habits.
Fad Diets and “Healthy” Food Sensitivities
Diets are not a “one size fits all”, and even some of the “healthiest” diets may still be contributing to feelings of discomfort, if you are unsure to which foods you are sensitive. Instead of calorie-limiting diets and general rules (like the popular fad diets in society and social media), food sensitivity testing creates a unique opportunity to create a tailored diet, based on individual immune responses. It identifies specific foods which should be avoided and allows you to focus on foods that are harmless and support your individual goals.
A common misconception we also often see when it comes to diet is the general advice to just “eat healthy”. However, healthy foods can also be food intolerance triggers. Healthy to some may not mean healthy for others. Food sensitivities can range from lemons to whey to all spices. These sensitivities may lead to bloating or feelings of weight gain. You may think almonds are a healthy snack, and a kale salad is a great lunch, but if these foods are causing significant bloating and other physical symptoms, that does not mean they are “healthy” for you!
What are some resources I can provide? How can I help you get started?
Start by talking with me about food sensitivity testing. After I order the test(s) and you receive your results, the next step is to interpret the results with me. At this point, an elimination diet will be recommended (described below). My health coach can also help you design a wellness plan that is specific to your individual results to help keep you accountable and guide you with meal planning.
What are elimination diet guidelines?
I recommend that you avoid these reactive foods for 6 weeks. You may not feel relief from your symptoms initially. In fact, you may crave some of the foods you have removed from your diet. The purpose of the elimination is to remove foods to which you have become sensitive and add other nutritious foods into your diet.
After an elimination diet, you may now discuss the possibility of reintroducing foods that you just removed. After 6 weeks of eliminating foods you reacted to and giving your immune system a needed break, you are ready to start reintroducing foods. Some guidelines you may find useful:
● Begin with Class 1 foods to start the re-introduction phase (Class 1 foods have the least amount of immune reactivity)
● Try one culprit food every four days to see if you can tolerate it
● On the first day of reintroducing a food, consume 2-3 servings of that food in its purest form
● Please keep a food diary and make notes of any symptoms, which may take up to 72 hours to develop
● Once all Class 1 sensitive foods are re-introduced move on to re-introducing Class 2 foods and finally Class 3's
If there is a reaction, or if any symptoms that have resolved during the elimination phase
re-occur, remove the food from your diet again, as this may indicate that you are still not tolerating it. Foods you are able to tolerate may be added back into your diet on a rotation basis.
Now, let's take a look at two case studies.
Case Studies
Patient 1: Alice
Alice was a patient who ate a healthy diet but suddenly started experiencing leaky gut symptoms including headaches, bloating, nausea, fatigue, and food sensitivities. Leaky gut occurs when there are issues with the intestinal lining and bacteria and toxins can enter the tissue and cause inflammation. I suggested food sensitivity testing to see if there were any foods triggering her symptoms. She was highly sensitive to foods such as lobster, gluten, whey, casein, yogurt, egg whites, and cow’s milk. Although she doesn’t have Celiac disease, her sensitivity to gluten has been triggering symptoms such as painful abdominal cramps, diarrhea, bloating, and inflammation. Alice was put on an elimination diet starting with gluten and anything with cow’s milk. Initially, Alice did not feel any relief. At 3 weeks, she noticed her bloating was decreasing steadily and after 6 weeks she had complete relief from her symptoms, all due to the results from her food sensitivity test. Alice now has increased energy and no more uncomfortable symptoms and is ready to continue with her health goals.
Stories such as Alice’s are quite common with food sensitivity testing and could be the next step for your own health journey!
Patient 2: Max
Similar to Alice, Max started experiencing leaky gut symptoms and I suggested food sensitivity testing to identify sources making the condition worse. While Max had a major sensitivity to peanuts, his results had several low-level sensitivities to foods one would consider healthy, such as carrots, kelp, and grapefruit. He was more than a little surprised as he thought all healthy foods would help him lose weight and have more energy. Upon receiving his results, he began avoiding these healthy foods using his elimination plan and replacing them with green beans, cabbage, and grapes since he did not have sensitivities to those foods. Not only did his leaky gut symptoms decrease dramatically, but he also felt the bloating decrease and noticed weight loss. Max learned that while eating healthy is important, it is also important to learn about your own body and what can trigger inflammation counteracting your health goals.
Food sensitivity testing helped Max perform better, lose weight more efficiently, and significantly decreased his feelings of discomfort due to bloating and inflammation.
It’s important to get to the root cause of your symptoms, and food sensitivity testing can do just that. Food sensitivity testing can provide you with lab results that when followed by an elimination diet, can provide great relief from ongoing symptoms. This new year, help yourself and your wellness goals by asking me to order you a food sensitivity test!
Compliments of Alletess Medical Laboratory
