Food Intolerance Symptoms
What do food intolerances and symptoms have to do with each other? You have heard me say before, that autoimmune disease or chronic illness is a tree with many roots. Meaning, there are many root causes for everything that you experience symptom wise. Including food intolerance symptoms - that may not even seem like they are related to food.
Why focus on food intolerances and the symptoms that come from them, especially when there may be bigger more dangerous food allergies to discuss?
Easy - most people are eating foods they can’t tolerate, having big symptoms from it, and they don’t even know it! In my anecdotal experience about 80% of people I have helped over the years have symptoms coming from a food that they adamantly claimed, “ I don’t have a problem when I eat it.”
Today you will learn what food and symptoms have to do with each other and why it matters for your healing journey - no matter WHAT your healing from.
Intro
Welcome if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner. I help women start their very own Autoimmune Revolution so you can stop chasing symptoms and learn how to heal your body from autoimmune disease.
Food Intolerance is on the rise...
Overall, food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances are on the rise. The statistics tell us that about 1 and 4 people are aware that they have an issue with a particular food, but many many more are suffering from them and just haven’t connected the dots. Even further - a bunch of people blame the wrong food - often because they read a book about gluten or lectins or some other nutrient that must be causing their issues.
Many researchers have proposed the reason that these food issues are on the rise is a result of our food manufacturing and farming processes. I don’t think they are wrong at all, but I do think it’s just one piece of the puzzle.
Let me share a story with you...
Literally every person I talk to has some sort of food sensitivity symptom - sometimes it is misguided.
Kathy came to me unsure what was causing her inflammation and swelling. She had so much fluid weight it was apparent on her extremities and trunk - like a layer of fluid insulation. She had given up lectins as she had read those were problematic for people with symptoms like she had. Come to find out - Kathy wasn’t sensitive to lectins at all - she was sensitive to dairy but it took her symptoms over 24 hours to appear from that. Once we straightened that out almost all of her symptoms fell away.
How to know if you have food intolerance symptoms?
There are two ways to know if you have food intolerance symptoms.
- Recurring symptom = food intolerance. One way is to assume - if there is a symptom that there is a root cause in the food you eat - it may not be the ONLY cause but there is root in there somewhere.
- Obvious intolerance. Sometimes intolerances are really obvious. Like some dairy intolerances. If you have a dairy intolerance and you eat a bowl of conventional ice cream - you may be in the bathroom with symptoms like stomach ache, bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, maybe something less obvious like heartburn.
Even if your symptoms aren’t that obvious or immediate, refer to the first point that if you have a recurring symptom there is something further to investigate nutritionally.
Intolerances are caused by enzyme issues in the body. These enzymes do the major work of breaking down food so that it is in usable pieces for your human suit to build tissue, bone, chemical messengers, hormones, etc.
Whether your food intolerance symptoms are obvious or not, if you are having symptoms it could be a direct result of the enzyme (or the gland/organ that produces it) OR it could be a downstream effect of the enzyme.
Meaning - you could be experiencing symptoms caused by food molecules that aren’t supposed to be in your bloodstream finding their way in there and then your immune system is reacting to them. And because our immune system is so awesome - it doesn’t just react but remembers the offender for next time. You can see how if you don’t know what you are reacting to and you keep eating it (I know I am a creature of habit with my meals) then it doesn’t take long for that inflammation to build up and lead to autoimmune conditions and other symptoms like acne, joint pain, eczema, psoriasis, weight gain, swelling, fatigue, headaches, migraines, and more because it causes such a strain on the body.
How to test for Food Intolerances
Lab Test for Food Intolerances
Yep, there’s a lab test for that. They aren’t super accurate and often lead to a bunch of food restrictions that are unnecessary and only serve to mask symptoms. These tests can be useful if nothing else is making sense. Know that these are just a snapshot in time and shouldn’t be used for long term restrictions.
Elimination Test for Food Intolerances
This is still the gold standard - technology just can’t do what the human suit can do to tell us what is going on inside. That is why connecting and learning to tune into the messages your body is trying to send is such an important part of the work we do in an Autoimmune Revolution.
You can simply start with a category of food - let's say dairy - and not have dairy for 3-5 days at all. Not “oops I had some cheese” or “oh I didn’t see dairy as an ingredient.” But strict, no dairy.
During that time you note your food, your symptoms including mood, your sleep, and your bowel movements.
Then on Day 6, start eating cheese, milk, and other dairy again for 1-2 days. Taking the same notes. And compare.
Do the same thing with at least all 3 of the major allergens: gluten, dairy, and eggs.
You will be amazed at what comes up for you.
You can get more information on the hows and what’s to figure out your food intolerance symptoms by heading over to the show notes page at audreychristie.com/132 and downloading the Kickstart your Autoimmune Revolution guide. It has 5 steps to get you started, the second email you will get is the tracker for this Elimination Test - use it - see what comes up for you.
You will also have the option to check out the upcoming VIP founding member information for the Autoimmune Revolution group - where we will be working through my 5 R’s to healing from autoimmune disease, Rest - Reset - Restore - Rise - Reinforce so that you can stop fighting the autoimmune warrior fight and become an autoimmune conqueror.
To wrap this up...
To wrap this up - food intolerance plays a big role in our human suits. Your body literally uses the food that you put in your mouth as the building block for every cell and function in your body. Learning to tune in and figuring out your food intolerances will be revolutionary in your journey to wellness.
Thank you so much for tuning in, if you have a second it would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating or review! That helps me help more people start an autoimmune revolution of their own. I’d be oh so grateful.
I hope you have the most magical and restful day friends, and I challenge you to leave your world, however you can, a little better than how you found it when you got up this morning.
Be well.
