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Sensitivity: You Are What You Eat
Food Sensitivity:
You Are What You Eat
By Gay Riley
, MS, RD, LD
The
term we have all heard for years “You
are what you eat” has more truth than
meets the eye. There is general
healthy eating guidelines for everyone but
many times the recommended foods will not
make everyone feel and look healthy. Only
2% of Americans suffer from true clinically
diagnosed food allergies however many suffer
from undiagnosed food sensitivities or intolerances. It
is estimated that 5% of food allergies are
immediate (severe to toxic) and 95% are delayed.
Delayed food reactions are known as cyclic. The
recurrent ingestion of the offending food
such as milk or wheat can mask the symptoms,
go unrecognized and are delayed with no cause
and effect relationship.
When people experience certain subtle symptoms
for many years they blame it on stress, overwork,
side effects of medication, and other unrelated
causes instead of a food allergy or sensitivity.
Recurrent ear infections in children or migraine
headaches are usually attributed to something
other than food. While classic allergies
involving skin, airway, and digestive tract
do occur, with delayed food reactions they
may also include a variety of symptoms (over
200 food-related symptoms and 50 medical
conditions) in various organ systems.
The following are a few common,
unsuspected symptoms or conditions that may
be related to food allergy or sensitivity.
- Functional GI symptoms, gas, belching,
fatigue after meals, intermittent diarrhea,
and constipation.
- Spastic Colon
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Skin rashes
- Itchy eyelids
- Vertigo
- Meniere’s disorder
- Tinnitus (with normal hearing and other
causes ruled out)
- Fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss
(feels like ears are stopped up)
- Post nasal drip
- Cough (unproductive)
- Hoarseness
- Asthma or asthma bronchitis
- Mental Dullness
- Mood swings
- Forgetfulness
- Depression aggravated or worsened by
food allergies
- Muscle spasms, soreness, or weakness
- Myalgia
- Sinus or migraine headaches
- Chronic fatigue
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Weight fluctuations/intermittent swelling
or edema
- Sleep apnea or insomnia
- Cardiac rhythm disturbances
Forty percent of people with
pollenosis or airborne allergies often have
food sensitivities that correlate to the
specific pollen. For instance grass
allergies with tomato, melon, watermelon,
and kiwi; Ragweed with melon, watermelon,
banana, and gourds; or Birch with apple,
carrot, potato, celery, fennel, kiwi, hazelnut,
pear, and peach.
Food allergies and sensitivities are broad
in definition, classification, variety, number
and intensity of symptoms and associated
medical conditions. It is important to rule
out any serious medical symptoms by consulting
with your physician. If food intolerance
or allergy is suspected however, there are
clinical tests available.
Allergy testing is often time consuming and
expensive. Two traditional food allergy
tests are the RAST or radioallergoabsorbent
test and positive prick test. In some
cases people with multiple food allergies
or intolerance will have a negative RAST
or skin prick test.
Keeping food records can be
very effective for identifying food related
symptoms. Record foods eaten along with physical
and emotional status immediately and hours
following the ingestion of the food. The
Caveman diet will often reveal food related
symptoms and is inexpensive compared to the
former traditional clinical tests. This
diet removes the most common food offenders,
typically corn, egg, shellfish, dairy, wheat,
soy, and peanuts and known food offenders,
meats, citrus fruits and acidic vegetables
such as pineapple, papaya, or tomatoes. Eat
only fresh fruits and vegetables and boiled
or broiled meat, drinking fruit juice, vegetable
juices, and water for 2 weeks adding back
1 food at a time for 4 days before going
to the next food.
Christian 32 came to me wanting to lose weight
and she insisted she was going to do the
high protein diet that everyone else was
having great results with. She wanted
to have some immediate success so she could
get a motivated jump-start that would get
her to her goal.
Christian wanted my nutrition expertise to
help her plan healthy low carbohydrate menus.
She complained that she was tired all the
time, her joints and muscles ached and she
often had gas, bloating, abdominal cramps,
and constipation. If she lost weight she
was sure these problems would go away.
We planned Christian’s
menu and workout schedule and within 8 weeks
she was at goal and feeling wonderful so
we slowly reintroduced more carbohydrates
back into her daily food intake for maintenance.
After several weeks Christian
called me and told me she had gained 10 pounds
(of the 40 lost) and the physical symptoms
she was experiencing previous to the weight
loss had returned. She said the symptoms
seemed more intense and she could hardly
stay awake about 2 hours after lunch. She
also complained of an irritating rash on
her arms and scalp, a rasp in her throat
but that was probably because of the ragweed
in the air.
Christian initially gained
3-5 pounds of fluid due to the reintroduction
of carbohydrates back into her diet. She
claimed that she was not overeating or bingeing
and was typically within 50 calories of the
recommended maintenance calories.
She had been eating the same thing almost
everyday. Eggs and wheat toast for breakfast,
yogurt and peaches for morning snack, a turkey
sandwich for lunch with tomatoes, and a big
salad, and apple. Mid afternoon she
would eat some cinnamon wheat cakes with
peanut butter or low fat cheese and a bagel. Dinner
was usually fish or chicken, rice, salad
with tomatoes and sometimes when she was
hungry for a bedtime snack she would have
a banana and milk.
After carefully assessing strict food and
mood records Christian followed the Caveman
diet. After the 3rd week she carefully
added one food for 4 days at a time. Symptoms
were radically apparent when she ate dairy,
wheat, peanuts, and tomatoes. These
foods were substituted with other foods in
Christian's meal plan.
She found creative recipes and products that
she liked at well so staying away from the
offending foods was easy. Miraculously,
Christian lost the entire 10 pounds, was
absent of all the physical symptoms, and
fatigue. She said she had more
energy and felt more alert than she had for
many years.
Christian had been on a semi-elimination
diet during her weight loss low carbohydrate
diet (no wheat, milk products, or peanuts).
During maintenance when she started eating
these foods again everyday the food related
symptoms reappeared.
If you think you have food related symptoms
or food allergies there is a large amount
of information about food allergies available
on the web.
Some really good links that
will lead to a wealth of more links
are:
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