When Food You Love Doesn't Like You

Rally's Food Review
Before my doctoral program - which required me to define to a specialty (sugar addiction) - I needed studied food intolerances.
Many books about the subject start with food reactions, then transfer to chemicals in our homes and offices, gasoline fumes, plus more. Important as those things are, they're not about nutrition.
My desire for food intolerances has always been their link with addiction.
Recently, I "attended" a webinar by J.J. Virgin, whose first book (I really believe) was on food intolerances and the ways to eliminate those foods to enhance health and lose weight. The webinar re-sparked my fascination with food intolerance and addiction.
Common triggers for food intolerance include chocolate, corn, soy, wheat (or other gluten-containing foods), peanuts, dairy, eggs, sugars and other sweeteners.
What Does Food Intolerance Look Like?
Signs and symptoms can include headache/migraine, joint pains, fatigue, sleepiness, tremors, depression, irritability, stomach pains, bloating, and others.
Because digested food moves through the bloodstream, the effects of the intolerance can show up almost anywhere in the body.

Big Buford

Food reactions could be the same every time food is eaten, such as a rash.
Or reactions might vary - say, a non-itchy rash 1 time and itching without any rash another time.
The response might be cumulative. Why not a small portion of the food causes no reaction, however a portion eaten again on that day, or several days consecutively, does causes one.
Addiction is yet another possible reaction that will develop over time.
What can cause Food Intolerances?
The causes are many, but let's keep it uncomplicated.
One cause can be a genetic intolerance or a tendency toward it.
We are able to become intolerant to a food we eat often or perhaps in large quantities. Overeating a food burns enzymes specific to digesting that food, so complete digestion is prevented.
That can lead to improperly digested food particles moving from the digestive tract and bloodstream, triggering an immune reaction. The undigested, unabsorbed food provides no nutrients.
We are able to also become reactive to some food we eat in addition to another triggering food. Therefore the list of triggering foods may grow, resulting eventually in malnutrition.
Food Reactions May Change Over Time
The guiding principle with the human body is homeostasis.
Each time a trigger food is first eaten, your body attempts to restore homeostasis by ridding itself from the offending food. It prevents absorption by attaching antibodies on the partially digested food while it's inside the intestine. That might successfully eliminate the food before it can pass into the bloodstream.
If the food does enter in the bloodstream, it can trigger inflammation. The acute reaction might be short, and the body may come back to homeostasis quickly.
If someone continues to eat a triggering food with time, the body undergoes an adaptation. The immune system may become slower (or fewer able) to respond. The reaction may now manifest slowly than the acute reaction. Signs may last longer, sometimes hours or days.
How Can That Become a Food Addiction?
The immune reply to a triggering food involves a discharge of stress hormones, opioids, such as endorphins (beta-endorphin), and chemical mediators like serotonin. A combination can produce temporary relief of symptoms through the analgesic action of endorphin and serotonin, plus mood elevation plus a feeling of relaxation.
By doing so, eating the triggering food might make someone feel better presently and even think your meals are beneficial.
Endorphin release typically involves a concomitant launch of dopamine. The combination of those two brain chemicals and serotonin forms what I've always referred to as "addictive package." Avoiding the food could lead to withdrawal.
After long-term use, someone may consume the triggering food to never experience the pleasure in the chemical "high," but to help remedy the distress and withdrawal with out them. It's almost textbook addiction.
How Does Intolerance/Addiction Affect Health?
As someone enslaved by a triggering food continues to eat more of it, the disease fighting capability must keep adapting, and may even become hyper-sensitized, reacting to a growing number of foods - in particular those eaten together with reaction-triggering foods, or with sugar.
The demand on the disease fighting capability can lead to immune exhaustion and degenerative reactions, depending on genetic weaknesses. The twelve signs and symptoms listed above are just a start.
Sugar could be a major player on this because it causes inflammation in the body and makes it weaker to food reactions. Eating triggering foods plus sugar causes it to be even more likely that new reactions will occur.
From the a book by Nancy Appleton, who suggested that eggs might trigger reactions in lots of people because they're usually eaten at breakfast with orange juice. Cake is an additional example: sugar plus wheat, eggs, milk.
Because the addictions continue, cravings occur, resulting in increased consumption. As more and more foods trigger an immune response, the result may be malnutrition, as explained above.
Stats claim that rates of food intolerance are rising. My theory is that it's at least aided by sugar in our diets - including sneaky sugars which are often viewed as healthful, including agave, fruit, fruit juice, and sweeteners.
Stopping the Cycle
Definitely quit any foods you think may be causing any reactions - although you may love them. Think about foods you eat with those triggering foods frequently, and consider eliminating those, at the same time. Above all, avoid sugar.
Follow your plan, as J.J. Virgin recommends, for several weeks.
In the meantime, maybe you have cravings. If so, use my proven, time-tested recommendation of the teaspoon of liquid B-complex (complete B-complex) to eliminating the craving within minutes.
Following the 3-week elimination, you have to be feeling - and looking - much better.