Do you have difficulty losing weight no matter how hard you try? A hidden food allergy could be the culprit, says Dr. Oz. In fact, up to 60% of the population could be affected by hidden sensitivities to foods, such as dairy and wheat.
Just because you aren’t breaking out in hives or swelling up when you eat certain foods doesn’t mean there isn’t an allergic reaction taking place in your body. Slow-onset food allergies, common with dairy, cause a far less acute allergic reaction, creating inflammation hours or even days later (an IgG immune response).
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, foods with dairy can cause unhealthy bacteria to overgrow and produce toxins that cause systemic inflammation. This swells the intestines and prevents normal digestion, causing weight gain, among other conditions such as irritable bowel. You can gain up to 30 pounds a year from a dairy allergy!
How do you know if you have an allergy if you aren’t seeing physical signs of a reaction?
Follow the doctor’s order based on the 3 “Rs”: Remove all dairy, repair your digestive tract, and reboot your body.
Week 1: Remove All Dairy
Remove all the dairy from your diet for an entire week, which is how long your system needs for internal inflammation to settle down. Replace dairy milk with almond milk, which tastes good and has high quality protein and fat in it. In addition, replace butter with olive oil, a great source of good fat that contains oleic acid and anti-inflammatory properties.Week 2: Repair Your Digestive Tract
If your gut is damaged by dairy, repair it with healthy bacteria found in probiotics. Choose a probiotic supplement that contains both bifidobacterium and lactobacillus bacteria. Select a product in pill or powder form that has 10-50 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) and take that amount daily. Be wary of liquid-based products, which may not be as active, along with food products with added probiotics. Click here for a smart guide to purchasing probiotics.Week 3: Reboot Your Body
Now that you have a clean digestive slate, it’s time to reboot and see if dairy was causing your weight gain. Start by adding one dairy food back at a time and keep a food log of your body’s reactions. Ask yourself: Am I more tired? Am I bloated? Do I have fluid retention? All of these potential factors could be clues that you have a hidden food sensitivity to dairy.
Foods to avoid: The obvious dairy products – milk, cheese, yogurt and anything that has casein or whey listed in the ingredients.
If you think you’re allergic to dairy at the end of the 3 weeks, see you doctor!
