Food Sensitivities Transcript

Hey Everybody! This is Frances Arnold from namastenutritionist.com, and thank you so much for joining me today! This is my first ever interview and I’m so pleased because the topic is super-relevant, super-exciting, and I think you’re really going to dig it. We’re talking today about food sensitivities, and I did bring an expert, she’s waiting on the line. I’m going to introduce the topic, introduce her with her bio, and then peel back the curtain and let her take over.

Listen to the podcast here.

So, food sensitivities: what are they? They are believed to cause chronic inflammation, chronic disease, and general malaise. And I think a lot of you are going to connect to this because they are growing more commonplace, and yet they are difficult to detect, which makes it so annoying because most of us experience the symptoms of food sensitivities, yet we just think it’s a part of getting old, or being alive. Some of these symptoms are fatigue, joint and muscle pain, mental fog, sleepiness after eating, anxiety, depression, irritability, acne, rashes, eczema, other skin disorders. You can have weight issues, gas and bloating, insomnia, the list goes on and on. And I see a lot of these symptoms coming up in people that I work with, I know that I’ve had a lot of these symptoms, which is why I took a strong interest in food sensitivities.

 

So I was so pleased to be able to connect with Joy Supplee who is our expert today, because she really has a good grasp on food sensitivities, and works with a lot of patients – She has a thriving business. Joy Supplee has her business Custom Fit Nutrition, which I mentioned to you is a thriving business. She believes that every person is unique and deserves a custom-fit approach to nutrition care. Her qualifications are some of the highest available, including being nationally registered as a dietician, and certified by the state of Washington. Joy’s training gives her a balanced approach, including traditional medicine, as well as complementary and alternative methods, as evidenced by a Master’s degree. She was trained at University of Washington and at the nationally renowned Bastyr University. So during her master’s degree coursework, her thesis about bone density and soda consumption was published in a peer-reviewed journal. Joy also has a speciality in working with and identifying food sensitivities, which required additional training. Her methods have helped people with all kinds of digestive symptoms: acid reflux, Celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, headaches, migraines, joint pain, fibromyalgia, anxiety, depression, skin problems, ADD, sinus congestion, sleeping difficulties, fatigue, asthma, and more. It’s not hard to find a great testimony from a client that Joy’s services have helped. Some special articles have been written that quote Joy about food sensitivities including articles in Today’s Dietician magazine, and in some online newspapers, one of them is called the Mercer Island Patch. Joy has worked with people all over the UNited States, and even around the world. Now she has clients as far away as SOuth Africa! Sounds exciting! So I think we are all very lucky to have Joy with us today! Joy, thanks so much for coming, and welcome!

 

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Joy: Well, thanks Francis, I appreciate the kind word.

 

Francis: And you have two thriving businesses, and you’re hiring staff and expanding.

 

J: I am! Food sensitivities seems to be a growing problem

 

F: It does, and one of the reasons I first became interested in food sensitivities is not only that my friends were having lots of questions and dialogue about it, but I also found that I was getting really sick, and suffering with gluten intolerance for years before I realized what it was, and I was so amazed at how difficult it is to discover the true cause behind a sensitivity.

 

J: Right

 

F: So, let’s go ahead and launch right in. There seems to be a lot of confusion around food sensitivities being the same as food allergies. So can you just help us distinguish those two from each other, and then tell us a little about which is more serious and why.

 

J: Sure. So what we traditionally think of as food allergies really involves only one pathway in the immune system called the IGE pathway, and food allergies tend to be quite severe. SO these are the kind of things that might cause wheezing, difficulty breathing, closing of the throat, or even instantaneous hives after just a tiny exposure to something. And that kind of reaction often requires an EpiPen to help. But, sensitivities are different. Sensitivities can be dose-dependent, which means it might depend on how much of that thing you had. And they can start symptoms anywhere from an hour to three days later, which makes this really hard to tell just by guessing.

 

F: Wow! So, let’s just, I just want to reiterate; So sensitivities can take anywhere from one hour to a few days to manifest the symptoms?

 

J: That’s correct.

 

F: So, if you eat something that you are sensitive to today, like you know, a lot of people are sensitive to caffeine or chocolate, eating chocolate, and you may not notice the headache trigger until maybe a couple days later or something, and so then you wouldn’t really notice that you, it would be hard to tell what its from.

 

J: Exactly. You wouldn’t be able to connect the two. You would just “oh, it must be i’m just tired or some other excuse.”

 

F: Wow! And so maybe of us deal with that. I mean you see it in the media, it’s written up all the time about, you know, how to have more energy and dealing with fatigue, and dealing with headaches and pain. Dealing with bloating and gas, and it seems to be like these chronic symptoms that have just sort of crept into our lives and maybe for a lot of us it has to do with just a sensitivity that is unaddressed.

 

J: Right. So we end up taking a pill for that, and a pill for that, and a pill for this. Before you know it we have a whole bunch of medications where it would have been better to address the cause in the first place.

