Discover Food Allergies, Food Intolerances, and Food Sensitivities to Uncover the Hidden Cause of Weight Gain

• Do you have cravings for sugary snacks, baked breads and muffins?
• Do you eat the same foods every day?
• Do you have difficulty losing weight and keeping it off?

Food Allergies and Weight Gain:
Experts estimate that up to 80 percent of the population has some form of food allergies or intolerances. You may have suspected that certain foods don’t agree with you. What you probably may have never suspected is that these foods could be making you heavier than you would be otherwise. In fact, your weight problems may be solved permanently, without counting calories, simply by eliminating certain foods from your diet. Your body may perceive cetain foods as a poison and limits digestion of nutrients, thus causing the body to store fat.

Food Intolerance and Weight Gain
Yes, as unlikely as it seems, the biggest culprit in weight gain may be intolerances to the foods you eat on a regular basis, even ones that are “good” for you – foods that you would never suspect are harming your body.

Food allergy reactions do not always occur right after the food is eaten. Symptoms like bloating and swelling can occur hours later. Weight gain can be caused by allergic foods causing inflammation which causes fluid retention and the release of certain hormones. If this swelling occurs in the abdomen and is accompanied by gas, it can be due to fermentation of foods, particularly carbohydrates.

Food sensitivity is a very common cause of abnormal food cravings and binging. Not only that, but the pathological reaction caused by these foods can encourage your body to store fat. Eliminating foods you are sensitive to can help decrease cravings and appetite while your fat-burning metabolism returns to normal.

The Food Allergy / Food Addiction Syndrome

People often crave the very foods they are allergic to! In an effort to neutralize the uncomfortable symptoms caused by these problematic foods, your body releases substances called endorphins into your bloodstream. Endorphins trick you into believing the “allergic” food is actually making you feel good by giving you a “high”. Thus you have become “addicted”.

Eating the same thing everyday may not be a good idea.

A result of a low variety diet, your body must process the same foods (your “favorite” foods) over and over again. In individuals with weight gain and food intolerance, this can cause a number of problems: The job of repeatedly processing the same foods taxes your digestive system tremendously, often resulting in suboptimal nutrient absorption. Today’s heavily processed foods use up your digestive enzymes at a tremendous rate, leaving insufficient amounts available to digest and absorb nutrients. You may end up deficient in certain nutrients that are present in the foods you are not eating.

Ultimately, your body becomes sensitive to the foods you eat most frequently. When you continually feed your body with the same foods over and over, it eventually revolts. The modern-day diet of heavily processed foods, in combination with the chemical toxins present in today’s environment, allows only partial digestion of your food. Your body recognizes the remaining undigested particles as strange, hostile invaders, and it reacts allergic. You end up with an overworked, underfed allergic reacting digestive process. And now you want to lose weight? Don’t count on it — your hungry, worried body is holding on to every fat molecule it can. Weight gain and food allergies go hand in hand!

 

It’s true that we gain weight when we eat more than we can burn off. But this conventional diet wisdom does not always hold true. Weight gain can also be caused by health conditions such as hypothyroidism, food sensitivity, Cushing’s syndrome, organ disease, prescription drug use, the birth control pill, anxiety, blood sugar imbalance, and essential fatty acid deficiency. Many people respond to stress or depression by eating excessively. Sources of stress may not always be apparent, but may still affect eating habits and cause weight gain.

Symptoms of food sensitivity can include headache, indigestion or heartburn, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, depression, joint pain or arthritis, canker sores, chronic respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, sinus congestion or bronchitis and chronic bowel problems such as diarrhea or constipation.

If you suspect that you may have food sensitivites contact your local Naturopath, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Holistic Allergist.

As healthy as I try to eat daily I too have food sensitivities and am embarking…AGAIN, on a cleanse of sorts. A rest for my digestive system, some blood-sugar rebalancing and overall hormone and vitality re-alignment.

Stay tuned for details on that one!

Also join me Tuesday June 7th 7-9pm at Simplicity Yoga Studio www.simplicityyoga.ca for The Women’s Wellness Group discussion ~ Six SureFire Ways to Lose Your Buddha Belly!

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