A Holistic Guide to Managing Food Allergies and Intolerances
When your food is hurting you, it’s time for a change.
But what does a change mean? It’s not always so easy to know exactly which foods are at the core of your struggles. And even then, understanding why and how that food is impacting your health takes an even deeper understanding.
There are numerous reasons your diet might be impacting your wellbeing. The more you understand about your unique situation, the better equipped you’ll be to come up with a solution.
Sometimes, improving your gut health might be as simple as making small tweaks to your diet, removing some of the foods that are notoriously bad for your digestion and substituting in those that can help strengthen your gut. Other times, there might be a specific food that’s giving you troubles.
Too often, food allergies and food intolerances are misunderstood, being used interchangeably when they are very different things. If you think a certain part of your diet might be harming your digestion, here’s what you need to know.
What Is a Food Allergy?
A food allergy is exactly what it sounds like: an allergic reaction.
This means that the problem stems not from your digestive system but your immune system. When the offending food enters your system, an immune response is triggered that can have serious, even life-threatening, consequences.
These allergic reactions are often caused by certain proteins found in the food. According to the FDA, the nine major food allergens are:
Milk
Eggs
Fish
Shellfish
Tree nuts
Peanuts
Wheat
Soybeans
Sesame
How to Manage a Food Allergy
Know the Symptoms:
The symptoms of a food allergy can be far worse than uncomfortable. In certain scenarios, a food allergy can be life threatening, triggering anaphylaxis. This is a reaction in which one’s airways and throat constrict, making it hard to breathe. If left untreated, it can cause a loss of consciousness, a severe drop in blood pressure, and even death.
Less severe symptoms might include:
Stomach pain
Lightheadedness
Swelling of the face, tongue, lips, or throat
Hives
Be Extra Aware:
There is no cure-all for a food allergy. The best defense is to simply avoid that food at all costs. Always make sure to check your food labels and go so far as to research the food’s production. Manufactures might change the ingredients in a favorite food without making it obvious on the packaging. Always better to be safe than sorry!
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Twice:
When eating out, you lose a lot of control over what goes into your meal. Don’t be afraid to double and triple check that your dish doesn’t contain an allergen. If the waiter appears unsure, ask them to confirm with the kitchen.
Have a Plan:
If all else fails and you do experience an allergic reaction, make sure that you have a plan in place. You should always be carying your medication on your person and make sure those around you know how to administer the dose if you are unable. If you know that your reactions can be dangerous and debilitating, carry a copy of your plan, contact numbers, and other relevant information with you so that you can share it with someone if necessary.
What Is a Food Intolerance?
An intolerance, on the other hand, is a response of the digestive system and brings along less severe — albeit very uncomfortable — symptoms. Those experiencing the symptoms of a food intolerance will often find themselves with upset stomachs, headaches, and skin irritation.
Intolerances are often the result of a carbohydrate or chemical in the food that your body has a poor time digesting. For some, the symptoms might present themselves immediately, while others will only experience symptoms after eating a certain amount of the food.
How to Manage a Food Intolerance?
Causes of a Food Intolerance:
A food intolerance is the result of your digestive system’s inability to effectively digest a certain type of food (more specifically, a certain type of chemical or protein in the food). Often, this is the result of your body’s lack of a certain enzyme needed for digestion. For instance, the absence of the enzyme lactase is the root cause of lactose intolerance.
Improve Your Overall Diet:
If you think you might be dealing with a food intolerance, the best thing you can do is improve your diet as a whole. While there may be a specific cause at the center of your troubles, it may also be a more holistic problem. Eliminate processed foods, eat more vegetables and whole grains, avoid excess sugars, and get more exercise.
Work on Your Gut Health:
It is also important to recognize that your digestive system is reliant on your gut’s health for success. Numerous digestive problems — IBS, SIBO, bloating, and more — can be improved by bettering your stomach’s ability to digest food. Start by increasing your diet of prebiotics and probiotics to better cultivate the ecosystem of “good bacteria” that make up your stomach’s lining.
Start a Food Diary:
One of the first steps to determining the source of a food intolerance is a “food diary.” All you need to do is grab a journal and begin writing down what you eat, when, and how you feel afterwards. This will make it easier for you to spot patterns in your diet that might be leading to the discomfort.
Try an Elimination Diet:
Using your food diary as a jumping off point, the next step to confirming an intolerance is an elimination diet. Begin by removing a suspected food from your diet and recording the changes to your symptoms over the course of several weeks.
If symptoms don’t change, chances are that the food you eliminated isn’t the cause of your troubles. If symptoms decrease, then you can move onto the second phase of the diet: the reintroduction phase.
Here, you will begin to slowly reintroduce the eliminated food into your diet and record your body’s reaction. If symptoms return, you can assume that this food might well be the cause of your intolerance. If symptoms don’t, the food is likely to be safe to eat and you can repeat the process with another food group.
Here’s a list of potential foods that you may want to consider eliminating from your diet:
Dairy products
Gluten
Nuts and seeds
Sugars
Spices
Alcohol
Coffee
Meats
Legumes
Citrus fruits
Nightshade vegetables (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes)
Test for Sensitivities:
If you’re still having trouble determining the source of troubles, consider testing for specific food sensitivities. I provide testing as a part of my six-week Introductory Nutrition Program.
Want More Help?
If you’ve tried working on your gut health but haven’t made the progress you’ve wanted, I can help! Whether it be through my Introductory Nutrition Program or my more advanced three-month Digestive Repair Program, I’ll work with you to develop a plan that turns your diet back into an ally.
Reach out today for a free 20-minute consultation to figure out what will work best for you!