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Food sensitivities are often dismissed as being made up or “all in your head”.
But for someone dealing with a food sensitivity, they can mean brain fog, joint aches, stomach upset or bloating, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, mood swings and even anxiety or depression.
Food sensitivities are a very good example of how physical health and mental health are basically two sides of the same coin. Disfunction in the body, like inflammation or oxidative stress can create mental health issues, and vice versa.
But food sensitivities are tricky to define and often even harder to identify in the body.
So, before we get too far down this rabbit hole, let’s define some terms.
What is a food sensitivity?
First things first: A food sensitivity is NOT a food allergy.
A food allergy is an allergic response to a food, which is a reaction by your immune system that can be very serious and even deadly.
Food sensitivities or food intolerances create a much less severe reaction, but nonetheless can make life miserable for anyone dealing with them.
Bloating and abdominal pain
Diarrhea and constipation
Headaches
Fatigue
Brain fog
Joint pain
Anxiety
Depression
How a food sensitivity shows up will be different for each person, but the main takeaway is this:
The food you eat could be making your anxiety, depression or other issues worse, and you don’t even know it.
Here’s what’s going on.
What causes food sensitivities?
Believe it or not, quite a bit of our mental health starts in our gut.
Sometimes, for a variety of reasons including low stomach acid or a bacterial infection or even after taking a course of antibiotics, we aren’t able to digest certain foods well.
This can create inflammation in the gut, which squashes production of serotonin and can disrupt communication with the brain.
If that inflammation is taken care of quickly, then issues tend to stop and don’t get too bad. But what happens is we eat these foods every day, not knowing how it is affecting our gut. This creates chronic inflammation, leading to more persistent and challenging issues.
Our gut also communicates with our brain quite a bit through our gut microbiome. That microbiome can be impacted by a number of things, including the food we eat. The makeup of the food we eat decides what bacteria are in our gut, and that can determine what foods we are most sensitive to.
Certain ingredients in foods create sensitivities because of what they do to the lining of the gut. At just one cell thick, the lining of our digestive tract is the only thing keeping what’s in our intestines from leaking into the rest of our body.
Compounds like Gluten are often responsible for breaking open that single-cell wall, letting what’s in our gut out into the body and blood stream.
That’s… not great.
Usually, this causes an immune reaction, as the body realizes that all that stuff shouldn’t be there and tries to clean it up. That reaction includes inflammation (part of the immune response). It can also lead to an immune overreaction, leading to immune cells to attack healthy cells that it shouldn’t, becoming an autoimmune disorder.
Gluten
Soy
Dairy
Sugar
We all know someone who is “gluten intolerant” (not the same as Celiac) and someone who is “lactose intolerant”.
But sensitivities can happen anytime we have trouble digesting or absorbing a nutrient. Plant toxins like lectins from nightshades, oxalates and phytates can all be difficult to digest or make other things difficult to digest.
How do I know if I have a food sensitivity?
If you are struggling with issues like chronic brain fog, mood swings, anxiety and depression, there’s a good chance you’ve got a sensitivity to something.
Or check with your doctor to see if there are any sensitivity tests you can take through them.
If you want to opt for a low-tech option, you can start by eliminating common high-risk foods to see if you notice a difference in how you feel.
Identify foods that you commonly eat that may contain gluten, dairy, soy and sugar.
Remove those foods for 30 days.
After 30 days, reintroduce foods one at a time, with a week in between each food you reintroduce.
If you’ve already eliminated these usual suspects, you could be sensitive to something less common like lectins or oxalates.
Once you identify and remove the offending nutrient(s), you should start to notice a difference in how you feel. Hopefully, feeling less anxious and depressed, less foggy-brained.
Then, you can start working on healing your gut and improving your digestion and absorption.
I get it, it can be a lot to work through. Healing the gut can take years.
But it’s harder and will take longer if you try to figure it out all on your own.
That’s where I come in. I want to help you get to the root of the problem and find small, simple steps to heal your body and mind.
My 6 month 1-on-1 program gives you the tools, support and accountability you need to finally break out of your anxiety and depression and get your energy and focus back.
If that sounds like something you need, I’ve got a spot with your name on it.
Ready? Let’s go!
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