CEFB INTEGRATIVE LIFE COACHING
  • Home
    • Programs
    • About >
      • Contact
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Programs

Can My Symptoms Actually Be a Food Intolerance?

3/19/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Food intolerance or "sensitivities" can affect you in so many ways.
 
And they’re a lot more common than most people think.
 
I'm not talking about anaphylaxis or immediate allergic reactions that involve an immune response. Those can be serious and life-threatening.  If you have any allergies, you need to steer clear of any traces of foods you are allergic to and speak with your doctor or pharmacist about emergency medication, if necessary.
 
What I'm talking about, is an intolerance, meaning you do not tolerate a specific food very well and it causes immediate or chronic symptoms anywhere in the body. Symptoms can take hours or even days to show themselves. And symptoms can be located just about anywhere in the body.
        
This is what makes them so tricky to identify.
 
Symptoms of food intolerance
There are some common food intolerances that have immediate and terribly painful gastrointestinal symptoms, such as lactose intolerance or celiac disease. These can cause stomach pain, gas, bloating, and/or diarrhea; symptoms can start immediately after eating lactose or gluten.
 
On the other hand, other more insidious symptoms may not be linked to foods in an obvious way.
 
Symptoms like:
 
●Chronic muscle or joint pain
●Sweating, or increased heart rate or blood pressure
●Headaches or migraines
●Exhaustion after a good night's sleep
●Autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's or rheumatoid arthritis
●Rashes or eczema
●Inability to concentrate or feeling like your brain is "foggy"
●Shortness of breath
 
If your body has trouble digesting specific foods, it can affect your hormones, metabolism, or even cause inflammation and result in any of the symptoms listed above. And these can affect any (or all) parts of the body, not just your gastrointestinal system.
 
How to prevent these intolerances
The main thing you can do is to figure out which foods or drinks you may be reacting to and stop ingesting them.
 
I know, I know...this sounds so simple, and yet it can be SO HARD.
 
The best way to identify your food/drink triggers is to eliminate them.
 
Yup, get rid of those offending foods/drinks. All traces of them, for three full weeks and monitor your symptoms. 
 
If things get better, then you need to decide whether it's worth it to stop ingesting them, or if you want to slowly introduce them back one at a time while still looking out to see if/when symptoms return.
 
Start Here: Two common food intolerances
Here are two of the most common triggers of food intolerances:

●Lactose (in dairy - eliminate altogether, or look for a "lactose-free" label - try nut or coconut milk instead).
 
●Gluten (in wheat, rye, and other common grains - look for a "gluten-free" label - try gluten-free grains like rice, quinoa & gluten-free oats).
 
This is by no means a complete list, but it's a good place to start because lactose intolerance is thought to affect up to 75% of people, while "non-celiac gluten sensitivity" can affect up to 13% of people.
 
So, if you can eliminate all traces of lactose and gluten for three weeks, it can confirm whether either or both of these, are a source of your symptoms.
 
Yes, dairy and grains are a part of many government-recommended food guidelines, but you absolutely can get all of the nutrients you need if you focus on replacing them with nutrient-dense foods.
 
A reliable way to monitor how you feel after eating certain foods is to track it. After every meal or snack, write down the foods you ate, and any symptoms so you can more easily spot trends.

And, as mentioned earlier, symptoms may not start immediately following a meal. You may find, for example, that you wake up with a headache the morning after eating bananas.
 
You might be surprised what links you can find if you track your food and symptoms well!
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: When you eliminate something, you need to make sure it's not hiding in other foods, or the whole point of eliminating it for a few weeks is lost. Restaurant food, packaged foods, and sauces or dressings are notorious for adding ingredients that you'd never think are there. You know that sugar hides in almost everything, but did you also know that wheat is often added to processed meats and soy sauce, and lactose can even be found in some medications or supplements?
 
When in doubt you HAVE to ask the server in a restaurant about hidden ingredients, read labels, and consider cooking from scratch.     
 
What if it doesn’t work?
If eliminating these two common food intolerances doesn’t work, then you can go one step further to eliminate all dairy (even lactose-free) and all grains (even gluten-free) for three weeks.
 
You may need to see a qualified healthcare practitioner for help, and that's OK. I don't want you to continue suffering if you don't need to!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    Affirmations
    Health
    Journaling
    Mental Health
    Mindset
    Morning Pages
    Nutrition
    Self Care
    Self-care
    Self Discovery
    Self-Discovery
    Self Love

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2022, CEFB-LLC. All rights reserved. cheryl@cefbcoaching.com ~ (540)300-1163
Terms and Conditions
  • Home
    • Programs
    • About >
      • Contact
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Programs