EASTER SALE | 30% OFF ALL TESTS | FREE SHIPPING Shop Now

Is Food Intolerance Making it Difficult for you to Lose Weight?

Is Food Intolerance Making it Difficult for you to Lose Weight?

4 minute read time

Stepping on the scales to find that the number in front of you hasn’t budged can make you feel defeated, especially when you feel that you’ve eaten well and stuck to your gym routine. So, what’s going on?

For many years, YorkTest have seen that people coming to us to help find relief from their symptoms of food intolerance† have also found that they normalise their weight and shape as a side benefit of changing their diet in response to our food-specific IgG food intolerance† test.

In fact, our Customer Survey Results 2018 revealed that over a third of customer respondents had noticed desirable changes in their weight following a YorkTest programme.

How does food intolerance affect your weight?

We know that there are other factors that contribute to weight loss apart from food intolerance; however, it is clear that food intolerance, together with food input and energy output, all contribute to energy balance in the body.

The regulation of food intake in the body is a very complex process, which involves biochemical signals from many sources including the brain-gastrointestinal tract, fat stores and the pancreas. Even the fat cells themselves are very highly specialised to play important roles in energy storage, fatty acid metabolism and glucose regulation.

The digestive system needs to process and deliver nutrients to the whole body. A stressed digestive system is less able to process energy and nutrients for the rest of the body. More than 70% of the body’s immune system is in the gut and once the immune response is triggered in the body (as evidenced by raised IgG levels) the body feels that it is ‘under siege’ thus hoarding supplies, storing fluid and increasing weight.

And it doesn’t stop there!

If the immune system is activated this leads to inflammation and swelling. 90% of the serotonin produced in the body is found in the gut; serotonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for regulating appetite, mood, sleep, and relaxation.

Low serotonin levels can cause a cycle of cravings which are satisfied by foods such as carbohydrates which destabilize insulin and blood sugar and ultimately cause additional weight gain; in other words, a vicious circle and it takes an overall approach to ‘undo’ the damage done. This overall approach needs to include the identification and elimination of any food intolerances/sensitivities.

Break your cravings, remove those foods, take exercise, protect and heal your gut.

What comes first – obesity or inflammation?

Food-specific IgG antibodies are tightly associated with low-grade systemic inflammation contributing to weight gain. With obesity such a hot topic at the moment, one of the big debates in medicine is which comes first obesity or inflammation?

A study looked at two groups of children, the first group were overweight and the second were in the normal weight range.  Blood was measured for IgG antibodies and C Reactive Protein (CRP) – this is a marker that shows the general level of inflammation in the body.

The results were startling. The obese group had two and a half times the IgG antibodies against certain foods than the children in the normal weight range. They also had three times the levels of CRP than the normal weight group.  This indicates inflammation in the body makes it harder to lose weight. What would be fascinating would be a further study with the overweight children cutting out their intolerant foods, reducing their IgG levels and consequently CRP and recording weight loss.

Tennis champion, Novak Djokovic’s gluten intolerance and weight loss

Moving from a study to an individual, the tennis player Novak Djokovic had life-changing benefits when he cut gluten out of his diet a few years ago. He grew up in a family that ran a pizza restaurant and, not surprisingly, his diet was dominated by bread, pizza and pasta. By cutting out gluten, his allergies abated, his asthma disappeared, his regular colds and flues disappeared, and he felt fresher and more alert with boundless energy.

In the process, (and without trying to) he lost 11 pounds and his family started to worry that he was getting too skinny but, although leaner, he was also far stronger and has never looked back.

In 2011, a few months after he ditched gluten, Djokovic won ten titles, three Grand Slams and forty-three consecutive matches, a year that sportswriters have called the greatest single year ever by a professional tennis player.

Weight loss and YorkTest

For years, Yorkest customers have fed back that they have lost weight when removing their reactive foods and a study has been published showing that (120) people who eliminated their IgG reactive foods significantly improved their body composition and lost weight. In fact, they improved on all markers of quality of life.

Our food sensitivity tests test for 200 food and drink ingredients.

Results from our Customer Survey found that over one-third of customer respondents experienced desirable changes to their weight following a YorkTest program.

Emily Catterall and Matt Perry saw noticeable changes to their weight when they removed their food triggers, such as cow’s milk, yeast, gluten, and grapes from their diet.

Emily Catterall, “I am now on my way back down the weight ladder to a healthier, happier me”. Read her experience with us here.

Matt Perry “I have lost over an inch from my waist and 17lbs in weight. In my first triathlon of the season, I knocked 17 minutes off my time from last year”. Read his experience with us here.

Share

Talk to one of our team

    How should we contact you?

    EmailTelephone

    Related Articles

    []