When we think of allergies we typically think of skin rashes, coughing, sneezing, and perhaps some digestive problems. We usually flash back to the TV commercial of a beautiful women strolling through a field of wheat, sneezing and rubbing her eyes and then when she takes a drug, suddenly the world is a halo of colourful flowers and clear breathing.

This view of allergies is very limited as allergies are more than just rashes and fevers. The reality of it is that allergies can have a powerful influence over your health and may even be the reason why you just can’t seem to shed those extra five kilo’s.

An allergy is an immune-system response to a substance that the body perceives as toxic. However many people suffer from intolerances and not necessarily an allergy which is a non-immune system response that is causing you to keep those kilos on no matter how hard you exercise or diet.

When you have an intolerance to a certain food, the body does not have the ability to readily excrete it from the tissue, as a result it will often retain water to flush it out of the system, causing that bloated tummy and sluggish feeling.

However if the flushing mechanism doesn’t work, the body will start to store the toxins in fat tissue. As you continue to eat the food you are allergic to for lack of knowledge, the toxic material will begin to overwhelm the bodies fat cell capacity, causing your body to build new fat to handle the toxic load. Hence the weight gain and the inability to lose weight.

To make matters worse, food allergies slow the metabolism down. According to Dr. Elson Haas, author of the False Fat Diet, “food reactions create five metabolic roadblocks to weight loss”:

-They slow the metabolic rate
-They increase the hormone that causes weight gain
-They create hypoglycemia
-They depress energy
-They contribute to illness.

Fortunately there are allergy tests available today however none of these tests are perfect and none of them can detect any food intolerances. Instead they rate the allergy potential in terms of how drastically the body responds to the allergen, such as the ELISA test or else they test for an IgE reaction (immediate hypersensitivity) as in the RAST skin test.

The most common food allergies include wheat, corn, dairy, soy, sugar, eggs and peanuts however other cases of foods that are thought to be healthy such as bananas have also proven to cause food intolerances proving that you can be allergic to any kind of food.

If you are suffering from symptoms such as unexplained weight gain, flatulence, bloating, diarrhea/ constipation, low blood sugar, skin problems like acne and chronique fatique then you may be suffering from a food allergy, it is advised that you start checking for food allergies or else consult your local physician.

Share this post