Food Sensitivity: You Are What You Eat

by Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN
NetNutritionist.com

The term we have all heard for years, "You are what you eat," has more truth than meets the eye.   There is general healthy eating guidelines for everyone but many times the recommended foods will not make everyone feel and look healthy. Only 2% of Americans suffer from true clinically diagnosed food allergies, however, many suffer from undiagnosed food sensitivities or intolerances.  It is estimated that 5% of food allergies are immediate (severe to toxic) and 95% are delayed. Delayed food reactions are known as cyclic.  The recurrent ingestion of the offending food such as milk or wheat can mask the symptoms, go unrecognized and are delayed with no cause and effect relationship.

When people experience certain subtle symptoms for many years, they blame it on stress, overwork, side effects of medication, and other unrelated causes instead of a food allergy or sensitivity. Recurrent ear infections in children or migraine headaches are usually attributed to something other than food. While classic allergies involving skin, airway, and digestive tract do occur with delayed food reactions, they may also include a variety of symptoms (over 200 food-related symptoms and 50 medical conditions) in various organ systems.

The following are a few common, unsuspected symptoms or conditions that may be related to food allergy or sensitivity.

• Functional GI symptoms - gas, belching, fatigue after meals, intermittent diarrhea, and constipation

• Spastic Colon

• Irritable bowel syndrome

• Skin rashes

• Itchy eyelids

• Vertigo

• Meniere’s disorder

• Tinnitus (with normal hearing and other causes ruled out)

• Fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss (feels like ears are stopped up)

• Post nasal drip

• Cough (unproductive)

• Hoarseness

• Asthma or asthma bronchitis

• Mental Dullness

• Mood swings

• Forgetfulness

• Depression aggravated or worsened by food allergies

• Muscle spasms, soreness or weakness

• Myalgia

• Sinus or migraine headaches

• Chronic fatigue

• Chronic fatigue syndrome

• Weight fluctuations/intermittent swelling or edema

• Sleep apnea or insomnia

• Cardiac rhythm disturbances

Forty percent of people with pollenosis or airborne allergies often have food sensitivities that correlate to the specific pollen.  For instance, grass allergies correlate with tomato, melon, watermelon, and kiwi. Ragweed correlates with melon, watermelon, banana, and gourds and Birch with apple, carrot, potato, celery, fennel, kiwi, hazelnut, pear, and peach.

Food allergies and sensitivities are broad in definition, classification, variety, number and intensity of symptoms and associated medical conditions. It is important to rule out any serious medical symptoms by consulting with your physician. If food intolerance or allergy is suspected, however, there are clinical tests available.   Allergy testing is often time consuming and expensive.  Two traditional food allergy tests are the RAST or radioallergoabsorbent test and positive prick test.  In some cases people with multiple food allergies or intolerance will have a negative RAST or skin prick test.

Keeping food records can be very effective for identifying food-related symptoms. Record foods eaten along with physical and emotional status immediately and hours following the ingestion of the food.   The Caveman diet will often reveal food related symptoms and is inexpensive compared to the former traditional clinical tests.  This diet removes the most common food offenders which are typically corn, egg, shellfish, dairy, wheat, soy, and peanuts and other known food offenders like meats, citrus fruits and acidic vegetables such as pineapple, papaya, or tomatoes.  Eat only fresh fruits and vegetables and boiled or broiled meat, drink fruit juice, vegetable juices, and water for 2 weeks, adding back 1 food at a time for 4 days before going to the next food.

Christian, 32, came to me wanting to lose weight. She insisted she was going to do the high protein diet that everyone else was having great results with. She wanted to have some immediate success so she could get a motivated jump-start that would get her to her goal.  Christian wanted my nutritional expertise to help her plan healthy low carbohydrate menus. She complained that she was tired all the time, her joints and muscles ached and she often had gas, bloating, abdominal cramps, and constipation. If she lost weight, she was sure these problems would go away.

We planned Christian’s menu and workout schedule and within 8 weeks, she was at goal and feeling wonderful so we slowly reintroduced more carbohydrates back into her daily food intake for maintenance.

After several weeks, Christian called me and told me she had gained 10 pounds (of the 40 lost) and the physical symptoms she was experiencing previous to the weight loss had returned.  She said the symptoms seemed more intense and she could hardly stay awake about 2 hours after lunch. She also complained of an irritating rash on her arms and scalp and a rasp in her throat that was probably because of the ragweed in the air.

Christian initially gained 3-5 pounds of fluid due to the reintroduction of carbohydrates back into her diet. She claimed that she was not overeating or bingeing and was typically within 50 calories of the recommended maintenance calories.  She had been eating the same thing almost everyday; eggs and wheat toast for breakfast, yogurt and peaches for a morning snack, and a turkey sandwich with tomatoes, a big salad, and apple for lunch.  Mid afternoon, she would eat some cinnamon wheat cakes with peanut butter or low fat cheese and a bagel.  Dinner was usually fish or chicken, rice, salad with tomatoes and sometimes when she was hungry for a bedtime snack, she would have a banana and milk.

After carefully assessing strict food and mood records, Christian followed the Caveman diet.  After the third week, she carefully added one food for four days at a time.  Symptoms were radically apparent when she ate dairy, wheat, peanuts, and tomatoes.   These foods were substituted with other foods in Christian's meal plan.  She found creative recipes and products that she liked as well so staying away from the offending foods was easy.  Miraculously, Christian lost the entire 10 pounds, and was absent of all the physical symptoms, including fatigue.   She said she had more energy and felt more alert than she had for many years.

Christian had been on a semi-elimination diet during her weight loss low carbohydrate diet (no wheat, milk products, or peanuts). During maintenance when she started eating these foods again everyday, the food related symptoms reappeared.

Read more from the Featured Article Archive