Many people do not realize they have food intolerance, so they continue consuming the offending foods and living with the symptoms. You often hear people saying they suffer from gas or bloating, headaches, fatigue, and so on. These people have taken these symptoms at face value without trying to figure out what might be causing them. People often confuse food intolerance with a food allergy, and this is why they often do not stop to think that maybe they simply cannot tolerate the food that is leading to their digestive problems. They actually believe that just because they do not have to be rushed to the emergency room after consuming a particular food, they are not intolerant to that type of food.
Metabolism
Many people suffer from food intolerances and their symptoms, which can include irritable bowel syndrome, mild or severe eczema, headaches, fatigue and breathing problems. Food intolerances can also cause weight gain, as it is seen in many cases that eliminating the intolerant food from a person’s diet helps him or her to lose extra weight easily. Your weight has a direct relationship to how efficient your metabolism is, and this is why food sensitivities or intolerance can cause weight gain—since those particular foods mess with your metabolism.
Craving
Unfortunately, people also tend to crave the same foods that cause sensitivities. This is another cause behind the weight gain resulting from food sensitivities. When they try to stay away from these foods, they are compelled to binge eat.
Fluid Retention
Weight gain may also result from fluid retention caused by food insensitivities. Some foods have the direct effect of making our capillaries more permeable, allowing water to flow into the cells. This may cause bloating, which makes one look heavier than he or she really is.
Due to the fact that food has now become highly processed and chemical-laden, many foods cause reactions and imbalances in the body and directly in the digestive system. The foods are so processed that they hardly hold any nutritional value and only end up causing weight gain. On top of this, when the body tries to digest a food to which you are intolerant, it has to put in extra effort, which leaves you feeling tired and lacking energy.
In order to find out if you have food intolerance or food sensitivity, an elimination diet is the wisest approach. Try to eliminate the potential culprits for a week, giving your digestive system time to heal. After a week, slowly reintroduce one food group each week, noting if you feel the symptoms coming back. As soon as you feel gas, bloating, or headaches returning, you would know which particular food is the culprit behind your weight gain. You may even find you have food sensitivities toward more than one type of food.