How to Identify Food Allergies and Promote Good Gut Health

“A healthy outside starts from the inside.” -Robert Urich

(this post was sponsored by Kaiser Permanente)

As you may know by now I am a Thrive Ambassador, which means I get to choose medical questions and speak to a professional from Kaiser Permanente to share those questions and answers with all of you. I find these blogs to be the most fascinating and educational for me as a writer and I hope you have also learned a few things from this series.

Today’s topic is how to identify food allergies and promote good gut health. I felt like it was a much newer topic since so many people seem to be developing food allergies much later in life, like myself, and do not understand the causes or the effects they can have on your health. I asked my followers on Instagram to weigh in with their questions as well, so here are the answers to all of those from Dr. Rick Csintalan.

What is a food allergy? There are two different kinds of food allergies; 1) An IgE allergy which is an immediate (minutes to 1-2hours) reaction such as hives, itchiness, rash, nausea/vomiting, but can be severe such as difficulty breathing and even an anaphylaxis reaction. This is usually very fast acting. Examples would include an allergic reaction to peanuts or bee stings. 2) An IgG allergy is more difficult to diagnose because it can cause symptoms hours or even days later. These allergies commonly effect your gut and overall health. An example would be people that are gluten intolerant, rather than the patient who has celiac disease.

When should you get tested for a food allergy? If you are having reactions like hives, rash, itch or difficulty breathing you should get tested right away. But if your reactions are less severe it can be mistaken as food poisoning (which happened to me) or just chronic diarrhea. If you eat and commonly get sick after, even if it’s a few hours or even days you could have a food allergy and should consider getting it checked out.

I began getting severe stomach pains every time I ate eggs and knew I needed to get confirmation from a doctor about what was going on with my body. After I had an allergy test it confirmed that I was indeed allergic to eggs, a food that I used to eat almost daily and loved.

How can you test for food allergies? The most accurate, Dr. Csintalan says, is the elimination diet. The first step is to eliminate any suspicious food(s) like milk, eggs, nuts, wheat, soy, shellfish. You will need to try this for at least 6 weeks and keep a written record. Then you slowly add in one suspicious food at at time to see how your body reacts. Another option is to have a skin test or a blood test. A skin test is usually done by an allergist and a blood test can even be done at home with a kit using a finger prick. From my own personal experience I did the blood test and believe it was fairly accurate. I had discovered a new food allergy to eggs and sure enough when I got my test results back it said I was severely allergic to both egg whites and egg yolks (which was devastating to a girl who LOVES to eat eggs).

Why do some people (like me) get food allergies later in life? Your gut lining and gut bacteria can be damaged by many things like medications, antibiotics, types of foods, antacids, saturated fats, sugar, etc…In return food may not get completely digested and cross the leaky gut, certain food particles can induce an allergic reaction.

Can allergies improve or can people outgrow them? In some children their gut health and immune system can develop stronger over time allowing them to outgrow or have less severe allergies. Adults are less likely to outgrow an allergy (not the news I wanted to hear). There are some promising studies using probiotics to overcome food allergies.

How does gut health effect your overall health? Our gut health plays a HUGE role in our overall health says Dr. Csintalan. If we don’t have good gut health it can effect our immune system and cause autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammation which could lead to heart disease, dementia and even cancer.

What are the best foods to eat for your gut? Dr. Csintalan says that FIBER is the number one thing you can do for your gut health. So fruits, veggies, nuts, beans are all great. Avoiding things like saturated fats, sugar and processed foods like white bread are also a good idea.

Everyone seems to be on a Celery Juice craze, does that help gut health? Or is it just a hoax? Celery is indeed good for your flora and digestion. There isn’t a lot of science behind it yet, but it can’t do any harm.

What else can you do to promote good gut health? Dr. Csintalan highly suggests taking a daily probiotic. It can help with your gut lining and digestion. If you have a leaky gut the toxins are being released killing off the good flora, the probiotics can help build the good flora back up. Vitamin D and zinc can also help repair your gut.

Do you have a probiotic that you suggest? There are lots of different kinds of probiotics and Dr. Csintalan did not have one brand he recommended over the other. There are 2 different kinds of good gut bacteria in probiotics; lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. Probiotics can be taken at a young age, exact timing hasn’t been determined yet. If you are considering it for your baby obviously the dosage would be different than a toddler. Breastfed babies don’t really need it because they are getting it from their mother.

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What about digestive enzymes? Can those help as well? Digestive enzymes are not studied as much as the probiotics but it can help people who have a mild allergy to digest a certain food.

How can you tell if you are dairy intolerant or lactose intolerant? The easiest way to test is if you try lactose free milk and you still experience symptoms of gas and diarrhea. If you still get those symptoms then you are most likely dairy intolerant.

How can you help chronic constipation? This is caused by poor gut health, dehydration and lack of fiber! You need at least 15 grams of fiber per day, but 30-50 grams is even better! Increase your fiber, water intake, add a probiotic and you should see signs of improvement.

Even if you aren’t experiencing any major health issues should you still make changes to your diet? Even if you have fairly good health, taking better care of your gut could help with things like energy levels, inflammation in joints and even weight gain.

Anything else you would like my readers to know? Gut health is so important and should be taken seriously. It can improve your overall health and help you to live a longer life.

So…what do you think? Have you ever thought you might have a food allergy or an intolerance to a certain type of food? Do you take a probiotic? What are some things you do to promote good gut health?