One of the most common symptoms or issues I've been getting questions about recently is food sensitivities or intolerances.

It's unfortunate how much health practitioners have misled people on these issues.

Causing them to believe having reactions to perfectly healthy foods is normal or that simply avoiding the foods forever is a solution.

Most nutritionists, doctors, coaches, etc. tell people they work with to simply cut foods out or follow a diet like low FODMAP.

They don't talk to them about the fact that having a long list of food sensitivities is not normal.

They don't talk to them about how the underlying issues that often cause food sensitivities can be serious and lead to more & more issues over time.

So, many people are led to believe their sensitivities aren't a big deal and that if they just cut out things like gluten or garlic or certain fruits & veggies that their symptoms will improve and they'll be fine.

If the issue was a true food allergy, this might be a good approach.

But foods allergies aren't common and affect less than 6% of the population.

Food sensitivities or food intolerances are often non-allergic IgG immune responses or the result of disrupted digestion from things like enzyme deficiencies.

Allergies cause an IgE immune response, which is an immediate release of histamine and other chemicals causing things like hives or life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Sensitivities on the other hand are often an IgG response, which is a delayed secondary response sometimes even days after consumption of a particular food.

This happens when the body perceives certain proteins as harmful but is rarely serious or life-threatening like allergies.

Sensitivities occur after food is broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream. Once there, the immune system detects it and produces IgG antibodies and releases inflammatory mediators like cytokines.

This manifests symptoms, which can be hours or days after consumption. Due to this delay, it can be hard to determine what caused them.

Food intolerances do not involve an immune response and are typically from some aspect of the digestive process being disrupted resulting in the body being unable to fully break down certain foods.

This could be from things like defense chemicals inhibiting digestive enzymes or deficiencies in enzymes, stomach acid or bile.

Symptoms usually spring up not long after consuming the foods that were not digested well but could also be delayed a few hours.

Knowing what foods are causing symptoms of sensitivities or intolerances is helpful. It's not a great idea to be regularly consuming foods that your body cannot process properly.

However, what I think is equally if not more important is understanding why the reactions are occurring.

Many clients that I've worked with were experiencing reactions from foods they consumed. The most common causes of these reactions have been:

• Intestinal permeability (leaky gut)
• Dysbiosis
• Enzyme/bile/acid deficiencies

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Permeability

Intestinal permeability or leaky gut is a condition where the lining of the gut is weakened allowing things like toxins & partially digested food to leak from the gut into the bloodstream.

Normally, small food particles are absorbed into the blood after proper digestion. With leaky gut, food particles can enter the blood before proper digestion.

The immune system isn’t used to food in this form, so it can perceive them as threats.

IgG antibodies are normally cleared by macrophages. But when leaky gut occurs and someone is sensitive to many foods, macrophages may not have enough capacity.

The complexes formed with food particles can then deposit in tissues & cause higher inflammation.

Since most practitioners mislead people telling them to just avoid certain foods as a 'solution', issues like leaky gut often go undetected.

Trigger foods are avoided and symptoms improve.

But when leaky gut is not addressed properly, it can cause IgG responses to more & more foods, even to perfectly healthy foods. This can result in a continuous loop of an ever-growing list of food sensitivities, increasingly higher inflammation & an increasingly weaker gut lining.

I don't have a problem with recommending someone implement diet restrictions like low FODMAP. I have a problem when that is the only recommendation given as a standalone solution and when there is no mention of looking into the causes of the reactions.

Leaky gut is a serious condition.

It is closely linked to other health complications like various autoimmune conditions, depression and even cancer.

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Dysbiosis

The microbiome can play a role in food sensitivities as well through its role in immunity, helping maintain the gut barrier, affecting enzyme production & protecting against pathogen overgrowth.

When out of balance (dysbiosis), these processes can be thrown off and sensitivities or intolerances can develop.

The microbiome is involved in the breakdown of the food we eat, especially complex carbs.

Imbalances can throw these processes off and lead to someone experiencing reactions when they consume different types of carbs.

The function of our immune system and inflammation levels are also heavily influenced by the composition of the gut microbiome.

When imbalances occur, it can lead to weakening of the gut lining (potentially contributing to leaky gut), disrupted motility and increased susceptibility to the overgrowth of pathogens.

This can also lead to malabsorption of nutrients, which over time, can lead to lower levels of stomach acid, digestive enzymes, bile and also throw off the function of various organs in the body.

These issues can contribute to sensitivities and intolerances.

In the case of pathogen overgrowth, certain types of microbes can cause a deficiencies of DAO, an enzyme that breaks down histamine. They can also lead to increased production of histamine in the body.

Higher histamine with lower levels of DAO can lead to strong reactions to foods that are higher in histamine like broth or seafood.

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Deficiencies

Stomach acid, digestive enzymes and bile play important roles in our digestion.

Deficiencies in any of these substances can result in poorly digested foods and intolerances to them.

Such as a deficiency in lactase leading to someone being intolerant of dairy products.

Or a protease deficiency causing someone to be unable to digest protein well and tolerating it poorly.

Or a bile deficiency causing someone to have a reaction to fats after not digesting them properly.

These deficiencies and resulting intolerances can be caused by many things. Such as malabsorption of the nutrients that are involved in their production, inflammation, toxin overload, pathogen overgrowth or dysbiosis and stress.

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To be clear, these are not the only factors that can cause someone to have a reaction to foods they consume.

These are just the most common factors I've seen after working with hundreds of people in various capacities who have digestive issues.

One of the biggest problems with the solutions offered up for digestive issues today is that they aren't real solutions.

They're really just treatments for managing symptoms disguised as solutions.

Not just with food sensitivities/intolerances, but most issues in general.

The focus is almost exclusively on the symptoms or the downstream issues instead of the upstream issues that cause them.

Such as focusing on foods as the main problem when someone is having a reaction to them instead of focusing on why their body is having the reaction.

So many people are led down the wrong path when it comes to these issues.

Which usually results in:

• A diet that is restricted more & more due to new foods continuously causing reactions
• Nutrient deficiencies developing due to severely restricted diets
• The root causes of food sensitivities/intolerances worsening over time
• New issues popping up due to root causes being overlooked

Cutting out foods that someone is having reactions to makes sense and is exactly what I do.

But unless these reactions are due to food allergies (less than 6% of the population), it will never be a solution on its own.

That requires identifying and addressing what is causing the reactions.

Such as the permeability, dysbiosis and deficiencies mentioned above.

I often get asked about food sensitivity testing when it comes to these issues. So here's what I think about them...

I've found in many situations that these tests are not extremely accurate.

That being said, I think they can be a helpful starting point in figuring out what is causing reactions. However, I've had more success (and prefer) with thorough elimination diets instead of this testing.

Also, a food sensitivity test is not going to identify and provide details on the true causes of the reactions such as microbiome imbalances, intestinal permeability or deficiencies in enzymes/bile/acid.

To identify these issues, I would prefer spending the money on testing like a comprehensive stool test, organic acid test and blood work.

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I at one point had a very long list of food sensitivities due to my leaky gut. I've had many clients deal with the same.

Once we identified and resolved the underlying causes of them, we were able to reintroduce foods that once caused issues and go back to a 'normal' diet again.

I know a lot of you have been asking about this and I've been promising an email on what I think the real causes are.

So, I hope this helps understand my take on these issues and what I've focused on to resolve them personally and with many clients.

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- Nick
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