The Dangers of Undiagnosed Food Allergies: Breaking Down Instead of Breaking Out

Food is intended to replenish your cells, nourish your organs, and give you the energy you need to do all the things in your life that bring you joy. Yet sometimes this process backfires and meal times leave you bloated, exhausted, and unmotivated.

So what goes wrong?

One of the often overlooked causes of feeling “bad” after eating is food allergies and food intolerances.

When your immune system mistakes good food for a foreign invader, it sets up a cascade of inflammatory reactions to “kill it”, leading to pain, inflammation, and dysfunction in your body.

Most people don’t even realize anything’s wrong… at first.

Even If You’re Not Breaking Out, You May Still Be Breaking Down

Conventional medicine discounts the importance of food allergies in solving chronic health challenges and persistent body fat issues, save for those outwardly manifesting allergies that cause an immediate skin reaction or inability to breathe.

For those types of food allergies, the solution is clear from a medical perspective: avoid the food and if you accidentally get exposed, take an anti-histamine medication or a shot of epinephrine.

But what about the other kinds of food allergies – the insidious ones that contribute to chronic symptoms and health challenges? The problem with detecting these types of food intolerances is that the reaction is often not immediate, so it takes a lot of detective work to determine what foods are causing the problem.

Food allergies are tested for and managed by many alternative practitioners, yet there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about what they are, what causes food allergies, and whether these allergies can be overcome.

So, What’s Your Poison?

It’s possible that many “healthy” foods are not so good for you. It is said that “one man’s food is another man’s poison,” and this is so true when it comes to food allergy reactions. Even highly nutritious foods like broccoli or blueberries can induce an immune response that leaves you ill.

Your immune system is a double edged sword. The same reactions that can protect you from dangerous microbes can inflame and damage your essential body tissues and lead to chronic health issues.

What Happens When You Ignore Food Allergies and Intolerances?

Chronic over activity of your immune system can lead to problems like:

• weight gain
  
• depression
• joint pain
• fatigue
• headaches
• indigestion
• asthma
• eczema
• fibromyalgia
• autoimmune conditions
• autism
• attention deficit disorder
• and many more

So what causes your immune system to get confused and attack good food?

We’ll cover a few here and invite you to learn the details at a brand new, hot off the press, FREE teleseminar on January 3rd, 2012 called Turning Food Allergies Inside Out: Revealing the Causes, Culprits, and Cures. You’ll find the details below.

The Causes of Food Allergies

There are many causes of food allergies and intolerances, but here is a list of the most common (References are published below for further reading).

1. Infancy Food Exposure: Exposure to foods other than breast milk during the first few months of life can contribute to food allergies. Your digestive tract was designed to be able to allow larger molecules through during early life so that your mom could nurse you, pass on the protective antibodies from her immune system, and protect you. Unfortunately, what also passes through her milk are her food antibodies too.
   In addition, if you are fed anything other than breast milk in those early months, those openings in your digestive tract work against you and allow proteins from cow’s milk or soy, the most common foods in infant formula, to pass into your blood stream and create an immune reaction. (1) (2)
2. Immunizations: If you were immunized, the goal was to create a protective immune response to the injected substances. Unfortunately, carrier substances injected with the immunizations include things like egg albumin, which can cause you to become allergic to eggs.(3)
3. Antibiotics: Within the first year of life, intake of antibiotics has been associated with increased risk of food allergy. (4)
4. Antacids: The use of antacids impair stomach acid production and leads to the poor digestion of proteins. These undigested proteins irritate the delicate lining of your intestine, eventually eroding it enough so that the larger molecules enter your blood stream and mount an immune system attack. (5) (6)
5. Gluten: Gluten-containing foods inflame and damage your intestinal mucous membrane and result in Leaky Gut Syndrome. As a result large, undigested protein molecules enter your blood stream and your immune system attacks them. (7)
6. Stress: Eating when stressed causes increased cortisol production, which shuts down your digestion and can lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome. (9)
7. Sugar: Eating sugar disrupts normal intestinal flora and disrupts digestion. (10)

