Most individuals have one or more food items that they are allergic or sensitive to and that their body does not function well on those foods. The reason simply being that their genetics and enzyme pathways are not selected to digest those foods properly. Just think of the foods that you dislike. The reason you don’t like them can be that they don’t sit well with your senses; they either don’t smell right, don’t taste right, or don’t sit well with your stomach. This dislike is a natural faculty or a sense. With the onslaught of processed foods and complex packaged foods the body loses this natural sense, and this inherent ability to discriminate foods that do not suit the individual’s genetic make up is lost
Food allergies are well-recognized in clinical medicine as a cause of acute attacks of asthma, anaphylaxis and skin eruptions, as well as a contributing factor in some cases of skin rashes, eczema and rhinitis (runny nose). These types of allergic reactions are controlled by the immune system. The immune system uses antibodies (protein complexes used by the immune system) to attack any foreign material in the body. For example in common seasonal allergies the immune system produces antibodies against flower pollens that enter the nostrils, which results in an immune reaction followed by inflammation causing hay fever and runny nose.
Allergic reaction are also part of cause of any forms of diseases with an autoimmune etiology, such as acne, psoriasis, gout, dermatitis, eczema, asthma, migraine, chronic rhinitis, arthritis and systemic lupus erythema-tosus (SLE)
A more subtle manifestation of food allergies is often referred to as ‘food sensitivity’. Food sensitivities are common triggering factors for a wide range of physical and emotional disorders. Food sensitivities don’t involve responses from the immune system. They are rather mediated by physiological responses to the offending foods, and are undetectable by blood work or skin scratch tests. These physiological responses include slow digestion, capillary and vessel contractions and lymphatic congestion. According to several different sources, as many as sixty percent of the population suffers from undetected food sensitivities.
Symptoms of food sensitivities are varied. Most commonly they involve gastrointestinal symptoms. These gastrointestinal symptoms include any of basic symptoms such as bloating, gas, abdominal pain and discomfort, nausea and heartburn, as well as full blown gastrointestinal pathologies such as Crohn’s, Ulcerative colitis, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). These symptoms are the body’s methods of communicating problems in the GI tract.
When gastrointestinal symptoms remain untreated for a period of time they can result in other group of symptoms such as recurrent ear infection, chronic muscle ache and pains, premenstrual syndrome, chronic fatigue, low energy, high blood pressure, and mood disorders. There is even research connecting food sensitivities to Attentions Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
