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All about food sensitivities and getting tested...
Hey Hey there Diva friends!!
Many of you may have seen my recent video talking about my MRT blood test results that showed me several SURPRISING food sensitivities that I have....if not keep reading! (or watch here-->)
"Whyyyyyyy??", "Are you KIDDING me?", "I can't believe I have a reaction to that""waaaahhh that's my favorite." Were just a few thoughts that ran through my mind as I read my results. But THEN it gave me hope. Hope that this is another piece to my puzzle of health...a missing link so to speak that can take me a few steps closer to where I want to be. Let me explain why...
When you are ingesting food that your body then has a negative reaction (sensitivity) to, this causes inflammation and a cascade of stress inside your body whether you can recognize it or not! The thing about food sensitivities is....you often don't "see" them. We are so used to looking at the dramatic examples with anaphylactic shock, hyves, swelling, etc....the only difference with a food sensitivity is it's you can't SEE it, so we often don't put 2 and 2 together, and/or we write it off as unimportant.
See how eating foods you are sensitive to can affect your gut here
For example...since it's not life threatening, shows up within DAYS instead of MINUTES, and can be related to what we consider "normal" things like gas, bloating, a day of bad poop, acne, etc....we often don't think about it or recognize the connection....but long term these "little" sensitivities can affect your hormone balance, immune system and potential, or susceptibility, for chronic disease!
What's even CRAZIER is that the most seemingly benign foods can be causing this which, in my case, is EXACTLY what was happening....
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This (potentially) explains SO MUCH! I had already eliminated the major common allergens - wheat and dairy. I was even pretty low on my consumption of grains and beans! But...after all that, I would still have some issues of bloating, fatigue, etc.... now granted, I've come a long way from the debilitating stomach pains, the kill me now PMS cramps that lasted for HOURS at a time and render me completely useless for the day, the rosacea on my face etc etc.... BUT even with all those amazing improvements I'm on a journey and want to see HOW healthy I can be! Feeling fatigued at the most inopportune times, struggling with getting my hormones back to a desired level.... those are things I am determined to solve...These things brought me to my FDN certification which in turn brought me to the MRT food sensitivities testing and I'm happy it did.
Come to find out, food I NEVER would have considered as being reactive are top on my list when I got the results back. Chicken, carrots, cinnamon, vanilla, blueberries, and avocado were all reactive foods (as were several others but these ones really hurt!). These are foods I eat not just regularly but weekly if not DAILY!!! Even MANY times a day!!! No WONDER I still have some recurring issues... my goodness!
So then - that gives me HOPE! While I have to eliminate everything on my reactive list (including BANANAS and mint!) for 90 days, I also expect to see some great results from that.
Another thing to keep in mind with food sensitivities is that they aren't always forever. When I get retested in 3 months or so, there is the potential that after fully eliminating the irritants and adding some things into my lifestyle and diet to HEAL my gut, the list may be much smaller. That's the goal!
One major reason I think EVERYONE should get this test is because of how HIDDEN these stressors can be! It's tough to detect on your own because not every sensitivity you have would be an obvious or even common one (hello chicken?!), so getting tested gives you a clear path forward.
It's not necessarily an easy thing to do - the test is an investment and if you aren't willing to put in the work I wouldn't waste the money. You HAVE to be willing to go through a mental transformation as well as a physical one because trust me - it can be overwhelming at first. But this I know. You CAN do it, and if you're willing to, I can help you get through it!
If you are interested in getting this test done make sure to send me an e-mail! Or go to my FDNP link at the top of the page to set up your FREE 30 minute discovery call to find out if working together is the right choice for you!
I'm looking forward to helping YOU reach YOUR optimum health goals too!
Bye for now!
If you didn't see my video check it out here! See my reaction, my results, and my PLAN!
3 Steps to Healing your Gut
Hey there Diva friends! Kylene here, enjoying this BEAUTIFUL day and thinking about all the wonderful things I want to share with you in the coming months....but today I'd like to talk about something I'm SUPER passionate about and that's gut health!
Have you ever wondered WHY everyone is suddenly getting food sensitivities, IBS, bloating, indigestion, acid reflux, celiac etc....? Why are autoimmune diseases becoming more and more prominent? Why are imodium, Ex-Lax, gas-x and tums part of every American's medicine cabinet? Why does everyone seem to have a sensitivity to SOMETHING?
Or maybe you haven't wondered...you just think that these things are part of life, aging, eating rich foods and that it's "normal"....
A few years ago I had INTENSE stomach pains. So bad in fact that I had to leave work several times because I would be doubled over on my desk incapable of doing anything productive. I remember one specific instance where I went home and took everything available in the medicine cabinet aka excedrin, pepto bismol, tums, ibuprofin....WHATEVER could help the pain go away. But nothing seemed to work!
