 So many of us are struggling with multiple food intolerances, and I used to be one of them. I’m not talking about food allergies, that is an entirely different article. Food intolerance is often caused by poor gut health. Slowly declining gut health over time can then snowball into multiple intolerances. For me it started with one food; bananas of all things, and over the years it got worse, until I had multiple intolerances, making life very difficult.
WHAT IS FOOD INTOLERANCE? A food intolerance involves the digestive system. It’s a chemical reaction and the inability for your gut to properly digest the offending food, causing all sorts of uncomfortable symptoms. Unlike a food allergy, which is an immune reaction and can be life threatening. Although, some symptoms of intolerance and allergy can be similar. LIFE FOR A FOOD INTOLERANT PERSON Don’t get me wrong, a food allergy can be more serious and can’t be cured. I’m grateful that I have no allergies. However, many of you will know how difficult it can be to live with a food intolerance, particularly multiple intolerances. My gut health started to decline in my mid to late teens. I was having some ongoing health issues, but the doctors couldn’t work out what was wrong. Doctors are great, but unfortunately they don’t know much about nutrition. At least they didn’t back then. I hope that has changed now. I developed my first food intolerance after a few years of doctor hopping (bananas). A few more years later gluten was added to my list, followed closely by dairy. Many years after this my gut health, and overall health started to decline rapidly and this is when I struggled with many more foods, normal foods that you shouldn’t be intolerant to. Tomatoes, avocado, onion, garlic, almost all fruit, spinach, nuts, legumes, red meat and what I mentioned before. I was living on rice and anything made from rice, potatoes, sweet potato, carrots, other root vegies, eggs and chicken. - I missed food! It was depressing. Eating out became non-existent. I made excuses as to why I couldn’t attend functions where any sort of food was being served due to fear of being judged for not eating, fear of being a pain in the butt for questioning their ingredients, or fear of feeling sick after eating something I shouldn’t. While the social aspects sucked, my limited diet was not good for my health. I was missing out on so much. So many nutrients that I needed, I wasn’t able to eat. And I couldn’t take supplements, my gut was in such bad shape that these also made me sick. Now I’m a pretty stubborn person. I wasn’t going to live like this. I was 99.9% sure that I could completely recover and eat everything I loved again. I was tested for celiac disease many times and this was always negative. I also received negative allergy tests. I had many other tests as well that came back negative, except iron. So, after eliminating anything serious, I came to the conclusion that it was my gut health. DISEASE BEGINS IN THE GUT “All disease begins in the gut” – this is a quote from ancient Greek physician Hippocrates from around 2500 years ago. He was pretty accurate. Each time we eat or drink something, we are either feeding or fighting disease. Gut health is an essential part of overall health and wellbeing. Our gut microbiome is made up of trillions of microorganisms along with their genetic material living in our intestinal tract. Our microbiome consist of mostly bacteria, but also includes viruses and fungi. There are 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells in your body! A healthy microbiome is essential, as it helps us to break down food, produce energy, supports your immunity, produces anti-inflammatory compounds, keeps the gut wall healthy, and metabolises and creates some vitamins. MICROBIOME AND DISEASE The gut microbiome is essential to human health. It plays a major role in maintaining a healthy immune system (most of which is in our gut), and plays an essential part in the communication that happens between our gut and brain. Studies are showing that our gut microbiome is connected to metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity, as well as neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, depression, anxiety Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Often people with these conditions have gut problems to some degree. DYSBIOSIS An unhealthy gut microbiome is called Dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is a disruption to the gut microbiome homeostasis caused by an imbalance in bacteria, changes in their functions or metabolic activities, or a change in their distribution. Dysbiosis can result in a wide range of digestive problems. Dysbiosis can be caused by:
Changes in our microbiome is associated with many diseases including autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, anxiety, Autism, IBS and many more. We receive a lot of our gut bacteria from our mothers during birth and breast feeding. It is now recognized the negative impact that C-Sections, formula feeding, over sanitation and early antibiotics are having on gut bacteria diversity in children. GUT-BRAIN CONNECTION There are many causes for poor gut health, and it’s usually multiple causes that result in something like multiple food intolerances. One of the major causes for many of us is chronic stress and anxiety. There is no doubt about the negative effects ongoing stress has on our bodies. But I believe, one of the first places to be affected is the digestive system. I won’t going into the “sciencey” part about this, as you can read that in my previous articles. However, when I finally understood how everything begins in the “non-physical” before manifesting as physical, I finally began to make progress. In other words my thoughts and emotions started this, and because I ignored it and continued on that negative path for so long, I manifested it into physical illness. You only have think about how your gut feels when you’re nervous, or how you feel like you’ve been “kick in the guts” when someone hurts you emotionally. The gut-brain connection is strong. We must learn to feel our emotions, process them, and let them go. Just like the digestive system, the stomach receives and breaks down the food (emotions), you digest and assimilate it, and then what is not needed is flushed away (let go). This is why those who suffer constipation may be having trouble letting go of an event of emotion. Or those suffering from absorption issues in the gut may be have issues absorbing life. Over time, I was able to see my causes and how it progressed. Once I understood, I could heal. Although I’m not 100% to where I want to be, I have made amazing progress. I’ll tell you what though, I appreciate something as simple as a piece of bread with butter on it so much now. I love eating avocados and cheese, and any fruit I want. You don’t realise how much you will miss something until it’s taken away from you. If you want to learn more about the metaphysical causes of disease, I highly recommend Lise Bourbeau’s book.
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