Supporting your digestion with raw foods and supplemental enzymes will help in all food allergies and food intolerance. As I explained earlier, proper digestion is a key factor in eliminating food allergy symptoms. Let’s take a look at the digestive process so you can understand why digestion is so important. Digestion begins in the mouth. When we chew our foods, food particles are mixed with enzymes in the saliva called amylase. Then the partially digested food gets swallowed and enters the stomach. The stomach churns the food and secretes hydrochloric acid to sterilize the food and break it down further.
The stomach relies on enzymes contained in raw foods to help break down the foods we eat. If the food was processed or cooked, it will be devoid of enzymes, so the pancreas and liver have to kick in to produce enzymes to aid the digestion process. After all this takes place, the food (now called chyme) enters the small intestines where it begins the process of being absorbed by tiny protrusions inside the intestines called villi. Sounds good, you say? So what’s the problem? Plenty of things can go wrong along the way, and here are a few:
- If the stomach did not have enough hydrochloric acid available to digest properly,
- If the liver and pancreas couldn’t come up with the right amount of enzymes to properly break down the food, and
- If you didn’t start off your digestive process correctly because you wolfed down your meal, inhibiting the proper amount of amylase enzyme needed to do a complete job, then troubles begin.
This inefficient digestion (caused by improper food and improper eating habits) will leave us vulnerable to undigested food particles passing through to the blood stream. The blood stream is the vehicle the body uses to distribute nutrients to the rest of the body. When food is properly broken down to its correct size, the immune system politely acknowledges it just as a friendly police officer would tip his hat to a lawabiding passerby, and expresses no need for concern.
However, when a big ol’ food particle passes through, and doesn’t fit the profile of a properly digested particle (i.e., law-abiding citizen), the body recognizes it as an invader and sends off the alarms for the immune system (our internal police) to go into attack mode! When the immune system is trying to get rid of foreign invaders, you will usually experience some type of allergy-type symptom. This is what makes it so important to supply the body enzymes with the cooked foods we eat and to chew thoroughly. It not only will help your digestion, but will aid in calming an overly stimulated immune system and will help put your allergies to rest.
Many different symptoms can be linked to or caused by food allergies or food intolerance, including these:
➤ Respiratory ailments
➤ Skin reactions and rashes
➤ Mood swings
➤ Restriction of bronchials
➤ Migraines or headaches
➤ Racing heart or palpitations
➤ Copious mucus production
➤ Fatigue
➤ Flatulence and belching
➤ Heartburn
➤ Diarrhea or constipation
Sometimes food intolerance is created over the years by eating a food every day. For instance, allergy to wheat is one of the most common food allergies. Wheat can be found in almost everything these days, including pasta, breads, crackers, and cereals. It’s not that wheat is bad, but eating a food over and over can deplete our body’s enzymes for breaking down that particular food. This can lead to improper digestion of the food, and when improperly digested food particles pass into the blood stream, they are unrecognizable to your immune system. As a result, your body considers these particles foreign bodies that should be attacked.
This attack of your immune system may be experienced as allergy symptoms. The best way to find out if you are intolerant or allergic to a food is to eliminate it from your diet completely for a couple weeks. Watch the signals your body gives you as you abstain. Sometimes you will drool, have wild cravings, get grouchy, or have headaches for the first few days. This withdrawal is a good indication that you might have had a food allergy. After a couple weeks, eat a small portion of the food again. You should be able to tell right away if you are experiencing any negative effects from the food. You can also take a pulse test to see if you might have a food allergy.
Once you know what you are allergic to, you will need to eliminate it while you build up your enzyme reserves in the body again. The most common food allergies are to wheat, corn, eggs, peanuts, dairy, citrus fruits, MSG and other food additives, chocolate (oh no!), and vegetables of the nightshade family (tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplant, potatoes).
