Food Sensitivity Testing is Important Sooner Than Later

Many years ago I was on one of my "health" kicks and made a real effort to eat "better." I was working out with a personal trainer, so of course, I was trying to cut back on bad fats, carbs, and eat more protein. For breakfast I was having egg whites with peppers and 1 slice of whole grain bread with a touch of butter.  Seemed like a reasonable breakfast for most people, however, within an hour or so I felt exhausted and just generally unwell. I felt bad enough that I noticed and thought to myself, "I need to see if this happens again tomorrow."

A couple of hours later I was hungry again, so I grabbed an organic trail mix bar. After eating that, again, I didn't feel so well. I looked at the ingredients and noticed it had almonds, cranberries, sunflower and or safflower oil, oats, etc...I thought the ingredients looked harmless enough and those things are supposed to be good for us, right?  I continued on this eating plan for about 3-4 days and just felt worse and worse. I decided to listen to my intuition and have a food allergy/sensitivity test done. At this point, I truly felt so bad, I stopped on my own with this new eating plan while I waited for the results to come back.

I had always suspected I had undetected food issues even as a young child, so when my results came back I was somewhat prepared for them. I say somewhat! What surprised me was how obvious the offending foods were when I was" in touch" with and listening to my body. Turned out, not only was I "sensitive" to egg yolk, but egg whites were my most reactive food. Other offenders on my list were brewer's and baker's yeast, almonds, sunflower, safflower & canola oils, kidney bean, cranberry, and cow's milk. Basically, between the egg white breakfast with toast and then the trail mix bar containing all the oils I was reactive to, plus the almond and the cranberry in the mix, I had effectively hit about every food I was reactive to by 11 AM. No wonder I felt so awful those mornings on my new "healthy" diet plan!

 I learned that it was key to recognize that we are all individuals and what nourishes one may be acting like a poison to another.

 I have found that most people have food sensitivities they are unaware of. I strongly recommend anyone who suspects food allergy or sensitivity issues to get tested sooner than later. Undetected food sensitivities, I am convinced, become a breeding ground for recurrent infections, weight gain, inflammatory conditions, and many different forms of auto-immune diseases. All types of inflammation age us before our time. The most effective anti-aging plans should incorporate food allergy/sensitivity testing very early on as part of an initial work up.