 

F: Oh yeah. And I think there’s so many people who feel that way, but you really have to put on your detective hat in order to understand, you know, where to even start looking, and then, you know, you end up with, like in my field, working in nursing homes, I see people who are on, you know, anywhere from ten to twenty or more medications, it’s crazy and it’s dealing with just so many things related to GI, and you know, just common joint complaints and pain complaints. So, it can really get out of control.

 

J: And a lot of those people have had those problems for years.

 

F: Yeah! Definitely. I know that even I have had like chronic headaches and migraines since I was a kid. Prepubescent, so you know, this is definitely important stuff. Now, allergies, I think must people are aware if they have a food allergy because they’re probably carrying an EpiPen or they’ve had some sort of really severe reaction where it’s like really hard not to know that you have an allergy.

 

J: Yeah, they have a near-death experience that took them to the emergency room and that changed their life, dealing with food after.

 

F: Okay, yeah. Good distinction. So, what symptoms might someone experience if they’re dealing with a hidden food sensitivity.

 

J: Oh wow. Symptoms for food sensitivities really vary widely. But, I can give you a few examples. So, you’ve mentioned a few in the beginning of the podcast, and I just want to add onto those. So, you had mentioned fatigue, and I would add things like being sleepy during the day, especially a couple of hours after you’ve eaten. Also insomnia at night, maybe you just feel lousy. You can have problems with mood disturbances, sometimes children with food sensitivities will act out with their behavior, either irritable, forgetful, lack of being able to concentrate or focus. A lot of people complain of a mental fog, or maybe just a lot of anxiety. You can have, as you mentioned, headaches or migraines, but you could also have itchy ears or ringing in the ears. Maybe you have some skin issues, some people have eczema or psoriasis or maybe they break out rashes and hives, but they aren’t quite as severe as the allergy reaction I mentioned. You could have sinus congestion or post-nasal drip, maybe you have canker sores or you get kind of a gagging sensation in your mouth. You can have a dry or a wet cough or difficulty breathing or wheezing that isn’t quite as severe as an allergy. You could have itchy eyes, even after eating something you’re sensitive to, or maybe increased urinary production. And then you had also mentioned joint pain, I would include muscle pain as well. And then sometimes people have irregular heart beat and certainly some forms of high blood pressure can actually be attributed to food sensitivities. And then some of the digestive things that you mentioned, so the acid reflux, certainly constipation, diarrhea, I’ve had some that have had just terrible nausea and vomiting, or maybe there’s the gas and bloating like you also mentioned. ANd then food cravings are also part of it, but definitely water retention, that’s definitely a sign.

 

F: Wow. That is quite the list.

 

J: It sure is.

 

F: That’s amazing!

 

J: And I’ve got to tell you, it’s not limited to that either. But that’s some of the biggies.

 

F: WOuld you, when you say water retention, I’m thinking weight gain. And I meet so many people who are just struggling to lose weight. And, would you say that food sensitivities have a role to play in weight.

 

J: Oh absolutely. I’ve had several clients who have even had gastric bypass surgery who couldn’t lose more weight than just a few pounds. And then after we determined what their food triggers were and got them to back of those, then they were able to get back on their weight loss plan.

 

F: That’s amazing. So that might, you know, I’m sure that everyone listening to this can see themselves in at least one or more of these categories of symptoms. And I’ve got to tell you, I didn’t count, I wish I would’ve counted as you were listing those off, but I have had long-term symptoms in most of those categories. So, maybe I would say at least 50%. I mean, I used to get the worst canker sores of my life, I mean they got so bad that I couldn’t even eat at a certain point, and that’s when I finally realized that gluten was a big component. And gluten was just so obvious, when I took it out I knew immediately, it wasn’t a rocket science, but you know it just makes you wonder “Gosh! life could be so much better if I knew I didn’t have to suffer with fatigue in the middle of the day and gas and bloating and you know this chronic headache.” So, and what’s so funny, I’ve got to admit to you, even though I took the LEAP training,which is, the LEAP training is the same certification that Joy has built her practice around, I have even done the test. I have been just afraid to do the test, and we’ll get more into why, and I think that the fear is very common that most people would have, and it’s just that we don’t want to give up our favorite foods.

 

J: Oh sure.

 

F: Because we know that we’re probably not supposed to eat the foods that we want to eat because they’re probably some of the worst offenders.

 

J: Well, the good news is that food sensitivities change. And so what you are afraid of loosing right now, it may only be a temporary loss. And if that loss is enough to allow you to feel better, that means enough to you, then you just avoid those foods for a period of time, and you’ll likely get them back in the future, you just don’t know exactly how long that will be.

 

F: Yeah, that’s great news actually, because it means we can have sort of a temporary sort of unhappiness by removing the offending foods. Like if I had to give up chocolate or coffee or caffeinated tea, I would be really bummed.

