Elson M. Haas, M.D. believes that food reactions harm the metabolism more than any other factor. Food Reactions, to your allergic foods, make it easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. Food reactions affect your metabolism, and your ability to lose weight or not, in four major ways:
- Allergic Foods slow down your metabolism because they block the absorption of nutrients and because they affect your thyroid. They will block the absorption of nutrients, including essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids increase your metabolism so blocking their absorption will decrease (or slow) your metabolism and your body will then be more likely to store fat. Food allergies can also make your thyroid malfunction and then you will gain weight.
- Allergic Foods can increase hormones that cause weight gain. These hormones include insulin, cortisol, and eicosanoids. If food allergies cause your body to create more insulin then your body will store more fat. If food allergies cause your body to produce less insulin then you will feel hungrier and want to eat more. Food allergies (and stress) can increase the amount of cortisol that your body produces. As cortisol levels increase, the levels of fat-burning enzymes decrease, causing weight gain. Food allergies can increase the production of eicosanoids, which inhibit the burning of adipose tissue and ultimately cause weight gain.
- Allergic Foods can create hypoglycemia which, in turn, creates food cravings and weight gain.
- Allergic Foods make you feel sick and tired. They can cause asthma, earaches, leg pains, ADD, ADHD, stomach aches, canker sores, diarrhea, headaches, moodiness, constipation, frequent colds, insomnia, food cravings, fibromyalgia, eczema, dermatitis, colitis, ulcerative colitis, colic, diverticulitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, anxiety, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis, chronic colds, sinusitis, psoriasis, dry skin, PMS, menstrual cramps, eating disorders, chronic pain, arthritis, chronic ear infections, acne, diabetes, and more! When you have any of these symptoms you just don’t have the energy or motivation to do what you need to do to lose weight.
Weight Loss and Weight Gain Solution Now that you are more aware of how your body’s metabolism is negatively affected by your food allergies the solution is simple: get tested for food intolerances and stop eating your allergic foods! Okay, I said the solution is simple but I never said that the solution is easy.
Weight Loss Success To succeed at losing weight you must:
- identify your food sensitivities
- eliminate your food intolerances from your diet
- make your health your priority by making time to shop for allergy-free food and prepare allergy-free food.
