Ep. 295: Can Food Intolerances Be Fixed?

In this episode, Stacy and Sarah discuss if this food intolerance is gonna be forever.

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If you enjoy the show, please review it in iTunes! The Paleo View (TPV), Episode 295: Can Food Intolerances Be Fixed?

• Intro (0:00)
• News and Views (0:40)
  • Welcome back listeners, Sarah and Stacy are no longer sitting awkwardly close to each other!
  • Sarah and Stacy reminisce about their visit together, eating good food and playing lots of games.
  • Stacy and Sarah's kids got along really well and had a great time playing together in shared nerdiness.
  • Sarah's family's spring break plans got cut short due to one of the girls getting a cold.
  • After Stacy's family left Sarah's house, they drove 10 hours home.
    • They slept one night at home and then Matt and Stacy took a quick trip to New York.
      • They saw Cursed Child (Harry Potter for those of you who don't know).
    • They were supposed to go see it in London, but they had to cancel when Matt's brother passed.
    • Stacy had given up on the idea of going to see the play, but got lucky and score pre-show tickets in NY.
    • Friedman's is Stacy's new favorite gluten-free restaurant in New York- it's very allergen friendly!
• Listener Question (14:19)
  • Merit asks, "Thanks for putting out such a great, informative and fun podcast. I'm really enjoying it. My question is about food sensitivities and how to get rid of them. I am an RD and I have wondered about this for a long time. I'm familiar with the leaky gut principle and how that leads to food allergies or sensitivities, but in many cases like my own, I have a pretty clean diet and have worked on digestive health for a long time. What I'm getting at is, if we are healthy people, shouldn't we be able to tolerate a wide variety of foods? Is there a missing piece I'm not getting? If it's possible to broaden the diet (with nutrient dense foods) because that would be so wonderful! I read a book recently and talked to the author, who said many of the food intolerance can be "fixed" by changing the gut microbiota. Seems logical but also not entirely obvious if people (like myself) feel great and experience good digestive function IF we don't eat the foods we are sensitive to. In my case, it's eggs. Boy would I love a way to tolerate them again! Thanks so much for your time gals."
    • When they started their Paleo journey, Stacy was hopeful that her boys would be able to tolerate some foods in the future, like high quality dairy and eggs.
    • Sarah and Stacy have both re-introduced different foods they were previously intolerant to.
    • This is a very individualized concept because everyone is so different.
      • This makes it challenging to predict if a food can be successfully reintroduced or not.
    • There are several different types of reactions that people can have to foods.
      • An exaggerated gluten-induced reaction to Zonulin, which we talked about in this episode, is a reaction that will not go away with diet and lifestyle changes.
        • The release of Zonulin happens in everyone, Celiacs and people with the Celiac gene have an exaggerated release of it.
          • It unravels the proteins in the tight junctions of the gut epithelial cells.
          • This means you have leaky gut caused by gluten consumption.
          • This is genetic and is not going to go away, no matter how much you "heal" your gut.
          • You may be able to recover faster if everything else is dialed-in.
      • Many food intolerances are antibody-driven.
        • This mechanism can diminish over time with focusing on gut and immune health.
        • If you remove a food from your diet, the stimulus to making antibodies against it goes away.
        • Your body makes Memory B cells, which remember the things it has fought before.
          • This allows your body to fight off things faster the second time you are exposed.
        • These cells have a finite life span.
          • If you eat a food before these cells have all died off, you can have an exaggerated response.
          • If you wait until the cells making antibodies are gone and you only have Memory B cells left, this is where you can get away with occasional consumption.
            • Weekly and up to monthly is a common amount of time to between consumptions.
          • If you wait until after Memory B cells have died, and you've improved your immune system and healed your gut, your immune system might not remember it ever had a problem with a particular food.
          • The lifespan of Memory B cells is longer when they remember IgE reactions (allergies) than IgG reactions (most types of food intolerances).
        • Improving gut barrier health means less of the food antigens will get to the immune system.
        • Improving immune health helps the immune system to know when its responding appropriately.
      • Some food intolerances are gut-microbiota driven.
        • Things like FODMAPS, histamine-intolerance, salicylate-sensitivity, and oxalate-sensitivity.
        • There is a strong link between these things and gut microbiome.
          • Either a lack of certain probiotic strains, or an overgrowth of problematic strains.
        • Correcting gut bacteria imbalances can reverse those types of food sensitivities.
          • Some ways to improve gut health are:
            • Be active, but do not over train.
            • Get enough sleep and manage stress.
            • Eat a ton of vegetables, 8+ servings, 25-30+ grams of fiber.
            • Consume a lot of omega-3 fats, but keep total fat intake moderate.
            • Consume natural probiotics, like wild-fermented things.
      • It is really hard to know the mechanism behind your food intolerance sometimes.
        • We don't know if we are going to get over a food intolerance without periodically challenging it.
          • This can be very frustrating.
        • These mechanisms can still be present even in very healthy individuals.
        • If can feel overwhelming to hear the long list of things you need to do to improve.
          • This is a journey and each day you can make a better choice than you might have made before, which gets you closer to the ideal.
          • Relax, sleep, and manage your stress... it can make a huge difference.

• If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend it to someone who might enjoy it.
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