 

J: Especially in Washington, right?

 

F: Yes, this is where I became so addicted to caffeine, there’s no doubt, is living in Washington. But, you know, if it improves the quality of life, then I know that at the end of it, I’ll be very happy and hearing that the food sensitivities change is really exciting. So, tell us, how common are food sensitivities?

 

J: I’ve heard estimates of anywhere to 30 to 40 percent of the population. I have to tell you that it can be difficult to get a good estimate on that, just because so many people are not aware that it’s a food sensitivity.

 

F: Indeed. Right. Like nausea and vomiting, say, in cancer patients, you know you assume that it’s because you’re ill and not because you’ve always had some food sensitivity or something.

 

J: Sure, or I’ve had people say “Oh, I don’t feel well, but I guess that’s just what it feels like to get older.”

 

F: Right, yes, bingo. I hear that one all the time. This is just part of getting older, and I look at my older patients who are just so arthritic and, you know, unhappy with their GI complaints, and I think, “Gosh, could this have been avoided?” Arthritis is a long term inflammatory condition, and you wonder “What could I do know to avoid feeling that way when I’m old.”

 

J: Right

 

F: So, one of the things where I think there is a lot of confusion, and even I get confused sometimes still, is differentiating food sensitivities from food intolerances.

 

J: That is a great question, Francis. Food sensitivities are all about the immune system, food intolerances are not. So food intolerance really is about digestion is not happening properly, and those things are kind of trapped in the gut, and then they start to ferment, and then they start causing gas and bloating and pain, symptoms like that. So really common example of an intolerance is lactose intolerance. So anybody who has that knows what I’m talking about, when you have some sort of milk product with a high content of lactose and then it just kind of sits in the gut a little while, and it hurts, there’s pain, cramping, might be diarrhea, certainly gas and bloating. But sensitivities, especially all those ones with, you know, the amazing differences in symptoms, migraines, well that’s not something that’s fermenting in the gut, that’s something that’s gone through your blood stream and is now gone into your brain. And so, that’s where we’re talking about the immune system, that’s the biggest difference between the two. Does that make sense?

 

F: Wow. So the part where you are talking about, can you explain and elaborate on where you are talking about the issues going not from your gut, but into your brain.

 

J: Great, yes. So, food that you have formed a sensitivity to or what we call losing normal tolerance to, those foods now trigger your immune system. It starts in the gut, but the trigger, the immune system reaction, travels through your blood stream. And there’s a chemical that immune cells use to communicate with each other or groups of chemicals, these are called cytokines. And these cytokines are what travels through the blood stream, and that blood stream goes everywhere in the body, right? It goes into your brain, it goes into you joints, it goes into your skin and organs, everywhere. So that’s why symptoms of food sensitivities are so diverse.

 

F: Wow. So, a huge difference between, you know, just being, whether your reaction is happening in the immune system.

 

J: Correct

 

F: Okay. So now, if someone has a food sensitivity, but feels that they are not bothered by it, how important is it to address it?

 

J: Well, in the beginning it can be pretty mild, some people may just have mild eczema, in fact I met with a client the other day, and she had psoriasis on her hands ever since she was little and she’s constantly using steroid creams, but she wasn’t even interested in addressing that, she had just had it so long, she just figured it was, you know, that’s her. But, I can tell you, over time, they tend to get worse, and indeed, as an example with this client, she’s getting worse, and so she was having difficulty with digestion and weight gain and all kinds of stuff. So, that said, you can have a mild symptom and think it’s not a big deal, but what it tells you is that something is not quite right in the digestive system, something’s not ideal, and it’s likely to get worse, and even the mild symptoms are a signal of inflammation. Now, we believe that inflammation is actually the basis of chronic disease, so if you start out inflamed, and you don’t address it, then it just continues to get worse, and inflammation gets worse, then you’re whole health problems are going to be worse.

 

F: Wow. Well said! That’s really well stated, I mean that just kind of sums up a lot of things, at least in my mind, in terms of what we can do to influence our outcome of chronic diseases.

 

J: Absolutely.

 

F: I mean, that’s really a big deal, and I think that some, you know, I hope that everyone who’s listening lets that sink in and register that there is something that we can do about whether we get certain chronic diseases and the severity of chronic disease by how well we take care of ourselves. And you know, even for me as a dietician, I have always been very food conscious, I mean, I was a vegetarian for thirteen years, I really that I was making all the right moves, eating all the right foods, always fruits of vegetables. I was the picture of what a perfect diet should look like, and I was getting sicker and sicker and sicker, and you know, at the end of the day I realized it’s not just about if you’re eating the foods that are recommended on the food pyramid. There’s a lot to this picture, and that’s when I began interested in food sensitivities, realizing that, you know, I obviously don’t know enough, there’s a lot more to this that it may be mainstream awareness has not caught up to. And I think food sensitivities are poorly understood, so when you can listen to an expert or work with an expert like Joy, you are really just giving yourself the opportunity to just take the keys to your own health in your hand, and I think that’s priceless.

