Did you know:
Symptoms including acne, headaches, asthma, joint pan, heartburn, and PMS could be a result of the foods you eat?
In fact, to date…
…over one hundred symptoms have been recognized as being a result of food intolerances.
What are food intolerances? How do they differ from allergies?
A food intolerance is a negative reaction to the digestion of food that produces symptoms in one or more parts of the body. Food intolerances are different than food allergies. Food allergies, trigger the body’s immune system, whereas food intolerances do not.
While food allergies come on suddenly and happen every time you eat a food, food intolerances come on more gradually and happen only if you eat a food often.
Symptoms of Food Intolerances:
- Digestive: heartburn, constipation, nausea, food cravings, bloating
- Skin: Acne, eczema, hives
- Neurological: Emotional instability, depression, fatigue, headaches, hyperactivity
- Joint: Joint pains, arthritis
- Circulatory: Chest pain, high blood pressure
- Respiratory: Asthma, coughing, bronchitis
The Connection Between The Foods You Eat And You’re Food Intolerances
Do you crave certain foods? Are there some foods you eat even though you don’t feel good the next day?
If the answer is yes, you may be addicted. Although we tend to think of addiction in terms of substances such as drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, it is quite possible to be addicted to foods such as bread and cheese.
Often times, the foods we have a strong desire for are the ones we are intolerant to.
These are the foods that we just can’t go a day without thinking of.
Get this: Many people say they can’t go several days without bread, which is one of the most common food intolerances.
Have you wondered why the most commonly eaten foods such as milk, wheat, egg, and corn are also the common sources of food intolerances?
Well when you eat a food regularly, such as milk with your cereal, cheese on your pizza for dinner, and ice cream for dessert, you are calling on specific enzymes to digest that milk.
We’ve all done it…
When this pattern continues for days, weeks, or even years, there is a great chance you are creating an enzyme deficiency for that food.
The same applies to wheat:
When you eat wheat in the form of toast for breakfast, wheat in the bread of your sandwich, wheat in the slice of pizza for dinner, specific enzymes are called over and over until they are eventually depleted, resulting in a food intolerance.
Anything consumed on a daily basis has the potential of developing into a food intolerance.
This is why we design our online personal training programs in a way that our clients rotate through foods so they avoid developing any food intolerances.
How To Treat Your Food Intolerances
As a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, our primary focus is improving the health of the gut, or digestive system, which consists of the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine.
To achieve this it is very important to avoid several foods almost entirely.
3 Ways to improve the health of your digestive system
1) Avoid Foods Such As Wheat, Dairy, and Soy!
Bread, pasta, milk, cheese, all have to go.
The problem with the bread and pastas is that they are loaded with gluten, which can lead to host of problems including weight gain, bloating, mental fog etc (this is different from gluten allergy you see in celiac disease).
Check this out:
The good news is that there are many gluten-free bread and pasta alternatives available now in grocery stores.
Dairy, specifically milk, is another food many are intolerant to.
There are also healthy alternatives to milk:
Option #1. Almond Milk
Option #2. Rice Milk
Option #3. Hemp Milk
Option #4. Coconut Milk
And the best part?
The meal plans we make for our clients in our online personal training programs are all free of these foods. (Learn More Here)
2) Avoid Eating the Same Foods on a Regular Basis
Be sure to rotate your food to give your body a chance to produce those enzymes. Listen to your body by paying attention to how foods make you feel. If you don’t feel good after eating something, try eliminating that particular food from your diet.
3) Eliminate Coffee From Your Diet
Avoid drinking coffee or other caffeinated beverages. Coffee is a heavily sprayed crop high in GMOs.
What is worse is how people take their coffee with cream and sugar.
Remember this:
If you are struggling to eliminate coffee from your diet, be sure to drink an organic coffee and avoid adding milk or sugar.
Sweeten your coffee with a splash of almond milk.
You Are What You Absorb, Not What You Eat
You often hear people say that you are what you eat. Well this isn’t so true.
Given that most people are walking around with messed up digestive systems, they really are not utilizing the foods they put into their bodies.
So the phrase you are what you absorb is much more accurate:
This is why one of our main priorities with our online personal training programs is to work with our clients and try to implement as many of the keys mentioned above in an effort to improve the health of the their digestion system.
Sounds good?
Our clients complete a comprehensive questionnaire when they sign up for online personal training. (View Program)
That’s right.
This questionnaire allows us to examine all the possible factors that could be contributing to the symptoms they are experiencing.
The majority of the population are affected by food intolerances, whether they know it or not:
Since the symptoms associated to food intolerances are so broad, they often go undetected.
Let’s dig a little deeper:
People are not likely to attribute their headaches, joint pain, asthma, heartburn, or emotional instability to the foods they eat.
It is encouraging to know, however, that there is an answer:
Most of these symptoms are a result of a compromised gut (or digestive system). By eliminating some of the foods that irritate the gut, in addition to taking a couple of supplements, we can improve the health of gut. As the health of the gut improves, these symptoms go away for good! To improve the health of the gut:
- Avoid Dairy
- Avoid Wheat
- Avoid Soy
- Rotating the foods you eat
- Supplement with digestive enzyme and probiotics
These steps can very effectively treat a wide range symptoms and are recommendations we frequently give our clients.
If you are seeking help in treating your food intolerances and eliminating the troubling symptoms that can result from them we would be happy to help.
You can check out how we can work together to address many of these issues while getting you into shape (click here). Or if you have any questions feel free to contact us at inquiries@the-optimal-you.com.