Food sensitivities are likely becoming more prevalent in society. In fact, I believe, they are some of the biggest culprits that induce inflammatory eating. Inflammatory eating will most often be evident through mild symptomatic responses like runny nose, low energy, achiness, joint/muscle soreness, and frequent illness.
Forcing your body to constantly defend itself from the food you eat will consume energy, and divert valuable immune resources from fighting real infection to fighting protein over-abundance.
Classically thought of food allergies include items like :
- Nuts
- Peanuts
- Fish
- Shellfish
- ripe fruit
- alcohol
If you carry allergies or sensitivities to any of these items, you are probably already aware of that fact and you avoid contact with the nefarious food. Allergic reactions to these items can be very strong and sometimes severely dangerous, causing swelling, difficulty breathing, skin redness and itching, and even anaphylaxis.
I'm not going to discuss these severe allergies here. If you suspect that you have one of these allergies, see a doctor immediately so that you can begin to manage your symptoms appropriately.
Rather, this article is about slowly developing sensitivities to proteins. Protein sensitivity does not lead to immediate emergency and, therefore, a person can often go a lifetime without identifying potential causes for their chronic fatigue, pain, or weight difficulties.
Slow onset food allergies come from an over-abundance of certain proteins in the diet, and are probably even dependent upon your mother's diet as you were developing into a baby.
Slow onset food allergy/sensitivity shows more chronic and fewer acute symptoms. Unfortunately this means there is a lot of cross-over between a person who shows signs for food sensitivity and for other common ailments such as arthritis or chronic fatigue syndrome.
No matter what the cause of your symptoms, however, you may always attempt to identify food sensitivity through the steps below. Going through the process wont hurt. All it will do is give you insight into how your body works and feels.
The Culprits:
There are four main protein types that show up frequently in a processed diet:
- Gluten
- Casein
- Albumen
- Soy
These protein types are associated with these foods:
- Gluten : Wheat & Barley
- Casein : Milk & Dairy
- Albumen : Eggs
- Soy : Soy
The Two Week Rule
The two week rule involves simply removing one of those primary proteins from your diet completely for two weeks. Actually, it's not quite so simple. Here are the steps:
1) Take note of how you feel right now:
- do you have regular aches, tiredness, fatigue?
- do you get digestive or respiratory distress regularly day in and day out?
- It's a good idea to record this information in a notebook or "health journal" so you can track improvement. Write down days and times that you feel symptomatic. You need a basis of information from which you will be looking for positive change.
2) For two weeks, completely remove one of the major proteins from your diet!
- "Completely" means completely!
- No cheat days, no accidents
- You must read food labels, ask for nutrient contents at restaurants, and avoid all possible exposure to ingesting these proteins for two full weeks.
- If you ingest a potentially offending food early, you must start the test over unless you get a positive result. (Sometimes less than two weeks is enough time to get a positive result but going the full time almost guarantees a valid result.)
3) After two weeks, take note any symptom changes
- Did your tiredness, irritability, achiness, or digestive distress change over the last two weeks?
4) Put the potentially offensive protein back into your diet
- You don't need to over-do it, but now that you've avoided the substance for two weeks, eat a piece of bread or have a small glass of milk or whatever food it is you've been avoiding.
5) Again, take note of how you feel now that you've replaced the potential offender
- Did anything change from beginning to end?
- Do you feel better or worse?
In the two week rule, you aren't necessarily looking for a cure, but rather for a significant change in how you feel. In this case, a "positive" result is actually a circumstance that makes you feel worse. You're trying to make a direct connection between what you eat and how you feel.
In my case, excluding gluten from my diet completely removed daily digestive distress I had been experiencing. The moment I put gluten back into my diet, the digestive distress returned. You're results should be similarly evident for causality. If you're not sure about the results, either try the test again, or try another protein for comparison.
When you decide to try the Two Week Rule, here are a few things to consider:
Only tackle one protein at a time
- Trying to exclude multiple proteins at once wont yield a positive result for any because you've added extra variables.
Select your two weeks carefully
- You wouldn't want your two week self experiment to coincide with a big party or some event where you know it's going to be difficult to exclude certain foods. You need to have a very high level of control during the two weeks.
Inform others
- Particularly if someone else frequently buys or prepares your food, be sure that people you frequently eat with know about your experiment. If you keep it quiet, they may feed you something you don't want without your knowing.
Try all four
Although you may have a preconceived notion of which food you have a sensitivity to, it doesn't hurt to try all four at some point just to see if there is a difference. You don't have to attempt each experiment in succession, but the less you consume foods to which your body is sensitive, the better you'll feel!
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