How to Tell if You Have a Potential Food Allergies or Intolerance

How do you know if food allergies may be contributing to your health concerns? Take this short self assessment quiz and find out for yourself:

1. Do you feel tired after eating?
2. Do you frequently clear your throat after meals?
3. Do you feel like you need looser pants at the end of the day?
4. Do you crave certain foods (like bread, cheese, and other snack foods) and feel the urge to eat more even if you feel full?
5. Do you feel like your pulse and heart beat become rapid after eating certain foods?
6. Do you have inflammation and pain for which you haven’t found a cause?
7. Have you been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease?
8. Do you experience belching, bloating, gas, or pain after eating?
9. Do you have persistent extra weight in spite of a low calorie diet and exercise?
10. Do you have asthma?
11. Do you have difficulty focusing that comes and goes?
12. Have you lost your motivation for things you used to enjoy?
13. Do you need to urinate frequently?
14. Do you have an irritable bowel?
15. Do you have unexplained bouts of depression, anxiety, or irritability?
16. Do you have frequent skin rashes, eczema, or psoriasis?

If you answered yes even to ONE of these, you might have an undiagnosed food allergy. If you answered yes to 3 or more you most certainly do.

For the full scoop on food allergies and how they are affecting your health, your energy, and your life, join me on January 3rd, 2012 for a free teleseminar:

Turning Food Allergies Inside Out: Revealing the Causes, Culprits, and Cures
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012, 7:30 p.m. Central

This food allergy teleseminar will cover:

• What’s happening in your body that causes your immune system to start attacking your food
• The step-by-step sequence of events that occurs during a food allergy reaction
• The most common food triggers
• The role of your digestive tract in causing and clearing food allergies
• Elimination diets and how they work
• Lab testing for food allergies
• Retesting culprit foods
• Enjoying your food, loving your life

I’ll go into even more detail about the effects of food allergies, so be sure to join us:

Register HERE!

If you’re tired of being tired, unfocused, and uncomfortable, or if you are sick of the weight that just won’t budge despite your best efforts, you owe it to yourself to explore whether food allergies are contributing to your ill health.

Learn how to become energetic, happy, and productive once more.

Food Allergy References

(1) Analysis of Intestinal Flora Development in Breast-Fed and Formula-Fed Infants by Using Molecular Identification and Detection Methods. Harmsen, Hermie J. M.; Wildeboer-Veloo, Alida C. M.; Raangs, Gerwin C.; Wagendorp, Arjen A.; Klijn, Nicolette; Bindels, Jacques G.; Welling, Gjalt W. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition: January 2000 – Volume 30 – Issue 1 – pp 61-67.

(2) Influence Of Maternal Good Antigen Avoidance During Pregnancy and Lactation on Incidence of Atopic Eczema in Infants. R. K. Chandra; S. Puri; C. Suraiya; P. S. Cheema. Clinical & Experimental Allergy: Volume 16, Issue 6, pp 563-569, November 1986.

(3) Is Infant Immunization a Risk Factor for Childhood Asthma or Allergy? Trudi Kemp; Neil Pearce; Penny Fitzharris; Julian Crane; David Fergusson; Ian St. George; Kristin Wickens; and Richard Beasley. Epidemiology Vol. 8, No. 6 (Nov., 1997), pp. 678-680 (article consists of 3 pages) Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3702662

(4) Antibiotic Administration Early in Life Impairs Specific Humoral Responses to an Oral Antigen and Increases Intestinal Mast Cell Numbers and Mediator Concentrations. S. Nutten; A. Schumann; D. Donnicola; A. Mercenier; S. Rami; and C. L. Garcia-Rodenas. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2007 February; 14(2): 190-197. Published online 2006. December 6. doi: 10.1128/CVI.00055-06.

