A food sensitivity is an immune system response to a food that the body believes is harmful, and every time we eat that food, our immune system is compromised. Food allergies/food intolerance affects everyone to varying degrees, yet most of us have no idea what it is that we are sensitive to that is adversely affecting our lives. There are five foods that account for 75 percent of all food-sensitive reactions:
Wheat (and gluten)
Corn
Soy
Dairy/milk
Eggs
A very common symptom of food sensitivities is dark circles underneath the eyes, which indicates a negative liver response to a food. Another common symptom is feeling tired or mentally foggy after eating. Have you heard the term food coma? Somehow it’s become a commonly accepted concept and side effect of eating. If you are eating food that nourishes and supports you, you should feel clear and energized after eating it.
Other common indications of food sensitivities include:
Bloating or irregular digestion
Skin rash of any kind
Muscle/joint aches and pains
Depression and mood swings
The best way to know for sure what foods you are sensitive to is to get a blood test with a nutritionist.
When discussing food sensitivities, it’s important to know where the antigens are present, what products to avoid, and what to replace them with so you are not feeling deprived.
A big reason that we are now reacting to wheat, corn, and soy is because they are genetically modified. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are organisms that have been created through biotech techniques of gene-splicing. It allows the DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a lab, creating hybrids of plants that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.
Because of GMOs, our bodies are now not recognizing these foods the way we used to and therefore not processing them efficiently, leading to a variety of health-related issues. Wheat, corn, and soy, because they are modified, are less expensive to produce and are therefore found as fillers in many foods that never used to contain them.
Wheat is found in bread, flours, candy, cookies, crackers, soups, salad dressings, soy sauce, and seasonings. Terms like “hydrolyzed plant or vegetable protein” and “food starch” indicate that a product may contain wheat. Fortunately, almost all health food stores now provide lots of wheat- and gluten-free options for pasta, cookies, and crackers that are made from other grains like brown rice and quinoa (a South American grain high in protein). Wheat- and gluten-free breads will be denser and can be found in the refrigerated section of most health food stores.
This is a big one because corn is everywhere and added to so many products that one would never think, from alcohol to salad dressings to toothpaste to tomato paste to peanut butter. These days we get it mostly from high fructose corn syrup, which accounts for 52 percent of our sugar intake. It turns to sugar in the bloodstream faster than table sugar and is a major player in the diabetes epidemic.
But it’s not necessarily corn itself that’s the problem. It’s genetically modified corn and high fructose corn syrup that prove to be the biggest threats to human health. This is why we only suggest organic and sprouted corn and always pair it with protein or fat to blunt the sugar spike.
Corn is also acid-forming and can alter the acid-alkaline balance, so if you consume it, keep it to 2 or 3 times a week max. Look for maltodextrin (a corn derivative commonly from genetically modified corn) as an additive, which is widely made from corn.
Soybeans have become a major part of processed food products in the United States, making their way into many varied products like baked goods, canned tuna, infant formula, crackers, and soups. Keep in mind that all soy that is not organic is genetically modified. Taking in processed soy long-term can cause damage to the thyroid and lead to other hormonal imbalances. The only kind of soy we recommend is fermented soy because it has a different interaction in the body. If you’re into tofu, try tempeh, a fermented version of soy and grains that tastes a lot like a veggie burger. Tamari is a wheat-free soy sauce that is fermented and miso is fermented soybean paste that has healing properties in soups and spreads. If you are a soymilk drinker, consider switching to unsweetened almond or coconut milk.
Perhaps the winner for the highest food sensitivity is cow dairy. The most common symptoms for cow dairy intolerance are bloating and indigestion as well as excess mucus. We began pasteurizing milk over fifty years ago as well as adding antibiotics and hormones to our cows, which, in our opinion, is why 25 percent of America can no longer process cow’s milk. Upon ingesting it, we must pull from our own reserves of enzymes to digest it since the enzymes have been destroyed by heat. Raw milk has a different interaction in the body and can usually be tolerated by those with lactose intolerance.
Fortunately, milk is one of the easiest substances to substitute in recipes, when baking, or even in your morning cereal. Unsweetened almond milk, rice milk, and hemp milk are our favorite substitutes.
Just as the type of corn is important, so is the type of eggs. Eggs from chickens fed genetically modified corn and soy, shot with growth hormones, or fed antibiotics are a completely different food than eggs from chickens raised in nature where they ate bugs, worms, flies, and grass. We believe it’s what we’ve done to and fed the chickens that have made so many folks sensitive to eggs—so much so that eggs are in the top five most common food sensitivities.
Eggs hide in a variety of places. Some hidden sources are baked goods, foam toppings on desserts, and specialty coffee drinks/bar drinks. Some commercial brands of egg substitutes contain egg whites, as do commercially processed cooked pastas. When baking you can use ¼ banana, ¼ cup applesauce, or 2 tablespoons flaxseed in place of 1 egg. Or try using 1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked in 3 tablespoons water to replace 1 egg. You may also use potato starch or mashed potatoes or prunes to bind the recipe.
Other foods that people have sensitivities to include bananas, peanuts, yogurt, kidney beans, brewer’s yeast, and baker’s yeast. If you are allergic to one or more of these foods, it will be a bit of an adjustment (because changing anything seems overwhelming at first) but it is absolutely possible that you can eliminate one or more of these from your diet without ever missing them.
We are all entitled to vibrant health: mentally, physically, and emotionally. With a little detective work and experimentation, you can easily find out what foods are not supportive to you, and eliminate them to start improving your health immediately. Eventually you will be able to be intuitive with your nutrition because you’ll learn the subtleties of how foods affect you. Truly knowing and understanding how your own body functions best is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself because it’s the most empowering way to achieve lasting health and well-being.