Did you know that a good majority of individuals have food sensitivities and don't even realise it? Did you know that in many cases these very foods are the foods that people eat the most often? While not all allergic foods cause an "addiction", most food addictions are due to food sensitivities. Have you ever had the feeling that after eating a certain meal, a few minutes later you were hungry again? Do you always crave the same foods? Do you seem to not be able to lose weight no matter what your efforts? Chances are you have food sensitivities!
Now you're probably wondering why would anyone crave something that isn't good for them? Well let's explore this by using cigarettes as an example. When someone takes that first puff of a cigarette for the first time, they feel awful, and for good reason...cigarettes are toxic! But over time, the body is able to tolerate the toxic effects to the point where they no longer exist, but by now the body has become addicted to cigarettes! And now the body requires you to keep smoking just so you don't feel withdrawal symptoms.
This is what happens in the case of the allergy-addiction syndrome. If the food that you are ingesting is toxic for you it may at first cause some symptoms such as bloating, diarrhoea/constipation, headaches, etc. The tricky part is that you don't realise that those symptoms were caused by that particular food because symptoms of food sensitivities are often delayed for hours to days after ingestion. Talk about making things complicated! So you continue to eat the food that is toxic to your body and over time your body becomes accustomed to those discomforts, to the point that you don't even realise that they are there anymore. The major downfall is that if this keeps going on for an extended period of time, more serious illnesses can arise - irritable bowel syndrome (and other digestive disorders), many autoimmune diseases, psychiatric disorders, among may others.
So what can you do? Best way to determine if the foods you are eating are harming you is to do IgG Food Sensitivity testing or follow an Elimination/Challenge Diet. Think this might be an issue? Contact Dr. V to make an appointment to see if food sensitivities are behind your health issues.