(5) Anti-Acids Lead to Immunological and Morphological Changes in the Intestine Of BALB/C Mice Similar to Human Food Allergy. Isabella Pali-Schöll; Ali Ö. Yildirim; Ute Ackermann; Tanja Knauer; Christoph Becker; Holger Garn; Harald Renz; Erika Jensen-Jarolim; Heinz Fehrenbach. Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology: Volume 60, Issues 4-5, 5 August 2008, pp. 337-345.

(6) Food Allergy: Recent Advances in Pathophysiology and Treatment. Annual Review of Medicine Vol. 60: 261-277 (Volume publication date February 2009). Scott H. Sicherer and Hugh A. Sampson. The Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574.

(7) Intestinal Permeability in Patients with Eczema and Food Allergy. P.G Jackson; R.W.R Baker; M.H Lessof; Jean Ferrett; D.M Macdonald. The Lancet Volume 317, Issue 8233, 13 June 1981, pp. 1285-1286.

(8) Stress and Intestinal Disease. By Adam Moeser. http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ccmtr/documents/Moeser.pdf

(9) Your Hidden Food Allergies are Making You Fat. Rudy Riera, MD and Roger Davis Deutsch.

(10) The Pulse Test. Arthur F. Coca.

(11) Dr, Mandellss 5 Day Allergy Relief System.

(12) Food Allergy Survival Guide. Vesanto Melinda MS, RD.

Explanations and Exclamations for “Belly Fat, Brain Fog, and Burnout!”

If you’ve been following our newsletter or if you subscribe to the blog, then you’ll know we’ve been focusing on helping people fight fat, fog, and fatigue.  Dr. Ritamarie’s brand new 5-part FREE Video Series Bye-Bye Belly Fat, Brain Fog, and Burnout was juuuust released on Friday and it’s already receiving an overwhelming response of comments and subscribers. 

To see why the buzz has been so exciting, Click HERE!

How to Fix Your Fat, Fog, and Fatigue:

While many people want to change their lifestyle, so many have struggled to find long-term success because the programs they attempt to follow fail to address the underlying conditions that created the weight gain, cloudy thinking, and energy drain in the first place.  This series puts a spotlight on the biochemical individual reactions that may be occurring in your body.

Every other day or so, until the final Webinar on September 7th, 2011, a new video in the series will be released including:

• Video #1: 3 NOT-So-Sexy Hormone Imbalances
• Video #2: The Dangers that Lurk Around Your Midline: Balance Your Blood Sugar Naturally
• Video #3: Breaking Through the Fog
• Video #4: Quenching the Fire of Burnout
• Video #5: B4 it’s Too Late!
• Webinar: Mend Your Metabolism and Maximize Your Vitality! 
  • Including bonuses such as Breakthroughs that Balance and Foods that Flatten Your Belly, Focus your Mind, and Fight Fatigue!

Even though ONLY TWO videos have been released so far, it’s exciting to see the comments and stories that are already being shared:

Comments on Video #1: 3 NOT-So-Sexy Hormone Imbalances:

• I am so thrilled to be hearing what you are sharing about hormones, cortisol, adrenal glands, thyroid, growth hormone and brain fog/belly fat!!! The DC I am seeing recently told me the same thing you reviewed in this video and right now I’m taking natural ways to clear my liver and getting rid of cortisol thru exercise. Your explanation of eating… is something he did not mention, he didn’t go into the growth hormone aspect of it all yet, so I am thankful to have a heads-up on this so I can put this into practice also! What a blessing to learn this, and you put everything into such easy-to-understand terminology…good thing since brain fog can make things a little bit harder to absorb at times LOL! Thank you so much!!!  - Stacy
• Dr Ritamarie:
  Thank you for all the information. You explain things in a way that is so very easy to understand. I always learn something new when I listen to your classes. As someone who just stopped taking cortisone, what I learn in your Webinars is priceless in helping me regain fantastic health. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.
  Muchas gracias,  - Beatriz

You can read these and see all the comments when you sign up here and open the link to Video #1!

