Food allergies can cause almost any symptom the body can manifest, including low energy. The gastrointestinal tract maintains a delicate balance of good bacteria, specialized immune cells, and various neurological and hormonal activities. In fact, 80% of your immune system resides in your gut, so anything you put in your mouth can trigger a reaction. Once your digestive system detects what it considers a “foreign particle,” your immune system reacts, and the inflammation that follows creates pain and dysfunction. 

The Causes of Food Allergies

There are several reasons why people develop food allergies. The immune system becomes activated by an overabundance of heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, other allergies and emotions. 

To decrease the inflammation caused by this process, you need to remove the problem foods. While for many this makes a big difference in their energy, for others, not so much. For these folks, more of the “total body burden” must be removed before they will have success. Then removing the food allergies results in improved energy. 

Even after you figure out which foods are toxic for you, you don’t need to eliminate them for the rest of your life. After you get rid of these foods from your body, the immune system relaxes and reacts less strongly and frequently to foods. Consume these foods infrequently or as frequently as you can “get away with” before inflammation is triggered.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

The term “leaky gut syndrome” describes increased intestinal permeability. The intestinal lining has become overly porous. It no longer serves as an effective barrier to the rest of your body—that is, it begins to “leak.” Drugs, environmental toxins, stress, certain foods, and other things can damage your gut lining and microvilli. Holes formed in the gut wall allow these larger undigested particles to cross into your bloodstream. Once there, your body sees them as dangerous invaders and goes on the offense—and system-wide inflammation ensues.

Before you know it, the body produces antibodies, and you have food allergies and sensitivities. So, the foods themselves are not the problem—it’s the body’s reaction to them.

Food Elimination Diet

To reduce the overall burden on the immune system, you must decrease inflammation by removing the foods that are triggering the reaction. This is most easily done with a food elimination diet. You cannot resolve your low energy if you are eating foods that are making you sick. The eliminated foods can be reintroduced later, once the body has been desensitized. 

To figure out which foods are a problem for you, you need to remove the most problematic foods for twenty-one days, reintroduce them, and see how your body reacts. After twenty-one days, your immune system is less reactive, since it is no longer seeing these foreign food particles that aren’t supposed to be present. It does, however, still “remember” the foods that were causing your symptoms. Consequently, when you reintroduce a food that is a problem for you, your immune system will attack the food and cause inflammation, and your symptoms will return. 

I recommend that you add one food back into your diet every four days and watch for reactions. Your immune system may react to a food immediately after consumption or up to four days afterwards. This is why we choose four days in between food introductions. 

The top eleven food allergens are the following:

1. Gluten-containing grains 

2. Dairy 

3. Eggs

4. Soy

5. Corn 

6. Coffee 

7. Chocolate 

8. Alcohol 

9. Sugar 

10. Peanuts 

11. Oranges

The most common culprit is gluten, followed by dairy. I cannot emphasize how important it is to remove both of these if you suffer from low energy. If you can only remove one food, make it gluten. 

After the Food Elimination Diet, What Comes Next?

If you implement a food elimination diet but don't notice a significant difference in your symptoms, it doesn't necessarily mean the diet is not beneficial. Diet is just one piece of the puzzle—a critical piece.

After the elimination diet, I transition my patients to the Paleo diet. In its simplest form, it is meat and vegetables. Just focus on that, and you’ll do fine. A basic rule that you can use is that when you sit down to eat, half of your plate should be made up of vegetables, one-quarter meat, and one-quarter starchy vegetables.

Take Action

• Eliminate the most problematic foods for 21 days

• Begin reintroducing foods every 4 days after the 21 days and track your symptoms as you add food back in.

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• Share this article with your friends and loved ones on social media and help me achieve my mission of helping 1 million people increase their energy!