In your quest for better health, I’m sure you’ve looked at your diet. Sometimes when we are trying to lose weight and feel better, we need to look more closely at all the foods we eat. We’re more careful with carbs and foods that metabolize to simple sugars. We might limit our portion sizes. We might cut out desserts and alcohol. We also might try to eat at regularly scheduled meal times and avoid late-night snacking. But what if we are eating what seems to be a healthy diet and we still don’t feel our best? What else might be going on?
Many people are walking around with undiagnosed food sensitivities, and don’t even realize it. The list of symptoms related to food sensitivities is long, but some common complaints include acid reflux, gas and bloating after eating, fatigue, skin rashes, joint pain and brain fog. Common foods that cause problems for sensitive people include wheat, dairy, egg, corn, peanut, beef, citrus and tomatoes.
The "old school" way to check for food sensitivities is to do an elimination challenge. You eat a simple hypoallergenic diet for two weeks to calm down any reactions. Then you add in good quantities of suspected foods one at a time, and note any adverse reactions. This method works if you have lots of time and discipline, but more often I use a blood test to determine food sensitivities. The test checks sensitivities to ninety-five different foods by measuring the body’s level of inflammation to each food. Sometimes simply cutting out a food or two really improves how we feel, and gets our diet back on track.
--Dr. Kate Kennedy