Video #2 was just released a few hours ago and already we’re receiving feedback.

Comments on The Dangers that Lurk Around Your Midline:

• I was very glad to receive this notice from you for these online courses. My doctor is the standard “eat less, excercise more” type, but with little guidance. I have hypothyroidism, sleep apnea, osteo-arthritis (one hip replacement), Factor V Leiden (genetic blood clotting disorder, overweight… I identify with all the symptoms; I am supposed to have the other hip replaced, but, the doctors want me to lose weight, of course to eliminate a risk factor, understandably. I haven’t felt like myself in many years… I am now 63. I have looked into “raw foods”, but don’t seem to fully get onto it… hunger wins out. BUT, I am open….. still… bring it on. – Sheryl

You can share YOUR comments when you sign up here.  You’ll have instant access to both Video #1 and Video #2!

We all know some people are more ready than others for natural lifestyle changes.  While excess belly fat, brain fog, and burnout may seem like superficial conditions, they can be symptoms of more serious illness. Dr. Ritamarie recently lost some close family members to conditions that could have been addressed through a better understanding of how the body works and the underlying causes of disease.  This 5-part video series is her free gift of education to the world to prevent others from suffering.

We hope you’ll share it with those you know.  Let’s help spread education instead of midlines!

Click HERE to watch the free 5-part series, Bye-Bye Belly Fat, Brain Fog, and Burnout! 

Sunshine and Fun are Vital to Your Health

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Austin, today.  Before I go outside and enjoy it, I thought I’d take a moment to connect. 

I encourage you to please use your weekend to regenerate your energy from the week. 

Get outdoors and replenish your vitamin D stores.  I am discovering lots of vitamin D deficiencies in working with people lately.  And be sure to refrain from washing with soap on the exposed areas for 48 hours after you get your vitamin D sunshine dose, or you may decrease your absorption of what your skin creates fromt he sunshine.  It can take up to 48 hours for the Vitamin D to be fully absorbed.  That explains why iI’ve been seeing deficiencies even in sun worshipers who dont use sunscreen.  

 Also important for your health is having fun.  What will you do that’s fun today?  Comment below.  Please respect the importance of fun and recreation.  They are up there with fresh raw and living foods and exercise.

If you live in or near Austin, join me and my friends for a raw foods potluck tonight.  Go to www.drritamarie.com/potluck  for more information and sign up to be part of the action at www.drritamarie.com/meetup.

Have a wonderful day.

Wishing you Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Taking Care of YOU – Slow Down and Enjoy Each Moment to Protect Yourself from Cancer

It’s been a week to remember and all the messages I’ve received all week were “slow down” and “take care of yourself”.

A couple were obvious…others more subtle.

I don’t consider myself a tired person; quite the contrary.  My energy seems almost without limit.  I sleep very little, am constantly on the move and I get a lot accomplished.  Yet a nagging voice in the back of my mind has been wondering if I may be causing some hidden damage to myself by sleeping so little.

On Wednesday evening I ran into to technical challenges with the teleconference for Week 3 of my Balance My Body Blueprint course.  I had a slide presentation ready to go, and was all set to launch into new territory.  The technical challenges prevented participation on the web, where more than half my students participate.  So I decided to do a question and answer segment.  It was just the right thing to do.  I was able to answer lots of questions, and even helped a few people to determine the probable cause of long standing health challenges.  Wow.  Slow down.  Most people were not ready to jump into what I had planned.  They were perfectly fine with slowing down and getting their questions answered.

On Thursday, I was moving quickly through my kitchen, and caught my slipper on a door stop.  It sent me flying through the air and I landed hard on the tile floor. My left arm hit first, and it hurt so badly that I immediately thought it was broken.    While I had lots of plans for the rest of the day and the next, I spent most of the time in bed, icing my arm and resting.  Slow down.  It took an injury to get me to get a good night’s sleep.  It’s recovering nicely now, as evidenced by the fact that I can type today.  Yesterday I could barely hunt and peck with one hand.

