How to know if food sensitivity is getting in the way of your health

Is your diet giving you a headache? Do you often have cramps but not sure what the cause could be? The food we eat determines eighty percent of how healthy we live. Certain food we eat can react badly to our body system. Different people can have different reaction to the exact same food.

According to a recent study, there is an increasing rate of food sensitivity in 2016 compared to that in the previous years. No wonder people are obsessed with going gluten free and adopting vegan or vegetarian diet.

Most protein food are known to cause serious health problems. That you have not been diagnosed with celiac disease doesn’t mean you are free from having one. Just like any other diagnosis, celiac disease or gluten sensitivity doesn’t develop in a blink of an eye. The more you eat an offending food, the more you put your health at risk.

It can be tricky to know which food your body is sensitive to and which ones aren’t. Foods like wheat, egg, sugar, milk, peanut, soy and fish can have serious side effects to some people. Some children who have cabbage or broccoli can undergo complicated symptoms to an extent they are been prohibited from going to school.

When you eat an offending food, the immune system releases specific antibodies known as Histamine (a powerful chemical that affects the respiratory system, skin and cardiovascular system).

How to know when your body is sensitive to a certain food

Symptoms of food sensitivity can be different for everyone. But the most common symptoms are

Fatigue
Skin rashes/redness
Headache
Heartburn
Hives
Abdominal cramps
Low blood pressure
Diarrhea

Skin rashes: It’s possible to have skin rashes or itches even when you eat vegan diet or any other healthy diets. Some women develop skin rashes when they are pregnant. The best way to know if your skin rashes is as a result of the food you eat is to go for blood and skin allergy testing. Although sometimes allergy test results can be misleading. The safest way to detect the cause of your skin rash is to observe your diet every day for two weeks. Rashes appear approximately 48 hours after you eat an offending food. Eliminating the food you suspect to trigger your skin rashes from your diet will solve the mystery.

Hives: Hives appear on your skin when histamine is released in the blood vessel. Certain food, sunlight, cold, heat, or medication can cause histamine release. Fresh food like tomatoes, nuts, and fish can cause hives. When you notice a reddish swollen bump on your skin within an hour of eating a certain food; that should give you a heads up. It takes approximately six weeks before hives heals.

Abdominal cramps: How often do you have stomach ache? There is fifty percent chance that the food you eat is the cause. Abdominal cramps are pains in the abdomen: which includes the stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, gall bladder and pancrease pains. Abdominal cramps are as a result of gas, indigestion, infection or inflammatory bowel disease. However, certain food can also cause pains in the abdomen. Carefully eliminate milk, cheese, fried food, candies, alcohol and coffee one at a time from your diet and see if it helps. Some effective home remedies for abdominal cramps are rice water, warm lemon water or ginger tea.

Low blood pressure: It’s important to have regular check on your blood pressure status. A reading below 120/80 is low also known as “Hypotension” or “Low blood pressure”. Several conditions can result to a drop in blood pressure. When you eat an offending food, your blood shifts from the arteries to the capillaries. The skin, throat, or gut swells in volume, leaving a little blood in the blood vessel. Avoid potatoes, frozen food, sausage, bacon and processed food whenever you notice a drop in the blood pressure.

Diarrhea: Diary products such as milk, yogurt and cheese are a warning signs for food sensitivity. However, high fiber food can also cause diarrhea when consumed in excess. Include sweeteners, spicy food, broccoli and cabbage in your list of food sensitivity.