It has been estimated that up to 70% of the general population suffers from at least one food intolerance, and for many people who struggle with obesity, or even just that last stubborn 5 pounds, food sensitivities can result in inflammation that can be the hidden factor keeping people from reaching their ideal weight. I have found this to be especially true for people who are generally eating a well-balanced whole foods diet that is low in sugar, and getting plenty of exercise, but still can’t get their belly to budge.

So how does this work?

In order to explain why the wrong food, even in tiny amounts, can make you fat, we have to start with the gut. The wall of the small intestine has huge amount of surface area—about the size of a tennis court! The surface is covered with microvilli, finger-like projections that can become damaged by bacterial, viral, or parasitic infections, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like aspirin and ibuprofen, chemo and radiation, certain antibiotics, excessive or frequent alcohol consumption, or, food “allergies”. Having the right types and amounts of “good bugs”, or probiotic bacteria, in the gut helps to preserve the integrity of this lining, and in fact, just having the wrong make-up of bacteria“ in your gut can cause enough inflammation to allow the lining to become compromised.

The small intestine is brilliantly designed to allow in the nutrients from the food we eat that help us to thrive and survive, while keeping out infectious agents, chemicals, toxins, and anything else that might harm us. This is a big and important job, as the intestine, like the skin, is really our main interface with and barrier to the harsh outside world. For this reason, around 70% of our immune system is found in the gut, functioning 24/7 to protect us from the thousands of things we come into contact with each day, from the outside environment. When the wall of the intestine is damaged, it is as if the fine mesh of filtration suddenly is made up of a larger mesh, so that larger, inadequately digested food proteins get through. These large intact molecules can be easily mistaken by the body as foreign pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites, because the main way that the immune system works to identify these invaders is by tagging the proteins on them that make them unique, and creating specific antibodies to these foreign proteins.

The problem is that many of these proteins closely resemble proteins that compromise our own body tissues. If the body creates an antibody to a protein marker from a food that you eat, and mistakes one of your own tissues as being the same thing, then every time you are exposed to that food, your body may create not only a local, intestinal immune response to the food, but will also mount a system-wide inflammatory immune attack against your own body. This is one of the conditions that can trigger the onset of many autoimmune conditions, or aggravate pre-existing ones. Depending on what type of tissue these antibodies happen to be for, this could look like autoimmune thyroid disease in one person, rosacea in another, diabetes in yet another, and joint pains in yet another.

To add one more layer to this, once the intestinal lining has become more permeable, the potential for developing multiple food intolerances due to increased interface between food proteins and our immune system skyrockets. So where once you only reacted to, say, dairy, now you develop reactions to carrots, almonds, chicken, or other foods that normally would seem beneficial to our nutrition. If the gut wall is compromised, the entire contents of the intestines have access to your blood stream and system, including toxins and chemicals that normally would have been evacuated with the stool.

So what does this have to do with my love handles?

1) The main way having a leaky gut can cause weight gain way is by raising inflammation. Anything that raises inflammation in our body will also encourage our adrenals to secrete more cortisol, a potent anti-inflammatory. Besides being anti-inflammatory, cortisol raises blood sugar levels. When our blood sugar is high, we will also have higher insulin levels—and insulin is a fat storage hormone. It causes the body tends to convert excess sugars and store it as fat, usually around the belly and hips. We need cortisol in order to function, but when it is constantly elevated, as in the case of inflammation from food sensitivity, it can really work against us by causing muscle break-down, reducing our cell’s sensitivity to insulin, and hindering the repair of connective tissues and bones, among other things.

2) Another way this can contribute to weight-loss resistance is by water retention. Water retention is one of the main results of any kind of inflammation; if you eat foods sensitive to, you will retain water.

3) The third way this can work against us is that when leaky gut occurs, many of the hormones that our body uses to signal satiety do not get secreted, so we continue to feel hungry when we are already full, and we have cravings for sugary, starchy foods.
4) Finally, some of the inflammatory components that our immune uses to do its job actually temporarily slow down or inhibit the body’s ability to metabolize stored fat as energy. If our immune system is constantly triggered, fat metabolism is constantly restricted. Kind of goes beyond the calories in, calories out model of weight loss, right?

The kicker is that the foods we are the most reactive to are often those we crave the most. Over 30 years ago, a study published in well respected medical journal showed that these partially digested proteins from foods can create chemicals that plug into our opioid receptors, and can even make us temporarily feel “high”. When high wears off, we crave the food that gave us the initial reaction, just like drug addiction. Gluten containing grains are particularly high in these molecules, and explain why for many people, the idea of giving up bread or pasta seems absolutely unthinkable. These opioid chemicals can also increase appetite and decrease metabolism.

How do you know if your gut is inflamed?

Besides resistance to weight loss, gut inflammation can cause abdominal bloating and gas, but many people with food intolerances don’t have any of these symptoms. Some of the other health problems that have been associated with a leaky, inflamed gut are depression, skin rashes, eczema and acne, seasonal allergies, infertility, arthritis, lupus, vitiligo, schizophrenia, autism, Thyroid problems, asthma, and chron’s disease. Generalized inflammation causes and aggravates other common symptoms such as migraine headaches, arthritis, diabetes, ADD, frequent ear infections or decreased resistance to colds and flu viruses, body aches and pains, chronic congestion, stiffness, dry eyes, seasonal allergies, asthma, recurrent yeast infections or Urinary tract infections, and cardiovascular health, and that is just the short list. Even without a weight issue, or digestive problems, it is worth investigating the issue of food sensitivity if you suffer from any of these symptoms.

To see if food sensitivities are an issue for you, consider doing a 3 week elimination diet of the main allergens (gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, and yeast containing foods) and then reintroducing them one by one over a period of weeks, to see if your body reacts poorly to any of them. There are blood tests available for evaluating food intolerances as well, but not all labs are created equal, and no lab is 100% accurate, so an elimination diet is really still a necessary part of full diagnosis. Supplementing with a lab-tested, high-dose probiotic supplement (10-30 billion CFU) can help to heal and protect the gut, as does getting plenty of fiber from plant foods. In cases requiring a deeper healing approach, additional steps can be taken, guided by a healthcare practitioner trained in using diet, herbs, and supplements, to further heal the intestinal lining.