 

J: I like that analogy.

 

F: Great. So for a lot of years, people who are concerned about food sensitivities and intolerances have been advised to do an elimination diet or food diary tracking to assess how do you feel after you’ve eaten certain foods to help you discover what’s going on, and I know that I’ve done this. I was going to the Bastyr clinic with acupuncture and they were having me do food diary tracking and I just, you know, it’s so, it’s like you said, Joy, it’s so hard to tell what is the offending food, because you might eaten it two days ago, and you didn’t feel bad two days ago and today you’re feeling crummy, and it’s like which one did it? So, what do you think about these systems of addressing food sensitivities?

 

J: Well, like you said, elimination diets have been around for years, a long, long time. And, they can find some of the big things, especially if you are doing it with a nutrition professional, I think that’s the key, but at the same time, like you mentioned, if it’s something that was two or three days ago, you’re going to have a really hard time connecting those pieces, not to mention the fact that there are several food additives, and natural food chemicals that can cause symptoms. And let me give you a vivid example. So tyramine is one that is a culprit for many. And, tyramine is a natural amino acid, you would never find it on the label, and it grows in food as the food gets older, so a greenish banana would be very low in tyramine, whereas a yellow-brown banana would be loaded with it. So you ate a banana one day, no problem, banana other day, problem. How would you tell with an elimination diet that it was the tyramine? You wouldn’t. Phenylethylalanine is another one, that one happens to be in aged cheeses, wine and chocolate is an example, but it can be very difficult to tell that that’s what the problem is. Or maybe salicylic acid, those are some others. Or maybe polysorbate 80, that shows up in as a commercial food additive, but it can also show up in medication and shampoo and hygiene products.

 

F: Wow. That’s amazing. And even, you know, as I was learning to eliminate gluten from my diet, I found that it’s also in your personal hygiene products as well, like toothpaste and mouthwashes, and even in the gums that you lick on an envelope.

 

J: Oh I know, isn’t that crazy?

 

F: You just don’t know, and I remember talking to you one time about corn sensitivity, and you told me that corn is used in even eye drops, and medications, and it can be so hard to track down these aggravators.

 

J: Oh it’s even in dextrose in table salt.

 

F: Wow, yeah. Fascinating. So, these are, you know, like you mentioned the phenylethylalanine, and I’m thinking “Oh man, don’t take those! I love wine, cheese, and chocolate!”

 

J: Right, all the best stuff!

 

F: Right and if you saw it on the label, you would say “Wow, that’s something I can’t pronounce, that’s probably something I shouldn’t eat.” And that’s probably why it’s not on the label, partially, and yet it’s a naturally occurring thing, so you know, just to point out to folks that it’s not just food chemicals that food manufacturers are sort of creating in their labs in the basement or something, these are also very naturally occurring things that your body for whatever reason may have developed an issue with.

 

J: Sure.

 

F: So let’s talk about finding out, I mean these are really hard things to track down. How would we track it down with the LEAP model that you use?

 

J: Well, I use the blood test called the Mediator Release Test or MRT for short, and it’s a very accurate test where we are actually testing your immune system response to 150 different foods and food chemicals. So starting there, we get some good information, and then we combine the LEAP dietary protocol, which is about a six-week program working with your registered dietician, specially trained in LEAP, and we’re going to determine not only the sensitivities that your blood test show, but we’re also going to make sure that there aren’t any other mechanisms going on, like intolerances, like we were talking about earlier. Sometimes people have issues with different chemicals in foods, a natural thing that maybe aren’t on the test, so that’s why the LEAP dietary protocol is so important as well.

 

F: And just to back up a little bit, for folks who are like, “What is LEAP?”. LEAP stands for lifestyle, eating, and performance, and that is the, you know, would you call them the food sensitivity experts in this, it’s sort of a niche, you know, where they really are looking, this is there field this food sensitivities, and they’re looking at the blood and finding specific ratios that people might be sensitive to different ingredients, you were saying 150.

 

J: Sure, yeah, we’re using 150 at this time with this test. And a LEAP qualified person, mostly dietitians, but there also some doctors and naturopaths that are qualified as well with the LEAP training, but they are using the MRT and the dietary protocol to get some really accurate results, and help a person put together a safe diet for them that’s going to work over a lifetime.

 

F: Wow, awesome. So, using the mediator release test, so it’s really comprehensive and super-specific which is different from what you might get when you go to an allergist, I know that we’ll get into that a little bit more, but I did go to an allergist because I suspected that I had something wrong, and I couldn’t figure out what it was and when I went to the allergist, he really had a, it seemed kind of like an archaic system to me, anyways, for identifying what I might be sensitive to. So as far as the mediator, that’s just a component of the immune system, right? I think a lot of people may not be aware of what that is.

