How do food allergies cause extra weight and prevent you from losing weight?

At first glance, allergies and overweight are completely unrelated things. But in some cases, it is allergies (or rather food intolerance) that can cause excess weight, without which any diet and physical activity are powerless. General practitioner and mayer therapist at Verba Mayr Wellness and Spa Center tells how allergies to certain foods hinder weight loss and impair metabolism.

Polina Zaharenko

How does a food allergy differ from a normal one?

Each of us knows what an allergy is from our own experience or from someone else’s. Its symptoms cannot be confused with anything: itching, skin rash, runny nose, nasal congestion, swelling. And just by removing the trigger factor, we feel relief and live a full life again.

The situation is more complicated with food intolerance or hypersensitivity to certain products. The mechanism of development of such reactions differs from ordinary allergies and often does not cause an acute problem. For this reason, we may not be aware of the so-called “hidden threat” for a long time and may not be able to take the necessary precautions.

How do allergies disrupt metabolism and prevent weight loss?

In addition to the unpleasant symptoms of feeling unwell, food intolerance or hypersensitivity can negatively affect metabolism and contribute to weight gain. The first to be affected by undesirable food is the gut, with its complex neuroregulation circuit and immune response.

The body always tries to regulate everything on its own. This also applies to weight. Its long-term stability says a lot about a person’s metabolic health. “Communication” between the brain and the intestines takes place through special signaling proteins that cannot be produced in normal quantities in inflammatory processes.

Therefore, food intolerance can be one of the causes of weight gain and obesity. So before you blame diet or training for ineffectiveness, remember to check your body’s sensitivity to certain foods.

Meanwhile, the most common food components that cause intolerance are protein and lactoglobulin, which are found in grains (gluten) and dairy products (casein). However, hypersensitivity can also occur to other products we use on a daily basis, and even those that are completely harmless and seem right to us.

How is food intolerance detected?

Diagnosis involves detecting specific class G immunoglobulins in the blood. And if we are talking about mild food intolerance, when morphological changes in the intestinal mucosa do not occur, then the usual exclusion of this food product from your diet will be enough to achieve a therapeutic effect.

The situation is more complex when morphological confirmation is required. Fibrogastroduodenoscopy is performed with histological examination of the villi of the small intestine to confirm changes.

To prevent the development of food intolerance, first of all, our diet should be diversified so that the immune system is not “overloaded” with a certain type of protein. Then the probability of reaction is reduced.

Second, you need to identify products that don’t suit you personally. This task will cope with the analysis of food intolerance.

If intolerance to certain foods is detected, the doctor prescribes an elimination diet, excluding food components with a high level of immunoglobulin G. However, this does not mean that restrictions will accompany you all your life. The body is a dynamic self-regulating system, so our responses to food change.