You probably know or have a sense that this could be true. Or maybe you don’t…

Did you know that food sensitivities can create symptoms in almost every part of your body?
It can affect the actual functioning of your brain and your digestive system, the health of your joints and bones. But it can also impact what we consider to be our personality…

Let’s explore the most common food sensitivities:

Gluten sensitivity can cause:

• Headaches & migraines
• Digestive disorders (both chronic diarrhea and constipation)
• Emotional instability (irritability, sudden mood swings, aggressively)
• Fatigue, every day or the now very common after meal crash
• Infertility
• Poor dental health

The gluten intolerance is estimated to affect between 1% and 6% of the US population. One extreme forms of gluten sensitivities, celiac disease is estimated to have increased four fold in the last 50 years.

• Dairy sensitivity
• Digestive disorders (bloating, cramping, nausea, flatulence) these are the easier ones to connect as they usually are experience soon after eating dairy
• Sinus problems (congestion, excessive mucus production)
• Skin conditions (eczema, acne, various rashes)
• Sugar sensitivity
• Cravings
• Fatigue (constant or coming in crashes)
• Brain fog, unstable focus
• Emotional instability; aggressiveness, irritability, inexplicable bouts of anger/sadness, etc
• Low will power
• Weight issues (difficulty loosing weight despite exercising)

For years I believed I had a “difficult character.”  My mom and my husband agreed. I was extremely impatient, had strong mood swings and regularly felt down for no reason. That was until I stumbled upon an article listing the negative impacts of sugar. It seemed that they were talking about me! I decided to test this theory. I went off obvious overt sugar for 5 days – felt better. Ate sugar over the weekend – felt worse. Then I tried for 2 weeks, and felt a lot better. I became more balanced, I gained patience, had more energy. That was is in 2008, and I have never gone back.

That’s when I realized how pernicious food sensitivities can be. As the individual symptoms are usually mild and build up slowly, you might believe that it’s just you. When it’s been the food all along…

Food sensitivities, food intolerance and food allergies are not the same. Intolerance speaks to the body inability to process a specific food (eg lacks the enzyme to process lactose or gluten). Allergies trigger a clear, consistent and strong autoimmune response. Sensitivities indicate a negative reaction to the food, but the actual cause and effect is less obvious and the reaction can be delayed for several days.

Food sensitivities are hard to detect and most doctors are not trained to identify them. If you suspect that you have a sever food sensitivity, the best thing to do is to find a doctor or therapist who specializes in food sensitivities. As the prevalence of food related condition is exploding – the specialist become easier to find.
In order to have a most complete picture you might have to take a variety of tests (blood, stool, skin prick test, etc).

But for some conditions – such as sugar sensitivity, there are no tests (yet). The only test that exists is for a rare form or hereditary disease (HFI).

The best way to go is to keep a food journal. Start today – write down everything you eat and drink and the times (ideally including amount). Take note of how you are feeling as well. Then look back (as far as 3 days) and start looking for patterns.

Once you have identified your secret enemy, the easiest thing to do is removing it from you diet. But if you consider the 3 examples above, it is easy to understand that eliminating them is no easy undertaking. (Especially as we tend to be addicted to the foods that hurt us.)

The key to success is to understand where this food is (and hides), how to establish the habits to support the elimination and what to eat instead.

August 2013 Issue