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Food allergies can seem brutal. They can also be quite dangerous, causing issues like skin reactions and anaphylactic shock, where your tongue and throat swell, making a trip to the emergency room necessary. (1) Most people experience food allergies soon after consuming a specific food, like nuts or seafood. Still, food sensitivities can be mistaken for allergies and if not treated, won’t go away. Fortunately, there are some treatments and steps you can take today to understand the difference and how to test for various food sensitivities that remove the guesswork.
Your immune system’s job is to fight off foreign invaders that could be dangerous. Sometimes your body can get confused, and your immune system tries to protect you from something that may not be harmful, like specific foods. When you consume these items, you may get hives, difficulty breathing, airway swelling, and low blood pressure. (2) For anyone who has had this experience, it can be a frightening event. When your body releases histamine, it causes inflammation, and you can end up with a life-threatening reaction.
Some typical foods cause more issues than others regarding allergies. There could be more, but we will round up the top foods that have the most historic problems for people who suffer from food allergies. (3)
Now, you may be thinking this doesn’t look like an issue because you don’t consume these foods. You may not realize how many of these are labeled as ingredients in condiments or other pre-packaged foods. Many marinating sauces and dressings contain soy, so if you feel a little off after eating a steak or salad, that could be why. It’s important to read labels carefully when shopping.
Food sensitivity is a digestive response rather than an immune reaction. That’s why you may not feel well after consuming dairy or gluten. You may experience issues like, bloating, cramping, fatigue, headaches, sinus issues, and joint pain. (4)
Food sensitivities can be hard to diagnose because they may mimic other issues and get grouped in with those. Some doctors hear complaints regarding digestive problems and tell the patients they have general IBS and write a prescription for the latest pharmaceutical. If this helps, and often it doesn’t, it merely covers up the symptoms and does nothing to find the root cause of the issue.
If you think you have food sensitivity, it’s crucial to understand what causes it to fix the problem. The general thought is that people who experience these sensitivities don’t make enough digestive enzymes to break down a specific ingredient. (5) There are also gastrointestinal issues that make people more prone to food intolerances, like celiac disease.
When you have food sensitivity, your body is reacting to that food and can’t absorb the nutrients or has a negative reaction to them. Unlike food allergies, many people experience sensitivities to foods they’ve eaten in the past. These can even be healthy foods, like strawberries or broccoli.
Now that you understand the difference between a food allergy and sensitivity, you need to know how to spot the foods causing you issues. If you think you are having intolerances but can’t pinpoint which foods, it can cause a ton of frustration. You want to properly uncover the food culprit so you can rotate them or eliminate them from your diet for a while.
One of the ways you can do this is to try an elimination diet. That means removing one food at a time to see how your body feels. You could start with dairy and not consume it for one to two weeks, and see if your symptoms go away. Then remove gluten, and so on after that. Once you feel better, you can add them back one at a time until you uncover the trigger foods that cause the problem.
Rather than taking weeks to months to figure out why you feel so bad when you eat, there is a simple and effective way to know which foods you need to remove. A food sensitivities test is quick and easy. A simple finger stick that you can perform in the comfort of your home measures 96 food antigens. You’ll also get a detailed report to help you improve your diet and remove the irritants causing you to feel bad. A phone consultation is included to help you understand the report and learn how you can navigate these issues to feel like yourself again.
There are some foods that many people should avoid for better overall health. Some so-called foods today are packed with chemicals and unhealthy ingredients.
Gluten: Gluten can trigger an autoimmune response called celiac disease, which can cause damage to your small intestine. (6)
Sugar: Sugar can cause multiple issues, including digestive problems and inflammation.
Dairy: Dairy causes bloating and cramps for many people.
Processed foods: Processed foods are unhealthy for everyone and we should remove them from our diets as much as possible.
Since food sensitivities can be experienced soon after eating, you can also feel better when you know what foods to remove from your diet. A quick test can reveal what you should avoid. The interesting fact about sensitivity is that you may not need to eliminate the food forever. Some people can add foods they enjoy back into their diets once they feel better.
You also want to improve your overall diet with nutrient-dense foods that aren’t on your food sensitivities report. Consuming foods like bone broth, coconut oil, and fermented foods can improve your gut health, helping with sensitivities.
We have more resources on our website to help you understand how you can have a healthy lifestyle and heal many common conditions with a natural approach. Be sure to contact us to learn how to be a wellness warrior or for more information about holistic medicine.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/food-allergy/symptoms-causes/syc-20355095
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9196-food-allergies
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/common-food-intolerances#TOC_TITLE_HDR_3
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21688-food-intolerance
