Food Sensitivity As We Age

There is one thing we don’t see discussed very often when it comes to women after menopause. We hear a lot about weight gain, hot flashes, and concerns about bone health, but we don’t hear much talk about food sensitivities. Watch the video below or keep reading for all the details!

So many changes happen in our bodies after menopause, but one thing we see fairly often is women developing food sensitivities. Or, they may have had them awhile but their reactions get worse.

We don’t know exactly why this happens after menopause, but it is likely due to several reasons, most of which affect the gut lining in our digestive tract. These reasons can include:

1. Stress, poor food choices, medications, NSAIDS (like Ibuprofen and Aleve), and infections. We know after menopause that the estrogen we once had to control the stress response is now lower.
2. Changes in the ratio of good to bad bacteria. Many of these bad bacteria contain compounds called LPS, which are highly inflammatory.
3. As we age, we tend to produce less digestive enzymes which contribute to poor breakdown of our food. 
4. Our livers may be more taxed and less adept at clearing toxins from our body. 
5. There is also some very compelling research that gluten itself can cause a breakdown in the gut barrier. Even if not diagnosed with celiac, there are many cases of non celiac gluten sensitivity, which is way more common than people realize. 

So, you might be wondering how these all connect to food sensitivities. As we mentioned before, when the lining of the digestive tract is affected, it causes the gut to become permeable, otherwise known as leaky gut. Keep in mind the digestive tract is only one cell thick! 

Leaky gut is basically when the tiny spaces between the cells of the gut wall become larger, allowing substances such as bacteria, fungi, parasites, and toxic waste to pass through the gut wall into the bloodstream instead of traveling through the gut and being eliminated.  Then our immune system launches an attack and that is when we feel symptoms. 

So often we meet with clients who tell us they do not have any food sensitivities. But then they share that they experience a range of issues such as:  

fatigue, weight gain, muscle aches, or joint pain, headaches, migraines, eczema, or digestive distress, including gas, bloating, and reflux.

The problem is, when you are eating foods you are sensitive to regularly, it’s difficult to notice if you have a sensitivity to them. Oftentimes, people accept that the way they feel is the norm, not realizing they could feel so much better.  

Most people don’t think the food sensitivity is caused by the food they’ve been eating their entire lives.  They just think, “There must be something wrong with me. ” or “I’m just a low energy person” or they usually blame it on their slow metabolism, menopause, getting older or their bad genetics and they just live with it.  

Well we don’t want you to just live with it. We have seen such amazing changes in a very short time from discovering food sensitivities.

Keep in mind that food sensitivities are different and don’t often occur as a  striking reaction such as a skin breakout or difficulty breathing, which is more often the case with a food ALLERGY. 

In fact, food sensitivity reactions may appear up to 2 or 3 DAYS after eating the food.   

And with delayed reaction time, what are the chances that if you feel moody or lethargic on a Wednesday that you will think – hmm, I wonder if it was that milk I drank on Sunday that is causing me to feel this way?

Once people discover their food sensitivities and eliminate them, it can be life changing. 

The most common foods people have a sensitivity, or intolerance to, are dairy, wheat/gluten, peanuts, corn, soy and eggs. (Gluten is the protein portion of wheat, barley, and rye). 

In the case of something like gluten or casein in dairy, when their protein molecules “leak” into the bloodstream before they have a chance to be completely broken down, the immune system starts making antibodies against them because it sees them as foreign. The antibodies invade substances and go on the attack, leading to an inflammatory response. 

And again, these are the foods that people often end up craving, along with sugar, which is not good for our health.

We see this ALL the time in our practice. It only takes only ONE food to wreak havoc on your health and your ability to maintain a healthy weight, immunity, and more.

Food sensitivities are much more common than most people realize.

Millions suffer from sensitivities to foods and do not know it. 

Once you have identified these reactive foods, you will be amazed at how quickly your energy and health will increase.  

Food sensitivity testing can be fairly expensive and in our experience not as reliable as doing what we call an elimination diet. This is where you remove the most common offenders and see how you feel. Then you bring them back, one by one, to test them and see if it brings on a reaction. This gives you an opportunity to pinpoint if you have one of the more common food sensitivities. 

Food sensitivities are just one of the many things we address in our Mega Energy Breakthrough program that we run a few times a year.

You can find it on our website,  so check it out and get our guidance to see if food sensitivities may be causing some of the challenges you are currently experiencing.