Identify Food Intolerance and Support Your Gut Health

The health of all of our body systems, including our immune system, is directly related to the health of our gut microbiome. We’ve also identified that troubles with our gut health don’t always present as digestive issues. Food intolerance related to an unhealthy gut microbiome creates inflammation in the body that contributes to all sorts of unpleasant symptoms and health conditions.

Foods That are Toxic For Everyone

There are some food that are just plain unhealthy for everyone. Consuming these foods leads to inflammation, aches and pains, digestive troubles, leaky gut, and a variety of health conditions.

Toxic Foods:

• Sugar
• Artificial sweeteners
• Industrial plant oils (corn, soy, peanut, etc)
• trans or hydrogenated fats
• high fructose corn syrup
• additives, preservatives and dyes
• processed food, junk food, and fast food

Genetically Modified foods (GMO’s), alcohol and caffeine may also be problematic. Consider moving toward eating a healthy, whole-foods-based diet. This doesn’t need to be an all or nothing process. Not everyone is ready to make big changes cold turkey. You can begin by adding in more simple foods found in nature that have very little processing. You can learn to read labels and make smart choices. You begin to crowd out the processed food, junk food and fast food that creates inflammation in your body.

Working these toxic foods out of your diet and increasing clean, whole foods, and more plant-based foods, will go a long way toward reducing inflammation that leads to disease, helping you lose weight, reduce brain fog and have fewer aches and pains.

What If I Still Have Symptoms?

If you’ve begun nourishing your body with a healthy, whole-foods-based lifestyle and you’re still experiencing symptoms and/or not feeling well, it’s time to dig a little deeper. It’s time to explore what foods may be inflammatory for you and wreaking havoc on your body.

The following foods are those that people are commonly sensitive to. A food intolerance, or sensitivity, creates a reaction in the sensitive individual’s body and leads to inflammation and may contribute to autoimmunity and other health issues.

Common Inflammatory Foods:

• Gluten
• Dairy
• Soy
• Eggs
• Corn

For some, other foods can also create issues. If you’re eating a healthy, whole foods diet, and you’ve ruled out and/or removed other foods you are sensitive to; or if you have thyroid or autoimmune disease, you may even want to dig deeper and explore if the following foods are causing issues for you. If you get this far, be sure to check in with an integrative or functional medicine practitioner who can help you determine the best approach and evaluate if food sensitivity and/or other testing would be appropriate for you. These other foods include:

• All grains
• Legumes
• Nightshades (especially peppers and tomato)
• Nuts and seeds

How to Find Out If You Have a Food Sensitivity

There are basically two ways to go about this. The first is an elimination diet or trial. For a brief period of time, you stop eating specific foods like gluten and dairy (or other foods you suspect you may be sensitive to). Doing this allows your body to heal from any inflammation the foods may be causing in your body. After the elimination period, you add the foods back into your diet, one at a time, and monitor your body’s reactions. The goal is to identify which food, if any, you may be sensitive to.

The second way is food sensitivity testing ordered through an integrative or functional medicine practitioner. This may seem easier than doing an elimination diet, but these (sometimes costly) blood tests are not 100% accurate. There can be false negatives and false positives. Many practitioners will first ask you if you’ve already tried an elimination diet before they run a test. The elimination approach is often the first-level recommendation practitioners make. Your body knows best. Start there.

Are you ready to transform how you age, look and feel by adopting a whole-foods lifestyle? Or maybe you’re ready to see if there are certain foods you react to? Has your physician told you that you need to make some healthy changes or attempt an elimination diet? I can help you create new healthy habits, or walk with you through an elimination diet effectively. I’ve been there and done that. I’m happy to work with you, and your practitioner, if that is supportive. Just email me at [email protected] or call 515-270-6316 and we’ll set up a consultation.

Learn it. Apply it.

1. What do your current eating habits look like? What toxic foods could you begin to crowd out by consuming more fresh, whole foods?
2. Pay attention to what you eat and how your body feels. What have you eaten in the last 24-72 hours that may have caused you to react in some way? Do you notice any patterns with certain foods?
3. What symptoms do you regularly experience that may indicate inflammation or an inflammatory reaction in your body? (Remember, it might not be digestive issues.) Could an elimination trial be supportive to you?

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