Adverse food reactions (what people may call “food allergies”) can
cause numerous symptoms and can be the underlying reason for
challenges to optimal health. These negative reactions to specific
foods are more common than you might expect, and they can be
surprisingly difficult to pinpoint as contributing factors to health
problems. Adverse food reactions can include food allergies that
start in early childhood and continue on throughout life. They can
also involve more temporary reactions to food that occur when you
are feeling particularly low in energy and when your physical health
is especially compromised. But in either case, you will not always
have an easy-to-spot symptom that tells you, “Aha! My body is
havinga problem with something I ate.” In the case of adverse food
reactions, it’s much more likely that you will feel bad in some way
(i.e., fatigued, irritable, depressed, foggy headed, lethargic) that
could involve dozens of causes. All of the above symptoms, for
example, could be caused by lack of sleep, or chronic stress, or a
long list of psychological factors.
When we have adverse food reactions, we might be reacting to several
different food components. It could be some unique food proteins
that are triggering our problematic reactions. It could also be the
presence of sugars in food that we lack the enzymes to digest properly.
We might also react to food additives and preservatives, or to pesticides
or other food contaminants.
Regardless of the food component that is triggering an adverse
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