Some people can eat anything they want without adverse side effects. Yet, some need to be careful about what they eat because their bodies react to specific foods.
Food Sensitivities vs. Food Allergies
There is a difference between food sensitivities and food allergies. Many people do not realize that there is a difference between these two. A food allergy is an IgE (immunoglobulin E) response triggered by specific foods such as eggs, peanuts, shellfish. A food allergy typically has an immediate response, symptoms will appear within minutes to hours.
Food sensitivity is an IgG (Immunoglobulin G) response to various foods such as dairy, sugar, gluten, and artificial chemicals. This means that the symptoms are insidious and develop slowly, in fact they can take up to 4-6 days to show. This means you could be eating a food your body does NOT like that you don’t even release because you ate it almost a week ago. It’s estimated there are more people with hidden food sensitivities than allergies.
What Causes Food Sensitivities?
Food sensitivity is caused by the body’s inability to digest food and occurs in the digestive tract, not the bloodstream like an allergy. Food sensitivities are not fixed and can come and go during the course of one’s life.
Strangely enough, people often crave the foods to which they are sensitive to. Too much of one food is one of the causes of a sensitivity. Many people eat a relatively small number of foods several times a day. For example, wheat, a common food sensitivity, is found in breakfast cereals, the bread used to make a sandwich at lunchtime, and the spaghetti eaten at dinnertime. Most people eat relatively the same foods multiple times in a two week period there by continually reintroducing the offending food into their system.
Another cause is Leaky Gut Syndrome. The digestive tract plays a vital role in preventing illness and disease by providing an impenetrable barrier. When the lining of the gut gets inflamed from a food sensitivity, small openings develop between the tightly woven cells making up the gut walls, this is called Leaky Gut Syndrome. With leaky gut syndrome, partially digested dietary protein can cross the intestinal barrier into the bloodstream. These large protein molecules can cause an inflammatory response, producing symptoms directly in the intestines or throughout the body.
An over-worked immune system is also a cause of food sensitivities. Constant stress, exposure to air and water pollution, and pesticides and chemicals in our food puts a strain on our immune system, making it less able to respond appropriately to the antigen in food.
The last main cause of a food sensitivity is genetics. Research indicates that if both parents have allergies, their children have 67% chance of developing food allergies. When only one parent is allergic, the child has a 33% chance of developing food allergies. Specifically, a person may inherit a deficiency of an enzyme, like lactase, the enzyme that digests diary. Genetic variations predict the severity of your sensitivity.
Common Food Sensitivity Symptoms
- Weight Loss Resistance
- Digestive Problems/IBS
- Chronic Fatigue
- Anxiety/Depression
- Chronic Pain/Inflammation
- Autoimmune Problems
- Thyroid Challenges
- Headaches/Migraines
- Skin Problems
We Don’t Guess…We Test!
At Holistic Health & Chiropractic of Frankfort, Dr. Heyer has a saying, “We Don’t Guess…We TEST!” If you are constantly having issues when you eat certain foods, but are not getting answers to your questions, then it’s time to test. Dr. Heyer tests specifically for food sensitivities, not allergies. Functional Medicine is about addressing the root cause of the symptoms, and that’s exactly what Dr. Heyer does. Give the office a call at (815) 469-7472 to schedule your appointment!