 

J: Yeah, a mediator, it’s kind of a big word, but it just means something in the middle, something that’s carrying a signals from immune cells to immune cell.

 

F: And then if you’re in the field that my mom is in, she is a mediator, which means that she is working with the clients who are arguing back and forth and are trying to settle out of court. So, it’s not that kind of mediator release test.

 

J: I love it, I love it! I think that’s a great analogy actually, just picture two immune cells arguing back and forth.

 

F: That is pretty funny, that’s actually pretty keen it can work. So going on to the allergy part, I have experience in this, and I’ve also heard people talking about their food allergies or, you know that they went to their food allergist to have tests for food sensitivities, but didn’t find evidence for food sensitivities, and that’s pretty close to what happened to me. My allergist tested me, he was, like, maybe a year away from retirement, so maybe he was using a really old system, but he just said, “You know, you’re a little bit sensitive to dairy, and a little bit sensitive to wheat, but you really don’t have to worry about avoiding them.” But, it turns out I really do have to worry about avoiding them. So do you think a food allergist is the right resource for discovering a sensitivity?

 

J: I think food allergists actually are great for finding out food allergies, right? That’s what they’re supposed to do, and they are actually looking for IGE-mediated reactions, those are true allergy reactions, some of those severe ones I talked about. And the testing that they use, usually is just really good for that, the IGE pathway. Sometimes they’ll use a test that’s kind of a combination between an IGE and an IGG pathway, and I know all these pathways seem technical , and they are, but they are only looking at a portion of the picture. So if you could think of the immune system kind of like I-5 at rush hour, where you have all these lanes, these pathways, and an allergist is kind of looking down one or two lanes, at the most, that’s why they don’t tend to find food sensitivities, because many food sensitivities are occurring in the other lanes, if that makes sense.

 

F: That’s awesome. That’s a great analogy, that the food sensitivities are just occurring in the other lanes. So food allergy testing is excellent for food allergies

 

J: Absolutely

 

F: and when it comes to food sensitivities, it’s just, you’re talking about a different path, and you need to go to a different expert.

 

J: Right, exactly. And oftentimes we should work together. If there’s something that I’m going to suspect is a bit more severe or quicker reacting or smaller dose than I would expect for a sensitivity, then I’m going to suggest that they also get allergy tested, and I would hope that the converse is true. There are some allergists out there that will work with food sensitivity folks, and have them tested additionally for things that they haven’t found with their allergy testing.

 

F: That is really cool, very cool. And, you know, even if you get your food sensitivity test from say if there is an allergist who is also on board with that, and he’s sort of, you know, he’s testing his patients for food sensitivities, it’s still helpful to work with someone who can help you adjust your diet after you learn what your sensitivities are, because it can be really tricky.

 

J: Oh absolutely! It’s one thing to get test results, it’s a whole other story to implement those into a diet, in fact, I’ve had several folks come in with test results who have said, “I don’t know what to do with this, I don’t know how to eat.” And so, that’s my job, is to help them figure that out.

 

F: And I’ve seen you do that, Joy let me sit in on a few of her session when I went to meet her the first time. And I got to see her work with patients who, one person was brand new, was just getting his results, I think, and then the other gal had been around, had seen Joy I think a few times, and so she seemed like she was a little more experienced, a little more comfortable with it.  But, the, just the look on that guy’s face when he was first finding out about what he needs to avoid, and how he’s gonna kind of manage this new life style, and make it work so that he’s still feeling like he’s getting what he needs, because food is such a personal thing and nobody wants you to take away their food, it’s fascinating and I just thought Joy was so skillful at just bringing him around and, you know, helping him realize this isn’t the end of the world and it’s only painful for a little short time, and before you know you’re going to be up on your feet running, and she was just very skillful, I was really impressed because that is hard to do, to really teach people how to adjust their foods so that they can heal, you know, and recover from the immune reactions that come with food sensitivities.

 

J: I appreciate that, Francis. I can tell you, experience helps.

 

F: Yes, definitely, definitely. Well, let’s see what else were we, so we talked about with the, with LEAP, it’s kind of a specialized dietary protocol that goes with the MRT testing, and can you just kind of run us through how LEAP works and how someone would get started with it.

 

J: Okay. So first thing you would want to do is to make sure that it is a good fit for you in the first place, so you want to probably meet with a LEAP qualified person, a LEAP dietician, or perhaps a LEAP naturopath, if there is one in your area. And, they will ask you a series of questions about your lifestyle, about everything to make sure that that’s something that they think is appropriate for you at the time, and once that’s determined, you can have your blood drawn, and about seven to ten days later is when your results come back, and you will meet with a dietician at that point to go over your test results and start your dietary protocol. And in first phase, you would be eating your lowest reactive foods for approximately a week to ten days, assuming nothing difficult happens, and then after that you will be adding more of your safe foods and building a safe diet with the supervision of the dietician.

