Are you tired of ‘dieting’ and not seeing the scales shifting? Spending hours at the gym and not getting the results you expect? Feeling bloated with cramps, headaches and fatigue?
A food intolerance, in simple terms is a negative reaction to certain foods that can trigger inflammation causing a wide range of unpleasant symptoms. Intolerances can be very difficult to pinpoint as their symptoms can be vague and gradual. Unlike a food allergy that can be severe and acute, an intolerance can take anything from a couple of hours to days to manifest. Because of the delay in symptoms, an individual can find it very difficult to make the connection that the milk in their cereal at breakfast could be causing the headache they are experiencing that evening.
A question I am commonly asked is why do people get food intolerances?
Our gut is a very delicate system. It contains villi which are small finger like projections that increase the absorption rate of what we consume, these villi are only one cell thick and are extremely fragile. Villi are lined with a diverse range of bacteria known as our gut flora and any damage to our gut flora can potentially have an effect on our entire body. Studies are now suggesting that changes in our gut flora could trigger illnesses including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
If we take a look and compare our modern lifestyle and diet to that of our grandparents, the difference in that relatively short period of time is enormous. Our modern dietary habits and lifestyles are having serious implications on our gut flora. We are now eating a large amount of sugar, processed and refined foods, we have increased the amounts of antibiotics, steroids and oral contraceptives that we take, experience far more stress on a day to day basis and these coupled with a ludicrous increase in the amount of toxins/pesticides licenced for use and the increase in genetically modified foods now on the market there is little wonder as to why the increase in food intolerances coupled with a rise in digestive disorders in general is so prevalent.
Once our gut has become compromised and the delicate balance of our gut flora becomes imbalanced, inflammation can now be triggered in our gut.
Inflammation can be linked to a wide range of illnesses from arthritis to IBS to depression and cancer. Once inflammation is present weight loss can become next or near impossible. Inflammation also puts a large strain on our adrenal glands resulting in an increase in belly weight, poor sleep, fatigue upon waking, an inability to go for long periods without eating to name but a few. The important factor to note is that while there is an ongoing unidentified food intolerance present, the domino effect that this causes can have huge implications on both our physical and mental health.
Anita practices in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford and be contacted via www.nadura.ie or on Facebook
