Food Intolerances- How to Recognise and Combat Them
Many people get confused when using the terminology allergy and intolerance. While the two are both a reaction within the body, they are 2 very different reactions, facilitated by different immunological antibodies.
An allergy is when your bodies immune system reacts to a certain substance whether it be a food or environmental element like grasses or pets. An allergic reaction will generally happen very quickly, making it easier to determine what the trigger has been.
An intolerance can often show symptoms a few hours or even days later. For this reason it can be a lot harder to identify an intolerance, as you may be exhibiting symptoms from something that you ate 2 days ago.
Symptoms of intolerance's
There are so many different symptoms that can indicate an intolerance is present. Some common ones are gastrointestinal issues like bloating, diarrhoea, acid reflux; or other more general symptoms like fatigue, irritability, hives, mucous congestion and headaches.
But lets be sensible about all of this, if you are experiencing any of these symptoms severely I do urge you to see a health care professional first, rather than trying to get to the bottom of it yourself, you can save yourself lot of time and a lot of discomfort.
Causes of Intolerance's
For some reason the body is producing IgG antibodies when the food or environmental element is coming into contact with the body, so we have to look at why the immune system is reacting this way. Is it an overload of this particular item?
Wheat is a common one, and it’s understandable! Wheat is in nearly everything we eat. If you pick up a packet of pretty much anything, changes are you will find wheat, or a wheat derived product. Many people consume wheat in some form or another at every single meal, including snacks, so after a while your body will start to rebel, and the immune system will start to react to this food.
Gut health is also another big influencer from an immune point of view as well as from a inflammation/reactivity perspective. Traditionally naturopaths have spoken about leaky gut. Well leaky gut can be a big influence in the way that the body deals with foods.
Dysbiosis refers to the imbalance between the good and the bad bacteria in the digestive tract. Improving the good bacteria will help to balance the bodies immune system as 70% of the bodies immune function stems from the beneficial bacteria. When dysbiosis is present, more often than not so is leaky gut. When the gut is ‘leaking’ it means toxins that normally pass straight through and are excreted in faeces are transferred from the intestines and into the blood stream. This activates the immune system as these substances aren't supposed to be there and this increasing inflammation and the immune system gets confused, leading to the intolerance of particular foods and
What to do next
Identify the intolerance. This is the hardest part by far. Because the response is generally delayed it can get very confusing. A good place to start is keeping a diet and symptom diary. Tracking everything that you are eating and when your symptoms pop up or flare up is a great way to be able to make those connections. Do for 1-2 weeks and then see if you can find a pattern.
Once you’ve been able to identify a possible trigger, the next step is to remove it. Get it out of you body or environment, whatever it is. Swap the laundry detergent for a simpler, more natural option or take the eggs out of your daily diet. Whatever you feel your trigger is get it out, for at least 2 weeks, but 4 weeks is optimal. This gives you a really good indication of if the trigger is intact what is causing your symptoms. If you take it out and symptoms improve significantly, then chances are this is what is triggering your symptoms. If you take it out and you are still having your symptoms you may need to go back to step one and see if you can identify something else.
Allow your body to heal and rebalance itself. This means you keep the problematic food or environmental item away from you for a few months at least. In this time eating plenty of good food, getting lots of rest, managing stress levels and just generally looking after yourself is the mist important thing you could focus on. If you are under the guidance of a practitioner we will generally also prescribe some supplements to encourage the balancing of your body, whether its looking at good gut health, liver function, nervous system support, whatever area your body needs a little bit more loving in.
Then there is the challenge phase- this is the moment of truth as we get to see how much of a certain trigger you are able to tolerate. I find this is best done under the guidance of a practitioner in order to get the proper info as to how much to introduce, what to do is symptoms reappear etc.