 

F: Okay. So, how long might someone end up working with you?

 

J: Usually about six weeks, give or take, but that’s the typical average.

 

F: Six weeks, huh? And then, you mentioned that, you know, some of your sensitivities change over time, so walk us through how that might look for a person.

 

J: Oh sure. So, what we’re actually, we’re pushing towards food sensitivities changing, right? because we actually want to reduce the amount of food sensitivities and that’s what typically happens if a person follows their dietary protocol. So the six weeks that I initially work with them is building that safe diet, making sure that there aren’t any other mechanisms involved, that there is no intolerances, that there isn’t anything we didn’t catch, and then as they have their safe diet now, then they start rotating their foods, which is really important. And that’s really what they are doing for the lifestyle, making sure they’re not eating the same things everyday, day after day after day. So, rotating their foods, going forward, building their diet, after they get through that six weeks, they can actually start adding things we didn’t test, so we tested 150 things, while there’s thousands of things out there to eat, so then we can start testing the things that we don’t know how they react to, and if they do well, by that time, they’ll be able to tell much more quickly. So then after about six months, that’s about the first time they should be testing just challenging foods yourself that you were reactive to before, to see if they have reduced in reactivity, so you can add them back. So, as an example, you had mentioned chocolate. Well, if there’s something in chocolate that you were sensitive to and you had waited six months, you can try again in six months to see if you feel better with it now, and if you do, then you just need to be careful how often you have it. So that’s the really nice thing about LEAP and figuring this all out. These sensitivities aren’t necessarily going to be forever. Some of them might last forever if they’re a genetic thing, but if they’re just due to some other thing going on, then they’ll change and you can add a lot of your foods back. But the converse is true as well, you add some of your foods back, but maybe there’s some things that you’re adding a little too frequently in your safe plan that can actually become a problem too. So, that said, I usually recommend folks re-test in about a year to see what’s changed, and sometimes they just need to.

 

F: Okay, so retesting. Yeah, that seems like it might be a good idea, especially if you have a lot of food sensitivities and you are eager to see if you can add some of those things back.

 

J: Definitely.

 

F: Awesome, yeah, okay, so that’s cool. So did you hear that folks? It’s kind of a dynamic situation, the sensitivities change, some of them lessen over time, do any of them just ever fully heal or, you know, go away?

 

J: Well, you know, that’s a really good question and I’m not sure that we have a good answer for that other than to say, whatever caused your digestive change in the first place, that’s really what we’re getting at. So sometimes people have, as you mentioned, like a gluten intolerance. Well, a gluten intolerance can lead to other food sensitivities, because it’s just effecting how your gut is reacting with digestion. So, if that triggers other food sensitivities, and if your gluten intolerance is genetic, then I would say, you’re going to likely be predisposed to food sensitivities, probably for a lifetime, unless we get the magic cure that fixes all of that. But then that just means you need to be careful, that you know that you land yourself in that direction, in other words, that is like the Achille’s heel in your family, right? like Mom might have problems with that, so then you have problems with that, and so you just know that that’s kind of a weak spot in your family tree. Other things, though, you know, may have just been a result of the, whatever’s going on in your gut and certainly could produce your reactivity, too. But then my experience, what I’m seeing, is that once you have food sensitivities, it’s just really easy to form new ones. So you do your best to heal what’s going on in your gut, heal the digestion, avoid your triggers, and just move forward rotating your foods, and just see how many things that you can add back.

 

F: Wow. So interesting, so it’s just so unique for ever person, the profile and the complexity is just going to be very different and you really have to individualize it, which again is another really important reason to work with an expert, to help you individualize it and to guide you safely through the process that can often just be so frustrating.

 

J: Right

 

F: So I want to know then, you talked about rotating foods, which brings me to the point, do we, or can you, rather, talk about why it’s important to rotate foods, what is it in rotating foods that relate to foods sensitivities, because I think this is going to get at maybe how food sensitivities start to develop for people.

 

J: Oh definitely! So, we think genetics is maybe a big part of it, and then after that, trauma, stress, maybe overuse of antibiotics, sometimes people use a medicine called Accutane in their younger years when they’re trying to treat acne, and that in effect, has got some problems with how it treats the gut and that can cause food sensitivities later as well, so several different reasons why food sensitivities might start to form, but you know, repeating your foods is like the icing on the cake as far as forming new sensitivities. So this situation is set in your gut that something is not right, that something is not doing its job properly with digestion, so that means that your immune cells are already kind of alerted to some problems, and then when you repeat those foods over and over and over again, day after day after day, and believe me, everybody on the face of the planet tends to repeat their foods, that’s just the [unclear], but once food sensitivities have started, that’s the exact opposite of what needs to happen. So, you rotate your foods after we build you a safe diet, so that you can keep that immune system calm. So a good example would be, let’s say you are reactive to carrots, well, you need to avoid carrots for a while because your immune cells need to kind of lose their memory of being reactive to carrots. It could take as little as six months, it could take a year, it could take a couple of years, if it’s not a genetic issue. Then, let’s say you bring the carrots back after reducing reactivity to them. Well then you eat them and your immune cells would sort of recognize them, okay, but they don’t get too reactive about it. But if you eat it everyday, you don’t give your immune cells a change to calm down after that first introduction. Does that kind of make sense?

