Food intolerances cause gastrointestinal symptoms. Find out how to beat your food intolerances.
Food intolerance is non-immunological, meaning; it does not involve the production of antibodies IgE and IgG like in food hypersensivity or food allergies.
Food intolerance is common in our modern world and I believe it is fueled by genetically-modified foods. Gut dybiosis is in epidemic proportions today. Intestinal permeability is at an all time high. This is because of the genetic manipulations in our food supply that introduce dangerous insecticides and pesticides into our gastrointestinal tract.
What are some of the symptoms of food intolerance? Gas, abdominal pain, bloating. diarrhea and or constipation are some of the hallmarks.
Eating food is practicing chemistry on a daily basis. Foods contain natural chemicals and added chemicals. Salicylates, histamines, glutamates and caffeine are some of the chemicals that can induce gastrointestinal symptoms. There is no getting around eating foods and ingesting chemicals that may or may not cause a chemical chain-reaction in your gut.
We have all become educated about non-celiac sensitivity and most of us are better off without processed grains.
Enzyme and Transport defects are alittle trickier. Lactose, a disaccharide, in mammalian milk gets broken down into monosaccharides, glucose and galactose in the small intestine specifically in the jejunum by an enzyme called Beta- galactosidase before you absorb it. They say that lactase is essential during infant development before weaning. After weaning there is a gradual reduction in your ability to produce lactase and this varies depending on your genomics and ethnicity.
Lactase is a single gene code and is an inherited autosomal dominant condition. This genetic change dates back to 23,000 years ago when mammals became domesticated for their milk and it affects Europeans, South Asian and African populations.
65% of the adult population has lactose intolerance. It can be reversible and is not related to genetics when the jejunal brush border in the small intestine is damaged by gastrointestinal diseases.
Why do I feel awful when I eat dairy? If you have lactose intolerance you can't absorb lactose in your lower intestine. This changes the osmotic load and you get increased water in your bowels (think bloating and distention). Lactose is fermented by your colonic bacteria and leads to increased gas production. Not a pretty picture when you combine gas and bloating in the same body. The body probably tries to take the pressure off this mess by giving you explosive diarrhea.
Tolerance of dairy and other foods is dependent on the amount consumed, gut-transit time, presence of other food chemicals already present in your bowel and how they will react with new ones, consistency of the foods consumed, temperature, gut flora diversity and your ability to produce the necessary enzymes to digest your food. Sometimes you can get away with small amounts of the offending food, but many surpass their threshold and find out what that threshold is when it's too late.
Another food intolerance is fructose - a natural monosaccharide present in fruit and honey. You know one widely used version as high fructose corn syrup.
Everyone has an limit to their absorptive capacity for fructose. This limit is determined by our gut transport mechanisms. GLUT-2 transport glucose and fructose across the intestinal mucosa and GLUT-5 allows independent fructose absorption through facilitative diffusion. Our bodies are so smart to have several mechanisms in place.
Fruit can create unwanted gastrointestinal effects. Free fructose in certain amounts is difficult to absorb. One study showed that 50 g of fructose was malabsorbed by 9 out of 17 healthy volunteers measuring hydrogen production via breath testing. Then they gave those 9 participants 25 g of fructose and only one had continued fructose malabsorption.
Fructose is better absorbed with glucose, but humans have a fructose absorption limit. Absorption is less than 5% in humans because we lack enzymes to break down the glycosidic bonds. Short-chained carbs called fructans, part of fructose, ferment in the intestinal microbiota. Another reason not to drink fruit juice. Eat the whole fruit. When you juice, eat the pulp.
Why do I have gas when I eat beans, grains, nuts or human milk? These foods contain galacto-oligosaccharides which cannot be broken down in the human gut because we lack an enzyme - alpha-galactosidase. These short-chained carbs reach the colon intact and get fermented.
Sugar alcohols present another issue because they are passively absorbed into the small intestine and the rate of absorption varies between individuals. In many individuals including myself these polyols create a laxative effect. Sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol are part of this group and they bother many people. They are big in the supplement world, pharmaceuticals, sugar-free products and are promoted in the health food store as a great alternative, but the size of these molecules and your intestinal pore size determine your absorption capacity. I'm not a fan.
I highly recommend the Elisa/ACT test. If money is short, then the gold standard food intolerance test is to eliminate foods and gradually reintroduce them about every 3 days to identify symptoms of food intolerance.
There are always on-going discussions about how strict you have to be - whether you should eliminate the suspect foods or just reduce the amount. I think this varies from person to person. I've seen people react with the smallest amount and others fly by with no symptoms to huge amounts of the suspected offender.
Had a new patient last night who is very food educated and is suffering with severe gastrointestinal symptoms. He eats clean and continues to have persistent symptoms. He is losing muscle mass and is down to 12% body fat. He takes daily probiotics and several other nutrients. He opted for the SIBO test (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) to rule out SIBO as an underlying condition. He will avoid his probiotics, laxatives, antibiotics and fermentable carbs for a period of time before he takes the test. We'll see if he expires hydrogen or methane or both.
Clinical clue: Methane producers are usually constipated and produce less gas.
I want one of these. Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy. It is a endoscopic imaging technique that visualizes changes in the gastrointestinal mucosa. It gives a real-time response to food antigens. Diluted food antigens can be administered directly to the duodenal mucosa through the endoscope and within 5 minutes of exposure you can see intraepithelial lymphocytes, epithelial leaks and intervillous spaces widening compared to the baseline. How cool is that. This is a great tool and I want one in my kitchen.
If you don't know what is causing your symptoms the next right step besides testing is to follow a low FODMAPs diet. It's usually increasing doses of fructose or fructans that provoke symptoms. Glucose, typically, does not.
What is a FODMAP diet?
The short answer is cereal, fruit, certain vegetables and milk/milk products. You can goggle the rest in detail. After looking at all of the studies, there is overwhelming evidence to support following a low FODMAP's diet because a high percentage of patients consistently got symptom resolution.
Second Nature Care addresses your Food Intolerances
If you're sick of being sick give us a call and let's create your treatment strategy to get rid of your food intolerances once and for all.
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