Is the food you are eating making you suffer?

There is evidence that food sensitivities are more common and have more of an impact on health than once realized.   Eating the wrong foods for you can be like poison for your body.    There is nothing really “wrong” with you, you are healthy, but your body is telling you otherwise.  Food sensitivities are tricky – they present in all sorts of ways headaches, fatigue, joint pain, bloating, mood swings, headaches, constipation, eczema – and the reaction can be delayed by up to two days.  Sensitivities are one of the many reasons I am passionate about nutrition and view food as medicine.  I was getting bad headaches and fatigue, and generally not feeling well.  I figured out the offending foods,  removed them, healed my gut and am feeling so much better! 

Food sensitivities can also be very severe.   Take childhood constipation for example – it can start with some stomach pains, low appetite and progress to constipation.    Standard advice can be provided – drink more water, up fibrous food.   If it gets bad enough the doctor’s may run blood work and if nothing shows up Restoralax (a stool softener) will be suggested.   If it continues there are clinics that predominately specialize in childhood constipation.   They will see your child once a month.  Each month you will get xrays and in between there are home administered enemas,  senokot, exlax, and picosalax.  Just pumping the kids with various laxatives to see what may work. 

If the constipation gets bad enough the stomach will become distended and there may even be throwing up of undigested food.   This can lead to hospital visits and even stays for a “clear out” to pump medication into the stomach to empty it out. 

They are solutions that don’t get to the root cause of the problem.  It is trying to treat the constipation, but not figuring out why the constipation exists. 

When you have a symptom your body is telling you something.  If medical exploration shows you are in good health, but you still have those headaches or constipation it could be a food sensitivity.  It can take a lot of investigation and commitment  to figure out what it is.  Food elimination diets are often the best approach to take – potential offenders are removed from the diet and then slowly introduced deliberately while watching for symptoms to reoccur.  Some common culprits are:  dairy, gluten, citrus, wheat, eggs, nuts, soy, shellfish, corn and coffee. 

Don’t ever discount what food can be doing to your body.  If you are having frequent unexplained symptoms (not diagnosed as anything by your doctor) it is worth looking into food sensitivities.  It will often be a food that you frequently eat that you are most sensitive too. 

I will be writing more on this topic as I want to share as much as I can to help those of you that might be suffering and not know why.  If you want to chat more please send me an email at allison@allisonmadigannutritionist.com or you can book to see me by calling Clear Medicine at 416-579-9105.