What are Food Allergies?

We all recognize an allergy when we experience an immediate reaction to a food we ate. Our face swells, the throat closes, or we instantly get a skin rash. This is the traditionally understood food allergy, and it can be life threatening. This kind of reaction is easily recognized by  individuals and their physicians.

What are Food Sensitivities?

Unfortunately, much of our population lives with undetected delayed food sensitivities. According to Michael Rosenbaum, MD, these reactions account for 90% of all food reactions, while only the remaining 10% falls into the category of true allergic reactions mentioned above. The delayed reactions are mostly undetected because they may occur in a few hours or even after 2 -3 days from exposure to a trigger food. Without working with a trained professional, it is sometimes next to impossible to make sense of the symptoms and connect them to the particular foods. Testing exists for this type of reactivity.

Do you Have a Food Sensitivity?

You may wake up every day with brain fog but not even know it because that is how you have lived for years. You may be getting arthritic pains in your joints and blame it on aging. You may have frequent constipation or a frequently slightly runny stool, bloating and gas, recurrent ear infections, a never-ending dry cough, or returning headaches, or post-nasal drip; that is, you may live with some irritating symptoms but not bad enough to cause concern and investigate further. Your aches and pains are just your age. Besides, your friends have it much worse. Most people just accept these symptoms and live with them.

How do you Develop a Food Sensitivity?

The mechanism is not well understood. Sometimes a trauma, a serious illness, infection, or chronic stress can be factors. Other times, repeated daily exposure to a particular food such as dairy or wheat may develop into sensitivity. The process and symptoms vary from one person to another. Therefore, nutrition therapy for food sensitivities is also highly individualized.

A healthy and balanced individual does not suffer from these symptoms. If you think of a food you truly love and would not be willing to give up and eat daily, and if you have some of the symptoms above, you may have developed sensitivity to that very food.

Why Should you Address your Food Sensitivity or Intolerance?

Even worse is the fact that while the food irritant insults our body daily, eventually, this can lead to more serious health problems and even auto-immune conditions. Bear in mind that Standard American Diet is limited in food variety. The food we regularly eat in this country is limited to only a few food groups such as wheat, dairy and corn, which also happen to be the most common allergens, as you can see on the list below. Eventually, you may compromise your gastrointestinal tract, making is less and less able to digest foods and absorb nutrients, leading to malabsorption, bloating, gas, and eventually even triggering an immune reaction. Much of your immune system is in your gut, and that is also where much of your serotonin is made, so once your gut is impaired, you are vulnerable to a host of health problems, some of which may affect your brain function.

Nutrition Therapy is the best solution to food allergies and sensitivities and involves:

1. Assessment if there is a suspected food allergen in a current diet
2. Food journaling to connect foods and symptoms
3. A period of elimination of a culprit and using safe alternatives
4. Appropriate “challenge” or re-introduction of the suspected food
5. IgG delayed food sensitivity blood test if there is a possibility of multiple food sensitivities
6. Adding IgA to the the IgG test is recommended. IgA is a mucosal reaction to a food. Some patients’ IgG is clear but they find multiple IgA reactions. In that case, eliminating IgG foods will only provide a partial resolution of symptoms (US Biotek). A different type of blood test for cellular reactivity to foods, ALCAT, is also available.
7. Strategies to decrease symptoms, regulate bowel movements, and promote healthy gut bacteria
8. Restoring the gut integrity and immune system
9. Introduction to new foods and ways to prepare them to promote healing
10. Educating on proper re-introduction of the trigger foods on a rotation basis
11. Repeating IgG/IgA test in 6 months
12. Stool test for gut integrity and permeability if needed (Metametrix)

Potential allergens in our foods:
Gluten (or wheat)
Peanuts
Dairy
Eggs
Soy
Tree Nuts
Corn
Seafood
Food additives and colorings
Cane sugar
Yeast
Nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers)
Salicylates
Rice
Beef
Any food can become reactive depending on a person, even rice.