Fighting Food Allergies

As I noted before, it is a rare digestive problem that remains confined to the gut. One consequence of poor diet, stress, medications, infections or toxins damaging the balance of normal gut function is that our ability to tolerate food we normally eat is impaired - in other words, we become sensitive or allergic to certain foods.

All these factors can damage the delicate lining of the small intestine, which, in turn, will harm healthy bowel bacteria, creating injury and inflammation in that one-cell layer of gut lining.

When that happens, we develop a leaky gut. Because many of our digestive enzymes (the chemicals that break down our food) are located right on that delicate epithelial layers that is now damaged, we cannot digest our food particles from normally innocuous foods "leaking" into our circulation.

And, because about 60 percent of our immune system is located in the gut, beneath that one-cell layer, our bodies react by increasing our immune response and generating inflammation. Our immune system, normally used to seeing fully digested foods (like proteins broken down into amino acids, fats broken down into fatty acids and carbohydrates broken down into simple sugars), suddenly "sees" foreign (meaning partially digested) molecules.

So it does what it is designed to do: attack and defend! That is how we create antibodies and develop IgG allergies to common foods. This is what makes us sick and fat, toxic and inflamed, depressed and anxious.