Has Alcohol Use Caused My Food Sensitivities?

Have you experienced food sensitivities or allergic responses to foods as an adult and are not sure why?

Many of my clients report that they have reactions to foods that they never experienced before. Many of them also come in unsure of which foods are contributing to their discomfort — like bloating, digestive issues, skin concerns, headaches and more.

While alcohol isn’t always the cause for this to happen, the two may be related.

Let’s dive deeper into how a history of alcohol use may have caused food reactions, and also how to heal your gut to reduce your immune system reaction to certain foods.

So, why does this happen?

If you’ve read about “leaky gut” before, you may have heard that it can contribute to the development of food sensitivities. There are many ways that alcohol and gut health affect one another.

Research shows that alcohol has a very disruptive effect on the health of our gut and gut microbiome. Not only does alcohol contribute to an imbalance in gut microbes (and a reduction in probiotics), but it also causes intestinal permeability and immune dysfunction in the gut.

Intestinal permeability, also known as “leaky gut”, is one of the mechanisms by which we can develop food allergies or sensitivities later in life.

Many of my clients are confused when they take a food allergy test and find that they have reactions to foods they eat on a regular basis — like almonds, certain proteins, veggies and classic foods like dairy or gluten.

The good news is this: Food sensitivities that develop based on this process can be repaired if the gut is repaired!

How to support healing the gut.

1. Minimize the source of stress on the gut:

   Because food sensitivities can be derived from stressors on the gut, it’s important that any sources of those stressors be removed. Alcohol can have a detrimental affect on the gut lining and should be minimized or eliminated. Other things that affect the gut lining include, anti-inflammatory medications (like aspirin, Tylenol, and Advil), steroid medications, a high-sugar or high-carb diet, and even environmental toxins.

    

2. Incorporate probiotics:

   Having a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut is key to minimizing the gut’s immune response. Incorporating probiotic-rich foods (like sauerkraut, kimchi and pickled veggies) or a probiotic supplement may help. Check out my probiotic and prebiotic combination supplement here.

    

3. Eliminate the food stressors until the gut heals:

   Because food sensitivities can create inflammation in the body, these foods may need to be avoided until the gut is healed. Therefore, taking a food sensitivity test (like an IGG test) or performing an elimination diet may be useful in healing the gut.