I’m getting small messages, and I’m taking them to heart.  Better listen to the soft calls than to wait for a big one.

Earlier this week I received the sad news that a dear friend had died of cancer.  She was a young woman, in her forties, and she’s survived by her husband and four children.  The children are young.  Her oldest  is about the same age as my youngest.  And now they are without their Mommy, and the world will no longer experience the joy of Anna’s sweet, kind heart and loving and giving nature.

I’ve experienced the loss of a loved to cancer several times over the past 5 years.  And while the importance of diet and detoxification are high on my list of cancer prevention techniques, Anna’s death forces me to really look at the bigger picture.

Anna was a raw food enthusiast. I met her at an Alissa Cohen Teacher training.  She was the founder of Purely Delicious magazine.   She was excited about sharing what she learned about the health benefits of raw and living foods with the world.  Still, she got breast cancer.  Sure, her diet wasn’t perfect, and we can point fingers at her imperfections, and blame them for her cancer.  Yet others, many of my family members included, eat way less “perfectly”  than Anna did, and use toxic home and body care products and drink tap water, and they don’t have cancer…yet.

The sad truth is that almost 50% of us will get cancer. Perhaps not  all will die as a result, yet it’s an alarming statistic nonetheless.

While it may be easy for skeptics and critics of the living foods lifestyle to use Anna’s story as an excuse to just let it all go and eat whatever they want, it’s important to look beyond, and continue to hold the utmost respect for the value of high antioxidant, unrefined, whole fresh plants as a vital element in keeping you healthy.

I could quote from all sorts of research right about now, and try to convince you from an intellectual level of the importance of diet in protecting you from cancer, yet I’d rather speak to you from my heart. It’s easy to hear Anna’s story and become fearful, and doubt your choice to lead a healthy life and eat a healthy diet.  The truth is, there’s a big picture here.  And many of its parts are a somewhat mysterious.

Cancer is always caused by exceeding your body’s ability to detoxify and repair. Cancer starts almost daily in just about everyone, and is quickly thwarted by an intact immune system and a working detoxification system.

The choices you make daily effect your ability to detoxify and thwart cancer before it takes over. Those include the quality and quantity of the water you drink, how much sunshine you get on bare skin, your movement, your thoughts, your feelings – fear and judgment create a breeding ground for cancer–how much fun you have, how much deep restful sleep you get, the quality of the air you breathe and of course, your diet.

There are so many  elements that determine your cancer risk…and your ability to be healthy.  Some may appear to be beyond your control:

1. Genetics: some of us were born with genetic variations, called single neucleotide polymorphisms, aka SNPs (pronounced snips), that make it difficult to detoxify our environment without a little extra help.
2. Your Mom’s Emotional State when she was pregnant with you. You may have been born with worn out adrenals and low cellular energy as a result, making you prone to cancer and other illnesses.
3. Your Mom’s nutritional status and toxic exposures while she was pregnant with you. If she was depleted, you were born with nutritional imbalances.
4. Early feeding:Whether you were breast or bottle fed and what your early solid foods were determine the state of your digestive tract and immune system.  Leaky gut and immune system problems can increase your risk of cancer and other illnesses.

Many people embark on a health journey and address a single aspect.   I see many living foods diet followers who don’t exercise, or stay indoors all the time, or push themselves hard and don’t sleep enough (like me).  It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that the good food can compensate for shortcomings in the others, but very often it cannot.

It’s time to look at the big picture.  Sometimes just eating a healthy diet isn’t enough.

As a mother of 4 and editor  and chief cook and bottle washer for a quarterly publication, Anna had no time left for herself. Even after she found out she had breast cancer, she continued to put others first, until she had to slow down.  Unfortunately, it was too late for Anna.  She opted for chemotherapy and radiation out of fear and perhaps desperation.

