Do you wonder if what you are eating is making you sick?
Most of the food allergy testing offered by doctors is for IgE or immediate food allergies, which make up a very small percentage of actual food allergies. More common are food sensitivities, which are totally missed by these conventional allergy tests.
Most of us know when we are truly allergic to a food- we may develop hives, have swelling of the throat or difficulty breathing. However many of us suffer from food sensitivities that result in more subtle and less obvious reactions such as headache, fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, or even weight gain.
Food and food-chemical sensitivities are highly complex non-allergic inflammatory reactions. They occur because ingestion of certain foods may cause our white blood cells to release inflammatory mediator chemicals. These chemicals can cause damage to our tissues causing symptoms related to many disorders.
Food sensitivities are also the main cause of symptoms associated with “leaky gut” which can be associated with many GI symptoms as well as many chronic diseases. Identifying these foods, and then carefully removing all sources of reactive foods and chemicals, can help eliminate symptoms, and with other interventions, allow the gut to finally heal.
Food sensitivities are often dose-dependent, with symptom onset delayed by many hours, and there are usually many reactive foods, not just 1 or 2 as in an IgE food allergy. And just like each person has a unique fingerprint, both food sensitivity symptoms and trigger foods are different from one person to another. Because of this, obviously there is no one-size-fits-all diet.
To make matters even more challenging, sometimes healthy foods like salmon, nuts or berries, with all of those anti-inflammatory health benefits you read about, may actually be the cause of an inflammatory reaction that gives you diarrhea, fatigue or other symptoms. It’s a very challenging puzzle that requires an expert approach to figure it out.
The best way to identify your sensitivity to foods and chemicals is with the Mediator Release Test (MRT). MRT does 2 extremely important things:
- It quantifies the degree of the inflammatory response to a wide range of foods and chemicals, identifying your “reactive” foods.
- It identifies your safest foods.
The best individually prescribed eating plan is LEAP(Lifestyle Eating And Performance) under the guidance of a fully trained Certified LEAP Therapist or other practitioner experienced with the LEAP protocols. The reason is because no other approach is as easy to follow and no other approach decreases diet-induced inflammation as fast as LEAP.
Find out if food sensitivities are a part of your chronic symptoms or health problems today.
(*Note: MRT is designed to identify sensitivity reactions only. It is not intended to identify or diagnose food allergies or celiac disease. If you have either food allergies or celiac disease, additional steps need to be taken in your therapy. Make sure to discuss with your healthcare practitioner.)