After months of clean eating and exercising religiously, I was looking forward this shopping trip for new clothes . The thought of being able to buy clothes in my new smaller size were making me giddy with excitement. I couldn’t wait to see my new figure looking nice and trim in a body hugging new outfit, not to mention a new little black dress.
I entered my favorite clothing store and started loading up on pants, shirts and dresses to try on. When I finally couldn’t carry anymore, I headed into the fitting rooms.
I tried on my first outfit in my new smaller size. Darn! It was too small on me. Itried on my next outfit. Double darn. I looked very lumpy and it was too tight. Outfit after outfit resulted in the same frustrating and disappointing outcome.
“What happened?”, I thought to myself.
Has this ever happened to you? You are so confident that your new healthy fat loss lifestyle would lead to big physical changes, only to be disappointed. When you have done everything else to eat clean and exercise, but your body isn’t transforming the way you thought it would, you need to consider food allergies.
There are different types of food allergies, many of which have nothing to do with your typical allergic reaction of itchy skin or a swelling tongue. Sometimes food allergies appear as headaches, nasal congestion or general body aches that never seem to go away.
Leaky gut syndrome
You have probably never heard of a leaky gut- I know I never did. It’s a condition that is not recognized by traditional medical practitioners, but it is well known in the world of alternative and integrative medicine.
An allergic reaction occurs in our gut when we react to certain food. These foods cause “holes” to be created in our gut, allowing molecules that aren’t suppose to be absorbed, enter into our body….hence the name, “Leaky Gut”. Because these molecules aren’t suppose to be absorbed, our body views them as “foreign” .
Our body react to this invasion in the same way it does when we catch a cold or have any kind of infection. … it launches an immune response. An allergic reaction is part of this immune response.
Confused?
Basically whenever the immune system is activated, there is inflammation in the body which can be a good thing but it also means that the body is stressed. When we are stressed, our bodies release cortisol. This hormone cortisol is great when we are trying to escape from a bear or other wild animal that might be chasing us because it gives us the burst of energy we needed. But most of us aren’t trying to escape from a charging animal.
Keeping our bodies in a stressed state can produce symptoms that we would never associate with our gut or the food that we eat: