 Sometimes being bloated, feeling tired all the time, migraines, and a runny nose are not always due to stress, a cold or a bad night's sleep. It takes a bit of work to put the puzzle pieces together and realize that it might actually be due to an underlying food intolerance or mild allergy.
Suffering from both for almost a decade now, I learned a fair bit about being mindful when it comes to my body, environment and eating habits. The best way to find out if your symptoms are linked to an underlying issue, is to start a food diary. Write down what you eat for a minimum of 5 days and also note, how you feel after ingesting a meal and then again, about 3 hours after. Another great way is to take your pulse before a meal and then again after. If you do have a reaction to the food, your heart rate will rise significantly as your body will be busy trying to deal with the 'foreign substance'. Once you get an idea, you can start an elimination diet. By eliminating common triggers like soy, corn, nuts, peanuts, gluten(wheat), milk, eggs and shellfish, your body will decrease the inflammation response and calm down. After about three weeks, you can slowly re-introduce one food at a time to see, if it is truly a trigger for you or not. So far, allergy testing is not as reliable for cross-reaction with food groups, therefore, each of us still has to go by trial and error to be sure. If you do have allergies (which are different from intolerances), you might have cross-reactions with some food groups. Your allergy specialist can give you more info on that. And please: If you ever experience hives, nausea, trouble breathing after eating, this may be an allergic reaction and the signs of anaphylaxis - Use an epipen or call an ambulance!
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