Welcome to Julia Scalise, DN, PhD

Doctor of Naturology, Holistic Health Consultant and Energy-Work Practitioner

Are Hidden Food Allergies Making You Fat?

Your hidden food allergies may be what is keeping you from attaining your ultimate weight loss and weight management goals. Your hidden food allergies may also be contributing to Acne, Anxiety, Arthritis, Asthma, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Chronic Diarrhea or Constipation, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Diabetes, Digestive Disorders, Ear or other frequent infections, Eczema, Fatigue, Hay fever (year round), Headaches (tension and migraine type), Infertility, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Muscle Aches, Obesity, Panic Attacks, and Stuffy Nose, just to name a few health issues.

From when I first opened my practice in 1998, the most frequent complaints I hear are "I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired", and "I can't lose weight no matter what I do". I hear these complaints over and over.

Clients who feel sick and tired all the time without definitive cause usually require various detoxifications along with nutritional supplement support. Most will then report feeling great for the first time in a long time along with losing weight. Not only do they lose weight, but many are able to maintain the weight loss. However, there are some clients, that despite doing all the right things such as detoxing, eating a "healthy diet", caloric restriction and exercise, weight issues remained. This was the original inspiration to search and investigate deeper for answers for them.

In 2004, I came across the book Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat by Rudy Rivera, M.D. and Roger Davis Deutsch. It was a major eye opener and blessing for my clients and for me personally. When you know what foods you are sensitive to and are compliant with your unique food recommendation intake, tremendous benefits are felt. Some chronic illnesses disappear but also weight loss and maintenance are easier to achieve. The book explains how food sensitivities or intolerance can be an underlying cause for weight issues.

If you have been tested and told you have a severe allergy to certain foods, contact or ingestion of the allergen is a life threatening event and avoidance of the food in any form is mandatory. Many of you may be familiar with a child who has a peanut allergy and who must carry an Epi-pen in case they come in contact with peanuts to avoid an anaphylactic reaction. But sometimes a person is tested for food allergies and may not have an immediate severe reaction. They may be told they have no allergies to any foods. However a delayed reaction to a food is possible. For instance, if I ate a strawberry and about 1/2 hour later I got a rash, I might think I had a sensitivity or intolerance to strawberries. But if I ate a strawberry today and got a rash a few days later, I would never associate that rash with the strawberry I ate a few days prior. This is how sensitivities to foods work. There is a delayed response, but a response all the same. Yet you may never realize what is causing that reaction. The daily intake of the same foods that you are sensitive to challenges your immune system. This results in a state of chronic inflammation and that contributes to weight loss impedance. These sensitive foods will also be the cause of some major as well as vague and minor health complaints you experience all the time.

Another nuance of food sensitivities that you may not know is that it causes you to crave certain foods. When we eat something that is reactive in our system, an inflammatory response will occur. It's identical in action to a stuffy nose one gets if you have an allergy to pollen. Histamine is triggered to 'block the nose "so more of the offending substance can't enter. This action also happens to other cells/tissues in our body when an allergen or sensitive substance enters it. Cell signaling molecules known as cytokines produce pro-inflammatory chemicals. That inflammatory response sometimes produces pain, either on a major or minimal scale someplace in your system. When the body notes the pain signals, it starts to produce natural pain killers. Over time, the body looks for these naturally produced "opiates", knows that certain foods are the trigger, and then stimulates the cravings. The cravings then are not so much for the food itself, but for the "natural high" you get from the feel good endorphins (natural opiates) you produce. Therefore many food cravings may be a direct result of food sensitivities because they are a trigger for production of these feel good chemicals.

So now that you know food sensitivities may be an underlying cause of some of your health issues, may be triggering food cravings, and especially be contributing to the road block you have hit with weight loss, you may be wondering how you go about being tested.

Before I share that information, be aware of some other considerations. I started seeing clients who were referred to me by other practitioners after being tested for food sensitivities. I noted that some people were testing positive to certain foods because of Candida (yeast overgrowth) in their system. I also noted that clients who showed evidence of specific other toxins (like heavy metals and parasites) were testing sensitive to certain other food groups also. So, I make it a point for all my clients to address any toxins they may have and eliminate them before getting tested for food sensitivities. Since the testing will be eliminating some foods from your diet due to your unique sensitivities, I prefer to get the most accurate test after detox so that fewer foods will need to be eliminated.

I took this test in 2006. I have followed my allowable foods list since then. I still have issues with some foods and may never be able to eat them regularly again. I challenge my system periodically in moderation by eating a disallowed food and assess my response. So do my clients after a certain time period. I, like many, thought in the past I was eating healthy and found out that about 75% of my "healthy diet" was unhealthy for me. Many of my clients have had the same surprises. But once you are tested, and are compliant with what is healthy for you, you will note a major improvement in overall vitality, energy, and weight loss achievement.

Over the years, Cell Science System (the lab that does this testing) has expanded testing profiles to include more and more foods in the lists for testing. They have also altered from the concept of hidden food allergies making you fat to "Are Foods Making You Sick?" As they state in their brochure " Inflammation and chronic activation of the immune system due to food intolerance has been linked to Digestive Disorders, Migraines, Obesity, Chronic Fatigue, ADD/ADHD, Aching joints, Skin Disorders, arthritis and many more..." On their website: www.Alcat.com , there are studies and articles, testimonials, videos and other information to review. The original book "Your Food Allergies Are Making You Fat" is still available through online retailers such as www.Amazon.com .

The testing process is simple- a test kit is ordered and sent to you. You can go to a local lab or have a mobile lab come to you to draw the blood. Results will be given to a medical practitioner or me if you are my client and you can begin your process when results are reviewed. I strongly urge determining and eliminating specific toxins as stated previously, so you will get the best results with the greatest variety of non-sensitive foods. Toxin elimination first is best, however, IF (and it's a big If) you are someone with many health complaints, on multiple medications, and not able to consider detoxification, Alcat food testing is a good place to start.

If you have done all the right things and cannot lose weight or manage your weight loss goals despite diet, exercise and caloric restriction, and you aren't sure if food sensitivities are the issue, contact me. Your weight loss success and improved well being ARE POSSIBLE. Just make the call and get started.

For more information, visit this website.

— Association & Affiliation