Food Sensitivity

Food Sensitivity: How to Discover the "Healthy" Foods That Can Cause Disease

Orange juice, whole-wheat toast and some low-fat yogurt with a banana on top. Sounds like a healthy breakfast, right?

Maybe not, according to David Edelberg, M.D., an internist and medical director of the American Holistic Center/Chicago. He says that millions of Americans are "sensitive" to these and other everyday foods--and that these sensitivities can cause or complicate all kinds of health problems, from acne and arthritis to sinus problems and just plain feeling run-down."Many of the common problems treated in a primary care practice have a component of food sensitivity," he explains.

Fortunately, says Dr. Edelberg, there's a somewhat limited list of foods and ingredients that cause most sensitivities. They are: dairy products; egg products; citrus fruits; wheat products; bananas; kidney, lima and string beans; chemicals in processed foods; and any food that you "crave excessively" or that you eat more than three times a week.

To discover if you're sensitive to these foods or ingredients, you need to cut them out of your diet for one month. (It's worth the effort, says Dr. Edelberg, because you might find yourself feeling really good for the first time in years.)

If at the end of the month your health problem is just the same, then you're not sensitive to any foods, and you can go back to your normal diet. But if you're feeling better, you now need to discover which of the foods or ingredients that you eliminated is causing your problem.

To do that, you need to start eating the foods you eliminated, but only one food group a week. So say you decide to start eating dairy the first week. If the symptoms return any time during that week--even as long as two to three days after eating a dairy product--congratulations, Sherlock Holmes! You've detected your food sensitivity. If they don't, start eating another food or food group the following week--say, egg products. And once again, be on the lookout for a return of your symptoms.

There's one catch: You might discover that you're sensitive to more than one food or food group--to citrus fruits and egg products (and those cream-filled doughnuts you pick up on the way to work every morning). So you need to reintroduce the foods and food groups one by one--which means that even if you discover during the first week that you're sensitive to something, you still need to introduce another food or food group during week two. And another during week three. (We agree: You may be in for a tedious month or two. But imagine being free of arthritis pain--one of the problems frequently complicated by food sensitivities--for the rest of your life.)

Okay, you've discovered that you're sensitive to citrus fruits. Now what do you do? Well, you don't have to give them up forever, but you shouldn't eat them for four to six months, says Dr. Edelberg. At that point, you can probably return to eating citrus fruits about twice a week, with at least three days between the two times you eat it. And, says Dr. Edelberg, if you discover you're sensitive to more than one food group, you shouldn't eat those groups on the same day.