 

F: I think it makes sense, I think it’s brilliant. You explained it really nicely, that repeating the same foods over and over again is sort of like, it’s what’s building up a resistance against those foods, essentially. And what’s so fascinating about it is that we have, in today’s modern world, we have so many food selections, but so many, so few food ingredients that are going into those selections. SO the groceries are filled and filled to the gills with all these delicious foods, and if you look at the packages, they tend to be made out of corn, wheat, soy, dairy products. Any others that I’ve missed? Those are like the four bigs ones.

 

J: Yeah, definitely.

 

F: And so, it’s brilliant. Food scientists are really quite brilliant at just repackaging those substances at new ways so that you can get milk, you can get breads, you can get cereals and nut bars, and you know, all kinds of snacks and goodies, and chips, and tortillas, and it’s fascinating and it’s great because it makes for a very fun food world, but the problem is just that we’ve reduced the amount of foods, or the variety of foods so much, our bodies aren’t used to that. Joy and I talked about this a little bit, you look at how we evolved, and how our ancestors ate, and they ate a tremendous variety, why? because they ate a lot more wild foods and there just wasn’t the food processing that we have available and the agriculture system was so much smaller, people grew their own foods, and so, you know, the most refined thing for, you know, refined grains or something, was like when you took the wheat or the corn and you just ran it through your own grinding mill, you know? You didn’t have all this refinement, so now you have so much refinement in our diets, and it all seems like a great thing and food seems to readily available, but really, I think it’s the basis of a lot of the issues that we are seeing, because we are just not getting enough variety.

 

J: [unclear]

 

F: Yeah, so anything you want to add to that, what we’ve said so far?

 

J: Well, I think what I would like to add is that if someone decides that they would like to do the mediator release test and we go through the LEAP protocol, a lot of times things like GI symptoms, head symptoms like headaches, or sinus symptoms, pretty quick to resolve, seven to ten days, I would think. And then, things like skin issues, joint and muscle pain, those can take a little bit longer, so with LEAP there’s going to be pretty quick improvements, and then there’s going to be other improvements that continue coming, so even within that six weeks, you may not get full improvement of everything, but you will continue to get improvement for a long time to come.

 

F: Great. There’s so much hope in that, I just love it. It’s not like a life sentence, at all, it’s just something you do so that you can have long-term quality of life, and I love it.

 

J: Sure.

 

F: So helpful. That’s what I love about nutrition and dietetics, is like, we really are striving to help people get the most out of life, through their food and their lifestyle.

 

J: Definitely, everybody eats food, right?

 

F: Right, yes, absolutely! And we all need help, even me now, as a dietician, I go to Joy and I ask her questions about LEAP because she knows so much, and so she keeps pushing me to get the test done. I don’t think I told you this, but Mike and I, Mike is my fiancé, and we’re both going to be getting our LEAP test done, in fact, I’m hoping that we can run and get it done this afternoon, so we’re just going to go through the whole process together of changing out our diets and stuff.

 

J: Nice.

 

F: Yeah, so I think that’s going to be helpful to have him do it with me. So, are there any key types that you could leave the audience with regarding food sensitivities?

 

J: Well, I always say that if you suspect you have food sensitivities at all and would like to feel better and quit guessing about what they are, then just go ahead and make an appointment with a LEAP dietician, so you can get started on your own plan to better health.

 

F: Nice. Excellent. Simple as that. Getting the right people on your team, it’s really important, isn’t it?

 

J: Nicely put. Yes, I like that.

 

F: So, since you are such an expert, and I think that a lot of people have just gained so much knowledge and information and hopefully people are inspired to take a look at this for themselves, I think a lot of the audience members are going to be interested in connecting with you. So can you just tell everyone how they can reach you?

 

J: Oh sure. First thing I would recommend is to go ahead and take a look at my website, that’s customfitnutrition.net. That .net is important, because the .com is a different website. Take a look around on the site and that gives you some more information, and there are contact points on the side as well, so the phone number is on there, the phone number is 1-855-CUST-FIT, that is 1-855-287-8348, and feel free to make an appointment.

 

F: Awesome, awesome. Okay, so, I’ll make sure that I put those resources in the show notes, so that they can know how to get in touch with you. And Joy, I think you do, I mean you work with people from all over the place, so you do Skype interviews and stuff like that with people, right?

