Are you sensitive to food? Leaky gut might be your answer… find out!

When dealing with gut problems, it is critical to address food sensitivities. It may seem like a small detail but food sensitivities have the ability to wreak havoc on our gut and hinder any healing. Food sensitivities can likely be a result of leaky gut. When the gut becomes too permeable, it allows food to prematurely pass through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream. The immune system then reacts with a response that costs the body energy and creates gut inflammation. The immune system creates antibodies against proteins and can attack the body.

The single most important thing you can do for your health

When we are addressing problems concerning gut health, it is a critical first step to address food sensitivities. It may seem like a small detail but food sensitivities have the ability to wreak havoc on our gut and hinder any healing from happening. Food sensitivities are one of the many conditions that are a result of leaky gut. When the gut becomes permeable, it allows food to prematurely pass through the intestinal lining and into the blood stream. The immune system then reacts with a response, this response costs the body energy and it creates further inflammation in the gut. The immune system creates antibodies against these foods so whenever they’re consumed the immune system is activated.

Food sensitivities vs. Food Allergies

Food sensitives are different than food allergies and are more difficult to address due to the lag time in symptoms. For example, someone who is allergic to peanuts will have an unmistakable reaction immediately after peanuts are consumed. With sensitivities, it can take up to 72 hours for a person to feel the effects of a sensitivity reaction. When you think about the variety of foods you consume in a 72-hour window, it makes it difficult to pin point the culprit. These sensitivity reactions are also more subtle than that of food allergies. Sensitivities may cause less serious symptoms that are easily ignored such as gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramps, bloating, headache, rashes, brain fog, sinus congestion, etc. The problem is, when these symptoms are ignored long term, more damage occurs in the intestines causing more food sensitivities. It becomes a vicious cycle of damage and inflammation.

Options for determining food sensitivities:

1- Elimination diet

The elimination diet takes out the most common food allergies such as gluten, eggs, nuts, soy, shellfish, diary, corn, nightshades, processed foods, additives, coffee, alcohol and sweeteners. You may be thinking with all those restrictions what is left to eat? However, you’d be surprised at the number of delicious hypoallergenic meals you can create. It is key to focus on the plethora of foods that you can eat such as fresh vegetables, fruits, seeds, legumes, beans and organic meats and fish. For those of you still thinking this diet is still too restrictive, remember, it is not meant to be forever. It will take about 4 to 6 weeks on this protocol for your body to heal from any inflammation caused by food sensitivity irritation. Once this is accomplished and you have been experiencing less gas, floating, fatigue, it is time to re-introduce foods. Foods should be re-introduced one at a time, leaving a 72-hour window before introducing the next food.   This diet does however require some pre-planning and food prep in order to be successful.

2- Food sensitivity testing

Although some Nutritionists would argue that the elimination diet is the gold standard of determining food sensitivities (IgG responses), I would lean more towards food sensitivity testing. However, the down side with this method is that it is expensive and it will require blood work from a laboratory. The tests, typically range between $200 to $400 depending on your insurance and what specific testing you need. For an additional $150 dollars, I opted for the candidiasis testing which is valuable information in itself. For me, this was worth every penny I spent because my results came back and I was having IgG responses to foods that are not required to be taken out during the elimination diet and also showed fairly high candida scores. Although, this is not to say an elimination diet would not be helpful in this scenario. Elimination diets are highly therapeutic, anti-candida and anti-inflammatory. It also takes out foods that are naturally a source of inflammation in most people such as processed sugar, dairy, gluten and soy.  Once inflammation is better managed in the gut you have a better chance of being able to properly identify foods that you’re sensitive to.

Why they’re critical to identify

Once eliminating those major foods that contribute to inflammation in the gut, we can go on with the rest of our protocol. If your read back to our previous article on leaky gut, I briefly went over the 4 R’s of gut healing; Remove, Replace, Repair and Repopulate. Food sensitivities falls into the first category of Remove. Like with any healing, if we don’t eliminate the root cause behind the inflammation and damage any other efforts will be merely putting a temporary band-aid on it. It’s similar to when you get a splinter, you can wash it thoroughly, disinfect it, apply soothing lotions to it and you may get some relief but until you actually remove the splinter, the site will never heal. Comments? Questions? Post your thoughts below Need more support? Check out our leaky gut retreat where we provide you with delicious gut healing foods and the Nutrition guidance you need to make life long changes.