Often when I first talk with patients about food allergies and intolerances, they often will say, “Oh, I don’t have any reactions to food.”
I am always puzzled by this response because we usually have spent the previous hour talking about a chronic, inflammatory condition (or conditions) such as:
- chronic sinusitis
- asthma
- eczema
- psoriasis
- Crohn’s Disease
- Ulcerative colitis
- atherosclerosis
- metabolic syndrome (borderline diabetes)
- gastroesophageal reflux (GERDS)
- arthritis
- emotional lability (anxiety, depression, unstable moods)
- a host of autoimmune conditions
If you suffer with any of the inflammatory conditions mentioned above, you are a great candidate for food testing.
Most of us are conditioned to think that food could only cause digestive upsets, e.g. nausea or vomiting, OR the classic symptoms of anaphylaxis including hives, throat swelling, and/or bronchial constriction.
In truth, food reactions can affect every system in youry body, including our mental state and our moods.
True or “specific” allergies are immuneglobulin E (immediate, anaphylactic reactions), immuneglobulin G (delayed 4 hours to four days after eating), and immune globulin A (primarily in the digestive tract).
What many people (including conventional physicians) do not realize is that foods can trigger many different types of inflammatory reactions in the body. These reactions activate the “inflammasome,” which in turn can trigger the onset of diseases including atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome, and chronic bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.[i]
The good news is that you can identify the foods that cause inflammation in your body so you can “put out the fire” that triggers chronic disease.
The bottom line: food reactions trigger the “inflammasome,” which in turn activates chronic diseases in the body. Identifying and removing those foods are critical steps in recovering from chronic diseases.
