Food Sensitivity

-the hidden link to overweight and illness

Are you overweight or are you sensitive to the foods you are eating? Taking a look at your overall nutrition may show that eating the wrong type of food for your body can develop into illness and weight problems.

Going one step further leads to the conclusion that by identifying the foods which are causing the problems, and taking them out of the diet, could gradually and sometimes dramatically, mean an improvement in health.

‘Astonishing results’ have been achieved with people who have adopted a personalized diet. A person’s body can retain more water than necessary simply because of a food ingredient that their system doesn’t like. She says that removing the offending food or foods from the diet will often lead to rapid and permanent weight loss.

Weight loss

In addition, poor weight control, bingeing and overeating can be related to food intolerance or foods to which you are ‘addicted’. Identifying your personal problem food or foods can mean regaining control over your body weight and your health. It is not unusual for people to lose as much as half a stone in a week and many stones over a longer period.

A personalized diet has also been shown to alleviate the fluid retention suffered by women as part of PMS and lessen the effects of the menopause.

Medical research has shown that food intolerance is implicated in the following conditions: arthritis, asthma, bronchitis, cystitis, depression and anxiety, eczema, IBS, glue ear, migraine, hay fever, insomnia, PMS, sinusitis, weight gain and many others. Ruth can attest to some of these from personal experience.

The key relationship seems to be between foods consumed and a subsequent ‘inflammatory’ response, this includes retention of fluid as a major symptom. Remove the offending foods and the response reduces.

Inflammatory disease is widespread – possibly affecting half the UK population. It is costly to the health service providers. Otitis media - glue ear – costs the NHS more than 30 million per year. The DSS recorded 5.73million working days lost in one year due to asthma.

Food Sensitivity

Over the past 50 years, doctors in many countries have observed how many medical conditions have responded positively to changes in the patients’ food intake. Weight loss is frequently reported in response to such changes. In one case a 45 year old patient had complete remission of her asthma and joint pain and lost more than 2 stones, by making specific changes to her diet.

The first week of the diet is particularly important. Paradoxically, the first hint that the diet is working may take the form of feeling distinctly unwell. Withdrawal symptoms can range from a dull headache to the feeling that you have caught the ‘flu. These symptoms can start within 24 hours but will usually be over in 5 days, when you will feel absolutely great. It is best, therefore to embark on the diet when you don’t have any important dates or engagements.

It is also important to bear in mind that other things as well as food can have similar effects, such as household chemicals, gas, cosmetics, hair products etc.

The only 100% guaranteed accurate way to find what you are reacting to is by elimination. In other words you do not eat a suspect food for 2 –4 weeks (or for instance do not use any perfume or perfumed products), then introduce a small amount of the suspect food. If you get a strong reaction then you know you have found something. (You will very likely have had the withdrawal symptoms mentioned above.) If there is no reaction then the suspect food is not causing a problem.

The strong reaction is because the food has been eliminated from your body and produces this strong reaction when it is reintroduced. (Please bear in mind that these reactions can be fairly immediate or take up to 3 days to develop. That is why they are sometimes referred to as masked allergies. True allergies given immediate reaction.) When the body is exposed to the problem food or substance on a regular basis the body adapts, but exists in a sub-optimal state of irritation and inflammation, which causes a multitude of symptoms.

This is OK if you only have only one reaction and you can guess what it is. (A good indicator is that you are addicted to the substance.) However if you react to a quite a few things, as I did, then it can take a long time to sort things out for yourself. Two of a possible few ways of helping this process is Vega testing and blood antibody analysis.

A Vega machine tests electrical resistance in the body when a suspect food is introduced into the circuit. In the hands of an expert operator this can be remarkably effective. Ruth says that a friend of hers recently was tested and after excluding the foods and chemicals discovered by the Vega machine, the IBS type bowel problems that she had suffered for years disappeared. The cost of a session should be around £60-£70. If you live in the Manchester area I recommend contacting the Markland Clinic, Westhoughton to book an appointment.

Another method is to have the blood tested for antibodies to a variety of foods. This can be quite an expensive process depending on the number of foods tested. York Test Laboratories provide such a service. They do offer a simple test for about £20 to tell you if you have any antibody reactions. If you did then you could go on to have a full test. They will then produce a report and advice sheet to help you.

Dramatic improvements can be experienced, especially for symptoms and problems as listed above that your doctor can find no cause for. I feel that food and chemical sensitivities are well worth investigating.

Ruth Horrocks