Most likely one or more of the early factors were at play with Anna.   Yet, in spite of your genetics, early exposures and maternal environment,  you can do what it takes to give yourself the best possible healthy and happy life.  Once you identify the early factors that may be at play, through a combination of  family history and genetic testing, there are steps you can take to correct for the inborn and early deficits.

It’s important to take inventory of your life and self correct where you can.  If you’re not sleeping enough because you’re not going to bed at a reasonable hour (guilty as charged) then make a different choice.  If you’re not sleeping enough because you have difficulty falling or staying asleep, you might have a hormonal imbalance.  Adrenal imbalance and insulin dysfunction are the most likely culprits and they are both correctable.

If you have a lot of stress in your life (who doesn’t)  you owe it to yourself to master techniques for transforming the negative impact on your body to positive.

Enhance your body’s detoxification systems, harness the power of blended greens and drink your greens at least once a day.  Look for the positive and practice appreciation.  Get in touch with really matters to you, and make daily choices that are consistent with your highest good.

Take care of others, but not at the expense of yourself. It’s important to take time for fun and pleasure each day, even for just a few moments.

No one can predict the length of your life – that’s out of your control.  You can effect the quality of your life and decrease the likelihood of suffering as Anna did by making conscious and consistent choices to put your self first. Yes, you need to put yourself first.  It is only by taking care of your needs that you have the energy and ability to take care of others.  And if we all took better care of ourselves, there would be a lot less need to take care of others.

Love yourself. Slow down and have fun daily.   Choose happiness daily and allow good health to follow.

In memory of Anna Tipps, friend, Mom wife, daughter, teacher and kind hearted loving soul.  You will be missed.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Gluten-Free Snack Recipe: Sour Cream and Onion Daikon Curls

On Sunday I hosted a living foods potluck dinner.  It was so much fun.  I thought I’d share a recipe that was so good, it was gone before dinner even started.    This recipe works well with macadamia nuts substituted for the cashews.  I tried a variation with sweet potatoes and carrots when I ran out of daikon and it was delicious.

Daikon is a great choice this time of year because it’s such a powerful immune booster and mucous dissolver.

Sour Cream and Onion Daikon Curls

contributed by Gretchen Burk, Austin Texas

Equipment Needed: Dehydrator, Spiralizer or Vegetable Peeler and Blender

Ingredients

• 2-3 large daikon radishes
• 1 small or 1/2 medium onion
• 1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley
• 7-8 cloves garlic
• 1 whole green onions 4 inches of the greens from another green onion
• 3/4 cup cashews, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Ume Plum Vinegar (Oshawa brand, available at most natural grocers)
• 3 1/2 tablesooons lemon juice
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon real salt or pink salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Put all ingredients except daikon and the extra green onion tops in blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add extra water if needed.
2. Pulse the extra green onion tops in to just break them up.
3. Use the spiralizer on the ribbon setting to create long curls from the daikon.
4. Add the onion sour “cream” mixture to the daikon to just coat. If you have extra, use it as a dip.
5. Place the coated daikon on the mesh dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 12-24 hours to desired texture. They stay chewy.

Variation: use macadamia nuts instead of cashews.  Substitute sweet potatoes or carrots for the daikon.

Gretchen Burk is a gifted healer and a whiz in the kitchen.  I’ve personally sampled her body work sessions and her food, and I’m hooked.  Gretchen’s practice as a healing arts professional includes Swedish, Sports and Deep Massage, Structural Bodywork, Shiatsu  and  energy healing, including Reiki and Jin Shin Jyutsu.  Gretchen’s advanced body awareness and knowledge of anatomy & physiology significantly enhance her ability to help restore her clients’ health. I always feel great after a session with Gretchen.  She can be reached at 512-971-4543