This happened enough times that I was pretty concerned and thought "could I have an ulcer?""is it stress?" "What could this be?" I had nowhere near the understanding of nutrition and gut health that I do today, but somewhere in my mind I connected that maybe it had something to do with what I was eating....or rather drinking....so I cut out soda for YEARS. Thankfully after that the pain pretty much went away. That isn't to say that everything ELSE I was eating was healthy....but this is what I have found out. Our bodies are INCREDIBLE at healing themselves... and what I now believe I was struggling with is something called gut permeability. The soda exacerbated my already irritated gut lining, and removing it didn't necessarily HEAL it, but at least it stopped the pain.
What the heck is gut permeability?
So glad you asked :) Gut permeability is the fancy term for what is commonly referred to as "leaky gut". And that my friends is EXACTLY what it sounds like.
See these little guys? These are the little villi, or teeny tiny hairs, that line your small intestine! They are coated by even tinier hairs! These villi keep things moving in your gut - they wave around and protect your gut lining, absorb the nutrients you NEED, and keep the bigger and/or bad particles OUT of your blood stream. But what happens when you have leaky gut? These little guys can't do their job. The hairs get separated or damaged and then particles get into your blood steam that aren't meant to be there!!! Depending on the damage, large particles of food can fall in between the villi into the blood stream or if there is significant damage the particles can even be absorbed through them inappropriately.
This of course causes all sorts of irritation, inflammation and food sensitivities!
What Causes Gut Permeability?
Let me back up here for just a second because I just said that gut permeability can cause food sensitivities....but what do you think causes gut permeability in the first place? You guessed it.... food sensitivities! I'll explain:
Step 1) We eat food that causes irritation. Many foods we have been told are "healthy" are the worst culprits! The biggest reason for that is genetic modification - the "food" is no longer in it's created state and cannot be digested properly (an entirely separate blog post!)
Step 2) That food damages the villi and loosens the tight junctions in the gut, lowering our immune system, allowing food particles into the blood stream that shouldn't be there, and causing symptoms (p.s. symptoms are some of the LAST things to occur NOT the first!) like acid reflux, constipation, indigestion, pain, acne, bloating etc....by the time you feel symptoms, something is going wrong inside!
Step 3) Your gut is inflamed and irritated....because of that, many foods that may normally be fine are now being labeled by your body as irritants! For example: Let's say wheat and dairy (usually the top 2 most common inflammatory foods!) are the actual culprits that started step #1 in your body. Once you are having gut pain, intolerances, belching, etc....your body has probably labeled a few other foods as irritants as well. If at this point you took a food sensitivity test you may be alarmed at the long list of foods that are on it. "Avocado?! Eggs?! No way! I know these aren't bad for me and there's no way I can be sensitive to them" is what you might think. And in most cases you'd be right! The good news is that once your gut is healed many of those foods can be brought right back in with no problem. Foods that are KNOWN gut disrupters remain gone forever.
So how can I heal my gut?
Step 1
Remove the offensive foods. Whether or not you take a blood test to know the full list of irritants, there are many common offenders that everyone can try at home through a simple elimination diet. An elimination diet should last for approximately 1 month (or longer) and means that you eliminate any food that can cause inflammation, gut damage, or sensitivities. After that time you can go through a guided process of reintroducing those foods one by one into your diet to see how you react to them individually.
The most common irritants are grain (all), wheat (specifically) and dairy (depending on the person this can be all dairy or just low quality dairy). A few less common are legumes, nuts and nightshades (like tomatoes). Sugar is also inflammatory and processed sugar should be avoided.
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Step 2
Step 2 is crucial and step 1 and 2 will not be as successful without each other. While you are removing the foods that cause irritation you also need to bring in foods that can soothe, heal, and repair your gut!
My top 3 favorites are: Collagen, Bone Broth, and Gelatin. I love to add Collagen to my Shakeology, drink bone broth like coffee (homemade is the best!) and occasionally I'll make homemade jello from the gelatin! You can find a great Jello recipe HERE.
Fermented foods like Sauerkraut and kombucha are also really beneficial to boost your healthy gut bugs and a high quality probiotic is a good choice. A note on fermented foods and probiotics: If you begin taking these and notice bloating afterwards it may indicate some further bacterial issues and require further testing which leads me to step 3...
Step 3
Be willing to get some testing done, work with a practitioner, or coach that is familiar with the process and can help guide you through the elimination diet. Resources, encouragement, and knowing you are not alone can be invaluable! When I work with my clients sometimes they just need to be HEARD. We can laugh that they aren't crazy, and it makes the process more fun to have someone that can support you every step of the way. It's also great to have access to someone you can email and say "hey - I'm going out to eat is this ok?" or, "I'm really craving this right now - any recipes for me". They also find relief in knowing that I do the work of finding good recipes for them so they don't have to google, guess, and experiment!
Often when you have gut dysfunction you are struggling with several other things like skin issues, fatigue, hormone balance, joint pain, or more....The body is very connected and much of our health begins in the gut....which begins with what we eat! So it's great to work with someone who can guide you, test instead of guessing, encourage you, and help you resolve it from the ROOT cause - not just cover up a symptom!
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