FOOD INTOLERANCE? HOW TO FIND OUT & WHAT TO DO?

Some of you may know that last year, at the beginning of 2020, I decided to look after my diet and completely change my lifestyle. To be honest, I kind of do this on a yearly basis. It’s probably the fact that a new year is coming and summer will follow, that I feel that I wanna make a change. There are always new products on the market that I want to try from brands like Gold Bee who are constantly advertising new products that help with overall health and offer nutritional benefits. So when a friend of mine told me about keto, I thought it was the ultimate thing for me to try. Keto was hard, and even though I lost a lot of weight and it felt good at the time, it wasn’t something I wanted to continue. Also… I feel like after keto a lot had changed. My body seemed more sensitive to what went in and with a rumbling stomach on a daily basis I thought it was time to see what was up… My first thought was a gluten allergie. Or maybe an irritable bowel syndrome. I did not know where to start and what to do, so in this blogpost I am telling you my story and giving you some tips.

Ok, first things first. I am not the ‘labeling type’. I don’t like putting a label on myself, whether positive or negative. Calling myself black, white, Amsterdammer, vegetarian, fit girl; it is not my thing. It kind of makes me feel like I am being put into a jar; that’s me and that’s it. Almost like a prisoner. Can I just be me, please? So when it comes to allergies, too, I feel like I don’t wanna label myself. It may sound funny, but once I’d say that I have a gluten allergie it would sound more true.

However, I did want to know what was going on. So I ran some tests and had my blood testes with the doctor to see whether I indeed had a gluten allergie. The answer was no (yeay!). But then what was my problem? A friend of mine came up with the irritable bowel syndrome, so I googled it and found out that the symptoms sounded quite familiar, but there wasn’t much to do about it (sigh!).

Then, I had this conversation with friends about intolerances and that rang a bell. I googled the possibilities and found a company called MijnVoedselIntolerantieTest that does food intolerance tests, based on your DNA. I decided it couldn’t do me any harm and this could be the missing puzzle peace to my quest. So I took our three hairs from my head (roots included) and sent them to the lab. After a few weeks I got my results; divided in food intolerances, non-food intolerances, nutritional deficiencies, metal sensitivity, gut biome and hormonal (in)balances. Heck, this test would give me way more info than I was looking for.

The results would have surprised me years ago, but explained a lot now. Apparently, I have an intolerance for a lot of sweets (including my favourite M&M’s), sodas, and much more. Even red marmelade and mangos were on the list. Wow. Now, I know that sweets and all those processed sugars aren’t good for anyone, but I used to be a fan and I used to eat a lot of candy when I was younger. I do not remember vividly having had stomach aches & a rumbling tummy that much when I was younger, but I have heard that intolerances can get worse overtime. Personally, I feel like keto, with which I excluded sugars out of my diet for over 6 weeks, made it even worse.

Whatever it is that made it so that I now experience this as a problem more than before, I now finally know what it is. Now what to do about it? Unlike an allergie, if you have an intolerance you can still eat the foods you’re intolerant to. Most of the time, the reaction to your intolerance will show within 48 hours. This takes a lot longer than an allergie which usually shows within a few minutes. That’s also why a food intolerance is hard to recognise. Unlike an allergie, the reaction is not so heavy or life-threatening. For me, for example, is a stomach ache or rumbling stomach, but for others it could be different and range from diarrhea to heartburn and headaches.

Luckily for me, my intolerance can easily be treated by eliminating these processed sugar foods from my diet. And that’s exactly what I am trying to do now. Although I find it hard to let go of my sweets and sodas I know that this is for the better. Both my teeth and my body will thank me for it. Also, I think it may be good for me to start with pro-biotics. Really curious to hear what you guys do with your food intolerances? If you have not checked it yet, do use my discount code ‘Lar20’ for 20% off (excl. the cheapest test a €29,95) on Mijn VIT to see what you are intolerant to.

Stay healthy!