 

J: Oh, that’s true, yeah, thank you for bringing that up, so I have worked with people all over the United States, and I’m currently working with a gentleman from South Africa, and we’re doing Skype calling, video conferencing to go through the dietary protocol. The actual blood draw can happen in most places as long as there is overnight Federal Express shipping to labs where the process needs to be done. So, if you’re in the United States anywhere, easily done. If you’re in another country, you need to talk to us about what needs to happen with that. But it can still be arranged, and then the dietary counseling can happen either by phone or by Skype. In fact, I’ve even worked with deaf people.

 

F: With what?

 

J: Deaf people

 

F: Oh, okay!

 

J: Yeah, that was really interesting, and it ended up using a video, well, it was video for them, but not for me. So, I was on the phone and then my counseling was translated by an interpreter into the deaf language, and then they could see the interpreter on the video on their end.

 

F: Wow, that’s cool. So you didn’t have to type it all out, because I imagine you could just, you know, type your messages like you were in a chat room or something.

 

J: Right, yeah, exactly. No, didn’t have to type anything out, I just talked like we are now, and then the interpreter on the other end just took everything I said and interpreted for the other person. So, not really limited, actually.

 

F: Wow. That’s cool. So, can you tell, we’re actually almost at the top of the hour, but before we end this conversation, I really want to see if you can share with us any of your wildest food sensitivity stories.

 

J: Oh, sure.

 

F: Like maybe something you’ve seen that’s a really weird food to be sensitive to, or some very interesting case studies that maybe you’ve come across.

 

J: Let’s see, weird food to be interested, or to be sensitive to. I don’t know, I’d say that’s wide open because lots of people are sensitive to broccoli or lettuce as an example. I guess some people get surprised at the idea of being sensitive to lettuce, but I see that fairly frequently, especially in people who eat it too often, right? too much repetition. So, could be anything. I do have one particular case that comes to mind, so, had a patient who had a terrible rash all over his body and had been to all of the best dermatologists and endocrinologists in town and they just couldn’t find any answers, so we finally tested him for food sensitivities, and it turns out that it was polysorbate 80 as one of his big reactive items, and polysorbate 80 it turned out, it was in his food, it was in his shampoo, it was in his medications, we ended up needing to get his medications changed, which, by the way isn’t that tough of a thing to do, but once we had figured out what it was, his rash got better and his health was improving greatly.

 

F: Wow. I’m thinking about the people that I know who have skin issues, and, you know, even I’ve had acne through all of my teenage years, I had the worst acne, and I was on an antibiotic for years, like straight, years straight, never removed, never taken off, because it was like the way to treat acne, and I really think it had a lot to do with just my diet, and you know, thinking about these people that I’ve seen and know who have major skin issues. I have two gals that I work with, one who has just this terrible lupus condition, and she’s on steroids, and just always is struggling so badly, and I keep telling her, “Girl, get yourself tested for food sensitivities”, and she’s just looking at me like I just spoke Chinese.

 

J: Oh no! Yeah, definitely! She needs to talk to some folks who had that done, though, that, you know, understand that it’s legit, it’s valid.

 

F: It is, it is so legit. And thank you for helping legitimize it. I just think this was great, you really know your stuff, I’m really glad that I know you, because you, Joy has been a mentor for me and she keeps pushing me to, you know, really get out there with LEAP, and there is just so much to it, and so I’m very thankful that we’ve been able to connect today so that we can glean a little bit more from Joy and all the insights that you have since you’ve been working this niche, this field. So, thanks a lot for just sharing your time with us, and your insights. Is there anything else you want to say before we wrap it up?

 

J: No, just want to say thank you, Francis, for taking the time to talk with me today, I really appreciate it!

 

F: My pleasure. And so if you guys feel like you want to get in touch with Joy, go ahead and look at the show notes for the contact information, and if for some reason, you, you know, just want to look around for a LEAP therapist in your area, I’ll leave a way for you to look it up there, I’ll leave some recommendations for how you might be able to, because I think that there is a national network or something that has everybody’s contact information.

 

J: Francis, I’m happy to help someone do that. In fact, that’s what I’ll do, and I’m often contacted by people all over the United States, and if there is somebody in their area, that’s the first thing I’ll do for them, is I’ll contact my network of LEAP dietitians to see if there is a LEAP dietician in there area, and I’ll offer that first. And if for some reason there is not a LEAP dietician in their area, then I’m happy to work with them long distance. So feel free to contact me in either regard, and I can help you get to where you need to be.

 

F: Love it, that’s awesome, thank you again. Well great! Well, Joy, it’s always a pleasure, please connect with me again, I know that we’ll probably be in touch with this LEAP stuff, especially once I get my test going, I might just be saying, “Is this supposed to be how it’s working, I’m not sure, I’m feeling really lousy, is this normal?”

 

J: Right!

 

F: And then once I’m feeling great, I’ll be letting you know about that too.

 

J: Sounds good!

 

F: Yeah, so, okay, Joy, well take care, we’ll talk to you again soon!

 

J: Okay, well thanks, Francis, bye!

 

F: Thank you!