The Golden Rule of Food Sensitivities

Food reactions are finally getting more attention

My email inbox has been full lately.

Articles about food allergies. New research. Conditions that are finally getting more attention, like alpha-gal syndrome and systemic nickel sensitivity.

And honestly? It's about time.

There are a lot of people out there trying to make sense of food reactions that don't fit neatly into a textbook.

Here's my one concern.

Medicine loves rules

We've all felt it at some point in our journey. If you have diabetes, you get the diabetes handout. If you have high blood pressure, you get the high blood pressure recommendations. If you have irritable bowel syndrome, you get the irritable bowel syndrome plan.

The food sensitivity world can fall into the same trap.

When trigger tracking becomes the whole strategy

A food causes symptoms and gets removed. Symptoms improve. Success!

Until another food causes symptoms. Then that food gets removed too.

And another.

And another.

Before long, the list of foods you can eat is getting smaller and smaller.

At first, it feels responsible and satisfying. You're paying attention, listening to your body and responding, all in an effort to simply feel better.

Perhaps you're doing exactly what you've been told to do.

But over time, something starts to shift. Food becomes complicated. Restaurants feel stressful. Travel requires planning. Social events become exhausting.

You spend more time researching what you can't eat than enjoying what you can.

And somewhere along the way, many people begin asking a question that breaks my heart a little:

"What am I supposed to eat now?"

If you've ever asked that question, you are not alone.

And you haven't failed.

You may simply be trying to solve a bigger problem with a strategy that can only take you so far.

Because removing triggers and understanding triggers are not the same thing.

When safe foods stop feeling safe

I've seen people remove gluten and feel better.

Then dairy and feel better.

Then eggs and feel better.

Then histamine becomes the problem.

Then supplements become the problem.

Then even the "safe foods" stop feeling safe.

Not because those foods were imaginary problems.

Not because the symptoms weren't real.

But because the story wasn't finished yet.

Listen to your body above all else

That's where my Golden Rule comes in.

Listen to your body above all else.

Not the internet or the latest podcast or article. And not the person in the Facebook group who swears they found the answer. (The answer for them, right? Not necessarily you.)

Listen to your body.

Because your body is giving you information all the time.

The mistake many of us make is assuming the information is only about the food.

What if it isn't? What if the food was simply the thing that got your attention? What if it just started the conversation?

The food may be the spark.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's the whole fire.

Genetics and epigenetics are clues, not more rules

This is one reason I like genetics and epigenetics as tools.

Not because they provide more rules.

Goodness knows most of us don't need more rules.

They provide clues about what may be uniquely shaping your body and your situation.

Genetics can tell us something about your body's baseline. How you tend to handle inflammation. Histamine. Detoxification. Stress. Nutrients.

Epigenetics looks at the things that influence those systems every day.

Sleep.

Stress.

Environment.

Food.

The goal is not to create a perfect list of foods to avoid for the rest of your life.

The goal is to better understand what your body is actually dealing with.

That's a very different strategy.

A better question than "What food caused this?"

One approach asks, what food caused this?

The other asks, what changed?

Both questions matter. But they are very different questions, and the answers may be very different, too.

Sometimes the most important question isn't what food caused this reaction?

Instead, what else changed that allowed this food to become a problem?

When we begin asking that question, food sensitivity stories often start making a lot more sense.

Not because we added more rules, but because we started asking better questions.

Sixty-Second Self-Care Tip

Think about a food that wasn't always a problem for you.

Maybe it was tomatoes.

Eggs.

Avocados.

Spinach.

Chocolate. (That one usually gets people's attention.)

Ask yourself two questions:

When did that food start becoming a problem?

What else was happening in your life around that time?

You don't need an answer today.

Just start noticing.

Sometimes the most helpful clue isn't the food.

Sometimes it's everything that was happening around the food.