My Truth Behind Food Sensitivity

Everybody is talking about food sensitivity these days, myself included, but is the food sensitivity really the issue. After years of working with thousands of individuals with food sensitivities, I will share that the sensitivities themselves are not the main issue. Before I address what I feel are the true issues we are dealing with let me first share that we do not want to ignore food sensitivity because this is a huge problem in our culture. If you are consuming a food that you are sensitive to this does create a host of issues, such as:

• inflammation
• poor digestion
• weak immunity
• adrenal insufficiency
• brain degeneration
• liver congestion

So obviously if you have been tested and you know you are sensitive to gluten, dairy, corn and soy (as example), it would be essential that you give these foods up while you work on healing the bullet point above. Your big question may be, if foods we are sensitive to need to be eliminated and this leads to challenges with the areas in the bullet points, why is it that I am suggesting that the food sensitivities are not the true issue? Well, here you go…. I often see clients with an entire “laundry list” of foods that they cannot eat due to sensitivity but most of the foods themselves are not the real issues for many. I feel that the food is not the issue, it’s what we have done to the food that is the issue. Here is the list of true issues in my mind.

• Americanized Wheat – Wheat that we “enjoy” in the United States and Canada are hybridized and deamitized which are processes that increase the likelihood of sensitivity. This on top of the fact that wheat is typically stored for long periods of time before use, which most often leaves a buildup of mold and other aflatoxins, thus increasing reactivity even further.
• Genetically Modified Foods – GMO foods have undergone significant scientific research and have been found to cause countless challenges for our health and the one area that I feel is the most significant is the increase in food sensitivity due to weakened immune, brain, digestive, adrenal and liver function. An amazing resource for research on GMO foods is Mom’s Across America.
• Conventionally Grown Food Sources – When we are consuming fruit and vegetables sprayed with chemicals, meat products fed antibiotics and hormones, and farm raised fish and seafood consuming the same, we should expect food sensitivity because of the impact this has on the digestive, immune, brain and adrenal function.
• Our Culture’s Stress Levels – We are under significant amounts of stress on a regular basis and even worse, most of us have not been taught healthy ways of perceiving stress and releasing this. As our stress becomes chronic this will also have a significant impact on digestive, immune, brain and adrenal function as well as the body holistically. This is why emotional release is such an essential part of the Depke Wellness protocols and we are blessed to have one of the best in this field with Sue Ingebretson in our office. Read Sue’s latest article on emotional release here.

When we put all these factors together, which is the case for many of us, the immune system becomes dysregulated, thus leading to an autoimmune type of response to what may otherwise be very healthy foods. This could also lead to multiple chemical sensitivity. So if all we do is keep looking at our food sensitivity and continually drop more and more food choices out of our diet, this truly is not the answer to your problems. So what is the answer to the problem? If you are one of the lucky ones and have not developed food sensitivity, follow the guidelines above and move to the use organically grown, natural food choices and address your perceptions and responses to stress in your life. You would not believe the impact this can have on your long term. If you are like the rest of us though, myself included, living with food sensitivity, there is a path to healing that would create a potential of getting food choices back into your diet. As example, I was originally “off the charts” sensitive to dairy. I eliminate dairy for 18 months while addressing the gut/brain connection, adrenal function, inflammation and immunity, then reintroduced dairy and retested. Much to my surprise, I tested fine for dairy and now allow this on occasion. Trust me, it is nice to have some butter and cheese again! Here is the process recommend to get to the core of your food sensitivity issues:

1. Test for current food sensitivities and eliminate these foods for 12 months while addressing what is laid out below.
2. Fundamentals of health including eating clean, whole foods and addressing stress in your life
3. Assess and address adrenal function. If you have yet to take the FREE adrenal stress profile assessment click here.
4. Test for gut pathogens and address the gut/brain/immune connection.
5. Reduce or eliminate your inflammation.
6. Address toxicity with a healthy detoxification and elimination program.
7. After 12 months and going through this process, add in your reactive foods in a rotation diet and retest for sensitivity.
8. You can now add in small amounts of the foods that have been cleared while continuing to eliminate the other food choices that you continue to react to.
9. Continue with the fundamentals of health and healing protocols needed personally.
10. Retest after another 6 months of this process.

Some food choices may actually be tied into a deeper genetic challenge and you may never get them back but the reality is, this would be a very small amount for most people. Remember the key through all of this is to eliminate GMO foods, food choice that have been sprayed with chemicals, protein sources fed antibiotics and hormones and change how you perceive and react to stress in your life. That’s my truth on food sensitivity! Visit the Depke Wellness Facebook page here. If you have any comments or questions in regard to this article, leave a post below and it will be addressed personally.