symptoms to get worse. The patients did not embark on anything other than eliminating the culprit foods: They did not take any digestive enzymes, nor anything to restore low stomach-acid levels. They did not supplement with ‘friendly’ bacteria to combat any possible yeast overgrowth. They did not take active steps to heal their intestinal lining, nor did they take active steps to reduce their stress levels. If these things had been addressed, it is likely that their improvements would have been even greater.
Food Intolerances and Emotional/Behavioural Issues
While it is much more straightforward to understand a link between what you put in your mouth and what happens to your digestion, it is less obvious to see the relationship between what you eat and how you feel in your head, or how you behave. However, as you will see later in this book, there are many food-intolerance symptoms that do not affect digestion.
Your digestive system is designed to absorb tiny components from food to nourish your body. However, it is not always 100 per cent successful at preventing the absorption of some matter that can be harmful to or upset the functioning of various organs elsewhere in the body (including the brain). This has long been the subject of published studies, and the basis for clinical treatment. As long ago as 1916, a Dr Hoobler reported that infants can be intolerant to proteins. Since that time, other studies have identified that reactions to foods can cause hyperactivity, nervousness, learning problems, minimal brain dysfunction, depression, hostility, aggression, periods of confusion and irritability. In those days the distinction between allergy and intolerance had yet to be made, so researchers simply used the word ‘allergy’ to cover all symptoms and consequences.
If you ever doubted that your irritability, mood swings, clumsiness or brain fog could be the direct result of a food intolerance, then you will swiftly strengthen your resolve when you hear the following accounts.
Case History
The first case to share with you is that of one of my clients, who came to see me with a whole list of complaints. Sally Ann had energy problems, mood problems, digestive problems, skin problems and more. As part of our consultation she completed some questionnaires. One of these, called the Metabolic Screening Questionnaire, is scored on a severity and frequency basis so that the more severe and frequent the symptoms, the higher the score. The maximum score for the 70 symptoms on the questionnaire is 280 – but anything over 80 is indicative of someone with fairly compromised health. A healthy individual may score as little as 10 or less. Sally Ann scored 97. Her doctor was considering antidepressants and hormonal intervention to help her mood, irregular menstrual cycle and painful periods. A thorough examination of her health history and diet and lifestyle revealed that there were many potential areas that could have been contributing to Sally’s overall poor state of health. Her diet was particularly high in wheat, which was being consumed at each meal. This was partly due to a lack of time to choose anything different, but none the less Sally was fulfilling the number-one criteria for food intolerance: a high dose and repetitive intake of the same food. When questioned, it was not clear-cut that her increased wheat intake had coincided with her multiple symptoms. However, since the priority was to improve digestive function, I recommended a wheat-free diet.
Sally came back about five weeks later. Her Metabolic Screening Questionnaire was now showing a score of 3 – yes, 3. She looked like a different person: she had lost 8 lb without reducing her caloric intake (in fact, if anything she had eaten more food than usual), her skin had improved, her menstrual cycle had caused her no problems at all and her sex drive had returned. Her poor mood and ‘foggy’ head had gone, the need to clear her throat had gone, her sore muscles were no longer troubling her, her energy was markedly better and she had no headaches any more. Although in the first few days she had felt markedly worse, this is a well-known sign of withdrawal from a biochemical addiction, and confirmed that she was on the right track.
This was a truly staggering result, and not something I could have predicted. The good news was that no other system in her body had reached a state of exhaustion so that it took only the avoidance of the culprit food to help Sally return to a good state of health. It was also fortunate that she evidently only had one major culprit food. To think that she could have been put on antidepressants, which would not have solved the problem, of course. I wonder how many others with cognitive and mood disorders would benefit from looking at their diets as a source of their symptoms. It is well known, for example, that a large percentage of people who suffer from coeliac disease also suffer from bipolar disorder (schizophrenia).
Brain Allergy
Food intolerances can certainly affect the brain. Dr William Philpott, a psychiatrist and an author of a noteworthy book entitled Brain Allergies, has reported that intolerant reactions to foods and pollutants often trigger violent behaviour. One of his 12-year-old patients became so aggressive after eating a banana that he picked up a stick and tried to hit another patient.
Temper Tantrums
Nearly 40 years ago, Professor of Psychology Dr Moyer wrote how a 5-year-old boy with poor speech development had an abnormal EEG (brain scan showing abnormal brainwave patterns) and a temper that was out of control. The boy was found to be intolerant to chocolate, milk and cola, which were then eliminated from his diet for over seven months. The EEG was repeated and found to be normal, and his behaviour was much improved. When the culprit foods were then reintroduced, his EEG was once again abnormal and his behaviour worsened.
Study into Nervous System Complaints
Two doctors, King and Mandell, conducted a double-blind study of 30 patients in 1978 to test 12 allergens (allergy-inducing triggers) and 6 placebos. The patients reported significantly more nervous system complaints when they were exposed to the allergens compared with the placebos. These included depression, an inability to concentrate, anger, irritability and headaches. Other double-blind studies have confirmed the definite effects of foods on behaviour.
Diet, Crime and Delinquency
Alexander Schauss was the Director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research when he wrote his book Diet, Crime and Delinquency in 1980. This slim, 108-page volume presents startling evidence that what we eat can have a significant impact on our potential to commit crimes and misbehave. The book is not just about food intolerance, however, but also refers to sugar, toxic metals such as lead, food additives, nutrient insufficiencies, lack of exercise and lack of proper exposure to light.
Summary
Food intolerance has been documented for thousands of years, although it is increasing day by day and is much more prevalent today than ever before. Food intolerance has been well proven to contribute to and even cause the symptoms of IBS, but it can also cause a wide range of other symptoms, especially those that relate to brain function.
This book is designed to help you to identify whether you have an intolerance, and what this might be doing to you, why you might have intolerances in the first place, and what action you can take to address the situation in order to improve your health.
