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Food
Sensitivities
Also watch our
video on
Food Allergies
When we talk
about food sensitivities we are not referring to
the same type of situation that occurs when
someone has a severe
allergy to a food or
substance. In those cases, more profound
symptoms are seen, such as breaking out into
hives and needing medical assistance asap!
Usually in these cases people find out very
early on in life that they are allergic and try
to stay clear of the allergen completely. With
food sensitivities however, people can go years
with them being unacknowledged. In these cases
your body reacts as if it is fighting off an
enemy invader. It is our immune systems job to
fight off invading organisms to keep us healthy.
But for various reasons, a person’s immune
system may recognize a usually non-harmful
substance as harmful. Our immune systems are
strong, but while fighting off billions of other
toxins from the environment and stress, our
systems can become overloaded. It is also
common, in these cases, that the body loses its
ability to tap into fat stores for fuel.
What can this mean
for a person with food sensitivities?
It means that the there may be a host of
“symptoms” present from the food sensitivities,
but because these effects can be written off as
other problems they will go untreated and may
never completely go away.
Key Symptoms of
food sensitivities
Weight gain, post nasal drip, stuffy head,
heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue,
bloating, migraines, inflammation, mental fog,
depression, body aches and pains may all be
attributed to other factors or just ignored
altogether.
Traditionally these are treated as isolated
symptoms and the underlying cause (certain
foods) is never discovered. This person may
think they are eating extremely healthy, when in
reality the foods they are ingesting are causing
an array of overall health problems.
How are food
sensitivities determined?
At Caring Medical we offer tests for a variety
of common food allergens. The results coincide
with
Hauser Diet Type so that not only are patients
placed on the correct "Hauser Diet”, they are
eating the right foods within each diet.
Unfortunately, food(s) which a person is
sensitive to may happen to be their favorite. “I
can eat a whole cheese pizza for dinner,” says a
person with sensitivities to casein (milk
products). “I add onions to almost all my
cooking,” says a person with sensitivities to
onions. Best to treat the underlying cause of
the problem- avoid the offending food. This type
of diet takes maximum dedication, but
eliminating allergens from your diet can make
astounding improvements in your life, even for
people who consider themselves “healthy.”
The Case of J
A 50 year old female patient of ours, who we
will refer to as J, has been coming to Caring
Medical on and off for about 8 years. She wants
to make sure as she gets older she’s not set up
for new or increasing health problems. J’s
symptoms this time around have been fatigue,
inability to lost weight, and some menopause
problems. To start with we had her do multiple
lab tests, including
Diet Typing, Food Allergies, and Hormones.
We got her started on The Hauser Otter Diet. We went
over her current diet which was somewhat similar, but
had a few slight changes. For instance, we cut her fruit
intake back and her
complex carbohydrates intake. On the subject of exercise,
we suggested she increase her cardio. She was
already meeting with a personal trainer twice a
week, but we informed her that she needed more
than that. J’s goal was to drop about 20 pounds,
so a very moderate amount of weight. Seeing as
food allergies take a couple weeks to get in, we
decided to meet again at that point to see if
anything came up and address it then.
The food allergies came in, and to her surprise
a few things showed up. She was now going to
have to add the task of avoiding dairy, eggs,
and
gluten (wheat) to her Hauser Diet. This
isn’t easy because most foods that people
typically eat contain at least one of these
substances. I gave her all the handouts,
information, and ideas she would need to get
these foods out of her diet. She entered that
appointment slightly frustrated because she had
been doing most of what I initially told her to
do, but hadn’t been losing any weight. I told
her not to give up and really work on the food
sensitivities.
When J was in the office for a doctor follow up
I asked how she was doing. She said that she had
completely avoided the foods for the past 4
weeks. After about 2 weeks is when she said she
really noticed a difference. “I just feel
cleaner, if that makes sense”, was one of her
statements. Aside from feeling cleaner and
better, she lost about 4 pounds since avoiding
the foods she was sensitive to. Needless to say,
she is little happier now and very motivated!
If you want to learn more about
food allergy
testing, and utilizing it to create a
personalized nutrition program, reply to this
newsletter or give us a call at
708-848-7789.
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